Although not as extensively developed in detail the front cover of 'Heartattack and Vine' shows some similarities with Jethro Tull's 'Thick as a Brick' (1972). Waits also chooses a newspaper as front cover and a photo that appeals to your imagination. The big headline represents the name of the album and the first song. All the other headlines are song titles followed by its lyrics.

The back cover is plain with album related data.

Thomas Alan "Tom" Waits (born December 7, 1949) is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor. Waits has a distinctive voice, described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding like "it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car."

With this trademark growl, his incorporation of pre-rock music styles such as blues, jazz, and vaudeville, and experimental tendencies verging on industrial music, Waits has built up a distinctive musical persona. He has worked as a composer for movies and musicals and has acted in supporting roles in films.

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