By the time the record was released, the group was finished as a musical unit: the "Sex Pistols" consisted only of manager Malcolm McLaren, and designer Jamie Reid.

Their relationship with Virgin records was difficult, and Reid's tacky sleeve design was intended to warn people against another cash-in; it was largely interpreted as a hip joke, and seems to have hurt sales very little.

For its replacement, Reid used a photo of a model from the cheapest agency he could find, along with dull letraset lettering, making the record look like a cheap easy listening album.

The back cover featured a fake plastic dog turd on top of a gold disc of the Never Mind the Bollocks LP, a reference to a scene in the film The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle in which Steve Jones defecates on the gold disc awarded to Johnny Rotten for Never Mind The Bollocks and the woman with ants on her face eats it.

"Great Rock 'N' Roll Swindle" is sung by several hopefuls auditioning to be the Sex Pistols' new lead singer - the winner was Edward Tudor-Pole.