Tag: music

George Jones’ death reminded me of an album I didn’t put on the list, because I suppose it’s a greatest hits, of a sort: 50 Stars! 50 Hits! of Country Songs, “on two great country albums,” it said on the TV ad. But I didn’t buy it. My grandfather, who worked as a janitor at a radio/TV station, brought it home one day. Being a fan of WWVA, Wheeling, WV, which I could hear at night, I loved it.

Re: Amy’s question about Dusty Springfield: I’ve had a greatest hits album for quite a while, but I’ve only gotten Dusty in Memphis fairly recently, certainly since she died, so it doesn’t have the multiple plays to make the list. Also, there are additional songs on the CD (some leaking into the next decade – 1971) which I like as well or better than the songs on the original LP.

More of my favorite albums; thanks to SamuraiFrog for the inspiration. This is difficult in that the difference between 73 and 72 is really insignificant. The difference between 70 and 7 would be another matter.

100. Beach Boys: Smiley Smile (1967)
This was the weak substitute for SMiLE, the legendary album that was nearly four decades. Still, it has its goofy charm.

99. MC5: Back In The USA (1970)
My high school friends made an antiwar film to ‘High School’

98. Blood Sweat & Tears: Child Is Father To The Man (1968)
That first album, before David Clayton Thomas.

97. Santana: Santana (1969)
First album; songs of this ended up at Woodstock.

96. Jefferson Airplane: After Bathing At Baxter’s (1967)
That strange experimental third album.

95. Rare Earth: Ecology (1970)
The CD was on a twofer, with another Rare Earth album, but the Ecology songs were obviously trimmed. They substituted the 10-minute album version of ‘I’m Losing You’ with the three-minute single version! Outrageous.

94. Jackson Five: ABC (1970)
This was my sister’s album. In the J5 in the day, my voice was very similar in range to Jermaine, who usually did the second leads.

93. Chicago: II (1970)
The album with the first wave of big hits.

92. Jimi Hendrix: Are You Experienced? (1967)
“Have you ever been experienced?”

91. Johnny Cash: At Folsom Prison (1968)

90. Temptations: Puzzle People (1969)
The second of the psychedelic soul albums, with “I Can’t Get Next To You.”

89. Vince Guaraldi: A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)
This album, and a biography about him, made me more appreciative of his greater body of work.

88. Steppenwolf: Monster (1969)
The lyrics to the title song are still, unfortunately, most relevant.

87. Simon and Garfunkel: Sounds of Silence (1966)

86. Beach Boys: Friends (1968)

85. Supremes: Where Did Our Love Go? (1964)
The first batch of hits.

84. Arlo Guthrie: Alice’s Restaurant (1967)
Mostly for the title song.

83. Moody Blues: Days Of Future Passed (1967)
This is the album from which ‘Nights in White Satin’ emerged as a hit, four or five years later.

82. Band: Music From Big Pink (1968)
Some people prefer this first Band album to the second, but not I.

81. Led Zeppelin: II (1969)
This fell several notches because the song credit debacle really ticked me off for quite some time.

80. Three Dog Night: Suitable for Framing (1969)
My best female friend in college loved ‘Lady Samantha,’ a song written by Elton John and Bernie Taupin.

79. Bob Dylan: Highway 61 Revisited (1965)
I came to this album fairly late; this century for sure.

78. Grateful Dead: American Beauty (1970)
New Paltz was a Dead college, and while I got bored with their extensive noodling, I liked their shorter songs.

77. Beatles: Abbey Road (1969)
The medley is clever but got overplayed, and perhaps overpraised. Love the Harrison songs on here, though, and a couple of others.

76. Arlo Guthrie: Running Down the Road (1969)
I suppose I had an overfondness for the Woodstock artists.

Continuing with this list of my favorite albums of the decade. I want to specifically reiterate that they are not necessarily the best, but that they gave, and not infrequently give me enjoyment.

Before that, though, gotta mention one album on SamuraiFrog’s excellent finale. Judy Garland: Judy at Carnegie Hall (1961) is not on my list. I never owned it, though I was certainly aware of it. The Capitol Records LP inner sleeves from the mid-1960s – the Beatles and Beach Boys were on the label – always featured it. Probably the first of several albums on his list I’ll have to check out.

125. The Who: Sell Out (1967)
Another album I discovered only in the past decade, via my old friend Fred Hembeck. The motif of faux ads was stolen on some SpongeBob SquarePants CD I own.

124. Joe Cocker: Mad Dogs and Englishmen (1970)
Love the Frenchman’s introduction – “Joe Co-CARE”

123. Rascals: Collections (1967)
The second album, not the greatest hits.

122. Beach Boys: Sunflower (1970)
Underrated at a point the Beach Boys were pretty much written off commercially.

121. Doors: Strange Days (1967)

120. Rolling Stones: Between The Buttons (1967)

119. Van Morrison: Moondance (1970)

118. Righteous Brothers: Back to Back (1965)
Features ‘Hung On You’, written by Goffin/King/Spector plus ‘Ebb Tide.’

117. Ramsey Lewis Trio: Hang On Ramsey! (1965)
A live jazz album that features ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ and ‘Hang On, Sloopy’.

116. Donovan: Open Road (1970)
‘Celtic Rock’ is a particularly engaging tune.

115. Cream: Fresh (1966)
My 7th-grade history group referred to the group as The Cream. My friend Karen disdainfully corrected him: “It’s Cream.”

114. Peter, Paul, and Mary: Album 1700 (1967)
This album, with ‘Leaving On A Jet Plane,” was named for its Warner Brothers Records catalog number.

113. Bill Cosby: Wonderfulness (1966)

112. Laura Nyro: Eli And The 13th Confession (1968)
This woman belongs in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, if only as a songwriter.

111. Herbie Hancock: Maiden Voyage (1965)

110. Mamas & the Papas: The Mamas & The Papas (1966)
The second album.

109. The Night They Raided Minsky’s – movie soundtrack (1968)
This is a slight album – only four or five songs, repeated – in a film I saw at the time. I went with my friend Carol and her friend Judy, for whom I developed a bit of a crush; nothing ever came of it. I know the lyrics to the verse of ‘Take 10 Terrific Girls (But Only 9 Costumes)’ by heart.

108. Derek and the Dominoes: Layla (1970)
My neighbor’s cat in college was named Layla. (My cat, Layla’s sister, was named Doris.)

107. Bob Dylan: Blonde on Blonde (1966)
This is about the time I first really knew Dylan as the artist, rather than as the songwriter, but bought much later.

106. Doors: The Doors (1967)
I prefer the single version of ‘Light My Fire’, actually. The organ solo was boring to me.

105. Beatles: Beatles for Sale (1964)
Now we get into the murky Beatles territory since this did not exist in the US when I was growing up, only in most of the rest of the world. So it’s a new collection for me – OK, 25 years old, but not nearly 50.

104. Mamas & the Papas: The Papas & The Mamas (1968)
The group went on hiatus, had a greatest hits album, then got together again.

103. Simon & Garfunkel: Wednesday Morning 3 AM (1964)
Much more folky than their later output.

102. Grateful Dead: Workingman’s Dead (1970)

101. Joni Mitchell: Ladies Of The Canyon (1970)
When I was in the play Boys in the Band in the spring of 1975, the cast was at someone’s house and played side one. Enough folks had disdain for the album so that we never heard Side 2, which is more uptempo and might have gone over better with the group.
***
Re: my previous post on the topic, Dustbury discusses the song ‘Reflections.’

SamuraiFrog has ” been doing a massive project for the past couple of years: listening to all of the music I ever wanted to listen to, in chronological order… I thought I’d jump back into the sixties and make a big list of favorites… So, in my journey through the 1960s, here are my 100 favorites of the many, many albums I listened to, 20 a day for the rest of the week.”

He wrote about them HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE.

“A couple of ground rules, though:

“First, I count in units of 10, so the years active here are 1961-1970.”
Well, OK. Must say, though, that most of the albums I listed for 1970 I played in college, while the ones from 1969 and earlier were from high school, so it represents a sea change in perspective, though there was some carryover.

“Second, no greatest hits albums or compilations. I always feel like that’s cheating to have them on the same list as proper albums because compilations are the cherry-picked best.”

True, though most of my albums early on WERE the greatest hits. Herman’s Hermits, much of my early Motown, Donovan, and especially Sly and the Family Stone.

“Third, I apologize if this list isn’t really that different from the myriad of greatest album lists already in existence.

“Fourth, as always, I reserve the right to cheat my rules because they’re my rules.”

In deference to the originator, I will play by most of these rules. That said, I did NOT engage in a massive listening. I took a couple of greatest albums of the period lists, added some top sellers lists, and augmented with my rapidly fading memory to come up with the raw list from which to pare down. The chances I’m forgetting SOMETHING is very high. Also, some of the dates have come from secondary sources, so if they are wrong, you can tell me and I will correct them.

Also, I couldn’t stop with 100, so I went to 150, and I’ll go through them 25 at a time. I won’t post every day, but it’ll be every three or four days.

150. Blind Faith: Blind Faith (1969)
That group with 2/3s of Cream, Steve Winwood, and a guy I hadn’t hear of.

149. Neil Young: Neil Young (1968)

148. Judy Collins: Whales & Nightingales (1970)

147. Jefferson Airplane: Crown Of Creation (1968)

146. Iron Butterfly: In A Gadda Da Vida (1968)
What else was even ON that album?

145. Rolling Stones: Beggar’s Banquet (1968)

144. Diana Ross: Diana Ross (1970)
Her first solo album, with ‘Reach Out And Touch’, and ‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’.

143. The Byrds: Sweetheart of the Rodeo (1968)
Came to this album this century.

142. Silver Apples: Silver Apples (1968)
A “psychedelic electronic music duo”. Got the LP in the 1980s. “Oscillations, oscillations. Electronic evocations of sound’s reality.” Opening lyrics to the single from the album.

141. Beatles: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)
I found it revolutionary at the time, and much imitated (often badly), but, to me, it feels its age. Still I listened to it a lot. And my friends in high school referred to themselves as Holiday Unlimited. Our motto came from ‘Mr. Kite’ – “A splendid time is guaranteed for all.”

140. Beach Boys: Wild Honey (1968)

139. Jimi Hendrix: Axis: Bold As Love (1967)
I think I bought this album twice, by mistake.

138. Temptations: Cloud Nine (1969)
The first side was the first iteration of psychedelic soul on Motown, with songs written by the late Norman Whitfield with Barrett Strong, and produced by Whitfield.

137. Rolling Stones: Their Satanic Majesties Request (1967)

136. King Crimson: In the Wake of Poseidon (1970)

135. Jeff Beck Group: Truth (1968)

134. The Band: Stage Fright (1970)
The third album, which I played a lot in my dorm room freshman year in college.

133. Rascals: Once Upon a Dream (1968)
I was a sucker for the Rascals, even when they got a bit – weird.

132. Three Dog Night: It Ain’t Easy (1970)

131. Diana Ross and the Supremes and Temptations: Join (1968)
‘Try It Baby’, a cover of a Marvin Gaye song, is my favorite.

130. Cream: Wheels Of Fire (1968)

129. Jimi Hendrix: Band of Gypsys (1970)
Buddy Miles’ ‘Them Changes’ featured here.

128. Blood, Sweat, and Tears: 3 (1970)

127. Diana Ross and the Supremes: Reflections (1968)
There is this Motown compilation I have on LP, and I think it was Mary Wilson who said, in the intro, that the title tune, is a “weird, weird song.”

126. Stephen Stills: Stephen Stills (1970)
Stills could be rather preachy, but I was OK with that at the time.