I came across and subsequently bought several online CD collections titled Original Album Series, which included five music discs by a specific artist. The artists were generally those who had performed on the WEA (Warner/Elektra/Atlantic) labels; the packages were put out in conjunction with Rhino Records.
The first one I bought was The Doobie Brothers. The package included Toulouse Street, The Captain and Me, What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits, Stampede, and Taking It to the Streets, the first five albums before they put out the Best of the Doobies.
The next artist was Roberta Flack, with First Take, Quiet Fire, Killing Me Softly, Feel Like Making Love, and Blue Lights in the Basement. It skips over her fourth album, Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway, which I get, but it also left out her second album, the great Chapter Two.
The Linda Ronstadt collection contains the five albums following her last Capitol record: Heart Like A Wheel: Prisoner In Disguise, Hasten Down the Wind, Simple Dreams, Living in the USA, and Mad Love. The package also excludes her first Asylum album, Don’t Cry Now.
Mac Rebennack
Dr. John’s albums were Gris Gris, Babylon, The Sun Moon and Herbs, Dr. John’s Gumbo, and the relative hit In The Right Place
The Randy Newman collection includes the first eponymous album, 12 Songs, Sail Away, Good Old Boys, and his breakthrough album, Little Criminals.
His first five albums represent Warren Zevon: his eponymous first one, Excitable Boy, Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School, Stand in the Fire, and The Envoy.
The Bonnie Raitt list includes Street Lights, Home Plate, Sweet Forgiveness, The Glow, and Green Light. However, it does not include my favorite early album, Give It Up.
The maligned “Pre-Fab Four”
As I’ve mentioned, The Monkees are a bit of an outlier in these collections. I never owned any Monkees albums except for a Greatest Hits album that someone gave me. This has the Monkees, More of the Monkees, Headquarters, Pisces Aquarius Capricorn and Jones Ltd., and the Birds, the Bees, and the Monkees.
Last Train To Clarksville and its antiwar message
The previously mentioned The Young Rascals, who became The Rascals: The Young Rascals, Collections, Groovin’, Once Upon a Dream, and Freedom Suite, their first five excluding their greatest hits album.
Other collections include those from the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Donny Hathaway, The Cars, Foreigner, Bread, The Pogues, Ratt, Molly Hatchet, Alice Cooper, Roxy Music, Stone Temple Pilots, Yes, America, and the Pretenders, and probably others. They cost between 15 and 30 dollars each.
The one downside to them is that the album covers have the original LP text, so reading the liner notes without aid is hard.