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.
Interesting group; you’ve got a lot on here that I’m a little less into, so seeing how you rate it is really interesting to me. You are definitely someone it would be fascinating to listen to records with. I love anything by the Beach Boys (until sometime into the 70s), and of the albums that weren’t on my own list, I particularly dig 98, 93, 87, 85 and 78. Oh, and the Jackson 5; I could easily have had a few more of their albums on my list. Well, not “easily” since I ended up having to cut about 50 albums to get to 100. I love “Lady Samantha” also, but I’d only heard the Elton John version until fairly recently. I had it on a rarities collection. I didn’t know anyone else had ever recorded it.
Apparently enough people were annoyed by that Rare Earth package to persuade Motown to issue “Ecology” as a single CD.