Some of my favorite albums (Page 1)

When I first started buying recorded music in 1962, there were basically two categories of recordings but really only one way to play them. That one device was called a “record player” or, if you were able to afford it, a “stereo”. The two categories of recordings were both called “records”. One type was called a “single”, and the other was called “LP” for long playing or an “album”.
















A single generally carried one song on each side (occasionally there were EPs, or extended plays, which would have more than one song on each side, though generally no more than two). It was designed to be played on the record player at 45 RPM, and so were also known as 45s. A typical single of the early ‘60s was between two and three minutes long.

An album contained multiple songs. It may have been all by one person or group, frequently “Greatest Hits” or “Best Of”, or it may have been a collection of tracks by different people such as “Greatest Hits of 1959”. An album was designed to play at 33 1/3 RPM. A typical album of the time contained perhaps ten or eleven tracks with a total playing time of around thirty minutes.

I’ll mention here that the previous generation of records were disks physically between the size of 45s and albums, and they were made of a hard, brittle vinyl designed to be played at 78 RPM. They were already obsolete by this time. There were also apparently records designed to be played at 16 2/3 RPM, although I never saw any, and I’m completely unfamiliar with them.

Then came the digital revolution. First there were 8-track tapes and cassette tapes, then much later the CD. There were other attempts to digitize music that all failed to gain any popular support. These digital recordings generally (though not always) were albums not singles. CDs basically obsoleted cassettes and 8-tracks.

The next revolution in sound recording was the development of IPods, smart phones and other devices for the downloading of music from internet sources. Although people still record music in album format, that is, a collection of songs recorded and produced under one title, the ability to download selected individual tracks has, I suspect, reduced the sales of complete albums and, perhaps, almost taken us back to the world of the “single”. I still frequently buy and download albums, but I just as frequently buy and download individual tracks and make up my own “albums”.

I want to present here some of my favorite albums. Some of these go all the way back to my earliest buys in the early ‘60s, while others come from that time up to the present day. But in every case, each one is an actual album, that is, a recording consisting of tracks recorded by one person or group and released as a complete collection under that title, or maybe in a few cases a collection by multiple people. I don’t claim that this list contains all of the greatest albums of all time – I may have even overlooked some in my own collection - although in one or two cases I may make exactly that claim. I just claim that they are favorites of mine.

Here then is the list in no particular order.

Chet is undoubtedly my biggest playing influence - me and countless other players. His combining of Merle Travis, Django Reinhardt (see below) and Les Paul styles created a style that was uniquely his own and was copied by all kinds of pickers - country, jazz, rock, or whatever. This track to me sort of references Chet's earlier stuff, with uncomplicated and easy-going arrangements. He makes it sound so easy, which, of course, it isn't. Sure, any number of pickers have exceeded Chet in technical ability, but he was the original and still one of the greatest.
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I'm not sure when I bought this album. On this album Chet began to play a lot of accoustic guitar. I thought for many years that it was the Tabajaras Indians guitar, but I think it may actually be a classical guitar. Either way, it's a terrific sound. This song is an example.

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I'm not sure when I bought this album, either, but it was released in 1967 so I'm sure it was about that time. It inspired me to pursue learning a little classical guitar myself. I never got very far with that, but it has definitely influenced my own playing a lot. Chet didn't consider this album to be a serious challenge to the established classical guitarists but was just another "adventure" for him. I picked this song for this list although I could have chosen any number of others.

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I bought this album in 1982. I was already a fan of Mike Auldridge, and this album confirmed my high opinion of him. He was a dobro player, a master of that instrument. I love the sound of the dobro, and I've owned one myself since the mid-1970s. On this album he plays an eight-string dobro especially made for him. The selection I chose, "Bluegrass Boogie", is an instrumental and firmly in the bluegrass mode with a twelve-bar blues background. It never fails to bring a smile to my face.

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Not sure when I bought this one, but I think it was on a cd.

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(time 3:21, size 3.933MB)

Mike recorded with some high-powered musical talents including David Bromberg, Vasser Clements, Doc Watson and many others, and he spent many years in the bluegrass group The Seldom Scene. On this particular album he teamed with Bob Brozman and David Grisman to record on a wide variety of vintage accoustic instuments. Mike played dobro, Bob played mostly guitars (some slide and some regular style), and David played mandolin. The songs range over a wide spectrum of musical styles, from hawaiian to Tin Pan Alley to blues.

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As I said at the beginning, I don't claim that all of these albums are the greatest of all time, only that they are my favorites. About Abbey Road, however, I will say it: this IS one of the greatest albums of all time. As with most of the albums on this list, I could have picked a lot of tracks for my display. I picked George Harrison's "Something" because it's a great song and performed flawlessly. Don't know when I go this one - probably 1969.

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This is one of several double albums on this list. In some cases I include the album because I especially like one of the two parts more than the other one. That's the case here. I love the sides 1 and 2 and hardly ever even listen to sides 3 and 4. But sides 1 and 2 are good enough on their own to make this list. I've picked another George Harrison tune, on which Eric Clapton actually played the remarkable guitar lead. I bought this one in November 1968.

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It may go without saying, but the Beatles also rank right near the top of my all-time musical heroes. It is no coincidence that they hit this country in early 1964 and that's the time I started to play the guitar. Here again I could have picked a number of Beatle albums. I chose Beatles '65 because it's a consistently entertaining rock album. The Beatles remade lots of old rock 'n' roll songs, including this Chuck Berry number. John Lennon rocks it. I bought this one in November 1965.

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Roy had a unique style and sound. He was mostly associated with a Fender Telecaster guitar. This album is a mixture of blues, country, rock and even a ballad. I bought this album in June 1973. I picked his "Tribute to Elmore James" for this list.

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Chad and Jeremy were a part of the "British Invasion" of 1964-65. They had several soft rock hits in the U.S. but never achieved the fame of Gerry and the Pacemakers, Herman's Hermits and others. In 1967, however, they changed course and released this somewhat psychedelic album. Side 1 is mostly ballads, some written by them and some written by others. Side 2 was an extended piece which was basically anti-war and featured not only music but random sounds and voiceovers by the Firesign Theatre (more about them on page 2). I happened to see this album on sale in a rack at my college bookstore in February 1968, and I bought it. And I'm very glad of that.

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This album, the followup to "Of Cabbages and Kings", was released in 1968, and I bought it in January 1969. It was certainly neither a critical success in it's time nor a chart-topping success. Nevertheless, if you read the reviews online, there are many who give this album a lot of love. I do, too. It has some great songs (there are a miss or two, too, maybe) with impressive musicality. I love this album.

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Okay, I was a big fan of Petula Clark. She typically had good-to-great songs to sing which she sang with great talent. She did not resort to the screaming, chasing all up and down the scale to find the right note. She just sang the song the way it was written. This album, her third to be released in the U.S. was released in 1965, and I bought it in January 1966. It contained no new original songs. Instead it featured covers of international hits by other singers. I'm not crazy about all of them, but there are enough great songs on here to land it on this list.

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Patsy Cline was a most influential artist, not only in the Country music world, but in pop music as well. She died in a plane crash in 1963. This album was released by her record label, MCV, in 1973, and I bought it in 1980. There are lots of great tunes in this collection: "Sweet Dreams", "Faded Love", "Leavin' On Your Mind", but I picked "She's Got You" as a personal favorite.

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One of the very first artists I ever bought albums of was pianist Floyd Cramer. Floyd was a prime participant in the creation of "The Nashville Sound", along with Chet Atkins and others. He was a session musician on many records by a wide variety of artists. This album, as you might guess, has Floyd playing many of the songs from the Hank Williams catalog. Hank wrote (or co-wrote) many great songs, but I chose the haunting "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry". I especially like the way he modulates through different keys. I got this album in December 1963 (I seem to remember it was a Christmas present). In the slideshow you'll see a picture of the "Masters Festival of Music". I had the chance to see Chet Atkins in person a number of times. I saw this group - Chet, Floyd and Boots - together in Raleigh, NC in (I believe) 1965. Quite a show!

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John Fogerty is one of my top three or four musical heroes of all time. His song writing, his singing and his playing are all highest quality. This album, the first to be released as Creedence Clearwater Revival, was released in 1968, and I bought it in September of that year. It was a big influence on my own guitar playing, as I spent countless hours playing along with it. "I Put A Spell on You" was a cover of Screamin' Jay Hawkins' 1956 recording. If you want a real treat, look that up on the internet!

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This starred the second version of Deep Purple which featured Ian Gillan as vocalist. I think he's one of the greatest rock singers ever (he sang the title role in the original "Jesus Christ Superstar"). The "Machine Head" album contained what was probably their biggest and most famous hit, "Smoke on the Water", with it's "dunh-dunh-dunh, dunh-dunh-da-dunh" rif. I've chosen "Lazy", however, because I think it's a tremendous track.

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I was a fan of all three "versions" of Deep Purple, but especially this "Mark II" version. Ritchie Blackmore is one of my favorite guitarists. Although I'm not a drum expert, I believe Ian Paice was one of the best. And as I mentioned above, Ian Gillan is simply an all-time great rock vocalist. The album was released in 1971, and I bought it in May 1972.

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Michael Schenker was not the original guitarist for this British band, but he was featured on this album. To me he has a very British sound although he was a native German. I like this 1974 album a lot, and this selection is maybe the best track. I bought this album in November 1974.

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As I said above, John Fogerty is one of my true musical heroes. After Creedence disbanded in 1971, John went a number of years with few recordings and not much success. His career reignited in 1985 with the release of his solo album "Centerfield". The title track from that album and John were honored at the Baseball Hall of Fame ceremony. His solo career has continued with a number of excellent albums, one of which is the one selected here. "A Hundred And Ten In The Shade" has a quintessential Fogerty/Creedence/swamp sound and features the American gospel group The Fairfield Four backing him up. John plays dobro on this track.
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This album is, I believe, a classic from the psychedlic rock era of the late 1960s. The centerpiece is, of course, the 17-minute title track. The story is that keyboardist Doug Ingle wrote the song after drinking a big old bottle of wine. The title was supposed to be "In the Garden of Eden", but it came out a little slurred, and the band member who was writing down the lyrics as Doug sang them, heard it as what it came to be known as. VH1 named it the twenty-fourth greatest hard rock song of all time. Side one of the album has five songs all of which I enjoy.

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To me, Jim Hall was never a thousand-notes-a-second guitarist like many from the bebop generation, although he could play respectably fast when he wanted to. He was more about unusual chord clusters and melody. The title track of this album is a jazzy arrangement of the second movement of Rodrigo's classical guitar piece "Concierto de Aranjuez". It's a little long at nineteen minutes to include here, so I've picked the first track, Cole Porter's "You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To". The players on this album are a group of outstanding jazz musicians: besides Jim, there are Paul Desmond (sax), Chet Baker (trumpet), Stanley Clark (bass), Steve Gadd (drums) and Roland Hanna (keyboards). But there's no competition here to be the "star"; they play wonderfully together. This IS one of my favorite albums.

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This album, like the previous one, is listed as a Jim Hall album, but, also like the "Concierto", it's a combination effort of a group of outstanding jazzers. They include, besides Jim, Chet Baker again on trumpet, Hubert Laws on flute (Paul Desmond had died of cancer two years after "Concierto" was recorded), Steve Gadd again on drums, and various others on keyboards and bass. The album features arrangements of two classical pieces: "Malaguena" and Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake". I'm including "Malaguena", which starts out slowly, but quickly moves into a rhythm-driven piece.

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This musical started out in 1970 as a "rock opera" written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. It follows the last days in the life of Jesus Christ. The album recording featured Ian Gillan as Jesus (see Deep Purple "Machine Head" above for more on the great Ian Gillan), Murray Head as Judas, Yvonne Elliman as Mary Magdalene, Victor Brox as Caiaphas, and Barry Dennen as Pilate. The musical was later adapted as an extremely successful stage play. The songs are great, the backup musicians are terrific, and the vocalists nail it. This is a tremendous album.

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