Category: Random Thoughts

I’ve been bouncing this idea around for a couple of weeks.

As I noted in a previous post, I delight in all types of music. I’ve set out to do a Top Ten List of my favorite albums, but whittling down to ten favorites has proven to be an insurmountable task. Hard decisions had to be made. When you love these records as much as I do, it’s like choosing your favorite child… then throwing a few of them an honorable mention.

My criteria is completely subjective. This is MY list. I only count albums that I owned at some point in my life… so while you may have enjoyed the hell out of “Sing Along With Mitch Miller”, it ain’t making the list! These records are special to me for “whatever” reasons. It could be significant memories associated with the songs, the artist or the time. It may have been my introduction to an artist or genre. The entire album is on my iPod. I must listen to the songs in order. These albums are just damn good, in my humble opinion.

I’d love to hear your comments, and I hope you like this list. If you don’t, go make your own!! And I reserve the right to make changes/additions at any time. So there!

My Top 10 (+3) Favorite Albums are:

1. The Beatles – Meet The Beatles – The first record I ever owned, a gift from my cousin Mary on a trip here from Belfast. I still have it, and can still smell the old tubes heating up on my parents record player every time I hear “I Saw Her Standing There”.
2. Sex Pistols – Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols – Late 70’s popular music was a wasteland. Although conceived as a publicity stunt, and no one considers them musicians… the Sex Pistols changed my view of what music should and could be, and paved the way for a ton of artists. Like the next two on my list…
3. The Clash – London Calling – Beginning to end, an epic achievement by four punks who at that point weren’t on the American radar.
4. Elvis Costello and The Attractions – Get Happy!! – My favorite record, by my all time favorite artist. Twenty high energy explosions, still smart and clever 30 years later.
5. Bob Dylan – Blood On The Tracks – What can you say about a record that has “Tangled Up In Blue”, “Simple Twist of Fate”, “Shelter From The Storm” and “Idiot Wind”? All classics!
6. Bob Marley and the Wailers – Legend – The album title says it all.
7. Warren Zevon – Excitable Boy – Simultaneously the most brilliant and frightening collections of songs I’d ever heard. I used to worry about this guy, now I just miss him.
8. Johnny Cash – At Folsom Prison – My earliest memory of Cash was how cool he was on TV… dressed in black, guitar slung around his back like a rifle. And my friend who had “Boy Named Sue” on 45 and we used to play it over and over to hear the curse word. I got the Folsom Prison record after the movie… awesome.
9. Bruce Springsteen – Born To Run – I still think of these songs every time I get on the Garden State Parkway going to the shore. “…what else can we do now? Except roll down the window and let the wind blow back your hair.”
10. Peter Frampton – Frampton Comes Alive – THE record in high school, dominating the radio stations. Saw that tour.
11. Elton John – Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy – Definitely NOT part of that 70’s wasteland. My first concert ever, right after this record came out. Classic, smart, beginning to end.
12. Midnight Oil – Blue Sky Mining – Enough energy to power a train. Smart, fun, meaningful. Midnight Oil’s diamond, and they had many shining moments.
13. Squeeze – Argy Bargy – Can’t exclude these guys, and hard to pick just one Squeeze record. So many great songs, but this is when I discovered them.

My many honorable mentions, iPod alphabetical by artist…

10,000 Maniacs – In My Tribe, The A’s – The A’s, Alice Cooper – Welcome To My Nightmare, The Beatles – Abbey Road, Billy Joel – The Stranger, Bob Dylan – Desire, Boomtown Rats – The Fine Art Of Surfacing, The Cars – The Cars, Counting Crows – August and Everything After, Elvis Costello – King of America, My Aim Is True, Graham Parker and The Rumour – Squeezing Out Sparks, Joe Jackson – I’m The Man, Kiss – Alive, Louis Prima – The Wildest, Paul McArtney and Wings – Wings Over America, The Police – Outlandos D’Amour, Pretenders – Pretenders, Prince – 1999, Queen – A Day At The Races, A Night At The Opera, R.E.M – Murmur, Ray Charles – The Best of Ray Charles, The Atlantic Years, Rolling Stones – Some Girls, Simple Minds – Once Upon A Time, Squeeze – East Side Story, Steve Forbert – Jackrabbit Slim, Supertramp – Breakfast In America, Talking Heads – Talking Heads ’77, They Might Be Giants – Flood, Thomas Dolby – The Golden Age of Wireless, Tom Petty and The Heatbreakers – Damn The Torpedoes, U2 – Boy, Rattle and Hum, The Wallflowers – Bringing Down The Horse