Your 20 most influential albums (CDs)

This is a note from Facebook, but it seemed like something fun to play with here.  I had SO much fun thinking of these top albums and have been remembering things about them all morning.  Post your favorites in the comments and let’s reminisce together

My sister posted her list, so I have to post mine. Think of 15, I mean 20, albums that had such a profound effect on you they changed your life or the way you looked at it. They sucked you in and took you over for days, weeks, months, years. These are the albums that you can use to identify time, places, people, emotions.

With the above criteria in mind, and plenty of cheating, here’s my list in no certain order:

I stole a couple from her, right away. And it’s a weird list, I know.   It also makes me seem about a decade older than I am, since all I wanted to do was grow up and be a hippie.  <g>

1. Led Zepplin 4
2. Cosmo’s Factory by Credence Clearwater Revival (still write to this)
3. Days of Future Passed by the Moody Blues (grandma’s house, 1970)
4. Beggar’s Banquet, Rolling Stones (which makes me remember a Castle Rock wedding, and a heady first kiss)
5. Tap Root Manuscript, Neil Diamond (“And you shall come to hear a song….”  I don’t care if you think ND is nerdy. This album is incredible.)
6. Are You Experienced, Hendrix
7. Street Corner Symphony, The Persuasions (Sunday breakfast through the 90s)
8. Beatles 1967-1970 (the blue album)
9. Vivaldi’s Four Seasons
10. Luck of the Draw, Bonnie Raitt (good divorce music)
11. Sonny & Terry, Sonny Brownie and Terry McGee (The CD I can’t live without)
12. Cheap Thrills, Janis Joplin (see #10)
13. The Corrs, Unplugged
14. No Angel, Dido
15. Come Away With Me, Norah Jones (still in VERY heavy play)
16. Keb Mo, Keb Mo
17. Teaser and The Firecat, Cat Stevens
18. Liege and Lief, Fairport Convention
19. The CD said sister made for me when I had the blues one dark day in May
20. Tropical Brainstorm, Kirsty McColl

And then I remembered I forgot Uh-Huh, Mellencamp, and the CD my kids would mostly like name as my favorite, Paul Simon’s Greatest Hits, which I have played at least 59021 times over the course of their lives.

Let’s hear your favorites, too.  It’s so much fun to remember!

4 thoughts on “Your 20 most influential albums (CDs)

  1. Mel

    I blogged mine, easier than typing them all here. Man, hard to keep it down to just twenty…

  2. Barb

    This was very hard. None of these are in order, except for the first one. My most favorite album of all time is Dan Fogelberg’s “The Innocent Age”. I’m still so sad that he died. So, here are my top 20:

    1. The Innocent Age, Dan Fogelberg
    2. Frampton Comes Alive!, Peter Frampton
    3. Gold: Greatest Hits, Abba
    4. The Messiah, George Frederick Handel
    5. Choral Masterpieces, Atlanta Symphony & Chorus
    6. So Long So Wrong, Alison Krauss
    7. Wide Open Spaces, Dixie Chicks
    8. Sand and Water, Beth Nielsen Chapman
    9. Lux aeterna, Morton Lauridsen
    10. Tapestry, Carole King
    11. Sweet Baby James, James Taylor
    12. Saturday Night Fever (Sorry about this, had to be honest)
    13. The Complete Greatest Hits 1967-2002, Chicago
    14. Tuesday Night Music Club, Sheryl Crow
    15. Come Away With Me, Norah Jones
    16. Luck of the Draw, Bonnie Raitt
    17. Blue Album, The Beatles
    18. Daylight Again, Crosby, Stills & Nash
    19. Songs in the Key of Life, Stevie Wonder
    20. Rumours, Fleetwood Mac

    There were so many more, but these are the ones I love and listen to all of the time. This was so much fun to do. There were so many others: Earth, Wind & Fire; Styx; Eric Clapton; Vince Gill; Aretha; The Rolling Stones. So much good music, so little time.

  3. I’m going to blog mine too…too much fun!

  4. Barbara, loved your list. I’m blogging about my list on Thursday. Thanks.

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