Blondie's "Parallel Lines."
Had never heard their earlier music, but bought this one for the cover on the day it came out. I couldn't take my eyes off Debbie Harry; she was the most beautiful woman I think I had ever seen. Took me a few months to warm up to the music, but it eventually became one of my all-time favorite albums and remains so today.

Tom Waits "swordfishtrombones." I'd liked Waits earlier on with albums like "Small Change," but I just wasn't hearing this one. My brother got me to take another listen and I became a giant fan of what Waits was doing and has been doing ever since.

Many years ago, a buyer from a long-gone record store tried to get me into American Music Club's Mercury album, but the handful of cuts he played for me just didn't sink in.

However, the band got a lot of good press at that time (particularly in the UK, which I followed through NME and Melody Maker), and so I decided to take a second chance when I saw the import single set for "Johnny Mathis' Feet". I fell hard for the Mark Eitzel demos included as b-sides, and eventually worked my way back into the album. I've been a fan ever since.