This is the other side of the coin of a current post - Albums that you loved from the first note.

I started out collecting singles (45's) LPs were generally a collection of these releases. I collected Beatles, Stones, Dave Clark Five, Kinks LP's but it wasn't until these life altering first two releases that I stopped collecting 45's and turned to albums. The others listed are releases that, again it was love at first note.

1. Sgt Pepper - I can't really believe that this is not liked by anybody. To me this is the first concept LP - all tied together - mostly great tunes by a band that you have heard of. I have read that even the Beatles don't think it is their best. TO be it is better than Rubber Soul and Revolver. Together (IMHO) their 3 best. This is still my favorite non-Zappa release.

2. We're Only In It For the Money - Frank Zappa/Mothers of Invention. Purchased at the time when to me, the Beatles were best. Bought because of the Sgt Pepper parody. After one listen neither the Beatles, nor anyone else ever sounded the same.

Other LP's that I have loved since the first note include

Electric Ladyland - Jimi Hendrix Experience
We Are the Village Green Preservation Society - Kinks
Beggar's Banquet - Rolling Stones
Daddy Who - Daddy Cool
Next - The Sensational Alex Harvey Band
Mardi Gras In New Orleans - Professor Longhair

Also the following greatest hits packages - (how could these four musicians come up with all these songs?)
Golden Decade - Chuck Berry
24 Greatest Hits - Hank Williams
Greatest Hit's - Big Joe Turner
Best of - Louis Jordan

and last but not least Spike Jones Is Murdering The Classics. (I would have loved to see these guys live).

To me there is not a bad song on any of these albums. They are not my 13 favorites (Hot Rats is #1) but they are 13 that struck the right cord the day I first listened to them and continue to, till this day.

i had never heard lucinda williams.

she was going to be in vegas when i was there and i coould get good seats.

i asked here about here and got nothing but glowing reviews.

i bought "car wheels on a gravel road" and never looked back. bough every album by her as fast as i could find them, and can't wait for anything new she puts out.

renny

It was also influenced by the Robert Hilburn review I read, but the very instant I heard Margo Timmins singing at the beginning of "Mining For Gold" on The Trinity Session, I knew I was hooked right then and there. That album was lighting in a bottle for me and for Cowboy Junkies on so many levels.

I knew I would.

Brilliant post by Jimbo.I'm going to steal a page from his book :



I so wanted this to be good. I had little reason to think it would be great, but it was, and is.

London Calling is mine too. I hadn't read anything yet, I remember running into it at Strawberries in Kenmore Square, taking it home and playing it over and over for a couple of days. Classes? Who needed to go to classes? London was calling.

Kyle Vincent - Self titled

I knew nothing him at the time but as soon as the Chorus kicked in on "Arianne," I was HOOKED! Literally and figuratively.
A little research... and found out he was the lead singer of Candy, whose "Whatever happened to fun/" had grabbed me as well.

The Geraldine Fibbers - Lost Somewhere Between The Earth And My Home.
I bought the album because I read an interesting review, and I found a cheap used copy.
The first song had such a strong impact on me, I didn't think the rest of the album could have matched that moment.
It not only did, but it exceeded it later in the album.
It has since become my favorite album of all time. I never tire of it.

When I was 14 and heard the first measures of "Thunder Road" for the first time I knew Born to Run was great. I still think it's one of the greatest rock records ever.

Crosby, Stills & Nash (1969)- Suite: Judy Blues was the first cut.

The Spongetones, "Beat Music". Ordered the LP from Midnight back in the early 90's, read the hype in the add about them being Beatles soundalikes. Was naturally a bit skeptical. In looking at the LP design and artwork upon receipt i was more encouraged. When the needle dropped on side one, within the first 30 seconds of "Here I Go Again" i knew that this was something special. The rest of the LP held up to the same standard.

Same experience with their follow EP, "Beat and Torn"; from the first bit of "Torn Apart" i was smiling.

More recently, the Red Button cd (from last year) "She's About To Cross My Mind". Same type of background as those first Spongetones records, and they hit the mark just as well. Hopefully Seth Swirsky and Mike Reukeberg will follow this up with more perfect pop.

Oh, corrections on the above. That Spongetones follow-up EP was actually called "Torn Apart". Got confused, "Beat and Torn" is the title of the cd release of that first LP and EP together (and it's HIGHLY recommended to any Beatles fanatics).

CSN - The Boat Album - I liked it so much I became a fan for a few years.
Santana's Greatest Hits (The dove album) - Again liked it enough to become a fan.
The Beach Boys - Ten Years of Harmony - Turned me into a Beach Boys fan, which I remain to this day.

Spongetones - Oh Yeah!
XTC - Skylarking
Queen - Night at the Opera
Yes - Fragile
Emerson, Lake and Palmer - their eponymous debut
Jethro Tull - Thick as a Brick

Rod Stewart -- Every Picture Tells a Story
Boz Scaggs -- Silk Degrees
Boston -- Boston
Steely Dan -- Aja
ABC -- The Lexicon of Love
Kim Wilde -- Love Is

For me it was The Kink Kronikles -- I know, it's a comp, but it's what opened my eyes and ears to the Kinks. Victoria. What a way to start!

For all of the complaining I do about 21st century Springsteen, the man certainly knew how to kick off an album. I still remember sitting on my bedroom floor with the "Darkness On The Edge of Town" record jacket, inner sleeve and lyric sheet spread out on the carpet in front of me, chained by my headphones to my turntable, hearing Max Weinberg kicking off "Badlands" and just thinking...wow! At that time, the only other Springsteen album I'd ever heard was "Born In The U.S.A." and what I didn't understand was...how come I've never heard any of this stuff on the radio?

The Holy Bible by Manic Street Preachers... would have loved to experience this "in the moment" when it was originally released, but it was still very much a cornerstone album for me when I discovered it several years later.

The Doobie Brothers-The Captain & Me
Wishbone Ash-Argus
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young-Deja Vu
The James Gang-Thirds
Poco-Cantamos
Firefall-Luna Sea
Steely Dan-Can't Buy A Thrill

Get Happy!! by Elvis & the Attractions
In Reverse by Matthew Sweet
Reggatta De Blanc by the Police
We Are The Pipettes
Holland by the Beach Boys
Some Fantastic Place by Squeeze
Magic by Bruce Springsteen

I'm not sure how much that last one qualifies...I was blown away from the opening riff of Radio Nowhere, but having been disappointed by many of his albums, I kept waiting for the filler to come, but it never did.

Patti Griffin's Living With Ghosts struck me quickly and unexpectedly. Had heard a song on TV and downloaded it out of curiosity. Liked it. Downloaded the album. Before I was fnished with the first playthrough I was already on my way to the store to buy the album.

Same with the American debut from Sigur Rós, Ágætis byrjun. From the first moment I heard it it was one of my favorite albums of all time, and remains so today.

Some of these I recall not only for love (as there are many many others) but some for just viceral impact (opening my eyes to other genre's or introducing me to new artists)...

London Calling - The Clash
Blood Music Sex Magic - Red Hot Chili Peppers
Original Gangster - Ice-T (First rap album I gave a serious listen to, and it spoiled all the others. I am not much of a fan to the genre - but this is one of my favorite albums)
Kind of Blue - Miles Davis
Abbey Road - Beatles (plenty of Beatles albums fall into this category)
Violent Femmes and Hallowed Ground - Violent Femmes
American Beauty - Grateful Dead
Freedom and Ragged Glory - Neil Young
Joe's Garage - FZ
Some unknown Allman Brothers boot wafting from another car while I laid in the bed of a pickup truck as we 'camped' in a bowling alley parking lot the night of the 'Oaks' waiting for the 'Kentucky Derby' morning...