What are the top albums of each decade?

[TheGoodTexan]

I've pretty much stopped buying new music (new artists that is)...for the most part. There are exceptions of course. But I've been concentrating on filling in important gaps in my collection over the last couple of years. I've got a lot of ground covered...but I'd like to hear your suggestions for "Greatest 10 Albums of the 19X0s"....

You can throw in any suggestions...but I'm mostly interested in the 1960s and back.

I know that the further back you go, the more you run into singles...so that may effect your answer.... you may just have to recommend a specific artist/song.... and I can probably look for a "Best of" of that artist, with that song on it.

[getbent]

Piano Starts Here
by Art Tatum

Little Jazz
by Roy Eldridge

Yes, Indeed!
by Tommy Dorsey

Sing, Sing, Sing
by Benny Goodman

Master Takes: Victor Sessions
by Sidney Bechet

Dance of the Octopus
by Red Norvo

The Genius of the Electric Guitar
by Charlie Christian

Snowy Morning Blues
by James P. Johnson

Legendary Performer
by Glenn Miller

Dixieland All Stars
by Eddie Condon

[TheGoodTexan]

Oh man...getbent....that's EXACTLY the type of response that I'm trying to elicit.

Good stuff fo sho. I'll check'em out.

[hekawi]

1960's

1- all The Beatles albums
2- The Who: Tommy
3- Simon & Garfunkel: Bookends
4- Bob Dylan: John Wesley Harding
5- Rolling Stones: Beggar's Banquet
6- The Band: Music From Big Pink
7- Jimi Hendrix: Are You Experienced
8- Buffalo Springfield: (self titled first album)
9- Crosby Stills & Nash: (self titled first album)
10- The Byrds: Mr Tambourine Man

there's a gazillion more from the 60s, but that'll get you started

[TheGoodTexan]

Originally Posted by hekawi

1960's

1- all The Beatles albums
2- The Who: Tommy
3- Simon & Garfunkel: Bookends
4- Bob Dylan: John Wesley Harding
5- Rolling Stones: Beggar's Banquet
6- The Band: Music From Big Pink
7- Jimi Hendrix: Are You Experienced
8- Buffalo Springfield: (self titled first album)
9- Crosby Stills & Nash: (self titled first album)
10- The Byrds: Mr Tambourine Man

there's a gazillion more from the 60s, but that'll get you started

Ok...I've got all of that...and Pet Sounds.

Maybe I should have said, 1966 and earlier.

[getbent]

Body & Soul
by Coleman Hawkins

Fats Waller and His Buddies
by Fats Waller

A Study in Frustration/Thesaurus of Classic Jazz
by Fletcher Henderson

Jazz Guitar
by Eddie Lang

Turn on the Heat: The Fats Waller Piano Solos
by Fats Waller

1923-1924
by Jelly Roll Morton

The Owls' Hoot!
by New Orleans Owls

The Wingy Manone Collection, Vol. 1
by Wingy Manone

Wild Man Blues: 24 Clarinet Classics
by Johnny Dodds

Stardust, and Much More
by Hoagy Carmichael

[getbent]

I have a collection of old time hillbilly records (like Gid Tanner and the skillet lickers) in a huge collection (like 10 or 20 cds) which I love, but I don't have the individual albums. Lots of the albums we had above in big 6-12 record collections in folios as a kid... I would sit and spin that stuff... Earl Bostic... too cool for 1968.

[Mickey]

I have a lot of albums that are collections of a songwriter or team. Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Rodgers and Hart, stuff like that. The period is usually kind of broad (from the 20s thru the 60s) cause usually the label just opens up the vault and finds every act that ever recorded. For instance

Fascinatin' Rhythm - Capitol Sings George Gershwin

Harold Arlen Centennial Celebration

Irving Berlin: A Hundred years.

Night And Day: The Cole Porter Songbook

Smithsonian Songbook Series: Hoagy Carmichael

The Song Is ... Cole Porter

We'll Have Manhattan: The Rogers & Hart Songbook

Ella Fitzgerald did a ton of these kinds of "tribute" songbook records, they're a good way to get into the old stuff. Just my preference, but I like Ella Fitzgerald, The Jerome Kern Songbook the most.

This is an unusual one, Gershwin Plays Gershwin: The Piano Rolls, they're old piano rolls that Gershwin himself cut, so you're really hearing Gershwin play himself, crazy when you hear him do Rhapsody in Blue, I actually had the chance to hear one of these rolls on a Steinway player piano, it was eerie, you could see the keys go down as if Gershwin's ghost were in the room playing.

"The Living Era" I think is a label that takes stuff that's in the public domain and polishes it off for publication, I have a bunch of their cds, always gems on each. The Roaring Twenties is a really good one. Also Shake That Thing is a twenties compilation from that label that I like. Also 20 #1 Hits Of The `20's.

Those are all "pop" music recs.

[hekawi]

i love World War II era music, and most of the stuff from the 40's you'll probably have to get via cd "greatest hits collections":

Artie Shaw
Andrews Sisters
Benny Goodman
Sinatra
Hoagie Carmichael
Tommy Dorsey
Glenn Miller
Count Basie

[Oster]

1920s:

Bix Beiderbecke - At The Jazz Band Ball

[celtobilly]

If you're interested in going WAY back, there''s a company called Archeophone that's putting out CD "yearbooks" of greatest hits from each year of the 20th century. The first CD in the series covers the 1890's. They're tough to find, and a little pricey, and, since they're dubbed from whatever 78's were available, the osund quality is VARIABLE, to be charitable. But what the hell, it's an amazing window into what constituted pop music a hundred years ago.

[Robin Nahum]

Kinda Blue

is one of many.