Top 5 10 15 on Friday

Top Five on Friday - Week 131
From The Music Memoirs

Top 5 albums that are at least 20 years old.
(There's a stipulation however...all 5 albums cannot be by the same artist/band)

The challenge is accepted. I give you five albums released in 1987 or before:


» Asia by Asia (1982)
The band was too talented, with too many big egos. They were doomed to fall apart from the beginning. But for that first, beautiful album, they were absolutely brilliant. Just close your eyes, and you can hear the opening guitar riff from "Heat of the Moment".


» Coconut Telegraph by Jimmy Buffett (1981)
The last Jimmy Buffett song I can remember getting radio play was "It's My Job". One summer day, as I was taking a break from blowing trash out of the parking lot at the apartment complex where I worked, this song came to my memory. So I went out and bought the album. It was the first step in accumulating an nice Buffett collection of my own.


» Chicago 17 by Chicago (1984)
Admit it — you owned this album too, back in the day. Everyone did.


» High Infidelity by REO Speedwagon (1980)
A hard-hitting, straight-forward drum-and-guitar rock album. You'd never have guessed that it was recorded at the height of the Disco era.


» Isolation by Toto (1984)
This album didn't have the commercial appeal and massive sales of 1982's Toto IV, but then again, what did? In a lot of ways, I thought this was actually a better album. "Stranger in Town" and "Carmen" have always been favorites.

But wait, there's more. How about five more albums, each 30 years old or more.

» Boston by Boston (1976)
Brad Delp's ringing lyrics and Tom Scholz's overdubbed guitars made for a sound that could never really be duplicated. Delp's recent suicide was an incalculable loss.

» An Evening with John Denver by John Denver (1975)
I grew up listening to this album. There was no way I couldn't include it. The tongue-in-cheek "Toledo" was always a favorite.

» Hotel California by The Eagles (1976)
A pox on Led Zeppelin; "Hotel California" has the best guitar solo in rock. And the rest of the album wasn't bad either.

» Leftoverture by Kansas (1976)
Kansas is one of my favorite bands. This album put them on the map. There's not a bad track on the album.

» 2112 by Rush (1976)
Admittedly, I often skip through the middle of the album, but the opening rock operetta (the title track, "2112") and the closing number ("Something for Nothing") are among my favorite songs the band's ever done. I hope to hear either of them when we see Rush in concert a month from today.

And now, for the pièce de résistance: five more albums, each 40 years old or more:

» Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles (1967)
Was it really 40 years ago today? The album still sounds fresh and original.

» Days of Future Passed by The Moody Blues (1967)
Okay, it wasn't released until December of 1967, so technically it's not quite 40 years old. But the recording was done by the end of June, so in my book, it's close enough. Besides, this album's too good not to include.

» Time Out by The Dave Brubeck Quartet (1959)
If people have heard of this album at all, they probably remember it best for "Take Five". If you can write well enough and really play your instruments, you can even make 5/4 sound great.

» An Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer by Tom Lehrer (1959)
As a chemistry graduate, there's only one thing I can say about this album:
"There's antimony, arsenic, aluminum, selenium, and hydrogen and oxygen and nitrogen and rhenium...."

» The Sound of Music Film Soundtrack (1965)
"Maria". "I Have Confidence". "Sixteen Going On Seventeen". "My Favorite Things". "Do-Re-Mi". "The Lonely Goatherd". "Edelweiss". "So Long, Farewell". "Climb Ev'ry Mountain". Everyone knows these songs. That's why we still care about the musical after four decades. Too bad about Rolf, though.

And by the way, I personally own each and every one of these.