The 50 Most Important Albums (Leftovers)
Having had a chance to live with it for a week or so, I'm quite happy with my list of the 50 most important albums. I might change the order a bit here and there, but there are no albums I would want to add or remove. There are, however, artists I really like who aren't represented because, for one reason or another, they didn't release great albums. This may be because (like Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and a host of others) their recordings were made before the era of the long-playing recording, or it may be because (like many of the Motown artists and the artists produced by Phil Spector) their primary form of recording was the single rather than the album. Also, there are a few artists whose full impact isn't sufficiently indicated by the albums I've chosen. With all of that in mind, here are some artists to consider further:
- Louis Armstrong: Louis was the single most important musical artist of the twentieth century. He invented jazz singing and reinvented jazz itself. But more than that, he brought a new quality to music, an improvised heat or intensity that had occasionally been suggested in more formal settings by composers like Mozart and Rossini, an abandonment to the energy of the sublime. This can be heard most clearly on "St. Louis Blues [Alternate Take B] " (available on the box set 1923-34: Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man, which contains all of his essential early recordings) and reappears throughout the history of pop music, from Frank Sinatra to Jimi Hendrix to Sonic Youth. This box set also includes his improvisatory masterpiece "Potato Head Blues" and his strangely definitive recording of "Stardust" (which was unfortunately played to death during Ken Burns's Jazz documentary).
- Duke Ellington: Where Louis Armstrong pushed the definition of jazz (with country and, later, rock n' roll and rap, the quintessential American music) in new directions, Duke Ellington (and his often unrecognized collaborator Billy Strayhorn) absorbed those innovations, formalized them, and achieved a successful synthesis of them with existing traditions. His career spanned decades, and it was uniformly creative, starting with his early records (collected on The OKeh Ellington) and continuing through his Songbook with Ella Fitzgerald, his and Strayhorn's reworking of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite (on Three Suites), and his recordings of his own songs with bop figures Charlie Mingus and Max Roach (on Money Jungle).
- Billie Holiday: Though Billie Holiday was represented on my list, many of her best records were not originally included on albums. The two collections that most fully cover her career are Legacy (for her early recordings) and Lady in Autumn (for her later recordings).
- Tony Bennett: Tony Bennett (like Frank Sinatra) did a great deal of fine work on albums (Basie Sings, Bennett Swings, The Movie Song Album, and Tony Bennett Bill Evans Album, to name just a few), but (unlike Frank Sinatra) there wasn't one that stood out enough for me to include it on my list. You can get a broad sample of the scope and quality of his recordings on the box set 40 Years: The Artistry of Tony Bennett.
- Ray Charles: Ray Charles is a giant of American popular music. He absorbed, mastered, and advanced every genre he touched, and he touched nearly all of them, from rhythm and blues to country. But the only albums of his that I own are collections. If you're looking get just one collection (making you as foolish as I am), Genius & Soul: The 50th Anniversary Collection is excellent. If you want more (and you probably should), consult someone better informed than me.
- Phil Spector: At Philles Records, Spector oversaw a factory that produced the best pop music of the early 1960s. He pulled together great songwriters, studio musicians, and singers to form a handful of groups that recorded an astonishing number of classic singles, including "Every Breath I Take," "Uptown," "Da Doo Ron Ron," "Be My Baby," "Then He Kissed Me," and his Christmas album, one of the first pop takes on Christmas songs. The box set Back To Mono has all of the great recordings and the complete Christmas album.
- Motown: In the mid- and late 1960s, Motown followed in the footsteps of Philles Records as the factory for pop music. Using a similar formula with slightly different ingredients, Motown produced an even more astonishing number of classic singles, many of which were released in collections (as listed on emscee's list). There's also the Hitsville USA box set for a more comprehensive look at their accomplishments. But unlike Philles Records, Motown fostered artists who went on to develop solo careers of great import, including Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, and Smokey Robinson.
- James Brown: Like Ray Charles, James Brown is a massive force in American music. He was a huge star in his own right, but even after his fame faded a bit, his music resurfaced in the form of samples as the basis for essentially all hip hop. Of course there's a box set (Star Time), but there are probably also important albums that you should have. See someone more informed than me.
- Aretha Franklin: And for the third time, I must display my cultural failures. I have no Aretha Franklin albums, and there's just no excuse for that. Seek guidance from someone who's not an idiot, and buy some. I know I'm going to (a little help, emscee?).
7:26:46 AM 
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