Vanity Fair, November 2000
Elvis picks the 500 Greatest Albums Ever Vanity Fair, 2000-11-01 - Elvis Costello
COSTELLO'S 500
From Abba to Zamballarana, and from Mozart to Eminem, one of rock's finest talents has identified 500 albums essential to a happy life. It was a long, tortuous undertaking, but the man knows music - and his aim is true
BY ELVIS COSTELLO
I had intended to add a word or two of praise or explanation after each entry on this list. I made a sparkling start.
ABBA: Abba Gold
Fast songs: for nights entertaining your Australian friends, or playing with the dressing-up box. Slow songs: a pop-music version of Bergman's Scenes from a Marriage.
Then I thought, That's enough of that nonsense. How many times can you write "Superb," "Beautiful," "Stomping," or "Absolutely tangerine" before it loses all meaning? How many times do you need to read: "Masterpiece"? Or, better still "Masterpiece . . . ?"
Instead, I decided to also name the tracks that make these albums special to me. So, if nothing is written, head straight for the title track or assume that the whole damned thing is irresistible. When in doubt, play Track 4-it is usually the one you want.
Here are 500 albums that can only improve your life. Many will be quite familiar, others less so. Ever needed to get rid of unwanted guests in the early hours? Just reach for Dirk Bogarde's Lyrics for Lovers, on which the actor inhales audibly on his cigarette before reciting Ira Gershwin's "A Foggy Day" amid a swathe of violins. Then there are the good records.
It was impossible to choose just one title by Miles Davis, the Beatles, Joni Mitchell, Dylan, Mingus, etc. How can you say Miles Ahead is "in" and Sketches of Spain is "out"? It looked that way for a while. I knew I would need the space for In a Silent Way and On the Corner. In the end Sketches of Spain did make it, but only at the expense of Someday My Prince Will Come. That is the pleasure of a list like this. Everyone will disagree with your choices.
Sometimes an album contains just one indispensable song. Shot of Love may not be your favorite Bob Dylan record, but it might contain his best song: "Every Grain of Sand." Other albums are like sets of chairs. You can't break them up. This is true of the Band's first two records and also of Tom Waits's trilogy of albums, which began with Swordjshtrombones.
There are plenty of "Best of" and "Greatest Hits" collections. That's not just taking the easy way out. Many of these people really only made "singles." No one "album" will give you all the Smokey Robinson and the Miracles or George Jones songs that you need. I've also gone for some less well-known titles by famous artists, but they are records that dig a little deeper.
You should be able to find most of this music, but you may have to go out of your way to locate the records of David Ackles, perhaps the greatest unheralded American songwriter of the late 60s.
This is also a list of where I began and where I stopped listening. There are huge gaps and blind spots. Unsurprisingly, I favor songwriters over players, but any hit parade of great singers would have to include Johnny Hodges. Making this list made me listen all over again.
If your shelf can stand it, I recommend a few boxed sets. Anthology of American Folk Music, compiled by the great Harry Smith from rare 78s seems like a trip to another planet, yet it is really just humans singing and playing in the not-so-distant past. The RCA Ellington set runs to 24 CDs, and the Schubert lieder collection is only a little smaller, but they are a bit like having a Complete Works of Shakespeare close at hand.
The Yazoo label's Secret Museum of Mankind series gives a glimpse of the early days, when HMV or the Gramophone Company would send out recording engineers to gather music from the world for the new, curious audience. These editions are not compiled by country. So, they may begin in the Society Islands, travel to Mongolia via Bulgaria, and end up in Nova Scotia. The world that you will hear probably isn't there anymore.
I sometimes torture myself by considering all the musicians who were still performing during my lifetime but whom I failed to see because I was too stupid, too timid, or too preoccupied with some passing fancy. Records can fix some of that. It's a form of time travel. You can hear Lester Young or Bing Crosby close in on the microphone in a way that we now take for granted and regularly abuse. The 30s recordings of Stravinsky reveal him directing a band of musicians who are clinging to the edges of his new, frightening music. Ornette Coleman's "Peace" is a thing of beauty that was once a minor outrage.
The classical recordings are listed by composer; that is not to say that any version of that piece will do. Great vintage recordings sit alongside new releases by artists whom you can actually hear in concert. These are the performers who opened up this music to me. In the end, it is the music of forgiveness in the last act of Le Nozze di Figaro or the way an incomplete Schubert sonata breaks off in a devastating way that matters more than whether the performance was captured digitally or with some sealing wax and a knitting needle. There is a song setting by Hugo Wolf, "Alles Endet, Was Entstehet." The text concludes:
"We too were men joyful and weary like you, and now we are lifeless, we are only earth, as you see. All that is created must end. All, all around us must perish."
These words are by Michelangelo.
The minute this list goes to press I will think of 20 records that I left out. There are no comedy records, unless you count Louis Armstrong's magnificent nine-minute performance of all of the verses of "Let's Do It." In fact, no real spoken-word recordings are included - it was too hard to choose among Richard Pryor, T. S. Eliot, and Bill Hicks. Groucho Marx makes it on the strength of his rendition of "Lydia, the Tattooed Lady."
If you look in the C's, you won't find anything with my name on it. This is not false modesty. There are at least 500 records better than everything that I've made. I do make a few walk-on appearances as vocalist or producer.
You will see that some very famous names are missing completely. There is nothing at all by Led Zeppelin, the Doors, Michael Jackson, or Sting. You may love them. They just don't do it for me. There's not too much disco or dance, except the mighty Chic. If you want something from Los Angeles in the early 70s, I suggest you purchase the first Jackson Browne record; it will save you buying all those Eagles albums. The "Fleetwood Mac" herein is the great group led by Peter Green, not the Californian mob with Stevie Nicks. There is nothing to speak of from the 80s, the decade that music forgot, except for Robert Wyatt. Not many "Divas," except for Callas and Aretha.
As for the hit records of today, maybe some of them will sound just fantastic in 20 years' time. It's your life. So! No Marilyn, Puffy, Korn, Eddie Money-sorry, Kid Rock-Limp Bizkit, Ricky, Britney, Backstreet Boys, etc., etc.
The best record of today that I could find was The Marshall Mathers LP by Eminem, faster, funnier, and, in an odd way, more truthful than most records. It's up there with the best of The Simpsons, and I mean that as the highest compliment.
There are probably songs being composed right now that will eclipse every entry on this list in somebody's heart or mind. It is my experience that music is more like water than a rhinoceros. It doesn't charge madly down one path. It runs away in every direction.
500 ALBUMS YOU NEED
ABBA
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David Ackles
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Cannonball Adderley
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Amy Allison
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Mose Allison
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Almamegretta
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Louis Armstrong
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Fred Astaire
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Johann Sebastian Bach
- The Well-Tempered Clavier (Edwin Fischer; 1934)
- The Six Cello Suites (Pablo Casals; 1936)
- Six Partitas BWV 825-830 (Andras Schiff; 1984)
- Mass in B Minor (conductor: Otto Klemperer; 1999)
Burt Bacharach
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Chet Baker
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The Band
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Dave Bartholemew
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Béla Bartók
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Cecilia Bartoli
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Count Basie
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The Beach Boys
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Beastie Boys
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The Beatles
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Beck
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Bee Gees
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Ludwig Van Beethoven
- Otto Klemperer Live At The Concertgebouw (1954)
- Symphony No. 9; Piano Sonatas Op. 109, 110, 111 (Sviatoslav Richter; 1965)
- Symphony No. 7 (conductor: Carlos Kleiber; 1975)
- Late Quartets (Budapest String Quartet; 1997)
- Violin Concerto (soloist: Yehudi Menuhin; 1997)
Derek Bell
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Tony Bennett and Bill Evans
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Alban Berg
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Hector Berlioz
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Agnes Bernelle
Leonard Bernstein
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Chuck Berry
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Björk
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Rubén Blades
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Bobby Blue Bland
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Blondie
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Blur
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Dirk Bogarde
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David Bowie
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Johannes Brahms
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Johnny Bristol
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Benjamin Britten
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Charles Brown
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Clifford Brown
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James Brown
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Jackson Browne
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Anton Bruckner
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Jeff Buckley
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Harold Budd and Brian Eno
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Buffalo Springfield
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Bulgarian State Radio & Television Female Choir
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T Bone Burnett
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The Byrds
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John Cale
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Maria Callas
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Captain Beefheart And His Magic Band
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Hoagy Carmichael
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James Carr
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Johnny Cash
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June Carter Cash
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Ray Charles
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Chic
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Frédéric Chopin
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The Clash
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Patsy Cline
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The Coasters
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Leonard Cohen
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Ornette Coleman
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John Coltrane
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Ry Cooder
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Sam Cooke
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Don Covay
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Noël Coward
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Bing Crosby
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David Crosby
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Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
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Crowded House
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D'Angelo
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Miles Davis
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Miles Davis and Stan Getz and Lee Konitz
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Claude Debussy
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Alfred Deller
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Destiny's Child
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Bo Diddley
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Dr. John
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Eric Dolphy
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Lee Dorsey
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John Dowland
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John Dowland And William Byrd
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Henri Duparc
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Jimmy Durante
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Ian Dury
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Dyke & the Blazers
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Bob Dylan
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Edward Elgar
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Duke Ellington
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Duke Ellington with Charles Mingus and Max Roach
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Eminem
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The Bill Evans Trio
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The Gil Evans Orchestra
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The Everly Brothers
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The Fairfield Four
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Marianne Faithfull
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Georgie Fame
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Gabriel Fauré
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Morton Feldman
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Ella Fitzgerald
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Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Amstrong
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Fleetwood Mac
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The Flying Burrito Brothers
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The Four Tops
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Aretha Franklin
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Bill Frisell
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Fugees
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Funkadelic
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Marvin Gaye
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Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell
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Stan Getz
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Stan Getz and Astrid Gilberto
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Dizzy Gillespie
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Allen Ginsberg
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Graham Central Station
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Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five and the Sugar Hill Gang
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Grateful Dead
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Al Green
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Edvard Grieg
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Charles Haden and Hank Jones
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Merle Haggard
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George Frideric Handel
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Tim Hardin
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Slim Harpo
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Emmylou Harris
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PJ Harvey
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Coleman Hawkins
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Joseph Haydn
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Tubby Hayes
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Richard Hell and The Voidoids
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Jimi Hendrix
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The Heptones
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Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks
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Lauryn Hill
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Johnny Hodges
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Billie Holiday
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The Hollies
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Howlin' Wolf
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The Isley Brothers
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Charles Ives
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Jackson 5
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The Jam
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Skip James
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Leoš Janáček
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Jefferson Airplane
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The Jesus And Mary Chain
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Antonio Carlos Jobim
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Little Willie John
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Robert Johnson
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George Jones
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Oum Kaltsoum
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The Kinks
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Rahsaan Roland Kirk
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Erich Korngold
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The La's
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Peggy Lee
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John Lennon
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Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe
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Jerry Lee Lewis
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Little Feat
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Little Richard
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The Louvin Brothers
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The Lovin' Spoonful
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Nick Lowe
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Donal Lunny
- Donal Lunny(1987)
- Declan
Loretta Lynn
- The Best Of Loretta Lynn (1999)
- One's On The Way
Machito and His Afro-Cubans
- Cubop City (1992)
- Si Si, No No
Madness
- The Rise And Fall (1982)
Gustav Mahler
- Symphony No. 1 (conductor: Klaus Tennstedt; 1968)
- Kindertotenlieder & Lieder Eines Fahrenden Gesellen
The Mamas & The Papas
- A Gathering Of Flowers (1970)
- I Saw Her Again Last Night
Aimee Mann
- Whatever (1993)
- 4th Of July
Bob Marley and The Wailers
- African Herbsman (1972)
- Small Axe
- Natty Dread (1975)
- Lively Up Yourself
The Marvelettes
- The Return Of The Marvelettes (1970)
Groucho Marx
- An Evening With Groucho (1972)
- Lydia, The Tattooed Lady
Massive Attack
- Protection (1994)
- Karmacoma
Matching Mole
- Matching Mole (1972)
Curtis Mayfield
- The Very Best Of Curtis Mayfield (1996)
- Move On Up
- (Don't Worry) If There's A Hell Below We're All Going To Go
Curtis Mayfieldand The Impressions
- The Anthology 1961-1977 (1992)
- Keep On Pushing
- I'm So Proud
Paul McCartney
- McCartney (1970)
- Maybe I'm Amazed
- Flaming Pie (1997)
- Little Willow
Kate & Anna McGarrigle
- Kate and Anna McGarrigle (1975)
Tommy McLain
- The Essential Collection (1997)
- Sweet Dreams
The Meters
- The Best Of The Meters (1975)
- Cissy Strut
Mina
- Gli Anni d'Oro (1984)
- Un Bacio E Troppo Poco
Charles Mingus
- Blues And Roots (1959)
- Mingus Ah-Urn (1959)
- Goodbye Pork Pie Hat
- Pre-Bird (also known as Mingus Revisited) (1960)
- Mingus At Antibes (1960)
- What Love?
- Mingus Plays Piano (1963)
- Myself When I Am Real
- Let My .Children Hear Music (1971)
- Don't Be Afraid, The Clown's Afraid Too
- Epitaph (1990)
- The Children's Hour Of Dream
Joni Mitchell
- Blue (1971)
- The Last Time I Saw Richard
- For The Roses (1972)
- Cold Blue Steel And Sweet Fire
- Court And Spark (1974)
- Down To You
- The Hissing Of Summer Lawns (1975)
- Shades Of Scarlet Conquering
- Hejira (1976)
- Amelia
- Taming The Eger (1998)
- Man From Mars
- Stay In Touch
The Modern Lovers
- The Modern Lovers (1976)
- Pablo Picasso
- Someone To Care About
Thelonious Monk
- Genius Of Modern Music, Vol. 1 (1951)
- Off Minor
- Brilliant Corners (1957)
- Monk's Music (1958)
- Abide With Me
- Off Minor
Bill Monroe
- The Music Of Bill Monroe (1994)
- Walls Of Time
Claudio Monteverdi
- L'Incoronazione Di Poppea (conductor: John Eliot Gardiner; 1993)
Moondog
- The Story Of Moondog (1957)
Van Morrison
- Astral Weeks (1968)
- Beside You
- Moondance (1970)
- Into The Mystic
- His Band And Street Choir (1970)
- Street Choir
- Veedon Fleece (1974)
- Linden Arden Stole The Highlights
Jelly Roll Morton
- Birth Of The Hot (1995)
- Dead Man Blues
- Wolverine Blues
The Mothers Of Invention
- We're Only In It For The Money (1968)
- Who Needs The Peace Corps?
The Move
- The Best Of The Move (1974)
- Blackberry Way
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
- Piano Concerto No. 20 (pianist: Clifford Curzon; 1970)
- Requiem (conductor: John Eliot Gardiner; 1986)
- Quartets Dedicated To Haydn (Quatuor Mosaïques; 1991)
- La Clemenza Di Tito (conductor: John Eliot Gardiner; 1993)
- Le Nozze Di Figaro (conductor: Karl Bohm; 1993)
Modest Mussorgsky
- Songs And Dances Of Death (soloist: Sergei Leiferkus; 1995)
Roy Nathanson
- Fire at Keaton's Bar and Grill (2000)
- Bend in the Night
Oliver Nelson
- The Blues And The Abstract Truth (1961)
- Stolen Moments
- Straight Head (1961)
- Images
Willie Nelson
- Stardust (1978)
- Moonlight In Vermont
Bob Neuwirth
- Back To The Front (1988)
- Annabelle Lee
Aaron Neville
- Greatest Hits (1990)
- Tell It Like It Is
Randy Newman
- Randy Newman (1968)
- Cowboy
- Sail Away (1972)
- Good Old Boys (1974)
- Trouble In Paradise (1983)
New York Dolls
- New York Dolls (1973)
- Personality Crisis
Nirvana
- Nevermind (1991)
- Lithium
Luigi Nono
- Fragmente-Stille An Diotima (LaSalle Quartet; 1983)
NRBQ
- NRBQ (1969)
- Rocket #9
Laura Nyro and Labelle
- Gonna Take A Miracle (1971)
- The Bells
- The Orbison Way (1966)
- Crawling Back
- El Rockers (2000)
- Black Gunn
- Missa Viri Galilaei (direction: Philippe Herreweghe; 1992)
- The Complete Savoy Studio Sessions (19781.
- Ko-Ko
- Discover America (1972)
- Jack Palance
- GP (1973)
- We'll Sweep Out The Ashes In The Morning
- Grievous Angel (1974)
- Hearts On Fire
- I Can't Stand The Rain (1974)
- Nobody's Fool (1973)
- Raining In Memphis
- Moments From This Theater (1999)
- Martinis And Bikinis (1994)
- Same Rain
- Caminhos (1998)
- 0 Infante
- The Idiot (1977)
- Nightclubbin'
- Lust For Life (1977)
- Some Weird Sin
- Dummy (1994)
- Sour Times
- Glory Box
- Portishead (1997)
- Western Eyes
- Melodies (baritone: Pierre Bernac; 1950)
- Hotel
- The Best Of Bud Powell On Verve (1994)
- April In Paris
- The Sun Sessions (1976)
- Blue Moon Of Kentucky
- The Memphis Album (1987)
- Power Of My Love
- Pretenders (1980)
- Kid
- Precious
- The Singles (1987)
- Message Of Love
- Around The World In A Day (1985)
- Parade (1986)
- Kiss
- Sign Of The Times (1987)
- If I Was Your Girlfriend
- John Prine (1972)
- Sam Stone
- Romeo And Juliet (conductor: Charles Dutoit; 1998)
- Different Class (1995)
- Sorted Out For E's And Wiz
- Dido And Aeneas (Dido: Dame Janet Baker; 1993)
- Fantasias & In Nomines (Fretwork, 1995)
- The Bends (1995)
- The Bends
- O.K. Computer (1997)
- No Surprises
- Give It Up (1972)
- Love Has No Pride
- The Very Best Of Otis Redding (1992)
- Mr. Pitiful
- The Best Of Jimmy Reed (1962)
- Take Out Some Insurance On Me Baby
- Berlin (1973)
- The Kids
- Reckoning (1984)
- Pretty Persuasion
- Green (1988)
- Orange Crush
- All Shook Down (1990)
- Nobody
- Marc Ribot Y 10s Cubanos Postizos (1998)
- No Me Llores Mas
- Feel Like Going Home: The Essential Charlie Rich (1997)
- The Queen Among The Heather (1998)
- Son David
Smokey Robinson And The Miracles
- The Anthology (1973)
- Going To A-Go-Go
- Aftermath (1966)
- Stupid Girl
- Take It Or Leave It
- Between The Buttons (1967)
- My Obsession
- Let It Bleed (1969)
- You Can't Always Get What You Want
- Some Girls (1978)
- Saxophone Colossus (1964)
- St. Thomas
- The Ultimate Collection (1997)
- Reflections
- I'm Living In Shame
- Rossini Arias (mezzo-soprano: Cecilia Bartoli; 1989)
- Assisa A Piè D'un Salice
- His Cobra Recordings (1989)
- It Takes Time
- The Jazz Workshop (1956)
- Ye Hypocrite, Ye Beelzebub
- The Best Of Salt'N Pepa (1999)
- Whatta Man
- The Best Of Sam And Dave (1969)
- When Something Is Wrong With My Baby
- B-flat Major Piano Sonata, D. 960 (Alfred Brendel; 1971)
- F-sharp Minor Piano Sonata (fragment), D. 571 (Andras Schiff; 1993)
- Winterreise (Wolfgang Holzmair; 1996)
- 22 Lieder (boxed set; 1997)
- Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau And Gerald Moore, "Meerestille"
- Heaven (1996)
- Reckless Nights And Turkish Twilights (1992)
- Manhattan Research Inc. (2000)
- Limbo: The Organized Mind.
- Andres Segovia and His Contemporaries, Vol. 6 (1999)
- (Maria Luisa Anido: Bouree BWV l009, J. S. Bach)
- Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols (1977)
- Pretty Vacant
- Ron Sexsmith (1995)
- Wastin' Time
- Cello Concerto No. 1 (cellist: Mstislav Rostropovich; 1959)
- The String Quartets (Brodsky Quartet; 1991)
- 24 Preludes and Fugues, Op. 87 (pianist: Tatiana Nikolayeva; 1995)
- Shostakovich Plays Shostakovieh, Cello Sonata, Op. 40 (cellist: Mstislav Rostropovich; pianist: Dmitry Shostakovich; 1998)
- Symphony No. 14 (soloists: Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Julia Varady; 2000)
- Paul Simon (1972)
- Congratulations
- Peace Like A River
- There Goes Rhymin' Simon (1973)
- Bookends (1968)
- Overs
- The Best Of Nina Simone (1969)
- Mississippi Goddam
- I Loves You, Porgy
- In The Wee Small Hours (1955)
- Dancing On The Ceiling
- When Your Lover Has Gone
- Songs For Swingin'
- Lovers (1956)
- I've Got You Under My Skin
- Only The Lonely (1958)
- Good-bye
- No One Cares (1959)
- I Can't Get Started
- Live In Paris (1962)
- Without A Song
Frank Sinatra and Antonio Carlos Jobim
- Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim (1967)
- How Insensitive
- When A Man Loves A Woman (1967)
- Out Of Left Field
- Anthology (1981)
- Stand!
- Family Affair
- The Immediate Years (1995)
- Itchycoo Park
- XO (1998)
- Waltz #2
- The Smiths (1984)
- Still Ill
- Trace (1995)
- Loose String
- Specials (1979)
- Blank Expression
- Back to Mono (1991)
- the Crystals, "He's Sure the Boy I Love"
- The Best Of The Spinners (1978)
- Rubberband Man
- Dusty In Memphis (1969)
- I Don't Want To Hear It Anymore
- Just One Smile
- Greatest Hits (1979)
- I Close My Eyes And Count To Ten
- The Wild, The Innocent And The E Street Shuffle (1973)
- The E Street Shuffle
- The River (1980)
- Point Blank
- Tunnel Of Love (1987)
- The Ghost Of Tom Joad (1995)
- Galveston Bay
- East Side Story (1981)
- A Woman's World
- The Complete Columbia Stanley Brothers (1996)
- Gathering Flowers For The Master's Bouquet
- Countdown To Ecstasy (1973)
- The Mercury Anthology (1992)
- You Wear It Well
- Der Rosenkavalier (conductor: Carlos Kleiber; 1934)
- Four Last Songs (soloist: Gundula Janowitz; 1996)
- L'Histoire Du Soldat (conductor: Stravinsky; 1938)
- Le Sacre Du Printemps (conductor: Leonard Bernstein; 1958)
- Igor Stravinsky Edition (conductor: Stravinsky; 1963)
- The Best of the Stylistics (1975)
- People Make The World Go `Round
- Abyssinians (1983)
- Get It While You Can (1967)
- I Learned It All The Hard Way
- 20th Century Piano Genius (1992)
- Love For Sale
- Raw Blues (1968)
- That's Where It's At
- Marquee Moon (1977)
- Anthology (1973)
- Just My Imagination
- Ball Of Confusion
- The Best Of Joe Tex (1965)
- The Story Of Them (1997)
- Don't Look Back
- Ruler Of Hearts (1989)
- I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight (1974)
- Calvary Cross
- Easily Slip Into Another World (1987)
- Black Hands Bejewelled
- Fanmail (1999)
- Unpretty
- Easy To Remember (1979)
- They Didn't Believe Me
- Anthology (1999)
- Check The Rhime
- Maxinquaye (1995)
- Overcome
- The New Tristano (1960)
- Requiem
- Line Up
- Turkish Mambo
- The Very Best Of Big Joe Turner (1998)
- The Unforgettable Fire (1984)
- Pride (In The Name Of Love)
- Bad
- Achtung Baby (1991)
- One
- Pop (1997)
- Please
- The Undertones (1980)
- Teenage Kicks
- The Velvet Underground & Nico (1966)
- Urban Hymns (1997)
- The Drugs Don't Work
- Neon Wilderness
- Wings In The Night (1996)
- De Vilda Svanarna
- Tristan And Isolde (conductor: Wilhelm Furtwangler; 1952)
- Der Ring Des Nibelungen (conductor: George Solti; 1983)
Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton
- The Right Combination: Burning The Midnight Oil (1972)
- Her And The Car And The Mobile Home
- Swordfishtrombones (1983)
- 16 Shells From A Thirty-Ought-Six
- In The Neighborhood
- Rain Dogs (1985)
- Jockey Full Of Bourbon
- Time
- Frank's Wild Years (1987)
- Innocent When You Dream
- Hang On St. Christopher
- Bone Machine (1992)
- A Little Rain
- I Don't Wanna Grow Up
- Mule Variations (1999)
- Take It With Me
- Georgia Rae
- Filipino Box-Spring Hog
- Tilt (1995)
- Farmer In The City
- The Windows Of The World (1968)
- Walk Little Dolly
- More Real Folk Blues (1967)
- Too Young To Know
- The Essential Dot Watson (1973)
- Tom Dooley
- Complete Works (conductor: Pierre Boulez; 2000)
- 0 Moon Of Alabama (1994)
- Lotte Lenya, "Wie lange noch?"
Kenny Wheeler with Lee Konitz, Bill Fisell and Dave Holland
- Angel Song (1997)
- My Generation (1965)
- Meaty, Beaty, Big And Bouncy (1971)
- 40 Greatest Hits (1978)
- I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
- I'll Never Get out of This World Alive
- Car Wheels On A Gravel Road (1998)
- The Best Of Sonny Boy Williamson (1986)
- Band On The Run (1973)
- Let Me Roll It
- Lieder (soloist: Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau; 2000)
- Alles Endet, Was Entstehet
- The Best Of Bobby Womack (1992)
- Harry Hippie
- Talking Book (1972)
- I Believe (When I Fall In Love It Will Be Forever)
- Innervisions (1973)
- Living For The City
- Fulfillingness' First Finale (1974)
- You Haven't Done Nothin'
- The Best Of Betty Wright (1992)
- Clean Up Woman
- The Baby Sitter
- The Secretary
- Mid-Eighties (1993)
- Te Recuerdo Amanda
- Ultimate Lester Young (1998)
- The Man I Love
- Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (1969)
- After The Goldrush (1970)
- Birds
- Time Fades Away (1973)
- Don't Be Denied
- On The Beach (1974)
- Ambulance Blues
- Freedom (1989)
- Ragged Glory (1990)
- Fuckin' Up
- Zamballarana (1997)
- Ventu
Soundtracks
- Betty Blue (Gabriel Yared; 1986)
- Big Night (Louis Prima et al.; 1996)
- Claudio Villa, "Stomelli Amorisi"
- The Harder They Come (Jimmy Cliff; 1972)
- High Society (Cole Porter; 1956)
- Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby, "Well Did You Evah?"
- One from the Heart (Tom Waits; 1982)
- Torn Curtain (Bernard Herrmann;1978)
- The Wood (1999)
- Mystikal & Outkast, "Neck uv da Woods."
Various
The Alan Lomax Collection Sampler (1997)
- Genoese longshoremen, "La Partenza"
Anthology Of American Folk Music (1997)
- Dock Boggs, "Country Blues"
The Birth Of The Third Stream (1957)
Chess Golden Decade: The Early '50s, Vol. 1 (circa 1970)
- Willie Mabon, "I'm Mad"
Ethiopiques: Ethio Jazz And Musique Instrumentale 1969-1974, Vol. 4 (1998)
- Mulatu Astatqé, "Yèkèrmo Sèw"
Gravikords, Whirlies & Pyrophones (1996)
Mysteries Of The Sabbath: Classic Cantorial Recordings, 1907-47 (1994)
Nuggets (1998)
- the Knickerbockers, "Lies,"
- the Barbarians, "Moulty"
The Real Kansas City Of The '20s, '30s, & '40s (1996)
- Fletcher Henderson And His Orchestra "Queer Notions"
The Secret Museum Of Mankind, Ethnic Music Classics: 1925-48 (1995-1998)
There Will Be No Sweeter Sound: Columbia Okeh Post-War Gospel Story 1947-1962 (1998)
- Mello-Tones, "Looking for That City Called Heaven"
Tougher Than Tough
- The Story Of Jamaican Music (1993)
- Dave And Ansel Collins, "Double Barrel"