Risqué
| Billboard 200: | 5 |
| CashBox 200: | 6 |
| Top 40 pop singles: | "Good Times" (#1) |
| Top track: | "Good Times" |
The only problem with this album is that after leading off with 8 minutes of "Good Times," there's no place to go but down. More Chic to come...
Allmusic: "Risqué is definitely among Chic's essential albums."
Street Life
| Billboard 200: | 18 |
| CashBox 200: | 21 |
| Top 40 pop singles: | "Street Life" (#36) |
| Top track: | "Street Life" |
My introduction to The Crusaders and for that, I'm grateful, because that rabbit hole is deep and well worth exploring.
Allmusic: "this particular set is well worth picking up"
Look Sharp!
| Billboard 200: | 20 |
| CashBox 200: | 24 |
| Top 40 pop singles: | "Is She Really Going Out with Him?" (#21) |
| Top track: | "Is She Really Going Out with Him?" |
Before I talk about the music, I have to say that is a great album cover - one of my all-time favorites. In 1991, Rolling Stone magazine ranked it #22 on its list of 100 Classic Album Covers (Issue 617).
This outstanding debut album rocks pretty hard but shows Jackson's gift for pop songwriting. Because of timing, Jackson was grouped with Elvis Costello and Graham Parker, but I think better comparisons would be The Clash or The Knack. Lots of punk and reggae/ska influences. Just great music from a tight band on the leading edge of the New Wave.
Allmusic: "A brilliant, accomplished debut"
Rio
| Billboard 200: | 163 |
| CashBox 200: | 178 |
| Top 40 pop singles: | none |
| Top track: | "San Juan Sunset" |
For this release, Rit puts down his electric guitar and put together an acoustic set of Brazilian/pseudo-Carribean music. Ritenour's guitar work is beautiful. This album was originally recorded by JVC for the Japanese market (1979), first released in the U.S. on the Elektra/Musician label (1982), and finally on GRP (1985). Believe it or not, I subjected my wife to this sort of music while we dated and she stayed with me anyway.
Allmusic: "the record is remarkably unified -- thanks in no small part to Ritenour's intelligent, beautifully felt playing -- and makes comfortable listening."
ELO's Greatest Hits
| Billboard 200: | 30 |
| CashBox 200: | 30 |
| Top 40 pop singles: | numerous |
| Top track: | "Mr. Blue Sky" |
This wonderful rock/pop set should be higher on the list, but I'm taking down a few notches because it's a compilation.
Allmusic: "anyone who was anywhere near a radio in the latter half of the '70s knows them all by heart"
On the Radio
| Billboard 200: | 1 |
| CashBox 200: | 2 |
| Top 40 pop singles: | numerous |
| Top track: | pick 'em |
This wonderfully danceable set should be higher on the list, but I'm taking down a few notches because it's a compilation.
Allmusic: "an almost complete anthology of her popular '70s output"
London Calling
| Billboard 200: | 27 |
| CashBox 200: | 28 |
| Top 40 pop singles: | "Train in Vain (Stand by Me)" (#23) |
| Top track: | "Train in Vain (Stand by Me)" |
Probably #1 on most people's list, but this soft rock kid wasn't listening The Clash in 1979 and wouldn't pick up on their stuff for a few years. Those that know me know that I'm a horrible contrarian. So when I read all the "best of" lists and this album is always at or near the top, that makes me not want to hear it (I never claimed contrarianism was a rational condition). I didn't listen to this album when I was in high school and I'm not gonna hear it now, ya know? You can't make me listen to it! But eventually I wore down and bought a copy. Guess what? It's as good as advertised. Dammit, I hate being proved wrong.
There's everything on this album from punk to rockabilly to ska to rock to soul to reggae and even a little New Wave and glam rock. Normally I'd call an album like that "disjunct" or "manic" but here it all works. The vocals are horrible and they're perfect. Instruments are out of tune and that doesn't even bother me. This album rocks and that's all that matters. It has deservedly received any number of accolades and 5 star reviews:
Allmusic: "one of the greatest rock & roll albums ever recorded"
Breakfast in America
| Billboard 200: | 1 |
| CashBox 200: | 1 |
| Top 40 pop singles: | "The Logical Song" (#6) "Goodbye Stranger" (#15) "Take the Long Way Home" (#10) |
| Top track: | "Goodbye Stranger" |
Man oh man, those are some great singles. Then throw in the great title track and a couple of other "filler" cuts and this is album is strong and brings back great memories of 8th grade.
Allmusic: "clearly their high-water mark."
Extensions
| Billboard 200: | 55 |
| CashBox 200: | 63 |
| Top 40 pop singles: | "Twilight Zone/Twilight Tone" (#30) |
| Top track: | "Birdland" |
I don't listen to this much these days, but it got a lot of play when I was in high school. At the time I thought this music was jazz fusion-ish, but really it's just adult contemporary. The inconsistency of styles didn't bother me back then, but now I can see what a mixed bag it is: some jazz vocalese, some pop tunes, an avant garde track, a doo-wop number, an attempt at electronic big band music, and the interesting inclusion of a Tom Waits song. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy listening to this, if only for the memories.
Allmusic: "dynamic performance"
An Evening of Magic
Chuck Mangione
| Billboard 200: | 27 |
| CashBox 200: | 37 |
| Top 40 pop singles: | none |
| Top track: | "Land of Make Believe" |
I got my album set from one of those Columbia House "12 for a Penny" promos and listened to it only rarely (who has time for a 2 LP set when you've got important high school stuff to do?). However, in college, it became an important part of a routine that hasn't varied much since then. During my freshman year of college, I needed to write a paper for English class that was due on a Monday. Respecting time-honored traditions, I waited until Sunday to get started. For some reason, I selected this album to listen to as I wrote. Everything went well; I made an A in the course. From that point on, Monday due dates meant Sunday morning writing while listening to Mangione's Live At The Hollywood Bowl. When I started grad school back in 1998, I found the recording on CD and began using it as background music while I wrote exciting papers along the lines of "The Effect of Calculator Use on Mathematics Achievement for Urban Elementary School Students." To this day, this album is still my "go to" music when I need to hunker down and get some serious writing done.
Allmusic: "pumped up and energetic, sometimes outdoing the studio performances of the material"
These are my personal top 50 albums released in 1979. The following criteria was used on a very slippery sliding scale:
- How often I enjoyed the album at the time of release
- How often I've enjoyed the album over the past 30+ years
- Overall quality of the album
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