50p. What would is cost now? £100 plus I imagine.
I never saw them in any shape or form but I admire the band a lot. Even with Collins singing they recorded some great albums. Thankfully he tended to keep the ‘pop side’ of his repertoire separate for his increasingly schmatlzy solo records.
I had a look through the magic list,didn’t see any Rory Gallagher or PIL.Perhaps they will come later ???
Neil Young is v.good isn’t he? Great singer ,terrible voice.
No Rory Gallagher mate. Like his music and I had a look at his albums but I couldn’t really single one out as being a classic. I’ve probably missed the point with him, I dunno.
PIL have got a couple later on, plus the obvious Rotten-fronted classic by a different group 
Neil Young is one of the best singer-songwriters ever. I agree about his “singing”. I prefer to call him a ‘vocalist’. Bit like Jagger or Springsteen is 
I’ve allowed myself an hour today, so on we go…
No.544: “Mystery Girl” by Roy Orbison (1989)
Following the great success of Jeff Lynne’s Traveling Wilburys project (which featured ‘The Big “O”’ along with fellow legends Tom Petty, Bob Dylan and George Harrison), Lynne produced this splendid comeback album for Orbison himself. Featuring the hits ‘You Got It’ and the title track, it also contained this rather beautiful song ‘A Love So Beautiful’:
No.543: “The Specials” by The Specials (1979)
Founded by Jerry Dammers on the infamous 2-Tone label (home also to Madness, The Selecter and others), The Specials were probably the most versatile of those bands. Personality-free lead singer Terry Hall nevertheless had a morose-sounding but instantly recognisable vocal delivery that sealed the sound of this fine ska-based group of musicians.
This debut featured an early but overlong version of their soon-to-be No.1 ‘Too Much Too Young’, plus this great song, featuring trumpet player Rico:
No.542: “Voulez Vous” by Abba (1979)
That height of disco title track, ‘Angel Eyes’, ‘Chiquitita’, ‘I Have A Dream’. The list of pop standards goes on with this mega selling release from the Swedish pop world beaters. The track I select today though is this single:
No.541: “American II: Unchained” by Johnny Cash (1996)
For this second album in Johnny Cash’s American series of comeback albums, the great singer revisited some of his own classic tracks, plus a few country music standards. For something different, I’ve found this ‘making of’ documentary about the album:
No.540: “Live/Dead - In The Studio” by The Grateful Dead (1970)
Following the success of two prior albums released in 1970 (Workingman’s Dead, American Beauty), this most famous of all stoner hippy bands put out a double live album that was recorded live in the studio, i.e. a set of superior session takes. It is notable for featuring what would soon become The Dead’s most popular track, Dark Star. Here’s all 23 minutes of it - and that’s a short version!
No.539: “Surf’s Up” by The Beach Boys (1971)
With Brian Wilson out of proceedings, the early 70’s were not all lost for this most famous of Californian bands. Bruce Johnston took over lead vocals on this superb album full of reflective and tender melodic beauty. All that was missing was a decent album cover. Whatever possess the band to put this album out in such a bleak, unforgiving sleeve was anyone’s guess. Luckily it sold very well due to the quality of the songs contained inside.
Here are two songs. One is a demo recorded by Brian Wilson of the title track originally for the abandoned ‘Smile’ album, plus the delectable ‘Disney Girls’:
No.538: “Tons Of Sobs” by Free (1970)
With one of the great rock vocalists in Paul Rodgers and the legendary guitarist Paul Kossoff in tow, British blues-rock band Free were just teenagers when they emerged in 1968 with their debut. This follow-up saw them progress into one of the great rock bands of all-time almost overnight following the success of their massive hit ‘All Right Now’ and this parent album. Featuring classics such as The Hunter and The Stealer (featured here in a very high quality recording from Croydon), the band continued until 1973 when the remnants of the band became Bad Company.
Don’t you dare tease us like that. :-p
I wasn’t here much yesterday so a bit of catching up to do. Glad to see Tom Petty. I didn’t know much about him until a friend gave me a cassette (yes a cassette) with 'Learning to fly’ and ‘Rebel without a clue’ etc and I played it continuously in the car for about two months.
Sorry, just correcting my post. 
No.537: “North And South” by Gerry Rafferty (1988)
The Glaswegian singer-songwriter formerly of the Humblebums, Stealer’s Wheel and author of one of the best records ever made in ‘Baker Street’, Rafferty released this late 80’s album to critical acclaim although it tended to get lost in the Stock Aitken Waterman fever of that dislocated era in music.
It’s a brilliantly-written album full of personal viewpoints of his homeland, including this superb single ‘Shipyard Town’. Great video this:
Haha! Honestly mate, I don’t know what happened there. I can only summise that it has something to do with that Bee Gees ‘Odessa’ album which I put too low down early on and tried to find a place for it higher up and still to come. In doing so, I think I’ve probably missed out a classic album, to my horror!
Tom Petty was superb. He didn’t take off too massively in the UK, but there’s a very long list of excellent albums out there to catch up on, including a couple of career box sets - they are pretty pricey though!
Last one for today, and it’s one we spoke about earlier on…
No.536: “Fly Like An Eagle” by The Steve Miller Band (1976)
Career highlight from the American blues-rock guitarist. This free ‘n’ easy album contains these two classic singles:
Tomorrow may not be possible to post but on Friday we’ll catch up a bit.
Thanks for tuning in
No.539: “Surf’s Up” by The Beach Boys (1971)
There must be a typing error,it should be 39,shouldn’t it ? 
another from the record.
Til I die.
1950’s - 2 albums
1960’s - 140
1970’s - 287
1980’s - 259
1990’s - 131
2000’s - 180
That confirms my long held belief that the 70’s were the best time for LP’s.
Surf’s Up No.39? I see what you mean bud. There are just so many classic albums out there. And it’s a generational thing tbh - the late 70’s was my era so there’s bound to be more from say 1978-1984 in here than from someone 10-15 years younger, who would probably be more like Nom on here into the late 60s and 70s.
Anyway, we’re nearly half way through the list already so stand by for some of the true classics from next week onwards. I’m just as excited as you are bud - I try not to see what’s coming next until I post the following album!
I loved Free,very popular up here in Newcastle area, but i never got to see them, just could not connect.
I also liked Abba, my wifes faves, so i used to buy their albums when they came out but secretly enjoyed listening to them myself. Knackered my Prog Rock street cred but crafted pop.
Still enjoying this Floydy, im intrigued to see what will top the list.
Definitely with you about Abba. People dismiss them as a simple pop group but their production was second to none. Tracks like ‘The Winner Takes It All’ and ‘Thank You For The Music’ were exceptionally well made songs.
Don’t worry about the street creed Nom, it’s good to have diverse tastes.
Top of the tree? You’ll have to wait and see 
By the way, I was saying yesterday that I only had 999 albums in the list.
I’ve since discovered after trawling through the lot that it was all to do with that Bee Gees fvck up with Odessa. I had moved it up higher and swapped a couple of albums around without putting one of them back in the list. From an earlier saved draught I have found the missing album, which would have been a calamity because it’s a stunner.
Makes no difference to you folks as what you don’t know about you wouldn’t have missed but I’d have been positively suicidal at the thought!