Amazing first solo albums.

Not sure how I forgot One Year by Colin Blunstone... A real beaut.

 

Amazing's a pretty strong word...

 

Donald Fagen - The Nightfly

 

Released by Sony in 1992, the self-titled album by Paul Collins was his first solo album after his bands The Beat and The Nerves. It's sound is more Americana-meets-power-pop with a similar sound to that of Chris Isaak; Paul's backing band on this album included the rhythm section from Chris Isaak's band Silvertone with guitar work from Santana's Chris Solberg, Jeff Trott from the Sheryl Crow band, Chuck Prophet and Dave Immergluck from Camper Van Beethoven/Counting Crows. This album was produced by Norman Kerner and Bill Butler.

 

Sally Oldfield-Water Bearer
Robert Fripp-Exposure
Peter Hammill-Fool's Mate
Robert Wyatt-Rock Bottom
Billy Cobham-Spectrum

 

PJ Harvey - Dry
Nick Drake - Five Leaves Left
DJ Shadow - Endtroducing.....
Bic Runga - Drive
Janis Joplin - I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama!
David Crosby - If I could Only Remember My Name
Patti Smith - Horses
Stevie Nicks - Bella Donna
Cyndi Lauper - She's So Unusual
Kathleen Edwards - Failer
Laura Nyro - More Than a New Discovery
Sandy Denny - The North Star Grassman and the Ravens
Tracy Chapman - Tracy Chapman
Shea Seger - The May Street Project

 

Marshall Crenshaw s/t
Amy Rigby: "Diary of a Mod Housewife"
Nick Drake: "Five Leaves Left"
Todd Rundgren: "Runt"
Steve Earle: "Guitar Town"

Solo artists anyway. Not sure if this meets the OP's criteria, but I imagine they all were in bands at some point before releasing debut LPs under their own names -- except Drake.

 

Yes lol

 

Before Rock Bottom, there was The End of an Ear.

Most of my favs have been mentioned already, except Alex Chilton's Like Flies on Sherbert.

May I add, just for the fun of it:
Jonathan Richman - s/t (technically the first album not credited to Modern Lovers)
Tim Blake - Crystal Machine
Daevid Allen - Bananamoon (again, technically credited as a solo album but many Gong members are on here)
Michael Rother - Flammende Herzen
Rod Stewart - An Old Raincoat Will Never Let You Down
Ron Wood - I Got my Own Album to Make
Dr Dre - The Chronic
Ice Cube - AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted
Ol Dirty Bastard - Return to the 36 Chambers
Jerry Harrison - The Red and the Black
Diana Ross - s/t
Beyoncé - Dangerously in Love
Michael Jackson - Ben (I like it!)
Manuel Göttsching - E2E4 (another technicality, as previous albums credited as Ash Ra were essentially solo Manuel)
Rita Lee - Build Up
Mike Heron - Smiling Men with Bad Reputation
Dion - Runaround Sue

 

Definitely

 

In no particular order:

1. If I could Only Remember My Name / David Crosby
2. Gene Clark with the Gosdin Brothers / Gene Clark
3. Heartbreaker / Ryan Adams
4. Bella Donna / Stevie Nicks
5. Stephen Stills / Stephen Stills

 

David Sylvian, Brilliant Trees

 

I am sure he intended that. My Chardonnay induced state read debut/solo.

 

Mick Fleetwood - The Visitor (recorded in Ghana)

 

1 Nick Drake "Five Leaves Left"

2 Fred Neil " Bleecker & McDougal"


3 Jesse Colin Young "Soul Of A City Boy"
Jesse Colin Young - Four in the Morning (1964) »

4 Skip Spence "OAR"

 

julian cope world shut your mouth
jj burnel euroman cometh
pete shelley homosapien
roger joseph manning jr

 

Funny thing is the Crickets are on this album too.

 

1. Start reading thread.
2. Get to end of page 6 without either of my immediate choices being mentioned.
3. Oh...there's Donald Fagen's The Nightfly...and there's David Sylvian's Brilliant Trees too on page 7.

OK, this one hasn't been mentioned. Still one of favourite albums of all time.



This one too is great - first solo after 30 years of The Watersons.

 

and if this is intended for solo album from a group.........

 

Yeah, cause it's his 3rd album.... duh!

 

1. George Michael - Faith (better I'd say than any Wham! album)
2. Ozzy Osbourne - Blizzard of Ozz (better than the previous 2 Black Sabbath albums)
3. Jerry Garcia - Garcia (contains songs that rightly became part of the Grateful Dead's repertoire)
4. Syd Barrett - The Madcap Laughs (a cult item, but I see it as essential to the Pink Floyd story)
5. Annie Lennox - Diva (better than the last 80's Eurythmics album; IMHO, of course!)

 

Plastic Ono Band