EVERY US/UK #1 album Discussion 1970-Present

I listened to the BS&T version of Sympathy, definitely quite strange

 

Finally an album some were really anticipating on this thread earlier.



Creedence Clearwater Revival - Cosmo's Factory
US: Aug 22-Oct 17, 1970
UK: Sept 12 1970

Ramble Tamble
Before You Accuse Me
Travelin' Band
Ooby Dooby
Lookin' Out My Back Door
Run Through the Jungle
Up Around the Bend
My Baby Left Me
Who'll Stop the Rain
I Heard It Through the Grapevine
Long As I Can See the Light

 

Certainly a highlight in CCR's discography. So many classics it almost plays like a greatest hits album

 

BST 3 - meh

 

A fine track list, apart from Travelin' Band ...

 

This has 1 gobsmackingly great song, Maybe I'm Amazed. And it has a handful of good songs -- Junk, Man We Was Lonely, Every Night, Teddy Boy. The rest, in what would turn out to be a preview of McCartney's solo career, is wildly inconsistent and often feels half-finished. The casual, informal style remains charming as hell, but Paul's always been a genius in need of an editor.

 

A good album but just so-so by Beatles standards. Spector ruined The Long and Winding Road and damaged the title track and Across the Universe. The single version of the title tune, released earlier in the year without the Spector Wall of Sludge, remains the definitive version of that song IMHO, with the "Let It Be Naked" version next.

 

I like just about everything CCR issued (Mardi Gras is the lone exception) and Cosmo's Factory is my favorite. It does almost play out like a Greatest Hits album as just about every track is radio friendly. John Fogerty wrote so many classic tunes in such a short stretch of time, it was astounding. They released FIVE albums over a three-year span. Granted, they liked to do long cover jams of old blues standards, but in my opinion, that works just fine next to the blues-based Southern swamp that Fogerty was writing.

 

Definitely. It's amazing how much they literally did in such a small period of time. Take the two Mardi Gras tracks out of the equation and literally the other 18 tracks off "Chronicle" all were released in about the span of 24 months. That's literally unthinkable today especially when most artists will take two years between albums to begin with and yet CCR encapsulated a Hall Of Fame career and more classics than you can shake a stick at in that short time.

 

Blood Sweat & Tears have passed me by. Never knowingly heard a note by them.

The same is almost true for Creedence. I know the odd song but then it's mostly other people's versions. For example, the only original song from Cosmo's Factory I know is Up Around The Bend but I've only heard the Hanoi Rocks cover.

 

Judging from chart stats, BS&T pretty much were a US-only phenomenon and never made a splash there, although their popularity began to freefall after the third album. Creedence were a bit bigger there, Cosmo's Factory did top the chart there of course, but they didn't quite score as many hits, even though "Bad Moon Rising" did go to #1 there and they famously never had a #1 single in the states, being locked out at #2 five times

 

Unlike the #1 songs that often lean toward novelty songs and flashes in the pan, you could not have gone wrong just buying every #1 album so far! What an amazing time for music. Kicking off with Abbey Road, Zeppelin II, S and G's Bridge, CSNY Deja Vu, Let It Be, McCartney's first album, CCR -Cosmo's Factory all wonderful classic albums that deserve to be heard! Great idea for a thread, though over time this will become more of a train wreck as the public is often fickle and kind of stupid with their record buying habits, but we'll see.

 

That sounds about right.

Bad Moon & Proud Mary are the songs with occasional radio play over here. Beloved of covers bands too.

 

The Moody Blues - A Question Of Balance
UK: Aug 22-Sept 5 1970

Question
How Is It (We Are Here)
And the Tide Rushes In
Don't You Feel Small
Tortoise and the Hare
It's Up to You
Minstrel's Song
Dawning Is the Day
Melancholy Man
The Balance

 

Need to check the whole album out, as I will shortly. I have enjoyed the albums I've listened to (Days Of Future Passed and In Search Of The Lost Chord) and Question is a killer single.

 

Of the "core 7" Moody Blues albums, A Question of Balance is my least favorite, but I still like it a lot. Starting off the album with the very strong Question is a great idea, but the rest of the album is a bit of a let down, there's nothing else here quite that brilliant. It has the best cover art though.

Here's an interesting cover of Question by Nada Surf:

 

That's the single version of Question, which in my opinion is far superior to the overly bombastic version stuck at the beginning of A Question of Balance. I often don't mind bombast but it didn't work in this case, mainly because (i) it obliterated that superb strumming at the outset, and (ii) also obliterated the ringing 12-string in the slow section.

 

Question Of Balance - The only Moody Blues song I ever liked was their version of Go Now. By the late '60s they morphed from pop to semi-prog, and I felt a distinct antipathy toward them.

 

Love A Question of Balance. Probably my favourite from the classic seven. Certainly the one that I play the most. The songwriting is first class, I reckon.

Wasn't aware of a single edit for Question. Despite the fact it was a huge hit, I've never heard it on the radio. Keen to hear it!

 

The Rolling Stones - Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out!
UK: Sept 19-26 1970

Jumpin' Jack Flash
Carol
Stray Cat Blues
Love in Vain
Midnight Rambler
Sympathy for the Devil
Live with Me
Little Queenie
Honky Tonk Women
Street Fighting Man

 

Definitely live Stones at their prime. Sadly their 1969 US tour is best remembered for a tragedy, but this is a band at their zenith and releasing a live album was a masterstroke, especially given they mostly took 1970 off so their contract with Klein would lapse.

 

Ya Yas - I've always found it underwhelming; part strutting, part ennui.

 

Don't know much by the Stones beyond a few hits and Steel Wheels. Throw in the fact I'm not a huge fan of live records and I guess this one won't be for me.

Is Little Queenie the Chuck Berry song? If so, and people like it, I'd like to point them in the direction of REO Speedwagon's second album, REO/TWO, where REO do a storming version!

 

I just listened to this CD today. It's classic Stones - the band that practices very hard to sound like they never rehearse.

 

Black Sabbath - Paranoid
UK: Oct 10 1970

War Pigs
Paranoid
Planet Caravan
Iron Man
Electric Funeral
Hand of Doom
Rat Salad
Fairies Wear Boots