Deep Purple – Shades of Deep Purple (1968):  This is the debut album of one of Britain’s top hard rock/heavy metal bands, Deep Purple; I have always thought that first albums are often the best or among the best even of long-lived bands.  Shades of Deep Purple includes the hit song “Hush” (written by American country-pop musician Joe South and previously recorded by Billy Joe Royal, who had an even bigger hit with another of his compositions, “Down in the Boondocks”), and one of numerous covers of “Hey Joe” that were released in this time period.  While there has been some question about the authorship of “Hey Joe” over the years – for one thing, there is a highly similar country-music song also called “Hey Joe” – certainly no one in this country thought that Deep Purple had written the song, as the early pressings of this album proclaimed (including my copy).  However, Deep Purple had penned fine introductions to “Hey Joe” and “I’m So Glad” (memorably recorded by Cream in 1966), as well as the album as a whole, “And the Address”.  An audacious tour de force, handling rock singles and instrumental passages with equal aplomb.