Chris Spedding – Ready Spedding Go (1984):  Chris Spedding is one of the premier session guitarists in England, and his work has appeared on dozens if not hundreds of records over the years.  My own introduction to Chris Spedding was a punk-influenced album called Hurt (1977) that my sister Julie gave me one Christmas; and I loved it so much that I bought another four or so Chris Spedding albums.  Ready Spedding Go is a retrospective album giving selected songs from his recording career; the album name is adapted from that of the music program Ready Steady Go!

The Specials – The Specials (1979):  In the U.S. during the mid to late 1970’s, there was “punk” and “new wave” and the lesser-known “power pop”; and that’s about it.  And even those categories were often lumped together.  The situation in England was more complicated.  One of the leading lights of British punk/new wave music is Elvis Costello – he was the album producer on The Specials – but in the U.K., he is slotted in as “pub rock”.

Joe South – Games People Play (1969):  Singer/songwriter Joe South (who changed his name slightly from Joe Souter) has been a long-time favorite of mine.  He is a native of Atlanta and started in country music, later becoming a session player in Muscle Shoals and in Nashville, where he performed on Bob Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde album and Simon and Garfunkel’s second album Sounds of Silence (though not the title track “The Sounds of Silence”), as well as recordings by Marty Robbins, Eddy Arnold, Aretha Franklin, and Wilson Pickett.

South Pacific (Original Movie Soundtrack) (1958):  South Pacific was a favorite album of my parents; while growing up, I used to hear it being played all the time on my father’s “hi-fi” set that pre-dated the stereo era.  The musical South Pacific, starring Ezio Pinza and Mary Martin, came to Broadway in 1949 – just four years after the end of World War II, the setting of the musical – and is one of the jewels of the collaboration of Broadway titans Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein II.

Patti Smith – Horses (1975):  Looking back, most people cite the release in April 1976 of Ramones by the band Ramones as the birth of punk rock.  The debut album Horses by Patti Smith – unquestionably the most enduring figure in punk rock – complicates this pronouncement, since the album was released several months earlier, in November 1975.  The popular perception of punk rock as an unvarying anarchic barrage is undercut by how different Horses is from Ramones, yet both albums are undeniable punk-rock milestones.

Smash – Smash (1979):  Also known as Hot-Ice, Smash grew out of a band from Ohio called White Heat that was a backing band for Barry White; they released the album White Heat in 1975.  Smash could be considered a predecessor band to both DeBarge and Switch.  A German record producer named Bernd Lichters came to Grand Rapids, MI in late 1976 and oversaw the creation of an album for White Heat, renamed Hot-Ice, called Pall Mall Groove that was first released in Germany in 1977.

Sir Douglas Quintet – The Best of Sir Douglas Quintet (1980):  Largely based upon my recent acquisition of their terrific album Mendocino (1969), Sir Douglas Quintet has now become my favorite American rock band of the 1960’s.  Sure, there are other top rock bands that were active in the U.S. during the 1960’s – two obvious examples are the Beach Boys and the Byrds – but Sir Douglas Quintet sounds just as fresh and exciting to me today!  At the time of the British Invasion that began in late 1963, it wasn’t so hip to be American.

The Singing Nun – Soeur Sourire (1963):  “Dominique” by “the Singing Nun” was perhaps the most surprising hit song of the 1960’s.

Nancy Sinatra – Sugar (1967):  Frank Sinatra had three children, and two of them became successful musicians:  Frank Sinatra, Jr. and

Frank Sinatra – Strangers in the Night (1966):  Frank Sinatra was the most popular vocalist in the world for decades and is probably the most important person of the 20th Century in all of music.