When we asked American Way staffers to narrow their music collections to just one CD, we ended up with an amazing multidiscipline collection of 35. See if your favorite made our list. Think we missed one? Tell us! Send your pick to james.mayfield@aa.com and we’ll run a list of responses in a future issue.
B-52’s, Cosmic Thing
The Beach Boys, Pet Sounds
The Beatles, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
Andrea Bocelli, Verdi
Eric Clapton, Unplugged
Depeche Mode: 101
Dido, No Angel
Dire Straits, Brothers In Arms
Dixie Chicks, Fly
The Doors, The Doors
Eagles, Eagles Live
Enya, Shepherd Moons
Ella Fitzgerald, Pure Ella
Fleetwood Mac, Fleetwood Mac
Marvin Gaye, Greatest Hits
Al Green, Greatest Hits
Elton John, Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy
B.B. King, Greatest Hits
Lenny Kravitz, Greatest Hits
Mambo Kings, soundtrack
Bob Marley & the Wailers, Legends Collection
Dave Matthews Band, Crash
Maxwell, Maxwell’s Urban Hang Suite
John Mellencamp, The Best That I Could Do: 1976-1988
Willie Nelson, The Very Best of Willie
Out of Africa, soundtrack
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Greatest Hits
R.E.M., Automatic for the People
The Rolling Stones, Hot Rocks, 1964-1971
Sade, Lovers Rock
Santana, Supernatural
Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet band, Live Bullet
Rod Stewart, Greatest Hits
Sting, Ten Summoner’s Tales
U2, The Joshua Tree
Here's a complete look. Agree or disagree, smile or grimace, it's all over the dial.
Mark Kienzle
Sinatra, The Capitol Collection
Beatles, White Album
Allman Brothers, Live at Fillmore East
Doobie Brothers, Farewell Tour
Anna Fialho
U2, Joshua Tree
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Greatest Hits
Dave Matthews Band, Crash
Paul Simon, Graceland
Rod Stewart, G. Hits
Top Gun, soundtrack
Elton John, G. Hits
Grease soundtrack
Jennifer Pascal
James Taylor, G. Hits
Earth Wind and Fire, G. Hits
Santana, Supernatural
Frank Sinatra, Come Fly With Me
Nancy Forde
Tom Petty, G. Hits
Randy Travis, G. Hits
U2, All That You Can’t Leave Behind
Tina Turner, What’s Love Got To Do With It
Kim Creaven
Lenny Kravitz, G. Hits
Stevie Nicks, Trouble In Shangra-La
Dido, No Angel
Lisa May-Turner
Michael Jackson, Off The Wall
Andrea Bocelli, Verdi
Sting/Police, any album
Sarah McLachlan
Kevin Cramer
Sublime
Red Hot Chili Peppers
James Mayfield
R.E.M., Reckoning
Counting Crows, August and Everything After
The Verve, Urban Hymns
DMB, Crash
Korena Bolding
U2, The Best Of 1980-1990
Moby, Play
George Winston, December
Bob Marley and the Wailers, Legend
Janie Loveless
Tony O’Connor, Wilderness
The Elegance of Pachelbel
Hillary Glatkauskas
Lloyd Cole & the Commotions, Rattlesnakes
Lloyd Cole, again
U2, Joshua Tree
John Mellencamp, The Best That I Could Do
Tracy Staton
O Brother, Where Art Thou?, soundtrack
Lyle Lovett, Road To Ensenada
Willie Nelson, The Very Best Of Willie
Richelle Thomson
Maxwell, Maxwell’s Urban Hang Suite
Fleetwood Mac, Fleetwood Mac
Madonna, The Immaculate Collection
Karen Hebble
RHCP, Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magik
Al Green, Greatest Hits
Mother’s Finest, Another Mother Further
10,000 Maniacs, MTV Unplugged
Tim Butler
Depeche Mode, 101
Days of the New, Days of the New
U2, Live "Under A Blood Red Sky"
Incubus, Make Yourself
Jill Becker
Tapeheads, soundtrack
Out of Africa, soundtrack
Edith Piaf, La Vie en Rose
ESPN Presents: Jock Jams Volume 1
Gilberto Mejia
Sade, Lovers Rock
In The Mood For Love soundtrack
Marta Priestly
The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Are You Experienced?
Marvin Gaye, Greatest Hits
Bing Crosby, White Christmas
Dixie Chicks, Fly
Leslie Machin
U2, Achtung Baby
The B-52’s, Cosmic Thing
Rick Morrison
Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band, ‘Live’ Bullet
B.B. King, Greatest Hits
Terrie Lonergan
Eagles, Eagles Live
Dixie Chicks, Wide Open Spaces
Sharon McGrath
Rolling Stones, Hot Rocks
Eric Clapton, Unplugged
Jimi Hendrix, The Ultimate Experience
Bob Marley and The Wailers, Legend
Elaine Srnka
Dwight Yoakam, Just Lookin’ For A Hit
DMB, Crash
Jerry Jeff Walker, Ridin’ High
Lyle Lovett, Step inside this House
Janet
Todd Snider, Happy to Be Here
Enya, Shepherd Moons
Fleetwood Mac, Rumors
Strunz & Farah, Heat of the Sun
Betsy Semple
Duran Duran, Rio
BT, Ima
Nine Inch Nails, Pretty Hate Machine
Lori Stacy
R.E.M., Automatic For The People
Mambo Kings soundtrack
Terri Meleck
The Doors, The Doors
Beach Boys, Best of the Beach Boys
Millie Rodriguez
George Michael, Best Of
Michael Jackson, Thriller
Michael Lindsay
any George Winston
U2, Live "Under A Blood Red Sky"
Marianne Dunn
Traveling Wilburys
John Denver’s Greatest Hits
Knowing that regular columnist Jim Shahin has more than a thing for music, we asked him for a couple of his top picks to add to the staff’s special anniversary list of 35 must-have CDs. In spectacular Shahin style, his list deserves not to be whittled.
Nirvana’s Nevermind. Absolutely essential for anyone who cares at all about rock-and-roll. Miles Davis' Kind of Blue, a shimmeringly beautiful record and incredibly influential. A Love Supreme by John Coltrane, an overpowering musical experience. The Stones' Big Hits (High Tide and Green Grass), with its phenomenal array of hits. Of course, Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde, one of the most important records of all time. Robert Johnson’s King of the Delta Blues Singers could be considered a genetic code for American popular music. You see the problem.
Duke Ellington left such an amazing catalog of unbelievable work that it is simply impossible to choose one of his records over another, so you either choose all or none. Or Stevie Wonder’s stuff, from the late 1960s through the mid-1970s, a giant influence on contemporary music. And the ones that you dearly love — King Sunny Ade’s Juju Music and James Brown’s Live at the Apollo.
So after all the agonizing, what does a person do? He chooses that which he finds himself playing most often around his house, or, note for note, gives him the greatest pleasure, even if that pleasure is ill-defined. For me, although they may not be the most influential or the most important, those two albums, on this day anyway, are Straight, No Chaser by Thelonious Monk and Live at Fillmore East by The Allman Brothers Band.
— JIM SHAHIN