15. 10cc, Bloody Tourists 10cc wasn’t a band that was going to let a little thing like a break-up slow them down. The quartet that started in the late nineteen-sixties and began formally using the name 10cc in 1972 reached … Continue reading College Countdown, The First CMJ Album Chart, 15
16. Styx, Pieces of Eight It’s the nineteen-seventies, and Styx’s Pieces of Eight is a concept album, so it’s absolutely got to have some weighty philosophical concerns pressed into its grooves. In this instance, the album was preoccupied by the … Continue reading College Countdown, The First CMJ Album Chart, 16
17. David Bowie, Stage Though it is undoubtedly neck and neck with the concept album, there may be no more characteristic remnant of nineteen-seventies rock than the double-live record. In some wise circles, it is referred to as the Foghat … Continue reading College Countdown, The First CMJ Album Chart, 17
18. Weather Report, Mr. Gone In 1978, the seminal jazz fusion act Weather Report was charged will following up their biggest hit to date, the previous year’s Heavy Weather. This being jazz fusion, blockbuster status was still fairly modest: topping … Continue reading College Countdown, The First CMJ Album Chart, 18
19. The Rolling Stones, Some Girls Some Girls is the best-selling Rolling Stones album in the United States, by a healthy margin. The 1978 release has been certified platinum six times over by the RIAA, with only 1981’s Tattoo You … Continue reading College Countdown, The First CMJ Album Chart, 19
20. Joe Cocker, Luxury You Can Afford In the late nineteen-seventies, Joe Cocker was going through one of those rocky stretches that were the accepted territory of raspy-voiced rock ‘n’ roll singers. He spent a decent portion of the decade bouncing around different managers and cultivating a reputation as a self-destructive alcoholic with an occasional penchant for vomiting mid-set onstage. In 1978, he was further trying to rebound by some significant commercial disappointment, and he had to prove himself to a new label. Luxury You Can Afford was his first for Asylum Records, after a long stretch with A&M Records. … Continue reading College Countdown, The First CMJ Album Chart, 20
21. Happy the Man, Crafty Hands Prog rock was still a very viable music genre in 1978, even if it was fighting a losing battle against disco for privilege of primacy among pop diversions into excess. (One year later, disco … Continue reading College Countdown, The First CMJ Album Chart, 21
22. Billy Joel, 52nd Street 52nd Street was undoubtedly the most highly anticipated album in the career of the man born William Martin Joel. After years of struggle, both with bands that were mismatched with his skill set (sometimes severely … Continue reading College Countdown, The First CMJ Album Chart, 22
23. Greg Kihn, Next of Kihn Perhaps the only thing that needs to be known about Next of Kihn, the third album by Baltimore-born Greg Kihn with the band that bore his name, is that it inaugurated the practice of … Continue reading College Countdown, The First CMJ Album Chart, 23
24. Robin Trower, Caravan to Midnight I’m just enough of a classic rock philistine that I tend to think of Procol Harum as the beginning, middle, and end of the success its musicians had, and “A Whiter Shade of Pale” … Continue reading College Countdown, The First CMJ Album Chart, 24
Coffee for Two 