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
25. Jimmy Cliff, Give Thankx By the late nineteen-seventies, Jimmy Cliff was essentially persona non grata in his homeland. Born James Chambers in Jamaica, Cliff was one of the first artists to bring reggae music to a global audience, but the personal journey he took as he achieved fame alienated him from his countrymen, particularly when he converted to Islam in the early part of the decade. Rejecting Rastafarianism was seen by some as akin to rejected all of Jamaican culture, and he was often greeted with derision. To a degree, this may have freed Cliff up, as he followed … Continue reading College Countdown, The First CMJ Album Chart, 25
26. Bruce Springsteen, Darkness on the Edge of Town If there’s a single album that defines who Bruce Springsteen is, especially to his most devoted fans, it’s probably Darkness on the Edge of Town. This is partially due to … Continue reading College Countdown, The First CMJ Album Chart, 26
The above graphic stands as a nice transition from the previous College Countdown list to the one we’re about to embark upon. The 90FM’s Top 90 list just completed dated from 1996 (going nicely with the edition from 1989 that … Continue reading College Countdown, The First CMJ Album Chart, An Introduction
Coffee for Two 