Urban75 Album of the Year 1958

[Lurdan]

According to discogs it was released in both 58 and 59 but fair enough on the compilation issue. I guess the jazzers won this year by releasing proper albums. The dirty rotten swines.

Not the first time Discogs has two dates for the same release. Very occasionally this will be correct where stereo versions of LPs were issued after the mono release. Generally however it will be a crowd sourced error, or it will reflect the fact that it's not at clear when stuff was released. The bsnpubs Chess LP discography here says 58 and personally I'd accept that. I don't imagine they are infallible but they put the work in. I've seen both dates in various places for this Howlin' Wolf album however.

For smaller labels the notion of a 'release date' in the more modern sense (tied to widespread availability in stores on day of release, publicity campaigns and hopes of chart placings) had no meaning. Chess distributed through regional distributors (and locally Leonard Chess' station wagon). Adverts were mainly for singles because that was where the main money was. As that bsnpubs discography indicates the numbering doesn't help for Chess LPs since numbers seem to have been assigned to LPs in advance and later numbered LPs could come out before earlier numbers. There are no dates on the sleeves or labels. The only advert for this LP I could find in Billboard was an August 59 one for a dealer promotion on all their LPs. That just tells me it was released before then. For their Blues, RnB and Rock 'n' Roll artists albums were still something of a side line for their main business selling singles but we can see who the 'album artists' are. Chuck is already on his third album and the two covers illustrated are for the more teen friendly product. Note that for Howlin' Wolf they managed to get the title of their own LP wrong

I guess the jazzers won this year by releasing proper albums. The dirty rotten swines.

I already have a weird premonition what the number one album for 1959 might be In some ways it might make sense to have a separate Jazz poll next year.

 

[belboid]

I seem to recall the Lurdan test stated that the album was not to be a collection of previously released singles, which would of excluded 2 of my 3.

1. Howlin' Wolf - Moanin' in the Moonlight
2. Bo Diddley - Bo Diddley
3. Gene Vincent - Gene Vincent Rocks! and the Blue Caps Roll

I think it's a fair enough rule though!

The what test?

‘No compilations’ has been a Golden Rule of the AotY lists since time immemorial. Trust me, it shall be enforced going forward.

 

[sunnysidedown]

The what test?

‘No compilations’ has been a Golden Rule of the AotY lists since time immemorial. Trust me, it shall be enforced going forward.

the test was refering to that somewhat grey area where an album of a certain time was made up mainly with previously released singles. I seem to recall this being discussed last time. So not strictly a compilation as we would use that term now.

 

[Lurdan]

I seem to recall the Lurdan test stated that the album was not to be a collection of previously released singles, which would of excluded 2 of my 3.

1. Howlin' Wolf - Moanin' in the Moonlight
2. Bo Diddley - Bo Diddley
3. Gene Vincent - Gene Vincent Rocks! and the Blue Caps Roll

I think it's a fair enough rule though!

The what test?

‘No compilations’ has been a Golden Rule of the AotY lists since time immemorial. Trust me, it shall be enforced going forward.

Well indeed. There is no sanity clause 'Lurdan test'.

FWIW I think it makes perfect sense to exclude Now That's What I Call Music 666, and the Beatles' Red and Blue albums and even my beloved Motown Chartbusters Volume 3. The 'problem' only arises for certain genres (pop in the very broadest sense as singles culture) and for the period before the development of 'album culture' which IMO means before the late 60s. (Yes there were capital A albums before Sergeant Pepper's but I can't offhand think of an album as a cultural 'Event' in the same way before it, and it's that which drove the assumptions which underlay music culture and much music creation from the 1970s onwards, and which still underly the very notion of 'albums of the year'. Even as 'album culture' in that sense has largely vanished along with monolithic notions of music culture).

Before the mid sixties the no compilations rule has unintended consequences.

In deciding which 50s albums I think I could justify under Belboid's wise and benevolent dictatorship I look to see whether the album contains exclusive content and how much of it, and whether the stuff released as singles is 'current' releases (within roughly the same year) as opposed to older stuff. If current and exclusive material is 50% or so of the content I figure it's reasonable to treat it as an album rather than a compilation. (Needless to say I then weasel and fudge when it comes to my favourite artists ). But it's only my opinion.

It is worth checking these things. For example a lot of the stuff on Little Richards' third album was only released as singles after the album had come out. Doesn't detract from the fact that it's an album packaged by Specialty after he'd finished recording for them but it is an album IMO. Just like Miles Davis' Relaxin' packaged and released by Prestige a couple of years or so after the sessions at which he recorded the stuff included on it.

Gene Vincent Rocks! and the Blue Caps Roll is fine. Mostly album exclusive content - indeed because he was on Capitol he got the 'luxury' of four days in the studio to record stuff specifically for an album. Howlin' Wolf by contrast is all old stuff. But as we now know Yowlin' Wolf may be a different matter...

 

[Dr. Furface]

I'm surprised that no one else seems to have gone for Relaxin' with the Miles Davis Quartet

Well I did. Seems like nobody digs Bill Evans these days, but I do.

milestones
everybody digs bill evans
miles - porgy and bess
billie holiday - lady in satin
miles - ascenseur pour l'echefaud
frank sinatra sings for only the lonely
relaxin' with the miles davis quintet
soultrane
ornette coleman - something else!!!

Lack of time meant I only chucked in the ones I know, look forward to listening to some of the suggestions.

 

[belboid]

miles - porgy and bess

March '59

 

[Dr. Furface]

March '59

According to Discogs it was released in '58 in the US Miles Davis - Porgy And Bess - but if it's the UK release date that you're going by then fair enough, maybe it was '59.

 

[nogojones]

Well I did. Seems like nobody digs Bill Evans these days,.

I dig Bill Evans, but will dig him more when we do 1959

Bill Evans Trio* - Everybody Digs Bill Evans

 

[Dr. Furface]

I dig Bill Evans, but will dig him more when we do 1959

Bill Evans Trio* - Everybody Digs Bill Evans

Win some, lose some!

 

[nogojones]

Win some, lose some!

He was near the top of my list for 58 as well before I checked

 

[belboid]

According to Discogs it was released in '58 in the US Miles Davis - Porgy And Bess - but if it's the UK release date that you're going by then fair enough, maybe it was '59.

March 9 1959 according to MilesDavis.com, and I'd tend to trust them.

 

[nogojones]

March 9 1959 according to MilesDavis.com, and I'd tend to trust them.

I tend to trust discogs more than milesdavis.com

Discogs contibuters are a whole new level of petty, nerdy date freaks whilst MD is dead and can't update his website

 

[Dr. Furface]

March 9 1959 according to MilesDavis.com, and I'd tend to trust them.

Fair enough, that does seem to be the most agreed release date, although, as well as Discogs, this site Best Albums of 1958 also lists it as '58 - and this is the site I mainly use for doing these retrospectives. But I'm happy to accept '59 and vote for it next year.