OUTSTAGN's TOP 25 MOST INFLUENTIAL BLACK ALBUMS OF ALL TIME

HEY OUTSTAGRS!

BELOW IS OUR TOP 25 MOST INFLUENTIAL BLACK

ALBUMS OF ALL TIME .ON OUR COUNTDOWN WE HAVE

SEVERAL ARTISTS WHO HAVE MADE A DIFFERENCE

NOT ONLY IN BLACK MUSIC BUT MUSIC FOR THE

WORLD DEFINING THE TIMES AND MUSIC TRENDS

THAT MANY ARTISTS HAVE FOLLOWED, COVERED AND

SAMPLED....WE HAVE SEVERAL ARTISTS WHO HAVE

MORE THAN ONE ALBUM RANKED AND ONE ARTIST

WHO HAS A TOTAL OF THREE ALBUMS LISTED..

THE LIST CONTAINS ARTISTS FROM VARIOUS MUSIC

GENRES

FROM BLUES, JAZZ, RHYTHM, AND BLUES, SOUL,

HARD ROCK, FUNK, RAP AND HIP HOP...

CHECK OUT OUR LIST AND COMMENT BELOW OF OUR

CHOICES AS YOU CARVE THE TURKEY OR NIBBLE ON

LEFTOVERS....

WE WILL RETURN WITH A NEW STAGE BITZ DEC 5

#25 3=3 ISLEY BROTHERS (1973)

3 + 3 is the eleventh album released by The Isley Brothers for the Epic label under their T-Neck imprint in August 1973. Their first album for the label after several years in Buddah Records, it was also the first time the family group, which had consisted of founding members O'Kelly Isley, Jr., Rudolph Isley and Ronald Isley, included six members instead of the standard three. Following the recording and release of Brother, Brother, Brother the previous year, this was the first album to include younger brothers Ernie and Marvin and in-law Chris Jasper. The success of the album is contributed to their first Top 10 pop record since "It's Your Thing", with their own cover of the self-penned "Who's That Lady", now re-titled "That Lady, Pt. 1 & 2". Other hit singles included the top five R&B single, "What It Comes Down To", and their cover of Seals & Crofts' folk hit, "Summer Breeze", which was also a top ten R&B single. The album became their first platinum album.

Listen to "That Lady" go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zx5CQz1MjiI

#24 THE COMPLETE RECORDINGS ROBERT JOHNSON (1990)

The Complete Recordings is a compilation album by American blues musician Robert Johnson, released August 28, 1990 on Columbia Records. The album's recordings were recorded in two sessions in Dallas and San Antonio, Texas for the American Record Company (ARC) during 1936 and 1937. Most of the songs were first released on 78rpm records in 1937. The Complete Recordings contains every recording Johnson is known to have made, with the exception of an alternate take of "Travelling Riverside Blues".

The Complete Recordings has sold more than a million copies,^[1] and won a Grammy Award in 1991 for "Best Historical Album."^[2] In 1992, the Blues Foundation inducted the album into the Blues Hall of Fame.^[3] It also was included by the National Recording Preservation Board in the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry in 2003.^[4] The board selects recordings in an annual basis that are "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Listen to "Crossorads Blues"go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yd60nI4sa9A

#23 SIGN O THE TIMES PRINCE (1987)

Sign o' the Times, stylized as Sign "☮" the Times, is the ninth studio album by American recording artist Prince. It was released on March 31, 1987 by Paisley Park Records and Warner Bros. Records

The album yielded three top ten hits, the most from Prince since Purple Rain in 1984. Though its sales were modest, Sign o' the Times was almost universally applauded by critics and has been cited as his greatest work. The album's music draws on funk, soul, psychedelic pop, and rock music.^[5]^[6] Sign o' the Times features lyrical themes such as the depressing state of the world in the title track, gender identity/androgyny in "If I Was Your Girlfriend", party funk in "Housequake", sexual lust in "It", replacing a loved one in "I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man", and spiritual enlightenment in "The Cross". The album also had an accompanying concert film of the same name.

Listen to the title track go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcvneSvenyY

#22 STRAIGHT OUT OF COMPTON NWA (1988)

Straight Outta Compton is the debut studio album by American hip hop group N.W.A, released August 8, 1988 on group member Eazy-E's record label Ruthless Records. Its title refers to the group's native town, Compton, California. Production for the album was handled by Dr. Dre, with DJ Yellagiving co-production. The album has been viewed as the pioneering record of gangsta rap; with its ever-present profanity and violent lyrics, it helped to give birth to this then-new sub-genre of hip hop. It has been considered groundbreaking by music writers and has had an enormous impact on the evolution of West Coast hip hop.^[1]Straight Outta Compton redefined the direction of hip hop,^[2]^{[not in citation given]} which resulted in lyricism concerning the gangster lifestyle becoming the driving force in sales figures. Upon its release, the album was generally well received by most music critics. Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune gave Straight Outta Compton three and a half out of four stars and praised its production.^[11] "It's definitely the best rap record I've ever heard," remarked Sinéad O'Connor. "\

Listen to title track go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcvneSvenyY

#21 SKETCHES OF SPAIN MILES DAVIS (1960)

Sketches of Spain is an album by Miles Davis, recorded between November 1959 and March 1960 at the Columbia 30th Street Studio in New York City. An extended version of the second movement of Joaquin Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez is included, as well as a song called "Will o' the Wisp", from the ballet El amor brujo by Manuel de Falla. Sketches of Spain is an exemplary recording of Third Stream, a musical fusion of jazz,European classical, and world musics.Sketches of Spain is considered by fans and critics alike to be one of the most accessible albums of Davis's career. Less improvisational than much of his other work, some of Davis' contemporaries^[who?] suggested that Sketches of Spain was something other than jazz. Davis replied (according toRolling Stone magazine), "It's music, and I like it".^[11]

The Rolling Stone Album Guide calls it "a work of unparalleled grace and lyricism."^[10]

Evans and Davis won the 1961 Grammy Award for Best Original Jazz Composition for Sketches of Spain

Listen to "Will o the Wisp". Go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlQEh0sbGqA&list=PL8C24469A6627D54B

#20 THERES A RIOT GOIN ON SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE (1971)

There's a Riot Goin' On is the fifth studio album by American funk and soul band Sly and the Family Stone, released November 20, 1971 on Epic Records. Recording sessions for the album took place primarily throughout 1970 to 1971 at Record Plant Studios in Sausalito, California.^[2]

There's a Riot Goin' On embraces a darker, more foreboding funk sound, while also rejecting the band's successful melodic formula that was featured on their previous hit singles.^[2] The original title of the album was intended to be Africa Talks to You, but was retitled There's a Riot Goin' On in response to Marvin Gaye's landmark album What's Going On (1971), which was released five months prior to Riot.^[3]

There's a Riot Goin' On debuted at number-one on the Billboard Pop Albums and Soul Albums charts upon its release, while the album's lead single, "Family Affair" (1971), topped the Pop Singles chart.^[4]^[5] Goin' On was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America, for shipments of 500,000 copies in the US.^[6] It went on to ship 1 million copies, earning a platinum certification by the RIAA .^[6]

After an ambivalent reaction upon its release, the album's critical standing has improved significantly, leading to its praise as one of the greatest and most influential recordings of all time. There's a Riot Goin' On has also been ranked at or near the top of many publications' "best album" lists in disparate genresfair:

Listen to "Family Affair". Go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YST-JQ1bREA

#19 CONTROL JANET JACKSON (1986)

Control is the third studio album by American recording artist Janet Jackson, released on February 4, 1986 by A&M Records. Her collaborations with songwriters and record producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis resulted in an unconventional sound: a fusion of rhythm and blues, funk, disco, rapvocals, and synthesized percussion that established Jackson, Jam and Lewis as the leading innovators of contemporary R&B. It enabled Jackson to transition into the popular music market, becoming one of the defining albums of the 1980s and contemporary music.

Containing autobiographical themes, a majority of the album's lyrics came as the result of a series of changes in her life: a recent annulment of her marriage to R&B singer James DeBarge, severing her business affairs from her father and manager Joseph and the rest of the Jackson family, hiring A&M executive John McClain as her new management, and her subsequent introduction to Jam and Lewis. The album has been praised by critics as both an artistic feat and as a personal testament of self-actualization.

Control is widely regarded as the breakthrough album of Jackson's career. It became her first album to top the Billboard 200 and five of its commercial singles—"What Have You Done for Me Lately", "Nasty", "Control", "When I Think of You", and "Let's Wait Awhile"—peaked within the top five of theBillboard Hot 100. Music videos created to promote the singles showcased her dancing ability and became a catalyst for MTV's evolving demographics. The album went on to receive several accolades, including a nomination for the Grammy Award for Album of the Year and winningProducer of the Year, Non-Classical for Jam and Lewis in 1987. It is listed by the National Association of Recording Merchandisers and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as one of the 200 Definitive Albums of All Time.

Listen to title track. Go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRbQZPtPyE4

#18 FEAR OF A BLACK PLANET, PUBLIC ENEMY (1990)

Fear of a Black Planet is the third studio album by American hip hop group Public Enemy, released on April 10, 1990, by Def Jam Recordings andColumbia Records. It was produced by the group's production team The Bomb Squad, who sought to expand on the dense, sample-layered sound of Public Enemy's previous album, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (1988). Public Enemy pursued a different direction and aspired to create what lead MC Chuck D specified as "a deep, complex album".

The album features elaborate sound collages that incorporate varying rhythms, numerous samples, media sound bites, and eccentric music loops, and reflect the content's confrontational tone. Conceived during the golden age of hip hop, its assemblage of reconfigured and recontextualized aural sources preceded the sample clearance system that later emerged in the music industry. Fear of a Black Planet contains themes concerning organization and empowerment within the African-American community, while presenting criticism of social issues affecting African Americans at the time of the album's conception.

In its first week, the album sold one million copies in the United States, where it charted at number 10 on the Billboard Top Pop Albums. It was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. Fear of a Black Planet was praised by music critics for its sonic quality, societal themes, and insightful lyrics, and was named one of the best albums in 1990. It has since been recognized as one of hip hop's greatest and most important albums, as well as musically and culturally significant. In 2003, it was ranked number 300 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, and in 2005, the Library of Congress added it to the National Recording Registry.

Listen to "Welcome to the Terrordome" Go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePPMOiLbAKY

#17 HEADHUNTERS HERBIE HANCOCK(1973)

Head Hunters is the twelfth studio album by American jazz musician Herbie Hancock, released October 13, 1973, on Columbia Records in the United States. Recording sessions for the album took place during September 1973 at Wally Heider Studios and Different Fur Trading Co. in San Francisco, California. Head Hunters is a key release in Hancock's career and a defining moment in the genre of jazz funk. In 2007, the Library of Congress added it to theNational Recording Registry, which collects "culturally, historically or aesthetically important" sound recordings from the 20th century.At the time of the 1992 CD reissue it was the largest-selling jazz album of all time, and has been an inspiration not only for jazz musicians, but also to funk, soul music, jazz funk and hip hopartists.

The image on the album cover, designed by Victor Moscoso, is based on an African mask that is associated with the Baoulé tribe from Côte d'Ivoire. The family of such masks is known as Goli. Their presence is called upon in times of danger, during epidemics or at funeral ceremonies. The image is also based on tape head demagnetizers used on reel-to-reel audio tape recordingequipment at the time of this recording

Listen to "Watermelon Man" go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bjPlBC4h_8

#16 A LOVE SUPREME JOHN COLTRANE

A Love Supreme is a studio album recorded by John Coltrane's quartet in December 1964^[1] and released by Impulse! Records in February 1965. It is generally considered to be among Coltrane's greatest works, as it melded the hard bop sensibilities of his early career with the free jazz style he adopted later.

The quartet recorded the album in one session on December 9,1964 at the Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. Coltrane's home in Dix Hills, Long Island, has been suggested as the site of inspiration for A Love Supreme.A Love Supreme is often listed amongst the greatest jazz albums of all time.^[19]^[20]^[21]^[22]^[23] It was also quite popular for a jazz album, selling about 500,000 copies by 1970, a number far exceeding Coltrane's typical Impulse! sales of around 30,000.^[24] As further testimony to the recording's historic significance, the manuscript for the album is one of the National Museum of American History's "Treasures of American History," part of the collection of the Smithsonian Institution

Listen to "Acknowledgement" go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Pi5ZJZ07ME

#15 RUN DMC, RUN DMC (1984)

Run–D.M.C. is the debut album of American hip hop group Run–D.M.C.. Produced in 1984, it was considered groundbreaking for its time, presenting a harder, more aggressive form of hip hop. The album's sparse beats and aggressive rhymes were in sharp contrast with the light, funky sound that was popular in hip hop at the time. With the album, the group has been regarded by music writers as pioneering the movement of new school hip hop of the early-1980s.The album has been regarded by music writers as one of early hip hop's best albums and a landmark release of the new school hip hop movement in the 1980s.^[2]^[12]

According to journalist Peter Shapiro, the album's 1983 double-single release "It's like That"/"Sucker MCs" "completely changed hip-hop [...] rendering everything that preceded it distinctly old school with one fell swoop."^[12]^[13] Run–D.M.C. rapped over the most sparse of musical backing tracks in hip hop at the time. "Sucker MCs" features a loud drum machine and a few scratches, with rhymes that harangued weak rappers and contrasted them to the group's success.^[13] "It's like That" is an aggressively-delivered message rap whose social commentary has been defined variously as "objective fatalism",^[2] "frustrated and renunciatory",^[14] and just plain "reportage".^[4]

In 1998, the album was selected as one of Source's 100 Best Rap Albums.^[15]

Listen to "Its Like That" go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hN1SKVx31s

#14 THE GENIUS OF RAY CHARLES, RAY CHARLES (1959)

The Genius is a studio album by American recording artist Ray Charles, released in 1959 by Atlantic Records. The album eschewed the soul sound of his 1950s recordings, which fused jazz, gospel, and blues, for swinging pop with big band arrangements.^[1] It comprises a first half of big band songs and a second half of string-backed ballads.^[4]

The Genius of Ray Charles sold less than 500,000 copies and charted at number 17 on the Billboard 200.^[1] "Let the Good Times Roll" and "Don't Let the Sun Catch You Cryin'" were released as singles in 1959.^[5]In 2003, Rolling Stone ranked The Genius of Ray Charles number 263 on their list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.^[1] In a 2004 review for the magazine, Robert Christgau praised producersJerry Wexler and Nesuhi Ertegun for persuading "five different arrangers into the subtlest charts of Charles' career." Christgau asserted that "Charles tried many times, but except for Modern Sounds, he never again assembled such a consistent album in this mode."^[11]

In The Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004), critics J. D. Considine and Michaelangelo Matos said that it is "perhaps the most important of [Charles'] albums for Atlantic", because it "introduces the musical approach he would follow for much of the '70s." They argued that, instead of pursuing the contemporary sounds of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, or swing era big bands, Charles played a "curious hybrid of the brassy R&B of his pop-oriented recordings and the showy shmaltz favored by the era'smiddle-of-the-road acts."

Listen to "Let the Good Times Roll" go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQZNPIhl_Ew

#13 BITCHES BREW MILES DAVIS (1970)

Bitches Brew is a studio double album by jazz musician Miles Davis, released in April 1970 on Columbia Records. The album continued his experimentation with electric instruments previously featured on his critically acclaimed In a Silent Way album. With the use of these instruments, such as the electric piano and guitar, Davis rejected traditional jazz rhythms in favor of a looser, rock-influenced improvisational style.

Bitches Brew was Davis's first gold record,^[1] selling more than half a million copies.^[2] Upon release, it received a mixed response, due to the album's unconventional style and revolutionary sound. Later, Bitches Brew gained recognition as one of jazz's greatest albums and a progenitor of the jazz rock genre, as well as a major influence on rock and funk musicians.^[3] The album won a Grammy Award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album in 1971.^[4]

Bitches Brew was a turning point in modern jazz. Davis had already spearheaded two major jazz movements – cool and modal jazz – and was about to initiate another major change. Some critics at the time characterized this music as simply obscure and "outside", which recalls Duke Ellington's description of Davis as "the Picasso of jazz." Some jazz fans and musicians felt the album was crossing the limits, or was not jazz at all. One critic writes that "Davis drew a line in the sand that some jazz fans have never crossed, or even forgiven Davis for drawing."^[18]

Listen to the title track go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dc7qiosq4m4

#12 ARE YOU EXPERIENCED, JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE (1967)

Are You Experienced is the debut album by English-American rock band the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Released in 1967, it was the first LP for Track Records. The album highlighted Hendrix's R&B-based, psychedelic, distortion-and feedback-laden electric guitar playing and launched him as a major new international star.

Are You Experienced has remained a critical and commercial success since its release. The US version of the album contains some of Hendrix's best known songs, including "Purple Haze", "Hey Joe", "The Wind Cries Mary" and "Fire". In 1987, as part of their 20th anniversary, Rolling Stone magazine ranked it #5 on "The 100 Best Albums of the Last Twenty Years." In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine ranked it #15 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.^[5] The album was an instant success and was the best-selling album in the United States^[6] in 1968, and critics subsequently regarded it as one of the best rock albums of all time.

In 2005 Are You Experienced was selected for permanent preservation in the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress in the United States.Are You Experienced received mostly positive reviews from contemporary music critics.^[19]

Are You Experienced has since been regarded by critics as one of the greatest and most influential debut albums in rock and roll.^[21] The Guardianwrote in 2003 that it "remains a watershed of psychedelic rock."^[1]

In 2005, Are You Experienced was one of 50 recordings chosen by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry, which selects recordings annually that are "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".^[2

Listen to "Purple Haze" go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNLQpEMftrQ

#11 DANCE TO THE MUSIC, SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE (1968)

Dance to the Music is the second studio album by funk/soul band Sly and the Family Stone, released April 27, 1968 on Epic/CBS Records. It contains the Top Ten hit single of the same name, which was influential in the formation and popularization of the musical subgenre of psychedelic soul and helped lay the groundwork for the development of funk music.

The Family Stone itself never thought very highly of Dance to the Music while they were recording it; its existence was the result of CBS executive Clive Davis' request for Sly Stone to make his sound more pop friendly. To appease his employer, Sly developed a formula for the band's recordings, which would still promote his visions of peace, brotherly love, and anti-racism while appealing to a wider audience. Most of the resulting Family Stone songs feature each lead singer in the band (Sly, Freddie Stone, Larry Graham, and newcomer Rose Stone) sharing the lead vocals by either singing them in unison or taking turns singing bars of each verse. In addition, the songs contained significant amounts of scat singing and prominent solos for each instrumentalist.

The formula not only worked in selling records, but influenced the entire music industry. When "Dance to the Music" became a Top 10 pop hit, R&B/soul producers and labels immediately began appropriating the new "psychedelic soul" sound. Also included is the band's first Epic single, "Higher" (later reworked as "I Want to Take You Higher").

Listen to the title track go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jn2PNlhvy8E

#10 MOTHERSHIP CONNECTION, PARLIAMENT (1975)\

Mothership Connection is the fourth album by American funk band Parliament, released on December 15, 1975 on Casablanca Records. Thisconcept album of P Funk mythology is usually rated as one of Parliament's best. Mothership Connection was the first P-funk album to feature Maceo Parker and Fred Wesley, who had left The J.B.'s, James Brown's backing band.

"Mothership Connection" became Parliament's first album to be certified gold and later platinum.^[1] The Library of Congress added the album to the National Recording Registry in 2011, declaring "[t]he album has had an enormous influence on jazz, rock and dance music."

Describing the album, George Clinton said "We had put black people in situations nobody ever thought they would be in, like the White House. I figured another place you wouldn't think black people would be was in outer space. I was a big fan of Star Trek, so we did a thing with a pimp sitting in a spaceship shaped like a Cadillac, and we did all these James Brown-type grooves, but with street talk and ghetto slang."^[3]

Dr. Dre prominently sampled the songs "Mothership Connection (Star Child)" and "P-Funk (Wants to Get Funked Up)" on his album The Chronic.

In 2003 the TV network VH1 named Mothership Connection the 55th greatest album of all time.

In 2003, the album was ranked number 276 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Rolling Stone (5/1/03, p. 59) - 5 stars out of 5 - "The masterpiece, the slang creator, the icon builder, the master narrative--or 'the bomb,' as Clinton succinctly put it before anyone else."

Vibe (2/02, p. 87) - Included in Vibe's "Essential Black Rock Recordings".

The album was included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

Listen to "Tear the Roof Off the Sucker" goto http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImI78s638hQ

#9 LIVE AT THE APOLLO JAMES BROWN (1963)

Live at the Apollo is a live album by James Brown and the Famous Flames, recorded at the Apollo Theater in Harlem and released in 1963. In 2003, the album was ranked number 25 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.^[2] In 2004, it was one of 50 recordings chosen that year by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry.

Live at the Apollo was recorded on the night of October 24, 1962 at Brown's own expense. Although not credited on the album cover or label, Brown's vocal group, The Famous Flames (Bobby Byrd, Bobby Bennett, and Lloyd Stallworth), played an important co-starring role in Live at the Apollo, and are included with Brown by M.C. Fats Gonder in the album's intro. Brown's record label, King Records, originally opposed releasing the album, believing that a live album featuring no new songs would not be profitable. The label finally relented under pressure from Brown and his manager Bud Hobgood.^[13]

To King's surprise, Live at the Apollo was an amazingly rapid seller. It spent 66 weeks on the Billboard Top Pop Albums chart, peaking at #2.^[14]Many record stores, especially in the southeast US, found themselves unable to keep up with the demand for the product, eventually ordering several cases at a time. R&B disc jockeys often would play side 1 in its entirety, pausing (usually to insert commercials) only to return to play side 2 in full as well.

Listemn to side A of the album go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVBEmZpbz4w

#8 INNERVISIONS, STEVIE WONDER (1973)

Innervisions is the sixteenth studio album by American musician Stevie Wonder, released August 3, 1973 on Motown Records; a landmark recording of his "classic period".^[1] The nine tracks of Innervisions encompass a wide range of themes and issues: from drug abuse in "Too High", through social anger in "Living for the City", to love in the ballads "All in Love is Fair" and "Golden Lady".

As with many of Stevie Wonder's albums, the lyrics, composition and production are almost entirely his own work, with the ARP synthesizer used prominently throughout the album. The instrument was a common motif among musicians of the time because of its ability to construct a complete sound environment. Wonder was the first black artist to experiment with this technology on a mass scale, and Innervisions was hugely influential on the subsequent future of commercial black music. He also played all or virtually all instruments on six of the album's nine tracks, making most ofInnervisions a representative one-man band.

The album debuted at the Billboard Album Charts on August 18, 1973 at number 85, reaching its peak position of number 4 on September 15. The album remained inside the Top 20 until the end of the year and remained inside the Top 200 during the whole calendar year of 1975. It was also Wonder's second consecutive soul album to top the Black Albums chart where it remained for two weeks.

Three hit singles were issued from the album. "Higher Ground", released some weeks before Innervisions, reached #4 on the charts in late October 1973 . "Living for the City" was released immediately and reached #8 in early January 1974. Both singles reached #1 on the R&B charts. Finally, "Don't You Worry 'bout a Thing" was released in March reaching #16 in early June, and also peaked at #2 on the R&B charts.

Innervisions won Grammy Awards for Album of the Year and Best Engineered Non-Classical Recording in 1974, while "Living for the City" won the Grammy for Best R&B Song.

Listen to "Living for the city: go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rc0XEw4m-3w

#7 PURPLE RAIN, PRINCE (1984)

Purple Rain is the sixth studio album by American recording artist Prince and The Revolution and is the soundtrack album to the 1984 film Purple Rain. It was released on June 25, 1984 by Warner Bros. Records.

Purple Rain is regularly ranked among the best albums in music history. Time magazine ranked it the 15th greatest album of all time in 1993, and it placed 18th on VH1's Greatest Rock and Roll Albums of All Time countdown. Rolling Stone magazine ranked it the second-best album of the 1980s and 76th on their list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Zounds magazine ranked it the 18th greatest album of all time. Furthermore, the album placed 4th in Plásticos y Decibelios' list of The Greatest Albums of All Time. Finally, in 2007, the editors of Vanity Fair labeled it the best soundtrack of all time and Tempo magazine named it the greatest album of the 1980s.^[1]

In 2012, Slant Magazine listed the album at #2 on its list of "Best Albums of the 1980s" behind only Michael Jackson's Thriller.^[2] That same year the album was added to the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry list of sound recordings that "are culturally, historically, or aesthetically important, and/or inform or reflect life in the United States."^[3]

Musically, Purple Rain remained grounded in the Minneapolis sound and R&B elements of Prince's previous work while demonstrating a more pronounced rock feel in its grooves and emphasis on guitar showmanship. As a soundtrack record, much of the music had a grandiose, synthesized, and even—by some evaluations—a vaguelypsychedelic sheen to the production and performances. The music on Purple Rain is generally regarded as the most pop-oriented of Prince's career, though a number of elements point towards the more experimental pop/psychedelic records Prince would record afterPurple Rain. As with many massive crossover albums, Purple Rain's consolidation of a myriad of styles, from pop rock to R&B to dance, is generally acknowledged to account in part for its enormous popularity.

The two main songs from Purple Rain, "When Doves Cry" and "Let's Go Crazy", would top the US singles charts and were hits around the world, while the title track would go to number two on the Billboard Hot 100. The RIAA lists it as having gone platinum 13 times over.^[5] To date, it has sold over 20 million copies worldwide, becoming the sixth best-selling soundtrack album of all time.^[6]

Listen to title track go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCrjWME0m7A

#6 LADY SOUL, ARETHA FRANKLIN (1968)

Lady Soul is an album by Aretha Franklin, released in 1968. The album was her second R&B chart-topper, the follow-up to "Aretha Arrives" and included some of her biggest hit singles, "Chain of Fools" (#2 Pop), and (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman (#8 Pop), and "(Sweet Sweet Baby) Since You've Been Gone" (#5 Pop). It eventually sold over a million copies in the United States alone. The album was reissued on Rhino Records in a deluxe edition in 1995.

The music is a mixture of rock and soul. Aretha's voice does benefit from her gospel singing when she sings rock and soul. The physical quality of her voice, the smoothness, the feeling, the soul, the power in her voice, and the way that she uses her voice to its full effect with ithe gritty, soul drenched Memphis based Musle Shoals sound are all amazingly displayed on this album.

Lady Soul peaked at #1, #2 and #3 on Billboard's Black Albums, Pop Albums and Jazz Albums charts respectively. The single "Ain't No Way" (B-Side of "Since You've Been Gone (Sweet, Sweet, Baby)") peaked at #9 on the Black Singles chart, and #16 on the Pop Singles chart.

Gospel/R&B singer Cissy Houston and her group the Sweet Inspirations are credited as background vocals on several tracks, along with Aretha's sisters Carolyn and Emma Franklin. In 2003 the TV network VH1 named Lady Soul the 41st greatest album of all time. It is number 84 on Rolling Stones list "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time".

Listen to "Chain of Fools" go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGAiW5dOnKo

# 5 LEGEND, BOB MARLEY (1984)

Legend is the twelfth album by Bob Marley and the Wailers, and the second posthumous album, released in 1984 by Island Records, It is a greatest hits collection of singles in its original vinyl format, and the best-selling reggae album of all-time, with over 14 million copies sold in the United States and approximately 25 million copies sold globally.^[1]^[2]^[3]

In 2003, the album was ranked number 46 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest

albums of all time.

It contains all ten of Marley's Top 40 hit singles in the UK up to the time,^[4] plus three songs from the original Wailers with Peter Tosh and Bunny Livingston in "Stir It Up," "I Shot the Sheriff," and "Get Up, Stand Up," along with the closing song from the album Uprising, "Redemption Song." Marley enjoyed fewer chart hits in the United States, "Exodus," "Waiting in Vain," "Could You Be Loved" and "Buffalo Soldier" the only ones included on this collection.^[5] Of the original tracks, only four date from prior to the Exodus album.

Legend holds the distinction of being the second longest-charting album in the history of Billboard magazine. Combining its chart life on the Billboard 200 and the Top Pop Catalog Albums charts, Legend has had a chart run of 992 non-consecutive weeks,^[9] surpassed only by The Dark Side of the Moon at 1574 weeks.^[10] As of July 2013, the album has sold 11,374,000 copies in the US since 1991 when SoundScan started tracking album sales, making it the No. 9 best-selling album of the Nielsen SoundScan era.^[11] As of the issue date of September 28, 2013, the album has charted on theBillboard 200 for 285 non-consecutive weeks.

Listen to "Redemption Song" go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrY9eHkXTa4

#4 BIRTH OF THE COOL MILES DAVIS (1957)

Birth of the Cool is a compilation album by American jazz musician Miles Davis, released in 1957 on Capitol Records.^[1]^[2] It compiles twelve tracks recorded by Davis's nonet for the label over the course of three sessions during 1949 and 1950.^[3]

Featuring unusual instrumentation and several notable musicians, the music consisted of innovative arrangements influenced by classical musictechniques such as polyphony, and marked a major development in post-bebop jazz. As the title implies, these recordings are considered seminal in the history of cool jazz. Most of them were originally released in the 10-inch 78-rpm format and are all approximately three minutes long.

The tracks from the January 1949 session were released soon after recording as two pairs of singles. From the April 1949 date, "Israel" and "Boplicity" were doubled together on a 78 and released as well. Of the twelve tracks recorded, Capitol released relatively few.

In 1954, , Capitol released eight of the tracks on a 10" record titled Classics in Jazz—Miles Davis. In 1957 eleven of the tracks (all except for "Darn That Dream") were released by Capitol as Birth of the Cool.

The recordings of the nonet from its time at the Royal Roost were released as Cool Boppin.^[31] In 1998, Blue Note Records released The Complete Birth of the Cool, which was remastered by engineer Rudy Van Gelder and collected the nonet's live and studio tracks onto a single CD.

Winthrop Sargeant, classical music critic at The New Yorker, compared the band's sound to the work of an "impressionist composer with a great sense of aural poetry and a very fastidious feeling for tone color. . . The music sounds more like that of a newMaurice Ravel than it does like jazz . . . it is not really jazz."^[39] Though he did not recognize the record as jazz, Sargeant acknowledged that he found the record "charming and exciting".^[39] In the short term the reaction to the band was little to none,^[39] but in the long term the albums effects have been great and lasting. The album has been credited with starting the cool jazz movement^[40] as well as creating a new and viable alternative tobebop^[41]

In 1957, after the release of the full Birth of the Cool, Down Beat magazine wrote that Birth of the Cool "[influenced] deeply one important direction of modern chamber jazz."^[42] Several tunes from the album, such as Carisi's "Israel", have gone on to become jazz standards.^[43]y"

Listen to "Boplicity" go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLzqjmoZZAc

#3 SONGS IN THE KEY OF LIFE, STEVIE WONDER (1976)

Songs in the Key of Life is the eighteenth album by American recording artist Stevie Wonder, released on September 28, 1976, by Motown Records. It was the culmination of his "classic period" albums.^[1] The album was recorded at the Record Plant in Hollywood, Sausalito Music Factory inSausalito, and The Hit Factory in New York City.

An ambitious double LP with a four-song bonus EP,^[2] Songs in the Key of Life became among the best-selling and most critically acclaimed albums of his career. In 2005, it was ranked number 56 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, and it was preserved into theNational Recording Registry by the Library of Congress, which called it "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

Highly anticipated, the album surpassed all commercial expectations. Surprisingly, it debuted straight at number 1 on the Billboard Pop Albums Chart on October 8, 1976, becoming only the third album in history to achieve that feat and the first by an American artist (after British singer/composer Elton John's Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy and Rock of the Westies in 1975).

Songs in the Key of Life spent thirteen consecutive weeks at number one in the US, and eleven during 1976. It was the album with the most weeks at number one during the year. In those eleven weeks,

On January 15, 1977, the album finally dropped to number two behind Eagles' Hotel California and the following week it fell to number four. On January 29 it returned to the top for a fourteenth and final week. The album then began its final fall. It spent a total of 35 weeks inside the top ten and 80 weeks on the Billboard albums chart. Songs in the Key of Life also saw longevity at number one on the Billboard R&B/Black Albums chart, spending 20 non-consecutive weeks there.

In all, Songs in the Key of Life became the second best-selling album of 1977 in the US, only behind Fleetwood Mac's blockbuster Rumours, and was certified as a diamond album by the RIAA, for sales of ten million copies in the US alone.^[14] It was the highest selling R&B/Soul album on the Billboard Year-End chart that same year.^[15]

Songs in the Key of Life was also the most successful Stevie Wonder project in terms of singles. The lead-off, the upbeat "I Wish" was released in November 1976, over a month after the album was released. On January 15, 1977, it reached number one on the Billboard R&B chart, where it spent five weeks at the top. Seven days after, it also reached the summit of the Billboard Hot 100, although it spent only one week at number one. The track became an international top-10 single, and also reached number five in the UK. "I Wish" became one of Wonder's standards and remained one of his most sampled songs.

The follow-up, the jazzy "Sir Duke", surpassed the commercial success of "I Wish". It was released on March 1977 and also reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 (spending three weeks at the top starting on May 21) and the R&B Charts (for one week, starting on May 28). It also reached number two in the UK, where it was kept off the top spot by the song "Free" by Deniece Williams, who had provided backing vocals on the album.

As sales for the album began to decline during the second half of 1977, the two other singles from Songs in the Key of Life failed to achieve the commercial success of "I Wish" and "Sir Duke". "Another Star" was released in August and reached at only number 32 on the Hot 100 (number 18: R&B, and number 29: UK) and "As" came out two months later, peaking at number 36 on both the Pop and R&B Charts. Though not released as a single (because, even when Motown asked Wonder to release it, he refused to), "Isn't She Lovely" received wide airplay and became one of Wonder's more popular songs. It was soon released by David Parton as a single in 1977 and became a top-10 hit in the UK.

In February 19, 1977, Wonder was nominated for seven Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year, an award that he had already won twice, in 1974 and 1975, for Innervisions and Fulfillingness' First Finale.^[8] In all, Wonder won four out of seven nominations at the Grammys: Album of the Year, Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, Best Male R&B Vocal Performance and Producer of the Year.

Listen to "Sir Duke" go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sIjSNTS7Fs

#2 THRILLER, MICHAEL JACKSON (1982)

Thriller is the sixth studio album by American recording artist Michael Jackson. It was released on November 30, 1982, by Epic Records as the follow-up to Jackson's critically and commercially successful 1979 album Off the Wall. Thriller explores similar genres to those of Off the Wall, including pop, R&B, rock, post-disco, funk, and adult contemporary music.^[1]^[2]^[3] Recording sessions took place between April and November 1982 atWestlake Recording Studios in Los Angeles, California, with a production budget of $750,000, assisted by producer Quincy Jones.

Of the nine tracks on the album, four of them were written by Jackson himself. Seven singles were released from the album, all of which reached the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. Three of the singles had music videos released. "Baby Be Mine" and "The Lady in My Life" were the only tracks that were not released as singles. In just over a year, Thriller became—and currently remains—the best-selling album of all time, with sales estimated by various sources as being between 51 and 65 million copies worldwide.^[4]^[5]^[6]^T In the United States, it also tied with the Eagles' Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975) as the best-selling album at 29 million shipped.^[7] The album won a record-breaking eight Grammy Awards in 1984, including for Album of the Year.

Thriller is a post-disco album.^[27] According to Steve Huey

of Allmusic, it refined the strengths of Jackson's previous

album Off the Wall; the dance and rock tracks were more

aggressive, while the pop tunes and ballads were softer and more soulful.^[28] The album includes the ballads "The Lady

in My Life", "Human Nature", and "The Girl Is Mine"; the funk

pieces "Billie Jean" and "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'"; and

the disco set "Baby Be Mine" and "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young

Thing)"^[1]^[26]^[28]^[29] and has a similar sound to the material

on Off the Wall. "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" is

accompanied by a bass and percussion background and the

song's centerpiece, a climaxing African-inspired chant (often

misidentified as Swahili, but actually syllables based

on Duala),^[30] gave the song an international flavor.^[31] "The

Girl Is Mine" tells of two friends' fight over a woman, arguing

over who loves her more and concludes with a spoken rap.^[22]^[31] ^32]

Thriller, displayed foreshadowings of the contradictory

thematic elements that would come to characterize

Jackson's subsequent works.^[33] With Thriller, Jackson

would begin his association with the subliminal motif

of paranoia and darker themes,

including supernatural imagery in the album's title track

Thriller enabled Jackson to break down racial barriers in pop music via his appearances on MTV . The album was one of the first to use music videos as successful promotional tools—the videos for "Thriller", "Billie Jean", and "Beat It" all received regular rotation on MTV.

Thriller was ranked number 20 on Rolling Stone magazine's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list in 2003,^[9] and was listed by the National Association of Recording Merchandisers at number three in its Definitive 200 Albums of All Time. The Thriller album was included in the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry of culturally significant recordings, and the Thriller video was included in the National Film Preservation Board'sNational Film Registry of "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant films". In 2012, Slant Magazine listed the album at number one on its list of "Best Albums of the 1980s".^[10]

That same year, Jackson won eightAmerican Music Awards, the Special Award of Merit and three MTV Video Music Awards.^[49] Thriller was recognized as the world's best-selling album on February 7, 1984, when it was inducted into the Guinness Book of World Records.^[50]It is one of four albums to be the best-seller of two years (1983–1984) in the US.^[51] The album was also the first of three to have seven BillboardHot 100 top ten singles.^{[citation needed]}

On August 21, 2009 Thriller was certified 29× platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, for shipments of at least 29 million copies in the US.^[52]^[53] The album topped the charts in many countries, sold 4.2 million copies in the UK,^[54] 2.5 million in Japan,^[55] and was certified 15× Platinum in Australia.^[56] Still popular today, Thriller sells an estimated 130,000 copies in the US per year; it reached number two in the US Catalog charts in February 2003 and number 39 in the UK in March 2007.^[49] Outside the US, the album has sold over 20 million copies

Listen to "Billie Jean:" go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zi_XLOBDo_Y

AND

THE

NO.1

MOST

INFLUENTIAL

BLACK

ALBUM

OF

ALL

TIME

IS.........................................................

#1 WHAT'S GOIN ON, MARVIN GAYE (1972)

What's Going On is the eleventh studio album by soul musician Marvin Gaye, released May 21, 1971, on the Motown-subsidiary label Tamla Records.^[1] Recording sessions for the album took place in June 1970 and March–May 1971 at Hitsville U.S.A., Golden World and United Sound Studios in Detroit and at The Sound Factory in West Hollywood, California.

The first Marvin Gaye album credited as being produced by the artist himself, What's Going On is a unified concept album consisting of nine songs, most of which lead into the next. It has also been categorized as a song cycle; the album ends on a reprise of the album's opening theme. The album is told from the point of view of a Vietnam War
veteran returning to the country he had been fighting for, and seeing nothing but injustice, suffering and hatred.

What's Going On was the first album on which Motown Records' main studio band, the group of session musicians known as the Funk Brothers, received an official credit. The album features introspective lyrics and socially conscious themes of drug abuse, poverty, and the Vietnam War. What's Going On was both an immediate commercial and critical success and has endured as a classic of early-1970s soul.

In worldwide critics', artists' and public surveys, it has been voted one of the landmark recordings in pop music history and is considered to be one of the greatest albums ever made.^[2] In 2003, the album was ranked number six on Rolling Stone's list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time", placing that same position nine years late.

Released on May 21, 1971, What's Going On became Gaye's first album to reach the Billboard Top LPs top ten, peaking at number six, and staying on the chart for nearly a year, selling over two million copies, by the end of 1972, becoming Motown's and Gaye's best-selling album to that date until he released Let's Get It On in 1973. It also became Gaye's second number-one album on Billboard′s Soul LPs chart, where it stayed for several weeks.

The album's leading single, "What's Going On", sold over 200,000 copies within a week of its release in January 1971, later going on to sell two-and-a-half-million units by the end of the year.^[16] It spent several weeks at number-two on the Billboard Hot 100 behind Three Dog Night's "Joy to the World", and spent five weeks at number-one on the Soul Singles chart between March 27 and April 24, 1971.

The follow-up single, "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)", peaked at number-four on the Hot 100, and also went number-one on the R&B chart. The third, and final, single, "Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)", peaked at number-nine on the Hot 100, while also rising to number-one on the R&B chart, thus making Gaye the first male solo artist to place three top ten singles on the Hot 100 off one album, as well as the first artist to place three singles at number-one on any Billboard chart (in this case, R&B), off one single album.

The album had a modest commercial reception in countries such as Canada and the United Kingdom, where the song, "Save the Children", reached number 41 on the latter country's singles chart with the album reaching number 56 twenty-five years after its original release. In 1984, the album re-entered the Billboard 200 following Gaye's untimely death.

In 1994, the album was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America in the United States for sales of half a million copies after it was issued on CD. On July 22, 2013, the album was certified platinum by the British Phonographic Industry for shipments of 300,000 albums.

In addition, What's Going On received the highest ratings from several leading American publications, including Time, Rolling Stone (who named it "Album of the Year"), The New York Times, andBillboard, who gave it the Billboard Trendsetter Award of 1971. Upon release, Rolling Stone magazine music critic Vince Aletti praised What's Going On for its thematic approach towards social and political concerns, while also mentioning the surprise of Motown releasing such an album. In a review of the album , Aletti wrote:

Ambitious, personal albums may be a glut on the market elsewhere, but at Motown they're something new... the album as a whole takes precedence, absorbing its own flaws. There are very few performers who could carry a project like this off. I've always admired Marvin Gaye, but I didn't expect that he would be one of them. Guess I seriously underestimated him. It won't happen again.^[32]

Billboard described the album as "a cross between Curtis Mayfield and that old Motown spell and outdoes anything Gaye's ever done".^[33] In his Consumer Guide review, Village Voice reviewerRobert Christgau categorized the album's three singles, "What's Going On", "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)" and "Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)", as great singles that were "so original they reveal ordinary Motown-political as the benign market manipulation it is. And Gaye keeps getting more subtle vocally and rhythmically."^[33]^[34]

However Christgau thought the rest of the album as "pretty murky even when the lyrical ideas are good".^[33]^[34] In its 2004 review of the album, Rolling Stone magazine listed the album as having "revolutionized black music".^[3]

Time magazine in its review of the album cited it as a "vast, melodically deft symphonic pop suite".^[35]

Reviewer Paul Gambaccini said that Gaye's death marked a critical re-evaluation of the album, with most reviewers now regarding it as a major masterpiece in popular music.^[33]

BBC Music's David Katz described the album as "one of the greatest albums of all time, and nothing short of a masterpiece" and compared it to Miles Davis' Kind of Blue by saying "its non-standard musical arrangements, which heralded a new sound at the time, gives it a chilling edge that ultimately underscores its gravity, with subtle orchestral enhancements offset by percolating congas, expertly layered above James Jamerson's bubbling bass".^[36]

I

Later on, many artists from different musical genres covered songs from the album, most notably live recordings by Aretha Franklin ("Wholy Holy" on Amazing Grace) and Donny Hathaway("What's Going On" on Donny Hathaway Live), as well as Robert Palmer's medley of "Mercy Mercy Me/I Want You", among others. "Mercy Mercy Me" was featured as the b-side to The Strokes' single "You Only Live Once". Brian Auger's Oblivion Express would record a jazzy and lengthy version of "Inner City Blues (Makes Me Wanna Holler" on their 1973 album Closer To It.

Accolades[edit]

In 1985, writers on British music weekly the NME voted it best album of all time.^[37] In 2004, the album's title track was ranked number 4 on Rolling Stone′s list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".^[38] A 1999 critics poll conducted by British newspaper The Guardian named it the "Greatest Album of the 20th Century". In 1997, What's Going On was named the 17th greatest album of all time in a poll conducted in the United Kingdom by HMV Group, Channel 4, The Guardian and Classic FM.^[39] In 1997, The Guardian ranked the album number one on its list of the 100 Best Albums Ever.^[40] In 1998 Q magazine readers placed it at number 97, while in 2001 the TV network VH1 placed it at number 4. In 2003, it was one of 50 recordings chosen that year by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry.

Listen to title track go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-kA3UtBj4M

We also had our readers to rank their Top 10 Black Albums of All Time, most notably, one of our blog readers, St Louis radio veteran Calvin King (PICTURED BELOW) ranked his choices.