"It was impossible to choose just one title by Miles Davis, the Beatles, Joni Mitchell, Dylan, Mingus, etc. How can you say Miles Ahead is “in” and Sketches of Spain is “out”? It looked that way for a while. I knew I would need the space for In a Silent Way and On the Corner. In the end Sketches of Spain did make it, but only at the expense of Someday My Prince Will Come. That is the pleasure of a list like this. Everyone will disagree with your choices.
Sometimes an album contains just one indispensable song. Shot of Lovemay not be your favorite Bob Dylan record, but it might contain his best song: “Every Grain of Sand.” Other albums are like sets of chairs. You can’t break them up. This is true of the Band’s first two records and also of Tom Waits’s trilogy of albums, which began with Swordfishtrombones.
There are plenty of “Best of” and “Greatest Hits” collections. That’s not just taking the easy way out. Many of these people really only made “singles.” No one “album” will give you all the Smokey Robinson and the Miracles or George Jones songs that you need. I’ve also gone for some less well-known titles by famous artists, but they are records that dig a little deeper."
