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This list is a of 10 albums whose influence on music has been far bigger than their sales.
1.The Kinks – The Village Green Preservation Society [Wikipedia]
In 1968 a year after the fabled summer of love, one of the biggest and best bands in England released this concept album. Based around a series of nostalgic events and characters its sales were disastrous. And why? Maybe people were just sick of concept albums.
2. Velvet Underground – The Velvet Underground [Wikipedia]
Though the Velvet Underground famously sold few albums in their time, their first two efforts did creep into the top 200 of the American charts. This, their third album and their first without John Cale, did not even that make it that far. It is a surprise because in comparison The Velvet Underground is their most accessible, with, Murder Mystery aside, none of their previous avante garde posturing. Perhaps the second album, laden with guitar feedback, put everyone off.
Beginning to See the Light, Candy says, What Goes On and Some Kinda Love are as good as anything in their repertoire.
3. Miles Davis – Kind of Blue [Wikipedia]
Though this album has sold 3 million copies in the U.S., it has taken 50 years. To put this figure into perspective the Michael Jackson album Thriller has sold 27 million copies in half that time. As one of the most influential album of all time, this record vies for the number one spot.
4. Nick Drake – Five Leaves Left [Wikipedia]
One of the best folk albums of all time, this was the legendary Nick Drake’s first record. None of his albums really sold, but now critics consider all three as modern day classics and Nick Drake as the Kurt Cobain of folk.
5. Wire – Pink Flag [Wikipedia]
This album contains 23 punk pop songs, yet its total running time is under 30 minutes. REM covered the excellent Strange on their album Document, but Pink Flag is full of great pop songs.
6. My Bloody Valentine – Isn’t Anything [Wikipedia]
My Bloody Valentine has come to the forefront of popular culture recently, making a number of appearances on the Lost in Translation soundtrack. Isn’t Anything is their first album and one of the best British indie albums ever. Kevin Shields was a forerunner of post-modern rock.
7. Robert Johnson – King of the Delta Blues Singers [Wikipedia]
Keith Richards was probably the only person who bought this record when it came out in 1961. He played it to Mick Jagger and Brian Jones and they went on to form the Rolling Stones, together popularizing rhythm and blues and paving the way for the British blues movement in the sixties. Robert Johnson’s King of the Delta Blues Singers is where it all started.
8. Richard and Linda Thompson I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight [Wikipedia]
You would have thought, after his success with the Fairport Convention, that Richard Thompson’s name alone could shift a few albums. Unfortunately, his first solo record, Henry the Human Fly, was panned by the critics which certainly didn’t help the sales of this is second effort. However, its angry lyrics (“Every handshake is just another man to beat”) and Linda Thompson’s haunting vocals have contributed to its status as the thinking man’s album of the seventies.
9. Iggy Pop and the Stooges Funhouse [Wikipedia]
We would see the influence of this album 7 years later with the explosion of punk. Recorded live in the studio Funhouse sounds more raw and angry then anything the Sex Pistols ever recorded.
10. Pixies Surfer Rosa [Wikipedia]
The famous track on Surfer Rosa is Where Is My Mind, played over the end credits of the film Fight Club. It is an unconventional track, but hardly uncommercial and it is surprising this album did not sell more. In the UK, it did not even chart. The Pixies of course went on to become one of America’s most influential indie bands.
Contributor: Simon Arms
Technorati Tags: music
August 31st, 2007 at 1:33 pm
Wow… I have absolutely none of these albums.
But then again, I’ve never been known to be a hep-cat, wild-child, groovy-a-go-go kind of guy.
August 31st, 2007 at 2:43 pm
RobS: but you probably know some of the music influenced by these albums
August 31st, 2007 at 2:56 pm
Nice list. Very nice. “Bright Lights” is my go-to “here’s-the-greatest-album-you’ve-never-heard” choice to pass along to my hipster friends.
Honorable mention: “This Nation’s Saving Grace,” by The Fall.
August 31st, 2007 at 3:13 pm
Top 10 albums you’ve never heard of and never will again.
August 31st, 2007 at 3:20 pm
Geez. I have half of these. I really think the earlier Stooges albums were more important but all in all a nice list.
August 31st, 2007 at 3:37 pm
“Nebraska” by Bruce Springsteen should be on here. It started the lo-fi singer/songwriter movement but it tanked because it’s a homemade solo acoustic 4-track recording and the public wanted another E Street Band album.
August 31st, 2007 at 3:39 pm
You’ve omitted some greatest influences of English mod and blues-rockers such as Clapton/Cream, the Who, Tull, Yes, Crimson, Floyd, there is Blodwyn Pig’s “Ahead Rings Out” and Rory Gallagher and his group Taste “It’s Happened Before..”
In Cold Blood and Its a Beautiful Day didn’t sell a lot but their early work was seminal to the San Franciso acid scene.
August 31st, 2007 at 3:53 pm
It’s great to see blues and folk albums on your list. I’m so used to people saying ‘who?’ when I talk about the type of music I listen to that it’s nice to see it recognized now and again.
August 31st, 2007 at 5:04 pm
I’ve got at least 5 of these – maybe as many as 7 (missing the MBV, Wire and Stooges, though I have other albums by all those acts). Richard Thompson deserves respect and awe from every music fan on the planet – not that he’s likely to get a whole lot more well-known outside his decent-sized core of loyals. If you EVER get a chance to see him live – don’t pass it up. What a consummate performer. The VU album was a shoo-in for this list; I might have added one of Brian Eno’s first solo records – Here Come the Warm Jets, Before and After Science, or Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) – as influential on tons of alternative, glam, new wave and punkish acts from the mid-70’s on.
August 31st, 2007 at 5:38 pm
No Big Star? I was still seeing cutouts of these well into the early 80’s.
August 31st, 2007 at 6:21 pm
They forgot The Replacements.
/just happen to share name with that Paul
August 31st, 2007 at 6:33 pm
You mean the “9 albums you should have to seem really pretentious and cool?”
Feh. Only the Miles Davis album really matters.
All of these “influential” bands – they’re so avant-garde, so misunderstood … right.
August 31st, 2007 at 7:06 pm
Maybe some early Leonard Cohen should be up there. For a decent few Music quizzes, try this link (No pop-ups) http://pages.videotron.com/deegs/page5.html
August 31st, 2007 at 7:51 pm
Great list. I would like to see both Brian Wilson’s Pet Sounds and Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea on this list, as well as the aforementioned Big Star and Springsteen’s Nebraska.
August 31st, 2007 at 9:02 pm
i second In the aeroplane over the sea.
kudos on the nick drake inclusion, although i think pink moon is more influential to modern artists. five leaves left is the better album, in my mind. probably could have included davy graham on the list too. also, no shuggie otis??? the list cannot be complete withouth shuggie.
i also second the cream reference, although it probably should have been that collection with the powerhouse and paul butterfield blues band. can the powerhouse be an influence on cream when it contained 2/3 the members already?
August 31st, 2007 at 11:35 pm
Rob S., Duh, and Sure…
These are some of my favorite albums ever. They didn’t sell. But what would you recommend for this list instead?
Neutral Milk Hotel, Brian Eno and Big Star are good recomenations as well. Springsteen and Beach Boys get much praise and sales for other albums, so if they are missed here, it isn’t as bad of a sin.
Sfortuna… I like the way you think… but those albums and/or artists may be forgotten today, but they were recognized as influential and didn’t “bomb” at the time.
August 31st, 2007 at 11:37 pm
if you don’t know about or have the Stooges or Miles Davis albums…… you shouldn’t be reading this, let alone commenting about the list.
August 31st, 2007 at 11:45 pm
What? No New Kids on the Block? This list isn’t even trying.
September 1st, 2007 at 12:34 am
Wow – so many comments! Thanks for all the additions everyone. Hopefully some of these albums will sell a few more copies now
September 1st, 2007 at 4:56 am
Good list, but I would have liked to have seen Talk Talk’s Spirit of Eden or Laughing Stock on there at some point.
September 1st, 2007 at 8:07 am
Thanks, nice albums.
The Pixies made an unforgettable, unique sound. I’ll always remember the times when we played that. Nice memories. I play it sometimes when I’m using Photoshop. Makes my images go all weird. Thanks
September 1st, 2007 at 9:59 am
Nice list, although there is a slight factual inaccuracy in your detailing of the Kinks’ Village Green Preservation Society. You offer the explanation “Maybe people were just sick of concept albums,” as a reason why it didn’t sell. Well, as of 1968, there weren’t really many, if any, that had been released. Tommy was still a year away, and the only albums that come close to being concept albums were The Who Sell Out, Sgt. Pepper, and Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake. The first two did pretty well, while the latter is virtually unknown at this point, but at any rate, these were hardly enough to leave the public tired of concept albums.
September 1st, 2007 at 3:38 pm
Right now, somewhere in the world, a young kid is listening to some album or CD found in his parent’s collection.
He probably thinks its the gratest thing he’s ever heard, and it will no doubt influence him to make music in a similar vein…maybe the kid will become the next Elvis or Joe Pankaloomikin.
Who’s Joe Pankaloomikin, you ask?
Just some guy influenced by some album that bombed for a reason.
One album does not make an influence…the whole body of an artist’s work does.
September 1st, 2007 at 6:28 pm
I hear the Velvet Underground and Iggy Pop influence everywhere. What Brian Eno (or whomever) said: “The Velvet Underground only sold 1000 records, but each of those 1000 record buyers went out and started a group.” is absolutely true.
September 1st, 2007 at 8:20 pm
How about the first New York Dolls album?
September 2nd, 2007 at 12:22 am
Thanks for the comments guys – there are some nice additions there!
September 2nd, 2007 at 12:09 pm
Good list, Lots of Punk in that I definately approve. Miles Davis….Cool.
September 3rd, 2007 at 8:43 pm
I actually own every one of these albums and they’re all great. My only complaint: where is Love’s Forever Changes and the MC5’s Back In The USA? I’m stunned these two were not included. Otherwise, a great list.
September 3rd, 2007 at 10:48 pm
Mike: Thanks for mentioning those
September 4th, 2007 at 2:58 am
I don’t know about MC5, but Forever Changes sold alright in the UK. I certainly thought about putting it on the list.
September 4th, 2007 at 5:21 am
Nice list. I have all of these albums and I love them all (apart from the Miles Davis album but that is because I willingly admit I don’t really “get” jazz). That someone can say “Top 10 albums you’ve never heard of and never will again.” is scary though.
Best nomination I can give for an 11th entry is Spiderland by Slint.
September 6th, 2007 at 10:17 am
Sure…: The whole point is that they wern’t avante garde and still didn’t sell. People that make avante garde music rarely do it to sell tons of music where as these records commercial enough to of done much better.
September 12th, 2007 at 1:20 am
I second both Big Star and Talk Talk’s Spirit of Eden. Was Peter Gabriel’s Genesis’s The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway early enough to be called influencial? I have no idea where it comes in in relation to Yes, and the like.
October 3rd, 2007 at 10:35 pm
Great list; I don’t have all of the CDs but like the ones on the list that I do have. “Kind of Blue” is beyond jazz, it is pure music. If you have a good library handy, give it a listen. The music has not aged a bit in 48 years, at least to my ears.
October 12th, 2007 at 9:36 am
Where is Mike Nesmith’s “The Wichita Train Whistle Sings”?
December 27th, 2007 at 5:33 pm
First Ramones album. It sold pitifully in the US in 1976, and now you hear that buzzsaw/shout thing all over the place. Pity most of them died before receiving their due.
February 7th, 2008 at 6:49 pm
This website is my number one source of finding music I’ve never heard before.
Boo ya!
:]
March 17th, 2008 at 8:55 am
There are probably many more examples of these. Sonic Youth’s “Daydream Nation” & Slint’s “Spiderland to name but two. These were probably two of the most influential albums of the late ’80s and I wonder how many people bought them.
Joni Mitchell’s “Hissing of Summer Lawns”, I believe, bombed but is arguebly her greatest album and influenced many female artists in producing music other than folk style ballads.
June 10th, 2008 at 7:46 pm
Basically everything by Kraftwerk.
September 4th, 2008 at 8:30 am
David Bowie’s Man Who Sold the World, the track of the same name receiving homage from Kurt Cobain. Could also add Unknown Pleasures by Joy Division.
Congrats on inclusion of Richard & Linda Thompson and Miles.
September 13th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
The Pixies influenced Kirt Cobain.Enuf said.
September 30th, 2008 at 3:45 am
Awesome seeing velvet underground and iggy n the stooges on here.
Cuz without them (namely velvet underground) there’d be no punk music to speak of. and while I can’t stand the garbage labeled as ‘punk’ NOWadays (read: basically emo crap).
The ramones, pistols, etc. etc. wouldn’t have been without Lou reed.
October 2nd, 2008 at 11:16 am
So much to choose from…But, off the top of my head, I don’t think Television’s “Marquee Moon” sold much…Pretty good album…
October 10th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
I am so happy you put the pixies on this list!! Most people I know have sadly never heard of them. I was lucky enough to see them play live when they did a reunion tour a few years ago!
October 11th, 2008 at 2:37 am
Jacob,
your right televisions first album didn’t sell too well. I could be wrong but i’m not sure ANY of their albums sold all so well when they were still a fully functioning band.
But then, ALOT of those bands/artists that helped to start the punk scene never had a good selling first album. You know until years later and people realized ‘hey wait. these guys who were only around for 2 years had some pretty good music going on!’
and THEN people buy the albums
February 14th, 2009 at 1:10 pm
what about forever changes by love?
March 13th, 2009 at 11:34 am
Astral weeks by Van Morrison
April 28th, 2009 at 6:07 am
Not being much of a jazz fan I was recomended Miles davis Kind of Blue, I now consider it the sound track to my life.
May 2nd, 2009 at 1:34 am
Isn’t that Robert Johnson album on the cover of Bob Dylan’s Bringing It All Back Home? And weren’t all of Robert Johnson’s recordings re-released in a box set in the mid 90s, including outtakes? And hasn’t Eric Clapton listed Robert Johnson as a major influence?
Hardly a bomb. Obscure to some? Sure. Not a bomb.
May 18th, 2009 at 9:01 pm
i think maybe some people are missing the point of this list.
3 points to consider:
Was it influential?
Did it bomb when it originally came out?
If so (even if it is a good album or underrated band)is it in the top ten?
Also, there seems to be a lot of people making assumptions that this music is to trendy to be good. Maybe check yo’ stats. Also very good list. White Light/White Heat!
August 6th, 2009 at 2:32 pm
well I have 6 of these, and I also have the complete Robert Johnson boxset so it may as well be 7. good list and I’ve been meaning to check Nick Drake out for 10 years. maybe now I finally will