We take another leap in time and widen the circle. We arrived at a key year like 1964 with a subjective top 5 albums that started rock in 1964.
5. The Animals – The Animals
The Animals is a voice. A voice recognizable among a thousand, accompanied by a keyboard that leaves no room for doubt. Released a month before the British version, The Animals USA version has only 7 titles in common with the UK version and it is an understatement to say that the difference between the two is immense. The American version indeed contains the two singles Baby Let me Take you Home and House of the Rising Sun and just for these two titles, the British will have struggled to find vinyl which should have been sent across the Atlantic until may the record company fix this error.
4. Beatles For Sale – The Beatles
The Beatles’ fourth LP was a setback compared to the previous “A Hard Day’s Night”, although his compositions continue to appreciate his incessant compositional development. The Liverpool quartet at the peak of their popularity and in the absence of enough of their own songs (due to the limited time to compose that their hectic pace of life left them at that time), decided to pay homage to their teachers and fill a good part of the album with some acceptable versions of big names in rock.
3. Live At The Star Club, Hamburg – Jerry Lee Lewis
It is Jerry Lee Lewis’s most important record and a good rock’n’roll album with songs known to all rock fans (“I Got A Woman”, “Hound Dog”, Little Richard’s “Long Tall Sally”). …). It was published in 1964 with a performance in the aforementioned and famous Hamburg club with the Nashville Teens (those of the famous “Tobacco Road”) as a backing band. He performed classic rock, R&B, and some country-rock with his usual energy. We couldn’t miss “Great Balls Of Fire”, a song composed by Otis Blackwell for Jerry Lee.
2. Kinks – The Kinks
When the Kinks recorded their debut album in 1964, Ray Davies had not yet acquired the necessary skill and confidence as a songwriter. In fact, only the mega-hit “You Really Got Me” (with one of the most imitated guitar riffs in rock history) and “Stop Your Sobbin’” reflect Davies’ true talent, with his sharp social irony that would shine brightly in future work of the group.
1. A Hard Day’s Night – The Beatles
Projected as the soundtrack for the film of the same title directed by Richard Lester, “A Hard Day’s Night” was the Beatles’ third studio LP dominated by the compositions of John Lennon, who, as in other songs from his first stage, Merseybet, affects relationships with a bittersweet tone.