Bringing It All Back Home (Bob Dylan)

Bringing It All Back Home
Bob Dylan (1965)

Top Tracks: “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)”, “Mr. Tambourine Man”, “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue”

Again, indisputably one of the greatest and most important and influential albums in history here. Think of it this way: before this album came out in 1965, the Beatles were doing songs like “Can't Buy Me Love”, and immediately afterwards it was “Girl”. You don’t take that kind of turn without something pulling you sharply in a new direction, and that something was Dylan. If you want to hear something funny, note that through my entire teen years, I did not get Dylan at all. I didn’t understand his appeal or his voice or anything about him. But I was so much older then... (June 2020).

A Charlie Brown Christmas (Vince Guaraldi)

A Charlie Brown Christmas
Vince Guaraldi (1965)

Top Tracks: “Linus and Lucy”, “Christmas Time is Here”, “O Tannenbaum”

So, here’s the weird thing: I don’t have any soundtrack albums on this list (or any live albums or compilations, but whatever), and this would seem to be a soundtrack. But is it? It stands alone as a Vince Guaraldi record, and it’s as important to me as anything from a musical perspective. I’ve often felt that two super early influences — Vince’s work on the animated Peanuts specials, and Johnny Costa’s work on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood — were probably the two things that really set me in motion to want to play music. This is still on my “must listen” list each holiday season, and I often have it playing while making various Christmas food treats (June 2020).