My Top 12 Favorite Albums that turn 50 years old in 2024.

How many do you remember?

1974 - I was only 10 going on 11 years of age in 1974. I wouldn't discover the guitar for two more years. Knowing nothing about playing music on an instrument, I did know what I liked in the way of pop music on the AM radio stations. The following list of albums below are merely a few of the albums I am either very familiar with, or know enough of the songs to put them on this list. There many great albums from that year, but this is my short list. Enjoy!

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1) Court And Spark - Joni Mitchell

I remember hearing "Help me", and immediately falling in love with it. Even before I knew anything about music, I knew that I really liked jazz chords. "Help me" has a lot of them. Just one fantastic album. This and "Blue" are my two favorite Joni albums.

2) Pretzel Logic - Steely Dan

I've been a huge fan of Steely Dan since the release of "Aja" in 1977. I wouldn't discover all of the other albums until several years later. "Pretzel logic" boasted a song that was on the radio nearly every day/night. I would listen to my pocket transistor radio, waiting patiently to hear "Rikki don't lose that number".

3) The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway - Genesis

Honestly, the only reason I even know this album is because of my high school buddy, Jimmy. He was our drummer in the jazz band. We became good friends. We had many rehearsals in his parents basement. Afterwards, we'd go upstairs to his older brother's room and listen to Genesis albums. When I heard "In the cage" for the first time, I was an immediate fan of Genesis.

4) 461 Ocean Boulevard - Eric Clapton

This again, is one of those albums I only know from a few songs. "I shot the sheriff" was all over the radio in 1974. Honestly, I hated it. I was never attracted to anything even remotely resembling reggae music. However, "Mainline Florida" is a great song!

5) Second Helping - Lynyrd Skynyrd

If you don't know "Sweet home Alabama" or "Don't ask me no questions" or "Call me the breeze", you don't know Skynyrd music. Such a monster album.

6) Heart Like A Wheel - Linda Ronstadt

My all-time favorite song from Linda is, "You're no good". It's a perfect song on a legendary album. "When will I be loved" was one of those sort of "country" songs that was all over the radio too.

7) Diamond Dogs - David Bowie

When I heard "Rebel Rebel", for the first time, I thought it was a Rolling Stones song, because of the opening guitar riff. I'm not a huge Bowie fan, but my teenage-years best friend, Curt, definitely was.

8) What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits - The Doobie Brothers

Who could ever forget "Black water"? That was not the only hit on this album. One of my all-time favorite Doobie songs is "Another park, another Sunday". I always loved the chords and vocal harmonies in this song.

9) Not Fragile - Bachman-Turner Overdrive

"Roll on down the highway" and "You ain't seen nothing yet" were two huge hits off of this album.

10) Crime Of The Century - Supertramp

I remember hearing "School", "Bloody well right", "Dreamer" and "Crime of the century" on the local rock station out of Milwaukee. I listened to WQFM every morning in the early 1980's. Just a fantastic album.

11) On The Border - The Eagles

To say that I am a huge Eagles fan, is a true understatement. "Already gone", "On the border", "James Dean" and of course, "Best of my love" are all huge classics. This was (in my opinion), Glenn Frey's album, since he sang so many songs on it.

12) Get Your Wings - Aerosmith

The live version of "Train kept a rollin", to me, was actually better than the studio version. Huge Aerosmith fan, especially the older albums like this one, "Toys in the attic" and "Rocks".

Hard to fathom that these and so many other classic albums are a half a century old. Some music is simply timeless as well as ageless.