Ipod Shuffle 32: Signature Albums Quiz

Answer: Miles Davis

Miles Davis recorded and released "Kind of Blue" in 1959. He recorded the album with drummer Jimmy Cobb, bassist Paul Chambers, Bill Evans and Wynton Kelly. The album also featured saxophonists John Coltrane and Julian "Cannonball" Adderley. Library of Congress added the album to the National Recording Registry in 2002, and Rolling Stone placed the album at Number 12 on their 500 greatest albums of all time.

Answer: The Beach Boys

The Beatles and The Beach Boys each took inspiration from one another. "Pet Sounds" was in response to The Beatles' 1965 record "Rubber Soul".

According to Brian Wilson this is how he felt about "Rubber Soul": "I really wasn't quite ready for the unity. It felt like it all belonged together. Rubber Soul was a collection of songs ... that somehow went together like no album ever made before, and I was very impressed. I said, "That's it. I really am challenged to do a great album."

The album, although not a major commercial success, has proven enormously influential to other musicians.

McCartney said this about "Pet Sounds": "It was Pet Sounds that blew me out of the water. I love the album so much. I've just bought my kids each a copy of it for their education in life ... I figure no one is educated musically 'til they've heard that album ... I love the orchestra, the arrangements ... it may be going overboard to say it's the classic of the century ... but to me, it certainly is a total, classic record that is unbeatable in many ways ... I've often played Pet Sounds and cried. I played it to John [Lennon] so much that it would be difficult for him to escape the influence ... it was the record of the time. The thing that really made me sit up and take notice was the bass lines ... and also, putting melodies in the bass line. That I think was probably the big influence that set me thinking when we recorded Pepper, it set me off on a period I had then for a couple of years of nearly always writing quite melodic bass lines. "God Only Knows" is a big favourite of mine ... very emotional, always a bit of a choker for me, that one. On "You Still Believe in Me", I love that melody - that kills me ... that's my favourite, I think ... it's so beautiful right at the end ... comes surging back in these multi-coloured harmonies ... sends shivers up my spine."

Eric Clapton has also said "I consider Pet Sounds to be one of the greatest pop LPs to ever be released. It encompasses everything that's ever knocked me out and rolled it all into one."

After The Beatles put out "Sgt. Pepper", The Beach Boys planned to put out the album "SMilE", but due to Brian Wilson suffering a nervous break down the album was not finished by the band in the 1960s. Wilson put out a solo version of "SMilE" in 2004.

George Martin, The Beatles' producer, has also said that without "Pet Sounds", "Sgt. Pepper" would not have been made. "Without Pet Sounds, Sgt. Pepper wouldn't have happened... Pepper was an attempt to equal Pet Sounds.""

Answer: Bob Dylan

In a span of eighteen months, Bob Dylan released his electric trilogy, some of the most highly acclaimed albums in rock history. He released "Bringing It All Back Home" and "Highway 61 Revisited" in 1965 and then "Blonde on Blonde" in 1966, the first double album in rock history, narrowly beating out Frank Zappa's "Freak Out!" for that claim.
The album features Dylan's signature song "Like a Rolling Stone".

Answer: Marvin Gaye

"What's Going On" has long been acclaimed as one of the major albums that to come out of Motown. The song is a song cycle and concept album regarding the return of a Viet Nam veteran to an America that he does not recognize and cannot relate too. This is the first album that Motown's main studio band, The Funk Brothers, were given official credit. Rolling Stone Magazine listed this as Number Six on their 500 greatest albums of all time.

Berry Gordy, the CEO of Motown and Marvin Gaye's brother in law, did not want to release the single of "What's Going On", certain the single would flop. The single proved to be an immediate success.

Gaye said this about the album:

"In 1969 or 1970, I began to re-evaluate my whole concept of what I wanted my music to say... I was very much affected by letters my brother was sending me from Vietnam, as well as the social situation here at home. I realized that I had to put my own fantasies behind me if I wanted to write songs that would reach the souls of people. I wanted them to take a look at what was happening in the world."

Marvin Gaye died in 1983, killed by his father via a gunshot wound.

Answer: The Allman Brothers Band

"At Fillmore East" was recorded on March 12-13 1971 at the Fillmore East Concert Hall in New York City. The album was a carefully edited version of the two shows, with producer Tom Dowd splicing and merging various performances together into a cohesive whole.

The band has since released the complete shows. The album has a large jazz undercurrent to it, with the focus being on instrumental interplay and Duane Allman's guitar prowess.

Answer: Led Zeppelin

Although referred to as "Zoso", "Four Runes", and "Led Zeppelin IV",Led Zeppelin's 1971 album is officially untitled. There are eight songs on the album, including "Stairway to Heaven", which, along with the 1975 "Physical Graffiti" song "Kashmir", is probably Zeppelin's most famous song.

Although never released as a single, "Stairway to Heaven" proved to be an enormous success, as is the rest of the album as well.

Answer: The Doors

One of the most highly acclaimed debuts in rock history, The Doors burst onto the scene with the strongest album of their career. "The Doors" proved to be the launching pad for the band's brief career. Within five years of recording "The Doors", James Douglas Morrison would die in Paris in 1971 at the age of twenty seven. What great music!

For those who love random imagery in lyrics and poetry, you can't get much better than the line "Weird Scenes Inside the Goldmine"

Answer: Stevie Wonder

Stevie Wonder released "Songs in the Key of Life" in 1976 and has long been considered his signature album. In the 1970s Wonder released five albums, "Music of My Mind", "Talking Book", "Innervisions", "Fulfillingness' First Finale", and "Songs in the Key of Life", which is largely considered his core work.

Elton John said this about the album: ""Let me put it this way: wherever I go in the world, I always take a copy of Songs in the Key of Life. For me, it's the best album ever made, and I'm always left in awe after I listen to it."

Answer: Michael Jackson

Like The Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper", so much has been written about Michael Jackson's "Thriller" that's not really much left to say. The album is the most successful in history, selling over one million albums a week during its peak commercial period in 1982 and 1983. In 2009, "Thriller" was the fourteenth best selling album of the year. The album features contributions from Eddie Van Halen (guitar solo on "Beat It"), a duet with Paul McCartney on "This Girl is Mine", and a memorable spoken word contribution by Vincent Price on the title cut.

Throughout the years since its release, "Thriller" and The Eagles compilation album "Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975) have held the title as the top selling album in music history.

Answer: The Beatles

In January 1969, The Beatles recorded the album "Let It Be", then titled "Get Back". Unsatisfied with the results, the band shelved the album and record their last album "Abbey Road". They released the album in 1969. The band then brought in Phil Spector to produce "Let It Be", which was released in 1970 as their last official studio album, though recorded second to last. The last major studio song recorded by The Beatles was "I Me Mine", recorded in 1970, for inclusion on the "Let It Be" album, as there was no satisfactory studio recording of a song that did appear in the movie "Let It Be".

The album features Frank Sinatra's favorite Lennon/McCartney composition "Something" (the joke being George Harrison wrote "Something", not Lennon or McCartney), Lennon's "Come Together", and the Harrison classic "Here Comes the Sun". Side Two, which is a medley of unfinished song ideas, is also very highly regarded in the music culture of rock.