Can You Picture The Debut Album? Quiz

Answer: The Velvet Underground & Nico

Everything about the 1967 debut album from American avant-Garde rockers "The Velvet Underground" and the German model/singer Nico was unique. Famed artist and pop-culture trendsetter, Andy Warhol, produced and managed "The Velvet Underground". Warhol made the group the "house" band at his art studio/permanent party location called "The Factory". The band was led by guitarist/songwriter Lou Reed and Welsh musician John Cale. In 1965, at Warhol's suggestion, "The Velvet Underground" brought in German model turned singer Christa Päffgen, who performed under the name "Nico" to sing along with the group. The band continued to perform at Warhol's events, including a 1966-1967 multimedia tour called the "Exploding Plastic Inevitable".

In late 1966, "The Velvet Underground & Nico" recorded an album for Verve Records. The eponymous album was released in March 1967 with Andy Warhol credited as the producer. Warhol also created the cover art. The album front side had a sticker of a banana with the request to buyers to "peel back slowly and see". Underneath the sticker was another Warhol creation of a flesh-colored banana. While considered one of the 1960s most influential albums and despite appearing in numerous best ever collection, "The Velvet Underground & Nico" did not sell well, never reaching higher than 171 on the Billboard 200 Album chart.

Answer: Led Zeppelin

Jimmy Page was already a renowned studio guitar musician when he joined the "Yardbirds" in 1966, essentially replacing Jeff Beck as lead guitarist. In mid1968, the "Yardbirds" disbanded in the middle of a tour. Page decided to form a new band and fulfill the remaining tour dates. Page partnered with singer Robert Plant and drummer John Bonham, both who had been members of the UK group "Band of Joy". He rounded out the group by adding highly regarded session keyboardist/bassist, John Paul Jones. This lineup originally known as the "New Yardbirds " performed together for the first time in Denmark in September 1969, and the response was electric. The band was forced to change its name before their first album was released. The group chose "Led Zeppelin", in part, as a play on words to describe the fact that their music was going to hit listeners like (or be as successful as) a "lead balloon".

The band's first album with the eponymous title "Led Zeppelin" is a combination of live tracks from their original tour dates and studio overdubbing added by Page and sound engineer Glyn Johns. The album cover featured a picture of the Hindenburg airship seconds after the dirigible burst into flames over New Jersey on May 6, 1937. Unlike the airship, the sales of the band's debut were anything but a disaster. The album reached the top 10 in both the US Billboard 200 and UK Album Charts and has sold over 10 million copies worldwide.

Answer: The Byrds

Folk musicians Roger (Jim) McGuinn, Gene Clark and David Crosby formed a trio in 1964. The group created a new sound that blended the harmonies and lyrical sensibilities common to folk music with the guitar infused rock/pop style that "The Beatles" used to dominate the early 1960s music. In April 1965, ahead of the release of its first album, the band recorded the Bob Dylan penned song "Mr. Tambourine Man". Powered by this new sound, dubbed "folk rock", "Mr. Tambourine Man" soared to number 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and UK Singles chart. "Mr. Tambourine Man" the album was released in June 1965 and cemented "The Byrds" as an American based band that could challenge the UK invasion for record sales. The album reached number 6 on the US Billboard 200 and number 7 on the UK Album Charts.

The cover art for "Mr. Tambourine Man" featured a "fisheye lens" wide angle photograph of the group's five principal band members (McGuinn, Crosby, Clark, bassist Chris Hillman and drummer Michael Clarke). Photographer Barry Feinstein created the iconic album cover image. Feinstein, who toured with Bob Dylan and was married for a time to Mary Travers of "Peter, Paul & Mary" is considered one of the seminal music photographers of the rock music era.

Answer: The Go-Go's

"The Go-Go's" were not the first all-female pop/rock group to release an album. However, the telegenic appeal of the group in the dawn of the video music age, along with catchy tunes and musicianship made "The Go-Go's" an instant success. Their debut album entitled "Beauty and the Beat" made clear that the five young women who made up "The Go-Go's" were willing to both play to and spoof the novelty of five attractive women in a band. "Beauty and the Beat" was an instant success and rose to number 1 on the US Billboard 200 album chart, staying in that position for six weeks. The album was the first number 1 seller by an all-female group that wrote their own songs and played their own instruments. "Beauty and the Beat" sold over 2 million copies during 1981-1982.

The cover picture for "Beauty and the Beat", showing the band members in a towel and face cream was the idea of lead singer Belinda Carlisle. The album included the hit title song that rose to number 2 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and "Our Lips are Sealed" which peaked at number 20.

Answer: Nirvana

"Nirvana" formed in 1987 as the partnership of Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic. Cobain and Novoselic went through at least six drummers before adding Dave Grohl to the band in 1990. Before Grohl joined "Nirvana", the band released a debut album for local Seattle record company Sub Pop with Chad Channing on drums. The album was not heavily promoted and sold fewer than 50,000 units; however the eclectic mix of rock, punk, and heavy metal received positive reviews and gained popularity on college campuses. The songs written by lead singer Kurt Cobain reflected a deeply personal and disaffected view of teenage life.

The band's second album "Nevermind" released in 1991 featured Grohl on drums and Cobain at the height of his songwriting skill. "Nevermind" sold over 30 million units. "Bleach" was re-released in 1992 and this time based on the band's fame sold over two million units. The cover art for "Bleach" featured a photo of "Nirvana" during a 1989 concert taken by Cobain's then-girlfriend Tracy Marander. The photo was "reversed-out" so as to appear to be a photo negative. Cobain eventually broke-up with Marander and later married fellow "grunge" rocker, Courtney Love. Brilliant, but troubled, Cobain died from a self-inflicted gunshot on April 5, 1994.

Answer: Guns N' Roses

"Guns N' Roses" released their debut album "Appetite for Destruction" on July 21, 1987. The recording for the album started at the Rumbo Recorders studio owned by musician Daryl Dragon, the "Captain in the successful 1970s "Captain and Tennille". The finished album included such well-loved songs as "Welcome to the Jungle" "Sweet Child O' Mine" and "Paradise City". "Appetite for Destruction" spent over 147 weeks on the US Billboard 200 album charts and was number 1 in the US and peaked at number 5 on the UK Album chart. The album has sold over 18 million copies in the US and 30 million copies worldwide.

The cover art for "Appetite for Destruction" was originally a depiction of the same titled 1979 disturbing pop art painting by Robert Williams. The image featured a metallic robot committing a violent sexual act on a human woman and then suffering justified retribution. When the record was released, many retailers refused to display the album due to its salacious and violent imagery. Over the band's protests, Geffen Records replaced the cover art with a tattoo like image of a cross overlaid with five skulls representing the five band members of "Guns N' Roses".

Answer: Meat Loaf

Meat Loaf was born Marvin Lee Aday in 1947. Marvin moved to Los Angeles in the mid1960s and started a band called "Meat Loaf Soul". When that group gained no traction, he went into musical theater and landed a role in a production of a new musical called "Hair". Meat Loaf road his part in "Hair" all the way to Broadway. From there "Loaf" (as he was known to his friends) played Eddie in "The Rocky Horror Picture Show". Aday transitioned the role from the theater to the 1975 movie. Flush from the "Rocky Horror" success, Meat Loaf and his songwriting collaborator Jim Steinman brought in musician/producer Todd Rundgren to work on a rock album. Rundgren played on many of the tracks himself and added Max Weinberg and Karim Sulton from the "E Street Band" along with Edgar Winter and selected vocals from Ellen Foley. The result was the 1977 debut album named "Bat Out of Hell".

"Bat Out of Hell" did not sell immediately like a proverbial "bat out of hell", but did sell consistently for a long time. The estimates for the album's worldwide sales have topped 43 million units. The iconic sex and drug filled anthems of "Paradise by the Dashboard Lights" and "Two Out of Three Ain't Bad" kept the album on many college and teen playlists for years. The album's cover art features a long-haired motorcyclist bursting from a graveyard as a giant bat is perched atop a tall mausoleum.

Answer: Arcade Fire

"Funeral" is the debut album from "Arcade Fire", a Canadian band that is fronted by the husband and wife team of Win Butler and Régine Chassagne. In 2001, Butler and his friend John Deu formed a band while students at McGill University in Montreal. The duo added Chassagne, who was a fellow student and an accomplished singer born of immigrant Haitian parents. While Butler and Deu remained friends, Deu left the band in 2003 before "Arcade Fire" recorded their first album.

"Funeral" is a deeply personal series of songs that center around the theme of loss and coping with pain. While reflective and powerful, the songs are not simply depressing. The songs include Chassagne ode to the struggles of her family's homeland "Haiti" and Butler's remembrance of his beloved grandfather called "A Year Without Light". The album cover art is a hand drawn picture by New York artist Tracy Maurice. The album was lauded by critics and nominated for Best Album at the 2005 Grammy's. "Rolling Stone" magazine named "Funeral" it's sixth best album of the 2000s and other publications called the album the best of the decade.

Answer: N.W.A

By 1988, the voice of young African-American music had turned the hip-hop/rap music genre aggressive, creating a sub-genre called "gangsta rap". The lyrics of the songs were overt, filled with violence, sexual imagery, and profane language. However, the music was also relevant, powerful and urgent. One of the super-groups formed at this time was "N.W.A". The band's very name used a form of a racial slur for African-Americans and stated they were "Wit Attitude". The band, made up of West Coast musicians MC Ren, Ice Cube, Easy E, Dr. Dre, Arabian Prince and DJ Yella, formed in Compton, California in 1986 and were immediately popular in the LA hip-hop scene.

"N.W.A" released their first studio album in August 1988 entitled "Straight Outta Compton". A version of "N.W.A" appeared on the 1986 compilation album "N.W.A. (period included) and the Posse". Cover art for the studio album featured the six band members looking down in a P.O.V. style photograph at what is presumed to be a dead body. The album sold over three million copies and was a critical favorite. In addition to the title track, the songs "Gangsta Gangsta" and "F@%* The Police" are some of the most iconic rap songs of the late 1980s.

Answer: The Patti Smith Group

Singer, songwriter and poet Patti Smith is perhaps best known as the co-writer with Bruce Springsteen of the haunting 1978 love song "Because the Night". Smith was a typical 1960s suburban New Jersey teenager. She graduated high school had a child in 1967, gave the baby up for adoption, then dropped out of college and moved to New York. In New York, she met photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, and the two remained close until Mapplethorpe's death from AIDS in 1989. Smith moved to Paris in 1969 and took to performance art and music to make ends meet. Returning to New York in the early 1970s, Smith started performing her songs and poetry in local venues and wrote music for established bands such as "Blue Öyster Cult". In 1974, she formed "The Patti Smith Group" and recorded her first album.

Smith's debut album released in 1975 was entitled "Horses". "Horses" was a mix of spoken word poetry, cover versions of such classics as Van Morrison's "Gloria" and original punk rock music written by Smith. The album cover photo of a standing Smith was taken by Mapplethorpe and presents the young Patti as an androgynous chanteuse. The photo is considered as iconic as the music on the album. The album sold several hundred thousand copies, but more importantly was heaped praise by the critics. In 2006, "Time" magazine named "Horses" one of the top 100 greatest albums; and in 2008 "Rolling Stone" magazine" named the album the 44th greatest album of all-time.