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1959



Charles Mingus – Mingus Ah Um
Chuck Berry – Chuck Berry Is On Top
Howlin’ Wolf – Moanin’ In The Moonlight
Ritchie Valens – Ritchie Valens
Nina Simone – The Amazing Nina Simone
Miles Davis – Kind Of Blue
Duane Eddy – Especially For You
Dave Brubeck Quartet – Time Out
Tom Lehrer – An Evening Wasted With Tom Lehrer
Ornette Coleman – The Shape Of Jazz To Come
Bo Diddley – Go Bo Diddley
The Louvin Brothers – Satan Is Real
James Brown And His Blue Flames – Please Please Please
George Jones – White Lightning
Tom Glazer And Dotti Evans – Space Songs
John Lee Hooker – I’m John Lee Hooker
Serge Gainsbourg – No. 2
Lightnin’ Hopkins – Lightnin’ Hopkins
Johnny Cash – Songs Of Our Soil
The Kingston Trio – At Large
Ella Fitzgerald – Sings The George And Ira Gershwin Songbook
Ray Charles – The Genius Of Ray Charles
Mose Allison – Autumn Song
Count Basie – One More Time

Notes: I'm posting these older listening sessions in chronological order by year, not in the order I listened to them; i.e. I listened to 1952 several months after 1959, but I posted it first. It's just easier for me to keep track of because the documents were titled by year. Also, this was done before I started listing genres and where the artist comes from, an idea I borrowed from Mark Prindle's facebook statuses. I might go back and add those to entries that don't have them for consistency's sake, but probably not. Tom Glazer and Dotti Evans are probably the most obscure act on this list; Space Songs is a folk-based edutainment record that They Might Be Giants covered two songs from ("Why Does The Sun Shine" and "What Is A Shooting Star"), and you can tell how it might have influenced TMBG's own educational children's albums.

Top 10:

10. The Kingston Trio - At Large
9. Tom Lehrer - An Evening Wasted With Tom Lehrer
8. The Louvin Brothers - Satan Is Real
7. Ella Fitzgerald - Sings The George And Ira Gershwin Songbook
6. Howlin’ Wolf – Moanin’ In The Moonlight
5. Ornette Coleman - The Shape Of Jazz To Come
4. Chuck Berry – Chuck Berry Is On Top
3. Dave Brubeck Quartet - Time Out
2. Miles Davis - Kind Of Blue
1. Charles Mingus - Mingus Ah Um

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