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