Abbey Road
1969
The last album they recorded together, with side two stitched out of songs nobody had finished. The cover shoot took about ten minutes.
★ 9.7
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1969
Showing 16 albums from 1969
Let It Bleed
1969
Merry Clayton was called in at midnight, heavily pregnant, to sing on Gimme Shelter. Her voice cracks on the third take and Jagger whoops.
★ 8.8
Led Zeppelin II
1969
Written and recorded in snatched hours in studios across two continents while touring. Willie Dixon later sued over the words to Whole Lotta Love.
★ 8.6
Led Zeppelin
1969
Guitarist Jimmy Page paid for the sessions himself and the record took about thirty-six hours of studio time. Nobody had heard drums recorded like that.
★ 8.6
The Band
1969
They converted the pool house of a rented Hollywood home into a studio. Most of these songs about the American South were written by a Canadian.
★ 8.5
Stand!
1969
One track runs thirteen minutes and another uses a talk box to make the two singers argue through their instruments about race.
★ 7.4
Crosby Stills and Nash
1969
The three of them first sang together in a living room and knew immediately. The house on the cover was demolished before they could reshoot it.
★ 7.0
Dusty in Memphis
1969
Springfield was so intimidated by the Memphis players that she could not sing in front of them. Her vocals were added later in New York.
★ 6.9
The Stooges
1969
John Cale of the Velvet Underground produced it, and the band arrived in New York with only five songs, writing the rest overnight.
★ 6.3
Trout Mask Replica
1969
The band rehearsed in a rented house for months while Van Vliet dictated every part to them by ear. Frank Zappa paid for it.
★ 6.3
Five Leaves Left
1969
The title comes from the warning near the end of a packet of cigarette papers. A college friend with no professional credits wrote the string parts.
★ 6.0
From Elvis in Memphis
1969
His first proper studio album in eight years of films, cut with a Memphis house band who treated him like any other singer.
★ 6.0
Green River
1969
Singer John Fogerty had never been to the Louisiana bayou he sings about. He wrote all of it in northern California, in his early twenties.
★ 6.0
Santana
1969
Santana played Woodstock before this was even released, reportedly on mescaline, and the film of it made the band famous overnight.
★ 5.4
Nashville Skyline
1969
Dylan had stopped smoking and his voice came back completely different, which nobody was expecting. Johnny Cash sings with him on the opener.
★ 4.3