This is part 68 of an ongoing series where the kind folk of the music business reveal their favourite album of all time.
Ask people in the music industry the seemingly simple and straightforward question, “What is your favourite album of all time?” and you’ll find that it’s not always easy. After all, my industry peers listen to hundreds of albums a month and thousands of songs during that time. Because the question isn’t the best album of all time or the one that’s made them the most money in sales, or the most clicked-on review, but the one release they personally can’t live without, that one title they have two copies of in several formats, in case one breaks. It’s also about that album that for them has the best back stories and the one that has the most meaning in their lives.
Tina Mica, On-Air Personality, KSWD, 100.3 The Sound
Boston, Boston
I’ve worn it out three times and still love listening to it on vinyl. To me, the Boston Debut album is full of enthusiasm! It’s in the lyrics, the vocals and instruments. The percussion, guitar riffs and Brad Delp’s vocals are full and rich. When I was a kid, I would come home from school, run to my room, lock myself in and blast the record. It would take me to different places in my mind. When I listen today, the album reminds me to live in the moment, celebrate life and to imagine the future.
Stephanie Mueller, Promotions Coordinator & Music Director, CKQK-FM,Charlottetown, PEI
Hanson, Underneath
It came out in 2004 right before I graduated high school and it got me through some good times, bad times, and helped me grow as a person. I feel like I owe a lot to that band. Most of their albums helped get me through some really different experiences in my life. I think it helps that I was the same age as them, so their writing really spoke to where I was in my life as each new album came out. I own multiple copies of most of their albums, physical, digital, even a number of them on vinyl. The fact that they show their fans how important they are to them is really special, too.
Jeff Strange, Program Director, 93.5 WKHY/ESPN 145- WASK-AM, Lafayette, IN
Van Halen, Fair Warning
From the opening two-hand tapping virtuosity of Mean Street to the rumbling synth line of “One Foot Out the Door”, this album never disappoints. After all of the band’s off-the-cuff, playful, sounding albums, “Fair Warning” was intense and angrier, with phenomenal playing from all members of the band. I felt like the disc captured Van Halen in peak form with tightness of the rhythm-section in songs like “Sinners Swing” and “Push Comes to Shove”, Edward’s masterful guitar work in “Fair Warning” and “Dirty Movies”, and Dave’s swagger in “Unchained and “So This Is Love?”, it captures all the things I loved about Van Halen. It’s was easily the most original and innovative album Van Halen released in my opinion.
Steve Graham, The Power of a Whisper and Go Country
The Plastic Ono Band, Live Peace In Toronto 1969
Give Peace A Chance brings great memories of John and Ono being in Montreal recording the song in bed and inviting media to the event. Working at CKGM at the time it was an interesting time. I remember coming into the station for many years after that event and checking messages at reception and almost weekly there would be a message for our owner Geoff Stirling from John Lennon. “Give Peace a Chance” is just one of those songs that is just as relevant today as it was back then maybe more so in today’s world. The album wasn’t great but the song had such an impact on me and many others I am sure. In today’s world if we lived by this message maybe it would be a different world with a whole lot less violence.
Staci Static, Assistant Program Director, WHHL-FM, St. Louis, Missouri
Stevie Wonder, Innervisions
No matter how many times I hear this album I experience a range of emotions and I’m filled with beautiful memories of family and past loves.
