Showing posts with label folk rock. Show all posts
Showing posts with label folk rock. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 30, 2026

Top 100 Folk/Folk Rock Acts

Folk/Folk Rock:

Top 100 Acts

Folk music is characterized as traditional music that often deals with themes of life's daily struggles. It passed from generation to generation via oral tradition. Typically the composers were unknown and the music was played on traditional, acoustic instruments. A folk revival in the 20th century led to the popularization of the art through socially-conscious singer/songwriters who worked within the folk form and also expanded it in the rock era, especially in the 1960s, with more electric instruments. Another wave occurred in the 21st century with artists who found audiences at adult alternative radio.

17 lists focused on the best folk and/or folk-rock acts of all time were aggregated to create this list.

See other lists of Acts/Music Makers by Genre.


Bob Dylan

14 lists:

1. Bob Dylan
2. Simon & Garfunkel

13 lists:

3. Joni Mitchell
4. Joan Baez
5. Pete Seeger

12 lists:

6. Woody Guthrie

10 lists:

7. Neil Young
8. James Taylor
9. Leonard Cohen
10. Peter, Paul, & Mary

9 lists:

11. Gordon Lightfoot

8 lists:

12. Cat Stevens
13. Huddie “Leadbelly” Ledbetter
14. The Kingston Trio
15. Judy Collins

7 lists:

16. The Byrds
17. John Prine
18. Odetta
19. Bon Iver
20. Arlo Guthrie

6 lists:

21. Crosby, Stills & Nash
22. Grateful Dead
23. John Denver
24. The Carter Family
25. Mumford & Sons
26. The Mamas & the Papas
27. Nick Drake
28. Don McLean
29. Donovan
30. Sufjan Stevens

31. Harry Chapin
32. Ani DiFranco
33. Phil Ochs

5 lists:

34. Paul Simon
35. Carole King
36. Harry Belafonte
37. Tracy Chapman
38. Buffalo Springfield
39. The Weavers
40. Jim Croce

41. The Decemberists
42. Fairport Convention
43. Fleet Foxes
44. Joan Armatrading
45. Doc Watson
46. Ramblin' Jack Elliott

4 lists:

47. Johnny Cash
48. Jethro Tull
49. The Band
50. David Crosby

51. Indigo Girls
52. The Lumineers
53. America
54. Richard Thompson
55. Suzanne Vega
56. Lovin’ Spoonful
57. Ben Harper
58. Dan Fogelberg
59. Elliott Smith
60. Bright Eyes

61. Bert Jansch
62. Neutral Milk Hotel
63. Joanna Newsom
64. Townes Van Zandt
65. Billy Bragg
66. Elizabeth Cotten
67. Steeleye Span
68. Janis Ian
69. Buffy Sainte-Marie

3 lists:

70. Van Morrison

71. Tom Waits
72. Jackson Browne
73. Melissa Etheridge
74. Emmylou Harris
75. Violent Femmes
76. Graham Nash
77. Jimmie Rodgers
78. Love
79. Shawn Colvin
80. Jewel

81. Roger McGuinn
82. The Pogues
83. Of Monsters & Men
84. Mississippi John Hurt
85. Tim Buckley
86. Bruce Cockburn
87. Al Stewart
88. Gillian Welch
89. Patty Griffin
90. The Incredible String Band

91. Iron & Wine
92. The Highwaymen
93. Tom Paxton
94. Michelle Shocked
95. Dave Van Ronk
96. Loudon Wainwright III
97. Ian & Sylvia
98. Ewan MacColl
99. Pentangle

2 lists:

100. The Everly Brothers

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First posted 6/30/2026.

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Tuesday, November 18, 2025

Folk Rock: Top 100 Songs

Folk Rock:

Top 100 Songs

Originally this was a list of the top top folk and folk rock songs. However, I’ve now split it into two lists – one focused on folk and traditional songs and this one focused on folk rock songs. These lists were generated by aggregating multiple lists that focused on folk and folk rock and then reordering the songs based on their overall status in Dave’s Music Database.

Click here to see other genre-specific song lists.

1. Simon & Garfunkel “Bridge Over Troubled Water” (1970)
2. Bob Dylan “Like a Rolling Stone” (1965)
3. The Animals “The House of the Rising Sun” (1964)
4. Rod Stewart “Maggie May” (1971)
5. Simon & Garfunkel “The Sounds of Silence” (1965)
6. The Byrds (1965), Bob Dylan (1965) “Mr. Tambourine Man”
7. Buffalo Springfield “For What It’s Worth” (1966)
8. The Mamas & the Papas “California Dreamin’” (1966)
9. Neil Young “Heart of Gold” (1972)
10. Simon & Garfunkel “Mrs. Robinson” (1968)

11. James Taylor “Fire and Rain” (1970)
12. Bob Dylan (1963), Peter, Paul & Mary (1963) “Blowin’ in the Wind”
13. The Turtles “Happy Together” (1967)
14. Carole King “It’s Too Late” (1971)
15. The Byrds (1965), Judy Collins (1963), Pete Seeger (1959) “Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season)”
16. Sonny & Cher “I Got You Babe” (1965)
17. America “A Horse with No Name” (1971)
18. Crosby, Stills & Nash “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” (1969)
19. Bob Dylan “The Times They Are A-Changin’” (1964)
20. Bob Dylan “Tangled Up in Blue” (1975)

21. Joni Mitchell “Big Yellow Taxi” (1970)
22. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young “Ohio” (1970)
23. The Mamas & the Papas “Monday Monday” (1966)
24. The Beatles “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)” (1965)
25. The Lovin’ Spoonful “Summer in the City” (1966)
26. The Youngbloods “Get Together” (1967)
27. Simon & Garfunkel “The Boxer” (1969)
28. Scott McKenzie “San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Some Flowers in Your Hair)” (1967)
29. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young “Teach Your Children” (1970)
30. Bob Dylan “Subterranean Homesick Blues” (1965)

31. America “Ventura Highway” (1972)
32. Donovan “Sunshine Superman” (1966)
33. Cat Stevens “Morning Has Broken” (1971)
34. Gordon Lightfoot “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” (1976)
35. Simon & Garfunkel “Scarborough Fair/Canticle” (1966)
36. Neil Young “Cinnamon Girl” (1969)
37. Leonard Cohen “Suzanne” (1967)
38. Harry Nilsson “Everybody’s Talkin’” (1968)
39. Barry McGuire “Eve of Destruction” (1965)
40. Joni Mitchell “A Case of You” (1971)

41. The Lovin’ Spoonful “Do You Believe in Magic?” (1965)
42. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young “Our House” (1970)
43. Neil Young “Old Man” (1972)
44. Love “Alone Again Or” (1967)
45. The Searchers “Needles and Pins” (1964)
46. Bob Dylan “Hurricane” (1975)
47. Bob Dylan “Positively 4th Street” (1965)
48. Joni Mitchell (1970), Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (1970), Matthews’ Southern Comfort (1970), Assembled Multitude (1970) “Woodstock”
49. Janis Ian “At Seventeen” (1975)
50. Pete Seeger (1963), Joan Baez (1963) “We Shall Overcome”

51. Donovan “Mellow Yellow” (1966)
52. Cat Stevens “Wild World” (1970)
53. Crosby, Stills & Nash “Marrakesh Express” (1969)
54. Simon & Garfunkel “Homeward Bound” (1966)
55. Bob Dylan (1963), Peter, Paul & Mary (1963) “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right”
56. Bob Dylan “Just Like a Woman” (1966)
57. Bob Dylan “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35” (1966)
58. The Rooftop Singers “Walk Right In” (1962)
59. The Byrds “So You Wanna Be a Rock and Roll Star” (1967)
60. Neil Young “Southern Man” (1970)

61. The Lovin’ Spoonful “Daydream” (1966)
62. Judy Collins (1968), Joni Mitchell (1969), Dave Van Ronk (1969) “Both Sides Now”
63. Peter, Paul & Mary “Puff the Magic Dragon” (1963)
64. Bob Dylan (1964, The Byrds (1967) “My Back Pages”
65. Simon & Garfunkel “I Am a Rock” (1966)
66. Donovan “Catch the Wind” (1965)
67. Buffalo Springfield “Mr. Soul” (1967)
68. Pete Seeger (1963), Peter, Paul & Mary (1962), Trini Lopez (1963) “If I Had a Hammer”
69. The Mamas & the Papas “Creeque Alley” (1967)
70. Bob Dylan “I Want You” (1966)

71. Arlo Guthrie “Alice’s Restaurant” (1967)
72. Crosby, Stills & Nash “Wooden Ships” (1969)
73. Peter, Paul & Mary (1969), John Denver (1969) “Leaving on a Jet Plane”
74. The Byrds “I’ll Feel a Whole Lot Better” (1965)
75. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young “Helplessly Hoping” (1969)
76. You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away (1965)
77. The Grass Roots “Let’s Live for Today” (1967)
78. Neil Young “Down by the River” (1969)
79. The Turtles “It Ain't Me Babe” (1965)
80. The Mamas & the Papas “Twelve Thirty (Young Girls Are Coming to the Canyon)” (1967)

81. Country Joe & the Fish “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die Rag” (1967)
82. Led Zeppelin “Gallows Pole” (1970)
83. Hedy West (1961), Bobby Bare (1963), Peter, Paul & Mary (1963), Joan Baez (1965) “500 Miles”
84. The Brothers Four “Greenfields” (1960)
85. Joan Baez “Diamonds and Rust” (1975)
86. The Association “Along Comes Mary” (1966)
87. The Lovin’ Spoonful “You Didn’t Have to Be So Nice” (1965)
88. Bob Dylan “Masters of War” (1963)
89. Joni Mitchell “The Circle Game” (1970)
90. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young “Helpless” (1970)

91. Simon & Garfunkel “The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy)” (1966)
92. Leonard Cohen “Famous Blue Raincoat” (1971)
93. Pete Seeger (1962), The Kingston Trio (1962), Joan Baez (1965) “Where Have All the Flowers Gone”
94. Gale Garnett “We'll Sing in the Sunshine” (1964)
95. Neil Young “After the Gold Rush” (1970)
96. Tim Hardin (1967), Bobby Darin (1966) “If I Were a Carpenter”
97. Buffy Sainte-Marie (1964), Donovan (1965) “Universal Soldier”
98. Janis Ian “Society’s Child (Baby I’ve Been Thinking)” (1967)
99. The Mamas & the Papas “I Saw Her Again” (1966)
100. Phil Ochs “I Ain't Marchin’ Anymore” (1965)

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First posted 4/19/2020; last updated 11/18/2025.

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Friday, March 22, 2024

The Top 60 Folk/Folk Rock Albums of All Time

Folk/Folk Rock:

The Top 60 Albums

Call it folk, folk-rock, roots music, country rock, or whatever else floats your fancy. Music typically driven by acoustic instruments or which harkens back to musical forms of a century ago has played a large role in shaping popular music and then responding to popular music trends. The DMDB aggregated more than 30 lists and then took those albums from 3 or more lists and ranked them according to overall DMDB points.

This has since been divided into two lists. This one focuses on folk and folk rock, roughly music from the 1930s through the 1980s. A second list has been been dedicated to what I’m calling “New Americana.” Like folk and folk rock, this is music which is roots-based, but tends to have a more modern spin as it is largely comprised of albums from the 21st century with representation of the ‘80s and ‘90s as well. In addition to Americana, this music is also referred to as indie folk and alt-country.

Make sure you also check out the DMDB list of top country albums as there is a lot ocross-polination between country, folk, and Americana. I’ve created three separate lists for these genres and allowed an album to only show up on one of the three lists. Check out those and other best-of-genre/category lists here.

1. Simon & Garfunkel Bridge Over Troubled Water (1970)
2. Bob Dylan Blonde on Blonde (1966)
3. Carole King Tapestry (1971)
4. Bob Dylan Highway 61 Revisited (1965)
5. Bob Dylan Blood on the Tracks (1975)
6. Van Morrison Astral Weeks (1968)
7. Joni Mitchell Blue (1971)
8. Neil Young After the Gold Rush (1970)
9. Neil Young Harvest (1972)
10. Love Forever Changes (1967)

11. The Band The Band (1969)
12. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young Déjà Vu (1970)
13. Robert Johnson The Complete Recordings (1936-37)
14. Bob Dylan Bringing It All Back Home (1965)
15. Van Morrison Moondance (1970)
16. The Band Music from Big Pink (1968)
17. George Harrison All Things Must Pass (1970)
18. Creedence Clearwater Revival Cosmo’s Factory (1970)
19. Tracy Chapman Tracy Chapman (1988)
20. Grateful Dead American Beauty (1970)

21. Bob Dylan The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan (1963)
22. Crosby, Stills & Nash Crosby, Stills & Nash (1969)
23. Nick Drake Five Leaves Left (1969)
24. Bruce Springsteen Nebraska (1982)
25. Bob Dylan Love and Theft (2001)
26. Leonard Cohen The Songs of Leonard Cohen (1967)
27. Simon & Garfunkel Bookends (1968)
28. Neil Young Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (1969)
29. The Byrds Younger Than Yesterday (1967)
30. The Byrds Mr. Tambourine Man (1965)

31. Grateful Dead Workingman’s Dead (1970)
32. Bob Dylan Time Out of Mind (1997)
33. Various Artists compiled by Harry Smith Anthology of American Folk Music (box set, recorded 1926-32, released 1952)
34. James Taylor Sweet Baby James (1970)
35. Bob Dylan John Wesley Harding (1967)
36. Bob Dylan Modern Times (2006)
37. John Cougar Mellencamp Scarecrow (1985)
38. Nick Drake Bryter Layter (1970)
39. Fairport Convention Liege and Lief (1969)
40. Nick Drake Pink Moon (1972)

41. Cat Stevens Tea for the Tillerman (1970)
42. Buffalo Springfield Again (1967)
43. Woody Guthrie Dust Bowl Ballads (1940)
44. Simon & Garfunkel Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme (1966)
45. Bob Dylan The Royal Albert Hall Concert (The Bootleg Series Volume 4) (live, 1966)
46. Richard & Linda Thompson I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight (1974)
47. Neil Young On the Beach (1974)
48. Bob Dylan Nashville Skyline (1969)
49. Bob Dylan Another Side of Bob Dylan (1964)
50. John Prine John Prine (1972)

51. Richard & Linda Thompson Shoot Out the Lights (1982)
52. The Kingston Trio At Large (1959)
53. Randy Newman 12 Songs (1970)
54. Bob Dylan The Times They Are A-Changin’ (1964)
55. Indigo Girls Indigo Girls (1989)
56. Leonard Cohen Songs of Love and Hate (1971)
57. Tim Buckley Starsailor (1970)
58. Fairport Convention Unhalfbricking (1969)
59. Bob Dylan Rough and Rowdy Ways (2020)
60. Eagles Eagles (1972)

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First posted 3/4/2013; last updated 3/22/2024.

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Friday, September 16, 2022

Top 100 Modern Folk Songs: 1980-2022

Modern Folk Songs, 1980-2022:

Top 100 Songs

Songs on this list fall under various banners including folk, folk-rock, modern folk, alt-country, and Americana. Most genre lists at Dave’s Music Database are created by aggregating best-of lists from multiple sources. In this case, it was difficult to find lists focused on modern folk. As such, this list was compiled by pulling together any acts from 1980 forward who appeared on any best-of folk or folk rock song lists and folk/Americana album lists. Those applicable songs were then listed in order of overall ranking on Dave’s Music Database.

Click here to see other genre-specific song lists.

1. Tracy Chapman “Fast Car” (1988)
2. Johnny Cash “Hurt” (2003)
3. The Lumineers “Ho Hey” (2012)
4. Jeff Buckley “Hallelujah” (1994)
5. Passenger “Let Her Go” (2012)
6. Suzanne Vega “Luka” (1987)
7. Tracy Chapman “Give Me One Reason” (1995)
8. Shawn Colvin “Sunny Came Home” (1996)
9. Mumford & Sons “I Will Wait” (2012)
10. k.d. lang “Constant Craving” (1992)

11. Kacey Musgraves “Follow Your Arrow” (2013)
12. Grateful Dead “Touch of Grey” (1987)
13. Leonard Cohen “Hallelujah” (1984)
14. Indigo Girls “Closer to Fine” (1989)
15. Neil Young “Harvest Moon” (1992)
16. Jeff Buckley “Last Goodbye” (1994)
17. Tracy Chapman “Talkin’ ‘Bout a Revolution” (1988)
18. Mumford & Sons “Little Lion Man” (2009)
19. Ray LaMontagne “You Are the Best Thing” (2008)
20. Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova as The Swell Season “Falling Slowly” (2007)

21. Brandi Carlile “The Joke” (2017)
22. The Soggy Bottom Boys “Man of Constant Sorrow” (2001)
23. Bruce Springsteen “Atlantic City” (1982)
24. The Lumineers “Ophelia” (2016)
25. Willie Nelson & Merle Haggard “Pancho and Lefty” (1983)
26. Leonard Cohen “You Want It Darker” (2016)
27. Shawn Colvin “I Don’t Know Why” (1992)
28. The Lumineers “Stubborn Love” (2012)
29. Mumford & Sons “Believe” (2015)
30. Chris Stapleton “Tennessee Whiskey” (2015)

31. Bob Dylan “Things Have Changed” (2000)
32. Mumford & Sons “Guiding Light” (2018)
33. Bruce Cockburn “If I Had a Rocket Launcher” (1984)
34. Mumford & Sons “The Cave” (2009)
35. Beck “Lost Cause” (2002)
36. Tracy Chapman “Crossroads” (1989)
37. Indigo Girls “Galileo” (1992)
38. Tracy Chapman “Baby Can I Hold You” (1988)
39. Brandi Carlile “The Story (I Was Made for You)” (2007)
40. Loreena McKennitt “The Mummer’s Dance” (1997)

41. Kacey Musgraves “Justified” (2021)
42. Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit “If We Were Vampires” (2017)
43. The Lumineers “Gloria” (2019)
44. Chris Stapleton “Broken Halos” (2017)
45. Bon Iver “Holocene” (2011)
46. Bruce Cockburn “Lovers in a Dangerous Time” (1984)
47. The Head and the Heart “All We Ever Knew” (2016)
48. Suzanne Vega & Joe Jackson “Left of Center” (1986)
49. Kacey Musgraves “Rainbow” (2018)
50. Indigo Girls “Power of Two” (1994)

51. Fleet Foxes “White Winter Hymnal” (2008)
52. Bright Eyes “First Day of My Life” (2005)
53. Bruce Springsteen “The Ghost of Tom Joad” (1995)
54. The Highwomen “Crowded Table” (2019)
55. Kacey Musgraves “Space Cowboy” (2018)
56. Lucinda Williams “Righteously” (2003)
57. Bon Iver “Skinny Love” (2007)
58. Indigo Girls “Hammer and a Nail” (1990)
59. Tracy Chapman “Telling Stories (There Is Friction in the Space Between)” (2000)
60. Bruce Springsteen “Devils & Dust” (2005)

61. The Avett Brothers “Ain’t No Man” (2016)
62. Chris Stapleton “Starting Over” (2020)
63. The Head and the Heart “Missed Connection” (2019)
64. The Lumineers “Life in the City” (2019)
65. Sharon Van Etten “Seventeen” (2019)
66. Mumford & Sons “The Wolf” (2015)
67. Neko Case, k.d. lang, & Laura Veirs “Atomic Number” (2016)
68. Robert Plant & Alison Krauss “Please Read the Letter” (2007)
69. Robert Plant & Alison Krauss “Gone Gone Gone (Done Moved On)” (2007)
70. Sufjan Stevens “Chicago” (2005)

71. Bob Dylan “Everything Is Broken” (1989)
72. Leonard Cohen “Everybody Knows” (1988)
73. Bruce Springsteen “We Shall Overcome” (1998)
74. Suzanne Vega “Solitude Standing” (1987)
75. Bob Dylan “Mississippi” (2001)
76. Suzanne Vega “Tom’s Diner” (1987)
77. Sturgill Simpson “In Bloom” (2016)
78. Neko Case “Hold on Hold On” (2006)
79. The Head and the Heart “Lost in My Mind” (2011)
80. Neil Young “Philadelphia” (1994)

81. Ray LaMontagne & the Pariah Dogs “Beg, Steal or Borrow” (2010)
82. Shawn Colvin “Steady On” (1989)
83. Brandi Carlile “Right on Time” (2021)
84. Tracy Chapman “All That You Have Is Your Soul” (1989)
85. Indigo Girls “Get Together” (1987)
86. Bob Dylan “Dignity” (1994)
87. Shawn Colvin “Round of Blues” (1992)
88. Shawn Colvin “Diamond in the Rough” (1989)
89. The Avett Brothers “Kick Drum Heart” (2009)
90. Fleet Foxes “Helplessness Blues” (2011)

91. The Lumineers “Cleopatra” (2016)
92. Mumford & Sons “Lover of the Light” (2012)
93. Sharon Van Etten & Angel Olsen “Like I Used To” (2021)
94. The Head and the Heart “Rhythm & Blues” (2016)
95. Willie Nelson “City of New Orleans” (1984)
96. Ray LaMontagne “Strong Enough” (2020)
97. Neko Case “Last Lion of Albion” (2018)
98. Jason Isbell “24 Frames’ (2015)
99. Josh Ritter “Getting Ready to Get Down” (2015)
100. Robert Plant & Alison Krauss “Can’t Let Go” (2021)

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First posted 9/11/2022; last updated 9/16/2022.

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Tuesday, February 22, 2022

Dave's Music Hall of Fame: Album Inductees (February 2022)

The Top Folk/Folk-Rock Albums

Originally posted 2/22/2022.

January 22, 2019 marked the 10-year anniversary of the DMDB blog. To honor that, Dave’s Music Database announced its own Hall of Fame. This month marks the thirteenth group of album inductees. These are the top folk/folk-rock albums of all time, excluding previous inductees Blonde on Blonde and Highway 61 Revisited from Bob Dylan, Carole King’s Tapestry, and Neil Young’s After the Gold Rush.

See the full list of album inductees here.

The Band Music from Big Pink (1968)

Inducted February 2022 as “Top Folk/Folk-Rock Albums.”

Ironically it took a group of four Canadians and one American to popularize Americana, or roots-based music. The Band’s debut album came about after the members had already made a name for themselves backing Ronnie Hawkins and then Bob Dylan. This album, which featured “The Weight” and “I Shall Be Released,” is a Grammy Hall of Fame inductee. Read more.

The Band The Band (1969)

Inducted February 2022 as “Top Folk/Folk-Rock Albums.”

AllMusic.com’s William Ruhlmann called the Band’s self-titled sophomore album “a more deliberate and even more accomplished effort” than their debut. It was commercially more successful, reaching the top ten and selling a million copies.The album, which features “Up on Cripple Creek” and “The Night They Drove Ol’ Dixie Down,” is a Grammy Hall of Fame and National Recording Registry inductee. Read more.

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young Déjà Vu (1970)

Inducted February 2022 as “Top Folk/Folk-Rock Albums.”

In 1969, the trio of David Crosby, Stephen Stills, and Graham Nash were hailed as one of rock’s first supergroups. It seemed impossible to top their triumphant Woodstock appearance and a top-ten, four-million-selling album debut, but they roared back the next year by adding Neil Young to their arsenal and delivering a #1 album that doubled the sales of its predecessor. The Grammy Hall of Fame album featured a plethora of folk-rock staples, including “Teach Your Children,” Woodstock,” “Our House,” and “Helpless.” Read more.

Bob Dylan Bringing It All Back Home (1965)

Inducted February 2022 as “Top Folk/Folk-Rock Albums.”

“Subterranean Homesick Blues,” the leadoff track from Bob Dylan’s fifth album, Bringing It All Back Home, wasn’t just his first top-40 single and an iconic video. It also announced a bold new direction for the folk hero: he was going electric. The move alienated some of the genre’s most rigid aficionados but made for a triumphant merger of folk meets rock. The Grammy Hall of Fame album also introduced “Mr. Tambourine Man,” which the Byrds turned into the signature song for the entire movement. Read more.

Bob Dylan Blood on the Tracks (1975)

Inducted February 2022 as “Top Folk/Folk-Rock Albums.”

AllMusic.com’s Stephen Thomas Erlewine said, “Dylan made albums more influential than this, but he never made one better.” The Grammy Hall of Fame inductee is popularly referred to as his divorce album because it documents the collapse of his marriage to Sara Lownds, although Dylan denies this. He was also surprised people responded so much to an album with painful themes, but it was definitely a commercial success, reaching #1 in the U.S. and selling 10 million copies worldwide. Read more.

Joni Mitchell Blue (1971)

Inducted February 2022 as “Top Folk/Folk-Rock Albums.”

AllMusic.com’s Jason Ankeny called this “the quintessential confessional singer/songwriter album.” Joni’s platinum-selling, Grammy Hall of Fame inductee is an exercise of “writing about what you know” as she lays bare her feelings about ending her relationship with Graham Nash and starting an affair with James Taylor. Paste magazine said, it “set a new bar for breakup albums and still remains the standard by which any acoustically inclined singer/songwriter today will be compared.” Read more.

Van Morrison Astral Weeks (1968)

Inducted February 2022 as “Top Folk/Folk-Rock Albums.”

The Grammy Hall of Fame album failed to chart in the U.S. or UK but integrated the improvisational spirit (as well as some significant players) from the jazz world into a folk-leaning effort that no one expected from the guy who’d delivered “Brown Eyed Girl” on his debut and the iconic garage rock “Gloria” with his band Them. PopMatters.com’s Jason Mendelsohn called it “a jazz record disguised as a rock record.” Read more.

Van Morrison Moondance (1970)

Inducted February 2022 as “Top Folk/Folk-Rock Albums.”

After the jazzy Astral Weeks, Van Morrison did another 180 and returned to a more tightly-structured, pop-leaning effort with Moondance, a three-million seller that delivered the top-40 hit “Come Running” as well as classic rock hits like “Into the Mystic,” “Crazy Love,” “And It Stoned Me,” and, of course, the title cut. Read more.

Simon & Garfunkel Bridge Over Troubled Water (1970)

Inducted February 2022 as “Top Folk/Folk-Rock Albums.”

It’s hard to top Bridge Over Troubled Water as a last hurrah. The fifth and final album for Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel was a massive success, hitting #1 for 10 weeks in the U.S. and 33 weeks in the UK. It sold over 28 million copies worldwide and won the Grammy for Album of the Year. It also gave the world the top-10 hits “The Boxer,” “Cecilia,” and the iconic chart-topping title cut. Read more.

Neil Young Harvest (1972)

Inducted February 2022 as “Top Folk/Folk-Rock Albums.”

Harvest was a #1 album that sold more than 16 million copies worldwide, thanks to the chart-topping “Heart of Gold,” top-40 hit “Old Man,” and perhaps the best “don’t do heroin” song ever, “The Needle and the Damage Done.” Billboard named it the Album of the Year and it has been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. PopMatters.com’s Erik Klinger says it “hardly sounds like a naked grab for the mainstream” but, as his co-hort Jason Mendelsohn says, “it is by far the most accessible suite of songs he had written thus far in his career.” Read more.
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Friday, December 23, 2016

Today in Music (1966): Buffalo Springfield released “For What It’s Worth”

For What It’s Worth

Buffalo Springfield

Writer(s): Stephen Stills (see lyrics here)

Released: December 23, 1966

First Charted: January 14, 1967

Peak: 7 US, 7 CB, 3 GR, 8 HR, 1 CL, 9 CN, 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.)

Sales (in millions): -- US, -- UK, -- world (includes US + UK)

Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 3.0 radio, 83.33 video, 590.23 streaming

Awards:

Click on award for more details.

About the Song:

While this has mistakenly been interpreted as “an anti-war protest song…[and] pretty much adopted as such” RC the origin of “For What It’s Worth “is “far more domestic than that.” DT “It sprang out of the civil war in miniature that [songwriter Stephen] Stills was witnessing on Los Angeles’s Sunset Strip at the time.” TB

Pandora’s Box, a nightclub on L.A.’s Sunset Strip, closed down and there were, as Stills said, “a bunch of kids having a funeral for a bar.” TC Another account, however, suggests it was a protest against the 10 p.m. curfew imposed after residents complained about traffic RC and fear that the “scruffy hippies were chasing away legitimate customers.” SJ Reports suggested the “crowds of longhairs” DM were “blocking sdewalks, smoking dope, spilling into the streets.” DM

In any event, “the LAPD decided to run a line-up across the street, like there was some kind of revolution going on.” TC They had been “called upon to rid the street of ‘undesirables,’ [and] they busted heads.” DM Stills had just visited Latin America “and was horrified at how similar the tensions in that region on the brink of revolution were to those in a developed democracy.” TB “The Summer of Love was unraveling before it even began.” RS500

“When song lyrics stick in our minds…the reason is not to be found in the lyrics alone, but in the combination fo lyrics and tune and beat and performance and, most of all, sound.” PW “The song is a call to awareness and, at least implicitly, resistance, but there is also a plea for brotherhood, a rejection of ‘us and them’ thinking.” WK That message is accompanied by “Neil Young’s guitar [which] tolled like a funeral bell;” RS500 it “had a beautiful ringing...basically one note…that sounded like heaven opening. The entire apocalypse was in that one note.” TC

The song served as a “microcosm of what was happening on the streets, and in the hearts and minds, of America during one of the most tumultuous times in our history.” SS It became “a defining sound of the time period, in which inter-generational discord was rampant and youth were attempting to assert themselves against authority figures.” KW It “established Stephen Stills as a spokesman for ‘60s youth.” SJ

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First posted 4/19/2020; last updated 4/21/2024.

 
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Friday, January 1, 2016

Today in Music (1966): The Mamas & the Papas charted with “California Dreamin’”

California Dreamin’

The Mamas & the Papas

Writer(s): John Phillips/ Michelle Phillips (see lyrics here)

Released: December 8, 1965

First Charted: January 1, 1966

Peak: 4 US, 4 CB, 2 GR, 2 HR, 1 CL, 9 UK, 7 CN, 87 AU, 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.)

Sales (in millions): 1.0 US, -- UK, 1.0 world (includes US + UK)

Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 236.3 video, 807.84 streaming

Awards:

Click on award for more details.

About the Song:

Ironically, the group at the heart of the mid-1960s folk-rock movement on the West Coast emerged from the folk scene in Greewich Village. TB Before John Phillips and his wife Michelle comprised half of the group known as the Mamas & the Papas, they were living in New York in 1963. They’d been married a few months and he was working with the folk group the Journeymen. She was homesick for California and he wrote about it after “the couple walked through Greenwich Village, desperate for some sunshine in the midst of a snowstorm.” SS

After the Journeymen broke up, John and Michelle tried to move forward with the New Journeymen, but that was short-lived. By 1965, all their Village pals – including Cass Elliot and Dennis Doherty of the Mugwumps – had moved to California so the Phillips headed there as well. SS Cass reached out to her friend Barry McGuire, who’d found success with “Eve of Destruction,” and he recorded “California Dreamin’” with her and the Phillips on backing vocals. SS

John then realized how magical the song was and asked if he could keep it to release as the debut single for the Mamas & the Papas. Barry said, “Hey, it’s your tune. Do whatever you want.” SS They replaced McGuire’s lead vocal with Doherty and made some other changes SS but kept the same backing track. TB

The song is also marked by a rare flute solo. SF According to Doug Thompson, the group wanted a more unusual solo than the standard guitar. John went out in the hall, saw jazz saxophonist Bud Shank, and pulled him into the studio. Shank, in turn, listened to the part of the song requiring the solo and then nailed it with the first take. SF

“The song’s easy grace and subtle message is positively irresistible,” AMG making for “one of the all-time sunniest songs.” RS500 It “neatly encapsulated the feeling of longing as well as a desire to lead a freer, more spiritually fulfilling life.” AMG Michelle said, “It’s really about getting out from under circumstances of your life, and going to a better place. That’s a theme that doesn’t lose its appeal.” SS

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First posted 1/1/2013; last updated 4/25/2024.

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