These are the record albums my parents had in their (sadly defunct) collection, as I remember them. Neither of my parents were rabid audiophiles and we were kinda poor in my early years, so the collection wasn’t extensive. But it’s what I had available to me as a kid and is the basis for some of my musical tastes. As I remember other albums, I’ll add them.

Al Stewart: Year of the Cat (I’m guessing on this one – somebody had it and I was fascinated by the cover)

The Beatles: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

The Beatles: Rubber Soul

The Beatles: Meet the Beatles (pretty sure it was this and not Something New)

The Beatles: The Beatles aka the White Album (as a teen I proudly figured out how to make the turntable play records backwards so I could hear the “messages” on this and also on my own copy of Led Zeppelin IV – I turned the belt into a figure 8. Neato!)

Billy Joel: The Stranger

Billy Joel: 52nd Street

Billy Joel: Piano Man

Billy Joel: The Nylon Curtain

Donald Fagan: The Nightfly

Gilda Radner: Live from New York (a later acquisition but I used to have this one memorized I love her so)

Herb Alpert: Whipped Cream and other Delights (never listened to it, just thought the lady on the front was hilarious)

Henry Mancini: (Some greatest hits compilation that included “Baby Elephant Walk,” which my brother I liked to listen to.)

Johnny Mathis: Merry Christmas

Led Zeppelin: Houses of the Holy (also known to me and my brother as the “nudnik album.” Robert Plant’s kids were roughly the same ages as us.)

Led Zeppelin: In through the Out Door (I accidentally discovered that the inner liner of this album had pigment that you could mix with water to create a soft watercolor wash – probably my happiest discovery after the backwards album thing.)

NEW! Peter Frampton: I’m in You. HOW could I forget this album? Peter’s last tour in the U.S. is this summer (due to an unfortunate medical diagnosis which breaks my heart for him) and I simply HAVE to see hime at Bethel Woods.

Renaissance:  Camera Camera

Steely Dan: Aja

Also some Christmas album whose name I cannot remember, just that it came out in the 1960s and featured a children’s choir singing the usual holiday standards with some adult joining in here and there. But we played the hell out of it.

Some family friends of ours had a much more extensive album collection and whenever I went over to their house I would play DJ. They had Black Sabbath and Jethro Tull, which formed my early attraction to Heavy Metal.