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| 1969 may have been the peak year for rock and roll.
We originally featured albums from the year 1969 during January and February 2014, during this 45th anniversary celebration of the music.
The Band – The Band The Beatles – Abbey Road * Blind Faith – Blind Faith Chicago – Chicago Transit Authority Creedence Clearwater Revival – Bayou Country & Green River & Willie and the Poor Boys + Crosby, Stills, and Nash – Crosby, Stills, and Nash The Doors – The Soft Parade The Guess Who – Wheatfield Soul and Canned Wheat Grateful Dead – Aoxomoxoa Tommy James and the Shondells – Crimson and Clover James Gang – Yer Album Jethro Tull – Stand Up King Crimson – In the Court of the Crimson King The Kinks – Arthur (or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire) Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin I & Led Zeppelin II + Pink Floyd – More & Ummagumma + Rolling Stones – Let It Bleed The Who – Tommy Neil Young – Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere * 1969 Album of the Year Below are further descriptions of each album, in the order that we reviewed them. |
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| January 3, 2014 | |||||||||||||||
 Blind Faith was one of the very first “super groups”, forged out of the breakups of Cream and Traffic. Together for less than a year, the group released only one eponymous album, but this captured lightning in a bottle by aptly displayed the immense talents of the members of this quartet which seemed to effortlessly jive together as a group.
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| January 8, 2014 | |||||||||||||||
 Led Zeppelin arrived like very few groups, with their incredible output during 1969. The group embarked on eight tours between the releases of Led Zeppelin I and Led Zeppelin II, two albums which helped forge the direction of hard rock for decades afterward and are still absolute classics 45 years later.
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| January 12, 2014 | |||||||||||||||
 In the midst of a controversial year, The Doors released their fourth album The Soft Parade, which contained a radically different sound for the band. But when you remove all the fog surrounding it, the album is a diverse, entertaining, and totally unique album of a great American band at a musical crossroads.
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| January 16, 2014 | |||||||||||||||
 Chicago used their short-lived name for their double-length 1969 debut album, Chicago Transit Authority. From the inception, the seven member group fused brass, jazz, soul, and blues-based rock and roll and, with three lead vocalists and composers, the group’s sound was a s diverse as their influences.
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| January 20, 2014 | |||||||||||||||
 Musically, Tommy by The Who includes many throwbacks to classical opera. The album starts with a broad overture that includes themes that will appear later in the album, a staple of opera that dates back to at least the 17th century. However, the Who were the band that brought it into 20th century progressive rock.
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| January 24, 2014 | |||||||||||||||
 For the first (and most likely only) time, Classic Rock Review has done a triple album review. The three albums are Bayou Country, Green River, and Willie and the Poor Boys, all of which were released during the year 1969 by Creedence Clearwater Revival.
Review of Bayou Country, Green River, and Willie and the Poor Boys |
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| January 28, 2014 | |||||||||||||||
 Let It Bleed finished the decade of the 1960s with a mostly solid blues/rock effort by The Rolling Stones. Released a few months after the group had lost their original leader and musical visionary Brian Jones, the album is a true transitional work which divides the early and later periods of the band’s most productive years.
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| January 31, 2014 | |||||||||||||||
 With a second strong album, The Band came into their own as a viable, independent group, with their self-title 1969 album, The Band. The blend of rural Americana and urban-centric rock really struck a chord with listeners as the mature musicians who began their musical journey in the 1950s found broad appeal in the post-psychedelic era.
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| February 3, 2014 | |||||||||||||||
 Crosby, Stills, & Nash was formed from a trio of vocalists / guitarists who each came from successful 1960s pop/rock acts. Their debut album Crosby, Stills, & Nash became an extremely influential album that rippled through the music scene of the following decade.
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| February 6, 2014 | |||||||||||||||
 With their second LP Stand Up in 1969, Jethro Tull began to move away from the straight-forward blues rock of their earliest years and towards a more progressive jazz-fusion sound. Led by the ever-present flute of group leader Ian Anderson, this sound would serve to define the group through their heyday of the 1970s.
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| February 10, 2014 | |||||||||||||||
 As the third studio album by Grateful Dead, Aoxomoxoa is dominated by guitarist and vocalist Jerry Garcia. The album also bridges the gap between the psychedelic sounds of their earlier material and the more Americana based music of the Grateful Dead in the early 1970s.
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| February 14, 2014 | |||||||||||||||
 A superb debut, the 1969 self-titled album by the Allman Brothers Band captures the newly formed group at the accelerant stage with a potent fusion of blues, jazz, and rock. Further, the album itself seems to grow as it progresses, building from the simple to the complex, and leaving the listener wanting from more.
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| February 17, 2014 | |||||||||||||||
 Originally developed to accompany a British television production, The Kinks 1969 concept album Arthur (or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire) may have been their finest overall output during the 1960s, a decade in which they did much to define musically.
Review of Arthur (or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire) |
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| February 20, 2014 | |||||||||||||||
 Seldom does a band release a debut album as critically and financially successful as In the Court of the Crimson King, an Observation by King Crimson. Released in the winter of 1969, the album is filled with echoes of the darkest parts of the decade of the 1960s and may be the first truly progressive rock album.
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| February 25, 2014 | |||||||||||||||
 The debut album by the James Gang seems to be at once frivolous and genius. While Yer Album contains some annoying filler with bad humor, it also contains unabashed rock jams and insightful compositions, while setting the plate for a brief but potent career for this power trio.
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| March 4, 2014 | |||||||||||||||
 1969 was an extraordinary year for music, so choosing our Album of the Year was more difficult than in most cases. But when you consider that it is the finest work by The Beatles, the band that defines the decade of the 1960s, it made the choice more clear. Despite turmoil in their interpersonal and business relationships, the group was able, with the oversight of producer George Martin, to bridge their differences and make a cohesive and brilliant album. And that’s exactly what they did and Abbey Road is our Album of the Year for 1969. |
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| March 10, 2019 | |||||||||||||||
 1969 was the year that The Guess Who (then over a decade old) began their rise towards international fame with the release of the albums Wheatfield Soul and Canned Wheat along with their accompanying hit songs.
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| May 5, 2019 | |||||||||||||||
 On their sixth album, Tommy James and the Shondells were given their first opportunity to compose and produce independently. The result is Crimson and Clover, a collection of songs which seamlessly range from teen-oriented power pop to blue-eyed Soul to psychedelic experimentation.
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| June 3, 2019 | |||||||||||||||
 Neil Young‘s second solo album was released just four months after his debut but took a nearly opposite approach to production. The critically acclaimed Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere also marked the beginning of Young’s recording association with the backing group Crazy Horse.
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| June 17, 2019 | |||||||||||||||
 In 1969, Pink Floyd recorded and released two albums, the soundtrack More and the double length Ummagumma, along with additional material. This output during the year was at once ubiquitous, original, creative and disjointed.
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| Final 1969 Poll Results | |||||||||||||||
Q: What is the best album of 1969?
Conducted on our site, January-February, 2014 |
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| ← 1968 All Reviews 1970 → |
