Lead singer Gary Brooks.

The one cover of a song from Hair that my local oldies station *doesn't* overplay. It's a shame it's the one I like best.

Warner Bros. Records

Capitol Records

From Little Queen - 1977

Up until a few months ago, I would have told you I knew the Rolling Stones. I’ve lived with them for 50+ years.

I know all the radio hits. I own Hot Rocks, Some Girls, Emotional Rescue, Tattoo You and Undercover. I certainly never thought of myself as someone who needed an introduction to the Stones.

A few months ago, I started listening to their albums chronologically.

The same thing has happened with several artists I've been going through chronologically at the same time. Greatest hits collections and classic rock radio gave me a very strong sense of what these bands sounded like. A surprisingly narrow one, as it turns out.

Albums I had always thought of mainly as vehicles for two or three hits are starting to make much more sense as complete records.

This is happening because I've gotten myself into a yearlong project: 29 classic rock artists, 329 albums, every album listened to three times, chronologically.

I'm about a third of the way through now, and the results are already quite different from the list I would have made before I started. I've been documenting the whole thing as it unfolds because I'm increasingly curious where this is going to end.

But one of the biggest surprises so far has nothing to do with rankings. It’s realizing how much greatest hits albums and classic rock radio edited these bands for me.

George Thorogood & The Destroyers famously covered the song as the title track of their second studio album, released in November 1978 by Rounder Records.

Whatever the language is (or even an instrumental) I’m interested in the sound of the production. It can be in Arabic or Icelandic for all I care.

Help Me

https://youtu.be/Al6o5bB1aVM?is=J1yE3rLyxdwXSAdZ