What are the treasures in your vinyl library?


They don't have to be the collector's items, necessarily. I'm just asking, what is your short list of LPs in your personal library that you prize the most (maximum 5)?

I'll start:

Diana Krall: "From This Moment On" from Classic Records, mastered on a tube cutter

Buddy Rich: "Class of '78", Direct-to-disk recording of my favorite drummer leading the best incarnation of his band

Muddy Waters: "Folk Singer", not MFSL or German pressing or original pressing or anything fancy, just a Chess/MCA 1987 reissue LP that puts you in the room with Muddy

I also have a 35mm Everest recording of Mozart woodwind sonatas that I picked up at St. Vincent DePaul for $1. It's old and a little ragged, but that 35mm mag tape really puts the players right there in the living room.
johnnyb53
My almost complete collection of Tom Waits Records.

In particular, last year I found a rare recording of Tom Wait's original performance of the "The Black Rider" at the Hamburg Dahlia Theatre. I have never seen this one on CD or Vinyl ever. The released "Black Rider" is a studio recording, whereas this one is the original live performance of the first run of the opera at the Dahli theatre.
Some of my favorite lucky scores of great music I've found in used record bins have been:
A mint promo disc of John Abercrobies "Current Events" on ECM, the best sounding disc I own. Another mint promo of Steve Tibbetts "Safe Journey," fabulous ECM sound and surfaces so silent you think it's digital, and Richard and Linda Thompson's classic "Shoot Out the Lights," another promo record that has great sound. I was lucky enough to hit a record store that was relocating and had just dug out a huge cache of vinyl they'd been saving to sell when they had enough floor space. Dozens of great condition promotional lp's from radio dj's collections were there for $3-$5 a pop. Right place at the right time!