One artist, band, you keep coming back to


Is there one band, soloist, singer that has given you pleasure over the decades? One that has made record after record that you know you will love?

If there is, who is it and your favourite album for someone to start off with?

For me, that's an easy question, Joni Mitchell. I first saw her on an early evening chat show on the BBC in the early 60's I think, doing a track off "Ladies of the Canyon". I was just transfixed, it helped that she was pretty easy on the eye too. I can't think of any album I have'nt liked even the ones that shifted in to Jazz and were controversial with her fans, like "Don Juans restless Daughter"

The album is easy too, "Blue". I keep playing it year after year, I still have the origonal issue pressing.

So who is your all time favourite?
david12
Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Dvorak, Mozart, Prokofiev, Schubert.

Speaking of Joni Mitchell, though, among popular recordings one of my all-time favorites is Judy Collins' original 1967/68 recording of "Both Sides Now," written by Joni, which was a breakthrough for the careers of both women.

I don't particularly care for Judy's later re-recording of "Both Sides Now" that is sometimes heard, though, which was much inferior IMO, or for the recording of it that was subsequently made by Joni herself.

Best regards,
-- Al
Classical music-wise, Bach, Mahler, and Tchaikovsky. Mozart and Beethoven have worn out a bit with me of late. I go back to lots of individual works by many classical composers as well, but not so much to the composers as a whole.
In Jazz, I tend to always come back to Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, and John Coltrane.
My fav is the one that happens to be on at the moment. Pretty well all those mentioned so far except the classical ones. Tchaikovsky, Bach, and Mozart are my favorites but I rarely listen.

I do agree with Al's assessment of Judy Collins/Joni Mitchell. That original rendition by Collins was the best. OTOH, I would say Gordon Lightfoot's later(mid) renditions of earlier stuff is far superior than either original or latest(before he got old) versions. Supertramp is another that comes to mind. For the most part, I think it's a matter of maturity and then decline.