I got into putting together a lot of playlists of my favorite artists via Amazon Music "Unlimited" -- I use them mainly at work, or if I'm going on a long trip by myself, or on a plane ride.
Here are some of my favorites. I won't include the song titles, since I tend to title my lists descriptively.
Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass - Ultimate Collection
For this one, I just stacked the whole TJB catalog (through Summertime) and deleted the dozen or so songs I don't care for. So that means about 3/4 of The Lonely Bull and Volume 2 got the ax. Beyond that there are only about zero to two songs per album that hit the cutting room floor. So it makes for a nice 4.5 hour playlist.
Herb Alpert - Newer Stuff
A collection of favorites from Anything Goes on forward. I add to this one whenever he comes out with something new. There are probably 3 to 5 songs per album on this one.
Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66/'77 - The Best of
Same as my TJB list - the whole catalog, with a few songs taken out. I probably dropped fewer Sergio songs than Herb ones.
Ambrosia - Some Sounds We Made Along The Way
This is a best-of that does not include all the hits. I'm too sick of some of their hit tunes to ever care about hearing them again, but a lot of their album tracks are dynamite.
Alan Parsons Project - Best of
Yet another "stack of wax" with just a handful of songs removed. For fun, I ran this one backwards starting with their last album Gaudi and ending with the first one, Tales of Mystery and Imagination.
Fleetwood Mac - Class of '70s
This is a collection of Mac tunes from before Lindsey and Stevie joined the band. There is a lot of really, really good music in those older albums, especially from Bob Welch and Christine McVie. I'm not really into the blues era Mac -- I got on board with them at Future Games, so other than "Oh Well Pt. 1," everything in this collection is from FG forward through Heroes are Hard to Find. Who needs Lindsey and Stevie anyway?
Alan Parsons - Post Project
This is a bunch of tunes from, as you might guess, the albums he released after he split up with Eric Woolfson. There is a lot of good music in those records, and a fair amount of ... well, not such good music. Woolfson really brought out the best in Parsons when it came to arrangements and singer choices.
Santana - Sácame de Este Ascensor
That's Spanish for "get me out of this elevator." I titled this collection after a line in a Rolling Stone review of their live/studio album Moonflower. The review said the album was good, but by the middle of Side Four it was 'get me out of this elevator' time. This is a collection of favorites from their albums up through Festival. Of course no songs from Caravanserai are included due to that album being inexplicably unavailable on Amazon Music "Unlimited."
Steven Wilson - All Over the Map
This is a singer/guitarist who has a band called Porcupine Tree, and a few other projects including a prolific solo career. He's got a lot of music out, some of which is downright brilliant, some is jawdroppingly beautiful, some is pure pop like Todd Rundgren did at his pop peak, and some is absolute crap. So I combed through his catalog and put together about two hours of the really good stuff. Anyone who likes prog rock like Pink Floyd would probably enjoy his music. I think his best, most "even" album is To the Bone from 2017.
Cheap Trick - Best
Cheap Trick is my favorite rock band, but their albums can be wildly uneven. Their first four studio albums are pop perfection, and after that they got pretty spotty. They kind of went off the rails in the early 2000s, but then they booted original drummer Bun E. Carlos and replaced him with guitarist Rick Nielsen's son Daxx, who fills the throne nicely, and have been on a tear ever since, releasing four albums since 2016. So my collection contains most of those first four albums and then I cherry picked the rest of the catalog. The album Bang Zoom Crazy...Hello from 2016 is my recent favorite, although there are real gems on all their records. You just gotta dig em out.
I've also made collections of Gary Wright, Seals & Crofts, Rick Springfield, Stevie Wonder, and one called "Mike's Random Singles" into which I toss random songs that I haven't (or don't feel the need to) check out more of the artist's work yet.
Any other playlist-makers out there?
Here are some of my favorites. I won't include the song titles, since I tend to title my lists descriptively.
Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass - Ultimate Collection
For this one, I just stacked the whole TJB catalog (through Summertime) and deleted the dozen or so songs I don't care for. So that means about 3/4 of The Lonely Bull and Volume 2 got the ax. Beyond that there are only about zero to two songs per album that hit the cutting room floor. So it makes for a nice 4.5 hour playlist.
Herb Alpert - Newer Stuff
A collection of favorites from Anything Goes on forward. I add to this one whenever he comes out with something new. There are probably 3 to 5 songs per album on this one.
Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66/'77 - The Best of
Same as my TJB list - the whole catalog, with a few songs taken out. I probably dropped fewer Sergio songs than Herb ones.
Ambrosia - Some Sounds We Made Along The Way
This is a best-of that does not include all the hits. I'm too sick of some of their hit tunes to ever care about hearing them again, but a lot of their album tracks are dynamite.
Alan Parsons Project - Best of
Yet another "stack of wax" with just a handful of songs removed. For fun, I ran this one backwards starting with their last album Gaudi and ending with the first one, Tales of Mystery and Imagination.
Fleetwood Mac - Class of '70s
This is a collection of Mac tunes from before Lindsey and Stevie joined the band. There is a lot of really, really good music in those older albums, especially from Bob Welch and Christine McVie. I'm not really into the blues era Mac -- I got on board with them at Future Games, so other than "Oh Well Pt. 1," everything in this collection is from FG forward through Heroes are Hard to Find. Who needs Lindsey and Stevie anyway?
Alan Parsons - Post Project
This is a bunch of tunes from, as you might guess, the albums he released after he split up with Eric Woolfson. There is a lot of good music in those records, and a fair amount of ... well, not such good music. Woolfson really brought out the best in Parsons when it came to arrangements and singer choices.
Santana - Sácame de Este Ascensor
That's Spanish for "get me out of this elevator." I titled this collection after a line in a Rolling Stone review of their live/studio album Moonflower. The review said the album was good, but by the middle of Side Four it was 'get me out of this elevator' time. This is a collection of favorites from their albums up through Festival. Of course no songs from Caravanserai are included due to that album being inexplicably unavailable on Amazon Music "Unlimited."
Steven Wilson - All Over the Map
This is a singer/guitarist who has a band called Porcupine Tree, and a few other projects including a prolific solo career. He's got a lot of music out, some of which is downright brilliant, some is jawdroppingly beautiful, some is pure pop like Todd Rundgren did at his pop peak, and some is absolute crap. So I combed through his catalog and put together about two hours of the really good stuff. Anyone who likes prog rock like Pink Floyd would probably enjoy his music. I think his best, most "even" album is To the Bone from 2017.
Cheap Trick - Best
Cheap Trick is my favorite rock band, but their albums can be wildly uneven. Their first four studio albums are pop perfection, and after that they got pretty spotty. They kind of went off the rails in the early 2000s, but then they booted original drummer Bun E. Carlos and replaced him with guitarist Rick Nielsen's son Daxx, who fills the throne nicely, and have been on a tear ever since, releasing four albums since 2016. So my collection contains most of those first four albums and then I cherry picked the rest of the catalog. The album Bang Zoom Crazy...Hello from 2016 is my recent favorite, although there are real gems on all their records. You just gotta dig em out.
I've also made collections of Gary Wright, Seals & Crofts, Rick Springfield, Stevie Wonder, and one called "Mike's Random Singles" into which I toss random songs that I haven't (or don't feel the need to) check out more of the artist's work yet.
Any other playlist-makers out there?