My Favorite Albums from 1975

Today, I discuss my 10 favorite albums from 1975. This is part two of a six-part monthly series where I will discuss my favorites celebrating an anniversary in 2025. What are your favorite albums from 1975? Please let me know in the comments!
Where did I get this idea? Check out my favorite recurring show on KZbin, Anniversary Albums, from the wonderful Daniel Bosch (bicyclelegs) right here:
/ @bicyclelegsmusic .
Please check out the playlists to see my appearances on my friends' channels here on KZbin. They all offer great content and discussion and they are even better people. Do what you love and I will talk to you soon.

[@garyjoyce2160]

Great show. Much enjoyed. Had 7 of your top ten. So pretty close lining up. Keep it up. John 👍💯

[@JohntheMusicNut]

Thanks Gary! Glad you enjoyed the show and nice to see we had a lot of the same favorites. I intend to, Gary. Cheers! 💯

[@Thunderstruckzzz]

Hi John… very cool ! Nice list ! Toys in The Attic is killer ! I’m not that familiar with that Steely Dan album. I’ll have to check that one out. Yeah Ted hit it out of the park with that debut ! Great album ! I agree with you on Jungleland. What a closer ! I need to check out that Joni album. Night at The Opera is my fav Queen album also . Kiss Alive gets played a lot here on my stereo. Fantastic ! Great video John ! Thank you Chez

[@JohntheMusicNut]

Thanks Chez! Glad you enjoyed the video as well as the list! I highly recommend the Steely Dan and Joni selections even if they don't get the same love as some of their other releases. Oh yes, Kiss Alive! has been my musical elixir after a long week for many years now. Cheers!

[@georgemathie8123]

Excellent year for music and so many classic albums and career defining albums for many iconic bands my top albums are black sabbath sabotage, Manfred Mann's Earth band Nightingale's and bomber's, America hearts, supertramp crisis what crisis, Robin trower for earth below, Lynyrd Skynyrd nuthin fancy and led Zeppelin physical graffiti there are so many great albums these are the ones that I go to the most

[@JohntheMusicNut]

Thanks George! You have some interesting picks here. I like Nuthin' Fancy a lot and "On the Hunt" and "Saturday Night Special" are among my favorite Lynyrd Skynyrd tracks. I have to listen to Hearts in its entirety since I love the singles on it and it brought them back to #1 with "Sister Golden Hair", a song I have loved from the get go. I also have to pick up Crisis What Crisis as well since I just finally picked up Crime of the Century last summer. Cheers!

[@bmboldt]

I like 8 of your top 10. Some of your HM mentions might make my top 10.

[@JohntheMusicNut]

Thanks Byron! Based on our long rapport, I am thinking One Size Fits All and Fighting hit your Top 10. I did an edit near the end here and took off a few honorables. One of them was ZZ Top - Fandango! I gather you dig this one too. Cheers BM!

[@czarevich]

Interesting list and I have some homework. Trower and Aerosmith in my top 10 for sure and maybe Ted. Alive, Nazareth, Foghat, Led Zep, Willie!, and I Hunter also in my top 10.

[@JohntheMusicNut]

Thanks Nick! That's a great Top 10 with those albums. I really dig Ian Hunter's debut but 1975 is a very tough field. This year alone has my favorite albums by Queen, Joni, Ted, and Gil and my #2 from Bruce and Trower. Cheers!

[@ericrobertson2024]

To me, Willie is a terrific actor + songwriter but I never liked his vocals or guitar "skills" , let Waylon,Merle or Elvis sing anything he penned though,and it's gold,often literally.

[@thomaswery3087]

Here's some of mine John Jethro Tull-Minstrel In The Gallery Status Quo-On The Level Led Zeppelin-Physical Graffiti Pink Floyd-Wish You Were Here Queen-A Night At The Opera Frank Zappa-One Size Fits All Foghat-Fool For The City Alice Cooper-Welcome To My Nightmare Nazareth-Hair Of The Dog Neil Young-Tonight's The Night It starts with my favorite to number ten

[@JohntheMusicNut]

Thanks Thomas! This is a great list. I have to pick up some more Jethro Tull starting with Minstrel in the Gallery. I love what I have heard from it. I also have to pick up Wish You Were Here. I always loved that album except for "Welcome to the Machine". Perhaps it will finally grow on me. Cheers!

[@ericrobertson2024]

@@JohntheMusicNut Roy Harper sounds so much like Roger on Have A Cigar it's eerie,live it sounds pretty much the same. I always thought Floyd were a great live act for 4 blokes that often despised each other.

[@JohntheMusicNut]

@@ericrobertson2024 I always thought it was Roger so thanks for the history lesson, Eric!

[@ericrobertson2024]

@@JohntheMusicNut Someone sent me a bunch of live Floyd bootlegs in little cereal boxes during the 90s and the live versions sounded like Harper was there,but it was Roger whom like Joe Walsh, Wendy Melvoin, Ace Frehley doesn't have super range but also like them,he knows how to convey the songs..Another thing about Kiss was how i really liked all 4 voices.

[@JohntheMusicNut]

Hello everyone! Thank you for watching the video and for your comments. I had to do an edit at the end and left out a few honorable mentions so I will list them here: ZZ Top - Fandango! Kansas - Masque Herbie Hancock - Man-Child Kiss - Dressed to Kill War - Why Can't We Be Friends? Ian Hunter - self-titled debut BTO - Four Wheel Drive

[@ericrobertson2024]

I guess Fandango could be considered 2 EPs, one live,one studio. I suggested Grant do an episode picking the top official EPs of the 1980s. Dusty Hill waa so cool, what an under cherished musician,vocalist,performer...When i first heard Dressed To Kill i was disappointed, it was the last of the 70s Kiss albums I got.

[@JohntheMusicNut]

@@ericrobertson2024 Thanks Eric! Co-sign on Dusty Hill. That is a cool idea for a show and I can see Grant doing that show down the road easy. I always found it a shame that we never got a proper live album from ZZ Top during the decade of the live album. In my opinion, the studio side of Fandango! is the best side of music that ZZ Top has ever created. Cheers!

[@ericrobertson2024]

@@JohntheMusicNut I love El Loco and Afterburner is nearly perfect to me, but that's definitely the best side.. Drummer Cliff Davies sings that weird Right At Home track on The Nuge debut and also sings Saddlesore , Come + Get It and Pulitzer winner I Am A Predator on Intensities.I made a joke about him reading Ted's lyrics for the first time while sipping tea and saying "mate I reckon this ain't about hunting buffalos." I actually like every Ted vocalist from 1967-2024, except Dave Amato who ofcourse replaced Richrath which is an oxymoron.

[@JohntheMusicNut]

@@ericrobertson2024 Oh yeah it is Cliff Davies. I knew that at one point so thanks, Eric. Oh, I would put those lyrics from I Am a Predator up against the works of Dylan, Mitchell, and Cohen every day of the week! Oh that's good! Dave sang on Little Miss Dangerous. I cringe thinking about that mess. Cheers!

[@ericrobertson2024]

@@JohntheMusicNut Vic I forgot his last name in Amboy Dukes, the Cactus singer, Derek, Meatloaf, Cliff, Brian Howe does fine,Ted himself sings well when he's focused (Paralyzed, Hard As Nails, Still Raising Hell) Amato is the only one i didn't like a single track from but I liked Painkiller + Red Book from Miss Dangerous.

[@GrabAStackofRocK]

My first KISS

[@JohntheMusicNut]

Thanks Mike! My first was Lick It Up as a new release. Later in '84, I had Creatures (one of my 6 for a penny when I joined RCA Music Service) and then Animalize as a new release. For Christmas '84, Nana bought me Alive!, Destroyer, and Hotter than Hell. Alive! costed $13.19 on cassette then. Cheers!

[@ericrobertson2024]

@@JohntheMusicNut Hearing Dressed To Kill last after I heard the other 6 from the 70s and liking everything except Beth + Got Love For Sale left me disappointed, the tracks aren't actually that weak but Dressed will always be just a 6/10 whereas the others I probably relisten to yearly.

[@JohntheMusicNut]

@@ericrobertson2024 Hmmm now I always liked Dressed to Kill and at one point that would have been a Top 10 of 1975 for me. And that was also the last I heard or owned of the '70s albums. The studio version of the hit pales in comparison to the live version but I dig a lot of the songs even if in hindsight some of them sound rushed (ex...."Anything for My Baby", "Ladies in Waiting").

[@ericrobertson2024]

@@JohntheMusicNut Yes the songs like Getaway and She aren't that weak, but at 11 and now at 49 I like Hotter Than Hell and the others somewhat more..Well RNR Over is my favorite album by any band , not counting The Wall.

[@JohntheMusicNut]

@@ericrobertson2024 I like Hotter than Hell more as well these days even with the muddy production. It was only when I got on KZbin that I saw the respect for Rock and Roll Over. I like most of it and more than Love Gun and Dynasty from the '70s. The Wall was my favorite PF from an early age until 30. Then it went to Piper and now it's Animals. The remix of the latter won me over.

[@ericrobertson2024]

Doing this off the top of my head prior to listening...Nazareth - Hair Of The Dog / Sabbath - Sabotage / Thin Lizzy - Fighting / Fleetwood Mac / Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti / Abba / Ted Nugent / April Wine - Stand Back / Floyd - Wish You Were Here / Aerosmith - Toys In The Attic /// I was thinking a country album might get in there but other than Ronnie Millsap - Night Things , there wasn't much I admired. I think Toys is a much better album than Rocks,I'll never get the (over) praise for that one.. Graffiti being a double LP has the most tracks I like of any Zep album,yet some I skip..Offcourse Alive was phenomenal. Despite being traumatized by Beth , wondering what on earth that was ??!!Dressed To Kill has something that was more shocking to me as a child, 2 songs I didn't like on a Kiss record lol .. Nazareth not only had a perfect trilogy imo , each album improved on the predecessor. Rampant is a burner though.

[@JohntheMusicNut]

Thank you Eric! Great choices here. That Fleetwood Mac album is excellent and I have to buy that this year. Your sentiments on Physical Graffiti are similar to mine and it has always been those 3 or 4 songs that I would skip that prevented it from being a top notch album for me. Yep, always been a Rocks guy even if my high school friends liked Toys more. Yes, I have to get more into those '70s Nazareth albums. I only own Hair of the Dog! Cheers!

[@ericrobertson2024]

@JohntheMusicNut The Naz albums from 1980-82 are also strong efforts,after that Cinema & Move Me are about all I go back to.I do need to relisten to Razamanazz to see if it has any true duds , the 3 after don't to me and that along with the initial 3 Go Gos + Metal Church albums , are the only perfect trios to my ears..Rocks is like Invasion Of Your Privacy and Diary from Ozzy,I had no idea pre Internet how beloved those albums are,because everyone I knew in VA + NC loved Toys,Blizzard,Cellar far more. I do relisten now and again but I prefer the predasessors every time.