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
Here are some of my vinyl treasure:

Desert Sessions - Vol. 9 & 10
Queens of the stone age - Songs for the deaf
Grant Hart - Intolerance
Sonic Youth - Goo
Sabu - Jazz Espagnole
Sabu - Sorcery!
Art Blakey - any
And many Hammond tunes...
My most valuable are certainly not my most played, eg a UHQR Tea for the Tillerman, which I have owned since new- I think the old Island pink label I bought off the street for a buck actually sounds better.
Other goodies- Direct to Disc Flamenco Fever :)
Mobile Fidelities like DArk Side and Aqualung
Some valuable pressings off of 'Harry's List,' including some the big Mercurys, RCA's etc.
The best sounding of the bunch of vintage classical are probably the Deccas, some of the Londons, and the Lyritas, of which I have quite a few;
I still have almost all of the records I bought as a teenager, believe it or not- some of them are still in very good condition, but I have them more for nostalgia than playing-
many, many audiophile collectible records from the early seventies and eighties, including Nautilus, M & K, 1/2 Speed Masters, MoFi, Mark Levinson, lots of Japanese pressings, Sheffield, etc.
I really need to organize all this vinyl- I think I'm close to 8,000, maybe more-
Oh, yeah, I found some of Fulton's demo records in a pile not long ago.
And, that Billy Holliday singing at Altamont Airport where you can hear the planes taking off and landing while she is on stage.
I could go on....
mint firsts of trout mask replica (1053 on labels) and safe as milk
mint in shrink pink moon
mint true first born under a bad sign

i doubt that finer copies exist. completly irreplacable
The Skatalites "LATIN GOES SKA" on Treasure Isle Records. I paid $0.50 many years ago; it may be "worth" $500, but I love it for its utter charm.

"Korea Blues/Everynight About This Time", Fats Domino on Imperial blue label. One of the Fatman's first single and believed to be his first on 45RPM

The Godz on ESP, my favorite label.

Julius Hemphill DOGAN A.D. on Mbari (original release), a rare classic by one of my favorite under-rated (but then, there are so many . . .) players and composers.

Mazeltov Mis Amigos by Juan Calle and His Latin Landsmen, featuring Doc Cheatem, Ray Barretto, Clark Terry, and Charlie Palmieri playing latinized versions of Yiddish chestnuts. On paper it sounds like a cheesy disaster, but they are playing it for real, and really hitting

The Cramps "Human Fly" Vengeance Records 45 with the glow in the dark cover.
horace silver - six pieces of silver deep groove blue note

Miles Davis - someday my prince will come six eye

coltrane - favorite things atlantic

monk - riverside box set

guster - latest one

many japanese pressings from early 80's Eno, Genesis, Bowie, Talking Heads, etc