Everybody’s Top 5 - Vinyl

Clearthinker, all of them. I have everything Frank ever recorded and released. Certainly, The Yellow Shark is SPECIAL. The fact that he got those guys to play G-Spot Tornado blows my mind. 

Why Fairport and Sandy did not make it in the States is beyond me. Richard Thompson has a huge following here now. Anyway, Sandy threw herself down the stairs one to many times and Who Knows Where the Time Goes has been recorded and attributed to just about everyone else:-(

Impossible to narrow it down to a top five.  At least it is for me.  But, is the question about sonic qualities or simply great music.  Some great music doesn't sound very good and some sonically superb recordings is just flat boring music.  I keep getting sonically wonderful recordings of great music almost weekly, hence why it is so difficult for me to chose a top five.

Beatles White Album

Best of The Rolling Stones 

Saxophone Colossus with Sonny Rollins 

Surrealistic Pillow 

Best of Jethro Tull

RUSH - 2112
Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
Tragically Hip - Fully Completely
Kraftwerk - Autobahn
Talking Heads - Remain in Light

Honorable mention:
Alan Parsons Project - I Robot
Dire Straits - Dire Straits (first album)

Hi mijo
Another thing about Yellow Shark is the brilliantly tight sound quality on a stock CD.  Utter pleasure to listen.

Those guys played because they were paid.  But I do hope they enjoyed the sessions.

Frank's orchestral music was modern but it is far more approachable than almost all the 'modern' 'classical'.  Strange isn't it that all his orchestral recordings are instantly identifiable as Zappa.  No-one else could have written or arranged them.

Yes Richard Thompson is big everywhere now but his golden years ended with Fairport.