The Chess brothers felt that James had major crossover pop appeal and so added orchestral arrangements alongside a lot of the tracks on this record. But the orchestra plays second fiddle to James’s incredible voice (that pun was truly not intended, but I’ll take it). Her voice is husky and powerful, full of emotion and sounds like it’s lived 20 lives by the time it made it to this record.

The record that started it all for Beastie Boys and what a stellar entrance to make. Opening with the massive sounds of Led Zeppelin’s John Bonham’s drumming from the song ‘When The Levee Breaks.’ An incredible reinterpretation of that song. Another great sample from that song is Black Sabbath’s ‘Sweet Leaf,’ the opening track from their album, ‘Master Of Reality’ (#234). The band managed to create something completely new and original from previous material of a different genre, no less.

1969 was an extremely prolific year for Creedence Clearwater Revival. ‘Willy and the Poor Boys’ was their third full length album to be released that year. Over and above a landmark performance at Woodstock plus a slew of #2 singles and a #1 album and a performance on the Ed Sullivan Show. John Fogerty was worried that if the band slipped out of the charts they would be forgotten, and so he pushed his band mates to continuously work.

How does one follow up the biggest album of all time? It would be a mammoth task, not just practically, but mentally. Following the unprecedented success with ‘Thriller,’ Michael Jackson became prime fodder for tabloids. He quietly slipped out of the public eye while rumours about him grew. In reality, Jackson was feeling the pressure of the follow up record, while his life played out in the public eye. Once again, he teamed up with Quincy Jones. He tried new things vocally, experimented with new technology and different genres; from Hard Rock to Gospel and beyond.

Leonard Cohen was an acclaimed poet and novelist in the mid-‘60s, but he was keen to set his writing to music. Cohen had played in a Country band when he was a teen. He had huge plans to go to Nashville to become a Country singer, but instead, found himself entrenched in the New York Folk scene. Thanks to his song, ‘Suzanne,’ Cohen came to the attention of John Hammond, a man that’s appeared a few times in this list as the man that originally signed and championed artists such as Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and Billie Holiday.

In the lead up to this, her seventh album, Robyn had a whole heap of songs. Her intention was to release 3 EPs. It had been 5 years since her last release and she was too impatient to wait until all the songs were finished to release them. Her manager suggested that she release songs, tour them and then release more when they were ready.

What you’re about to read might seem fantasy, but it’s completely true; Beatles manager, Brian Epstein, and their producer, George Martin, spent the better part of 1963 begging the head of EMI, Sir Joseph Lockwood, to release Beatles records in the States. He didn’t want to for whatever reason, probably because British music never translated well in the States. You read that correctly – the head of The Beatles’ label refused to entertain the idea of releasing their music in the States because he just wasn’t that confident about it.

The B52’s is one of the craziest bands ever. I say that having listened to this album a few times and seen them live. I say that with the best intentions, however. Co-lead vocalists, Fred Schneider and Kate Pierson both have incredibly unique voices. You could hear them in isolation and out of context and you’d still be able to recognise them.

This is the album that started it all for slack rockers, Pavement. Their debut record kicked off a new indie rock sound, it was lo-fi, it was stoner rock. It was simple, uncomplicated rock. Loud, noisy, distorted guitars paired with Stephen Malkmus’s laid back vocals. But it was the sound that had such an influence on the indie sound of the ‘90s.

‘Diamond Life’ is the debut album by former model and backing vocalist-turned-frontwoman, Sade Adu. To be fair, Sade is a essentially band named after its singer. The album opens with one of the smoothest sax melodies of all time. ‘Smooth Operator’ is a song I remember constantly being on radio when I was a kid. The album takes its name from this song; “Diamond life, loverboy.”