#21 Bruce Springsteen, 'Born to Run' (1975)

Springsteen’s first two releases were commercial failures. Around this time, Rolling Stone journalist, Jon Landau saw Springsteen perform at Harvard Square Theatre, noting in the The Real Paper, “I saw rock and roll future, and its name is Bruce Springsteen. And on a night when I needed to feel young, he made me feel like I was hearing music for the very first time.” As a last-ditch effort to make Springsteen a commercially successful artist, Columbia gave him a massive budget to record the third album. These sessions would almost break Springsteen mentally, who struggled to convey the sounds he had in his head to the musicians in the studio.