1970-best

Poco – Self-Titled

More Country and Country Rock

  • Poco’s Masterpiece of Country Prog Rock returns to the site for the first time in years, here with INCREDIBLE Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades or close to them from start to finish
  • These are just a few of the things we had to say about this stunning copy in our notes: “very rich bass and vox”…”jumping out of the speakers”…”full, breathy and 3D”…”lots of space”…”huge and open and tubey”…”dynamic guitar”
  • Big, rich, energetic, with an abundance of Analog Tubey Magic, this original Yellow Label Epic pressing has exactly the right sound for this music
  • A bonafide Desert Island Disc and 4 stars on the AMG: “These songs represent the group’s blend of country and rock at its finest and brightest, with the happy harmonies of ‘Hurry Up’ and ‘Keep on Believin” totally irresistible. Jim Messina’s ‘You Better Think Twice’ is a perfectly constructed and arranged song, one that should have been a huge hit but mysteriously never found its place in the Top 40 pantheon.”
  • When it comes to rock and pop music in 1970, our picks for the best of the best, numbering less than 30 titles, can be found here.

Poco’s second album is an unusual blend of country-rock, with some long, jazzy instrumental breaks that center around Rusty Young’s pedal steel, which doesn’t sound like any pedal steel guitar you’ve ever heard. It’s played with a wah-wah pedal and, if that wasn’t enough, the resulting sound is sent through a Leslie organ speaker.

We know it sounds crazy, but it really works. There is nothing else like it on record, nothing that we’ve ever heard anyway.

Country Prog Rock

Most of side two is taken up by a single track, “Nobody’s Fool / El Tonto de Nadie, Regresa.” It’s a suite in which the band stretches out instrumentally in a somewhat proggy way, although one could make the case that Bluegrass music is all about “stretching out instrumentally.”

The extended forays are held together by the brilliant pedal steel playing throughout. I have the feeling that Jim Messina, who left the band shortly after this album was released, was the guiding force behind breaking out of the 3-minute pop song format that Poco began with. Whoever may be responsible, they deserve credit for making what is in our minds one of the best Country Rock / Country Prog records of all time.

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Elton John / Tumbleweed Connection

More Elton John


  • Both sides of this early DJM import pressing have superb sound for Elton John’s 1970 Masterpiece, earning solid Double Plus (A++) grades or BETTER
  • The sound here is richer, with much less transistory grain, and more of the all important Tubey Magic than most other copies we played
  • An incredible recording and longtime member of our Top 100 — our pick for Elton’s very best music and sound
  • 5 stars: “….[Elton John and Bernie Taupin’s] most ambitious record to date… A loose concept album about the American West… draws from country and blues in equal measures…”
  • If you’re an Elton John fan, this is a classic from 1970 that belongs in your collection
  • We consider this album to be a Masterpiece. It’s a recording that should be part of any serious popular music collection.
  • As is sometimes the case, there is one and only one set of stampers that consistently wins shootouts for this album.  Click on this link to see other titles with one set of stamper numbers that always come out on top

This has to be one of the best sounding rock records of all time — certainly worthy of a Top Ten spot on our Top 100 list. Engineered by Robin Geoffrey Cable at Trident, there is no other Elton John recording that is as big and powerful as Tumbleweed.

A copy like this really tells you why we love this album so. The highs are silky sweet, the vocals are full-bodied and breathy, and the tonal balance is perfection from top to bottom. And big drums — monstrously big. Can’t forget those.

By the way, if you have any doubts that Elton was a pop music genius, simply play this album a few dozen times. It’s all the proof you will need. Tumbleweed Connection and Honky Chateau are the two titles that are as close to perfect pop recordings as will ever exist in this world. 10 on a scale of 1 to 10.

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Harry Nilsson – The Point!

More Harry Nilsson

  • An original pressing (only the second copy to ever hit the site) with solid Double Plus (A++) sound or BETTER from start to finish
  • Side one was very close in sound to our Shootout Winner – the overall grades for this copy are only one half plus lower than our $450 WHS presing that sold
  • Both of these sides are relatively rich, yet still clear and highly resolving – the boosted midrange, the biggest problem with the copies we played, is under much better control here than it was on most of what we played
  • Analog gets this music to sound right, although the long out of print DCC CD that Steve Hoffman mastered is excellent if you can find one
  • 4 stars: “Especially at this stage of his career, Harry Nilsson was uniquely suited for writing and recording children’s music, given his sweet melodicism and love of whimsy. The tale is fantastical enough to be of interest to children (and the moral is strong enough to reassure them and their parents), but the songs and music are so strong that the album continues to be a source of wonder, even as those children become adults.”

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The Guess Who – American Woman

More Rock Classics

  • With INCREDIBLE Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades or close to them on both sides, this copy (only the second to hit the site in years) is practically as good as we have ever heard
  • Here are just a few of the things we had to say about this killer copy in our notes: “big and tubey and spacious”…”plucky, deep bass”…”breathy vox”…”big and rich and jumping out of the speakers”…”rich and lively”
  • We have been working on finding this title for twenty years if not more — finally finding some that sounded good to us and played reasonably quietly was a real shock, and that was a whole lotta years ago!
  • Here you will find sound that is big, rich and clear, with plenty of energy, and vinyl that is about on par for any clean copy of American Woman, a title which is exceedingly difficult to find in audiophile playing condition
  • Both the title track and “When Friends Fall Out” sound especially impressive on this domestic original
  • 4 stars: “The Guess Who’s most successful LP, reaching number nine in America (and charting for more than a year), has held up well… the final testament of the original Guess Who.”

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Freddie Hubbard – Straight Life

More Freddie Hubbard

More Jazz Recordings Featuring the Trumpet

  • This early CTI pressing boasts solid Double Plus (A++) grades or BETTER on both sides
  • Full-bodied, warm and natural with plenty of space around all of the players, this is the sound of vintage analog – accept no substitutes
  • The sound is everything that’s good about Rudy Van Gelder‘s recordings – it’s present, spacious, full-bodied, Tubey Magical, dynamic and, most importantly, alive in that way that modern pressings never are
  • 5 stars: “Recorded between trumpeter Freddie Hubbard’s better-known classics Red Clay and First Light, Straight Life is actually arguably Hubbard’s greatest recording.”

Vintage covers for this album are hard to find in exceptionally clean shape. Most of the will have at least some amount of ringwear, seam wear and edge wear. We guarantee that the cover we supply with this Hot Stamper is at least VG

Straight Life is a great album for anyone who wants to hear some well recorded, seriously adventurous jazz. We freely admit that side one is fairly ‘out there,’ but side two balances it out with much more accessible, melodic material. A wonderfully sensitive and emotional version of “Here’s That Rainy Day” closes out the side with George Benson proving to be an especially sympathetic accompanist on guitar.

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Gordon Lightfoot – If You Could Read My Mind (aka Sit Down Stranger)

More Gordon Lightfoot

More Folk Rock

  • With INCREDIBLE Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound from start to finish, this original pressing of Sit Down Young Stranger could not be beat
  • Here are just a few of the things we had to say about this amazing copy in our notes: “tubey and spacious and 3D”…”huge bass”…”very big and rich and open”…”present and spacious”…”tons of space and detail”…”so wide and roomy”
  • Forget whatever dead-as-a-doornail Heavy Vinyl record they’re making these days – if you want to hear the Tubey Magic, intimacy, and freedom from audio coloration of this wonderful album from 1970, these early pressings are the only way to do it
  • An outstanding recording – Lightfoot’s best in our experience – with “Me and Bobby McGee” sounding as good as we have ever heard it on this superb pressing
  • Originally released in the summer of 1970 as Sit Down Young Stranger, it was reissued under its new title to capitalize on the success of the hit single “If You Could Read My Mind”
  • 4 1/2 stars: “The entire album is rich in the simple beauty of its folky melodies and personal lyrics… the music here is timeless, still feeling and sounding great many years after its release.”
  • This is an excellent title from 1970, which also happens to be a great year for rock and pop music, maybe the greatest of them all

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The Beatles – Let It Be

More of the Music of The Beatles

  • This vintage UK pressing boasts INSANELY GOOD Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades on both sides – fairly quiet vinyl too
  • Here are just a few of the things we had to say about this amazing copy in our notes: “big and punchy and breathy”…”sweet and spacious”…”jumping out of the speakers”…”weighty and rich and 3D”…”very full vox”
  • There’s no studio wizardry, no heavy-handed mastering, no phony EQ – here is the most realistic, natural Beatles sound you can get outside of the first album
  • Copies like this one make good on the promise that Let It Be captures the greatest rock band of all time playing and singing their hearts out
  • 4 1/2 stars: “The album is on the whole underrated… it’s an album well worth having, as when the Beatles were in top form here, they were as good as ever.”

At its best, Let It Be has the power of live music, but it takes a special pressing such as this one to show you that sound. It’s a bit trickier trying to find good sound for this album than it is for some of the other albums in the Beatles’ catalog.

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Dave Mason – Alone Together (Marble Vinyl)

More of the Music of Dave Mason

  • Mason’s Masterpiece (on marble vinyl!) returns to the site after a three and a half year hiatus, here with INCREDIBLE Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it on both sides of this vintage Blue Thumb pressing
  • Listen to how big and rich the dynamic chorus gets on the first track, “Only You Know and I Know” – what a thrill to hear it like that
  • A killer Bruce Botnick recording – Tubey Magical analog, smooth and natural, with the whole production sitting on a rock solid bottom-end foundation
  • Our latest shootout was a tough one – we actually had three winning copies but this was the only one with issues that weren’t significant enough to prevent it from being listed on the site
  • We do this shootout about once every ten years, and every time we do it, the best sounding copies, always on marble vinyl, are often too noisy to sell — next stop, 2035!
  • 4 1/2 stars: “Alone Together represents Dave Mason at his peak… everything comes together perfectly.”

*NOTE: There is a stitch that plays as a very light and intermittent swoosh throughout all of side 1, audible only in the quiet parts (of which there are few). It then plays at a moderate level during the intro to the last track, “Shouldn’t Have Took More Than You Gave.”

Before I get too far into the story of the sound, I want to say that this album appears to be criminally underrated as music nowadays, having fallen from favor with the passage of time.

It is a surely a Masterpiece that belongs in any rock collection worthy of the name. (Others that belong in that category can be found here.) Every track is good, and most are amazingly good. There’s no filler here.

This Copy Rocks

Punchy and surprisingly deep bass is one of the first things you will notice when playing one of these Hot Stamper copies. Huge amounts of ambience fill out the space that extends from wall to wall (and all the way to the back of the studio), leaving plenty of room around each of the players.

Full-bodied sound, open and spacious, bursting with life and energy; presence in both the lead and backup vocals (so critical to the presentation of this kind of Folk Rock); not to mention harmonically rich acoustic guitars that ring for days — these are the hallmarks of our hottest Hot Stampers.

Listen to how big and rich the dynamic chorus gets on the first track, “World in Changes.” What a thrill. Any shortcomings in the sound will be instantly obvious on this chorus. It managed to stay as clear and uncongested as any we had ever heard.

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Dionne Warwick / Very Dionne

More Pop and Jazz Vocal Recordings

More Recordings Engineered by Phil Ramone

  • You’ll find solid Double Plus (A++) sound or close to it throughout this vintage Scepter pressing (one of only a handful of copies to hit the site in years)
  • This side one is superb – the bass is tight and punchy, the strings have lots of texture, and the background vocals are clean and clear, and side two is not far behind in all those areas
  • The midrange is full of that old analog Tubey Magic (particularly on side one), courtesy of Larry Levine and Phil Ramone, the kind that has completely disappeared from the modern record (even the modern reissue of a vintage record)
  • Note that the first track on side one simply does not sound good for some reason – we’re not sure what happened there but a screwup in the studio is our guess
  • “The album’s wide variety of styles summed up much of what made Warwick’s back catalog so universally appealing. In addition to a handful of new Burt Bacharach and Hal David sides, the platter boasts tasteful reworkings of pop music staples. One unmitigated zenith is ‘I Got Love’ from the Ossie Davis Broadway production Purlie. Once again, Warwick — under [Marty] Paich’s direction — equals if not surpasses Melba Moore’s stage presentation.”

Folks, don’t expect to see records like this coming to the site too often. We can’t find them anymore in this kind of clean condition, so if you like the lovely Ms Warwick, consider taking this one home and giving her (the record, not Dionne) a spin on your table.

Notice how the limiter on Dionne’s microphone is working overtime. She is practically shouting into it but it never seems to get much louder. Still the energy and the passion come through clearly. That’s the sign of a well-recorded vocal track.

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The Moody Blues – A Question of Balance

More of The Moody Blues

Reviews and Commentaries for The Moody Blues

  • With outstanding Double Plus (A++) grades on both sides, this vintage UK pressing (one of only a handful of copies to hit the site in about a year) will be very hard to beat
  • Huge and spacious, as well as wonderfully Tubey Magical – to our way of thinking, if this isn’t exactly the way the band wanted to sound in 1970, we can’t imagine what would be
  • This pressing has some of the best Moody Blues sound we’ve ever heard – it’s a truly exceptional recording in their canon
  • Includes the big hit “Question,” one of the all time greats by the band, which sounds fantastic here of course

Achieving just the right balance of “Moody Blues Sound” and transparency is no mean feat. You have to be using the real master tape for starters. Then you need top end extension, a very rare quality on these imports, and finally, good bass definition to keep the bottom end from blurring and bleeding into the midrange. No domestic copy in our experience has ever had these three qualities, and only the best of the British imports (no Dutch, German or Japanese need apply) manages to get all three on the same LP.

Allow me to steal some commentary from a Moody Blues Hot Stamper shootout we did years ago, for the wonderful In Search of the Lost Chord, in which we say that, on the best Hot Stamper pressings, the clarity and resolution come without sacrificing the Tubey Magical richness, warmth and lushness for which the Moody Blues recordings are justifiably famous.

We guarantee this copy will take the Moodies’ wonderful music to a level you have never experienced in all your music-loving days.

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