Our first fifteen favorite Prog Archives-albums

This T. Rex album was maybe the only much Pop-influenced one I liked as a teenager.

My introduction to prog rock was from my Dad, who had an eclectic range of music he liked. He grew up with 1950s American rock, but also liked big band music and some prog rock from the 1970s (though at the time, at least in our circles, never knew it as prog rock. My first favorites were albums my Dad regularly played in the late 1970s. These included:

1. Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon

2. Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here

3. Electric Light Orchestra - A New World Record

4. Electric Light Orchestra - Out of the Blue

5. Electric Light Orchestra - Olé ELO

6. The Moody Blues - This Is the Moody Blues

As we progressed into the early 1980s, my curiosity led to dig deeper into my Dad's collection for albums I can't recall him ever playing for us. These included:

7. Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti

8. Electric Light Orchestra - On the Third Day

9. Pink Floyd - Animals

10. The Beatles - 1967-1970 (the blue album)

This one is not on PA, but has tracks from several prog bands, including my first listen to Yes (Starship Trooper)

Various - Heavy Metal - 24 Electrifying Performances

My Mom at this time listened to the same ELO albums, but also listened to Disco compilations and the Carpenters. I still like the Carpenters to this day.

Around 1983 I started my own record collection. The first records I added were through the the Columbia House mail order thing at the time. I believe the deal was 12 albums for a penny and then I had to buy 5 or 6 albums at full price within a year (anyone remember the exact details?). Columbia House was advertising this on TV at the time and I believe this marketing gimmick went into the 1990s. I believe I submitted my selections on a form I got out of a magazine. I don't actually recall all 12 of those albums, but some expanded my journey into prog:

11. Yes - 90125

12. Yes - Classic Yes

13. Genesis - Genesis (the shapes album)

14. Electric Light Orchestra - Time

15. Electric Light Orchestra - Secret Messages

So, that takes me to my first 15. Additional albums came through listening to local Philadelphia radio stations WMMR and WYSP in the 1980s (like the Alan Parsons Project and Rush). The bands from the 15 above were also explored backwards to their debuts. By 1990 I had about 330 LPs. I took a break from buying during my college years, but returned to buying around 1995. At first this was replacing my LPs with CDs but I started discovering newer prog bands initially through the covers compilations that Magna Carta records produced and the online Gibraltar Encyclopedia of Progressive Rock which existed many years before Prog Archives.