Gotta say that I absolutely love the placement of JLL at the Star Club.

gotta say Sampson's a beast....making all these lists is NOT easy.....with so much music and all....and actually having info to back it up and all....kinda freaky....

I have to get that one. The Elvis one at #25 is fantastic, too.

Damn, you don't have Star Club??? That's been called the first punk rock document by a lot of people. Absolutely hellacious.

Sampson,

...as a note of trivia you might find the photo below interesting ... Jerry Lee Lewis Live in Paris 1963 and on guitar Ritchie Blackmore ... Take care

Yeah, all I've got of Jerry Lee Lewis is his Sun Records collection, which is kind of ridiculous considering how much I love the guy. I'm going to put Star Club at the top of my "must buy" list.

It's incredible. If you're a pianist of any kind it will blow your brains out.

Speaking of which, is there any place on this list for 11-17-70? Today's the 40th anniversary so I gave it a listen and was reminded what a SOLID live album it is

... and just another small piece of trivia .... Gene Vincent live on BBC 1963 and Ritchie Blackmore on guitar ... Take care

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tz02LmHKujw

... and Blackmore on tour with Gene Vincent ..

Thoughts:

Billy Joel's Songs in the Attic honestly doesn't deserve to be on here. Or at least not that high. It didn't really do much of anything except for "She's Got a Way" which became a moderately big hit for him.

I also think that Queen's Live at Wembley '86 should move up quite a few spots. It does exceptionally well in all the criteria besides influence, and most live albums can't really boast too much in the terms of "influence" anyway. Wembley is probably the strongest document of one of the most important live acts of the 70s and 80s.

I agree, it should be very close to the top 10, imo it's greater than KISS "Alive".
Also Queen Live in Rio is one of their most famous and revered shows deserving a spot here for sure.

Didn't do much? It was a Top Ten album on the charts and multi-platinum. Furthermore, it was what introduced most people to Joel's early material because while he had a few moderate hits before The Stranger, it wasn't until '77 that he really broke through to a wide audience. Songs In The Attic was was one of the smartest things Joel ever did from a business standpoint, using his current popularity to boost the familiarity of his early work, since all of the songs he performed were pre-'77 cuts. It immediately sent his back catalog sales zooming, which was quite influential giving artists another avenue to promote older releases. Two Top 25 singles came off that as well, which is more than most live albums can boast, and it established Joel as a big time concert performer, as opposed to a saloon piano man best suited for small intimate settings. If anything it's too low by the criteria.



Queen's album doesn't do quite as well in the criteria actually. It came out way too late after Wembley to take advantage of the buzz they created there and as a result it didn't even crack the Top 50 on the U.S Album Charts. It did hit #2 in Great Britian so it made up some ground there obviously, but overall I gave it a ton of Impact credit even though it really wasn't the ALBUM itself that made the impact rather than the reputation of the show itself from before the LP was ever released. I may have been a little generous there, but think it deserves its spot - any lower wouldn't recognize the widespread acclaim for it, but any higher wouldn't be defensible by the criteria.

... Smoke on the Water should be highly placed on the Greatest Live Singles list ... it is the 1973 release of SOTW from Made in Japan that made the tune the globally phenom that it became ... the studio version from Machine Head was on the other side of the single ... Take care

Technically speaking the studio version was the credited hit, even though in years since the live version is the accepted one. Since the list is specifically for HIT SINGLES, I can only credit a live song if it charted itself. The longer, live B-side, did not chart, thus explaining its absence. But I agree, as far as live songs goes it is legendary, it just doesn't meet the criteria to be counted here.

Brown didn't cut "There Was A Time" in the studio at any point, it was extracted from the Live At The Apollo Volume Two album recorded June 24, 1967. The extended version appeared on that album and other versions appeared over the years on various compilations, even as intended as another single under different title, which was later withdrawn ("The Little Groove Maker Me"), but it was indeed cut live.

Sorry, while a little knowledge may be dangerous, it is far better then a vindictive person trying to discredit someone else.