It’s strange to think this album is still one of the most successful Broadway soundtracks of all time, stranger still is that by all accounts, this actually sold more than what Phantom of the opera did despite the original run of this show ending decades ago at this point.
Cat Stevens was indeed one of the biggest names in music during the first half of the 70’s, although it’s worth noting that A: this album didn’t produce a big hit like a later entry on this list did and B: it was his first successful album despite being active for most of the 60’s.
This was the big album from Cat Stevens that spawned multiple hits for him back in the day, naturally it was quite the success even if his earlier entry on here proved to be more successful in the long run due to it rebounding on the charts when he released this follow up.
This came out around the same time as Joe’s live album from before, it was also a massive success likely due to the success of his Mad dogs and Englishmen tour which showcased what a brilliant showman he was during the height of his career.
This is the only album to come from Carole King on this site, it remains her most successful album due to it spawning her biggest hit as well as it being released at a time where female folk rockers were plentiful on the music scene worldwide.
Here’s that collaboration album I mentioned a minute ago, it was originally meant to be a solo project from Paul following the sound success of his solo debut but became a collaboration with his wife Linda due to the emotional struggles he was going through at the time of its conception.
Aaah Black Sabbath, you knew I’d get to these guys eventually given how I brought up how popular heavy metal was, although it is rather surprising in retrospect how popular they were back in the day given how their brand of metal was widely protested against by angry wine moms.
He may have still been the lead singer of the Faces (a band who’s still to come on this list) however that didn’t prevent Rod Stewart from finding massive success with his second solo album due to how inescapably popular the lead single was.
File this in the category of an album appearing on here more due to its refusal to drop out of the charts, although it does seem fitting the brothers Gibb would begin the 70’s with a highlight reel of their best moments from the 60’s captured on this album.
This was the first of two live albums to come from the Aztecs which came out around the time they scored a massive comeback hit with “Most people I know think that I’m crazy,” it was a sure sign of good things to come that sadly never materialised for the band.
This was released just before the tragic death of Jim Morrison, meaning that it’s hard to tell if its success was in its own right or out of respect for his (then) recent passing, either way it remains a classic in the band’s catalogue to this day.
Not counting the greatest hits package from the brothers Gibb, we already looked at, this is the most successful Australian album on this list which goes to show how unpopular our local music scene had become during the first half of the decade and why Countdown’s premiere was so important towards its revival.
Although he released a solo album prior to the breakup of the Beatles, this was George Harrison’s first taste of solo success he had in his career which is fitting given how this is a double album with material likely rejected from the other members of the band during their time together.
I’m not sure how big Tommy was here in Australia, however given how the Who’s follow-up album was a success as was not one but two albums inspired by that album throughout the decade, I think it’s safe to say that the band were as popular down under in the 70’s as they were in the 60’s.
This is the only posthumous album to appear on this list, namely because it was heavily delayed following the tragic demise of Janis Joplin the year prior to its release likely out of fear that her label was merely cashing in on said death despite it being completed.
It turns out these guys were similar to Chicago in that they began as a much hipper band in the music scene with albums such as this before selling out to a more conventional crowd during the second half of the decade, admittedly this feels like something that belongs in the 60’s which makes it success somewhat impressive.
This was the penultimate album to be released from CCR, their final album was also a modest success but not a huge one which is why it won’t be appearing on this list, probably for the best as it is a far cry from their material, I’ve featured on this list so far.
Although he achieved success with his wife Yoko Ono prior to this album (stay tuned for one of those albums later down this list) this was the first album John Lennon released all by himself which was an instant success thanks to the popularity of its title track.
This was a bit of a stumble for Led zeppelin back in the day, this is despite the fact that the lead single was a minor success here in Australia which means it was able to chart as opposed to “Stairway to heaven” from their earlier entry on this list.
You know prog had taken over the Australian charts in the early 70’s when Emerson Lake and Palmer managed to score two entries on this list. This is their first which was by far the bigger of the two, although it was released mere months prior to their other entry still to come on this list.
We have another entry from Deep purple on this list, it’s not even our final entry as we still have two more to feature from the British prog band to give you some idea as to how inescapable these guys were during the first half of the decade.
Whereas at least his earliest album managed to spawn a minor hit for Elton John (we’ll look at it in a bit) this album failed to spawn any hits for the English piano man in exchange for it being considerably more successful than that outing.
For many years, this was Leonard Cohen’s only successful album here in Australia given how the singer/songwriter never saw that much mainstream success throughout his career. He eventually found success with his final album in 2016 even if it was through sentimentality.
These guys were another example of each of their albums finding more success than the last here in Australia, we’ll get to their breakthrough album in a bit but suffice to say, this was where they were confirmed to be the real deal along the likes of Deep purple in the prog scene.
This is the other big hit that Leon Russell had here in Australia, technically this was the bigger hit, but I allowed his earlier entry to claim that prize given how that lasted longer on our charts than this did. His time in the spotlight was brief, however it did lead to two big hits for him.
This was the album which put Elton John’s name on the map given how it has one of his most instantly recognisable songs as its lead single, sure his other entries on this list proved to be more popular, but hey everyone’s got to start somewhere right?
This is the only studio album that Chain saw success with here in Australia, although they still have a live album to come on this list, proving that the blues band did have appeal with their fellow Aussies back in the day. Even so, they definitely could’ve used some help with Bandstand which conveniently got cancelled when they got big.
Following the success he had with his breakthrough album on the previous list, James Taylor no longer had any issues with finding success here in Australia as this follow up proved to be a massive hit for him among us Aussies. It didn’t spawn that chart topping single here like it did in his homeland, but it was a hit regardless.
With this entry from the Moody blues, we’ve now officially featured every album from them post 1960’s on this site given how they always seemed to have some form of success with us Aussies. That said, this was a bit of a stumble for the band given how well their two albums from the previous list did.
This was seen as a bit of a return to form for Bob Dylan following the disastrous reception of his earlier entry on this list, although he wouldn’t attain his critical acclaim from the 560’s again until the midpoint of the decade.
We finally have every album from Black Sabbath on this site from the early 70’s, this just goes to show how much we Aussies loved the heavy metal band as well as the theatrics of bands such as them and Alice Cooper given how they dominated our album charts in contrast to the country ballads on our singles charts.
While he achieved minor success with his first album with Yoko Ono’s Plastic Ono band, this was where John Lennon was able to wash his hands from the fab four given how it was a huge success for the troubled ex-Beatle upon its initial release.
If we’re going by studio albums, then this is the earliest success that the Rolling stones were able to achieve here in Australia, at least success that’s worth mentioning on this site as their 60’s catalogue couldn’t compete with the fab four in terms of popularity.
This is the other big hit that Emerson Lake and Palmer had here in Australia during the first half of the 70’s, although they did have other albums that charted here before they were seemingly negatively impacted by the Countdown purge from 1974. They briefly recovered with their 1977 effort the Works.
This seems completely out of step with the rest of this list, mainly because there’s no gimmicks to this album compared to other opera albums that have gotten popular over the years. That said, it makes sense it was a succuss given how a snippet of it was a surprise worldwide hit for the Argentinian crooner.
We have a couple of posthumous albums to come from Jimi Hendrix on this list, the first is this album which was meant to be his final studio album but got delayed due to his untimely death similar to Janis Joplin’s entry on my previous list. He’s another artist that’s been milked for nostalgia alongside 2pac and Juice wrld.
This is our final entry from Chicago on this site, it’s their third album which picked up the slack from their second album. It seems like every second album from the band was destined to be a failure for them, although their tenth entry put an end to that curse.
This was the album which Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs came back with after a brief breakup from the end of the 60’s. I don’t think anyone was expecting the otherwise conventional rock band to go in a more prog direction with this album, but they did which resulted in it not being as big as their 60’s efforts but still big regardless.
Given how vastly successful their album was on my previous list, it makes sense that there would be a live album to go with the world tour these four men embarked on in order to promote it. Naturally it was a big success here in Australia and likely led to Neil Young’s solo success also from my previous list.
This is the other posthumous album from Jimi Hendrix, although this is the soundtrack to a concert film his label put together following his tragic demise which we Aussies clearly had mixed emotions about when it came out. Ultimately, we allowed it to become a hit, however it likely would’ve done much better if he was alive to see it.
Following the success she had with her breakthrough album, Melanie decided to release this live album which was supposedly recorded at a concert she gave for someone’s birthday (at least that’s what’s proudly boasted on the cover) that nonetheless proved to be a massive success for her in Australia.
Given how inescapably popular James Taylor was worldwide, it only makes sense that his label would reissue his debut album which from what I can gather was a complete failure for him upon its initial 1968 release. We Aussies certainly gave it the chance it deserves hence its placement on this list.
This is the only successful album that the British band free were able to achieve here in Australia, at least I think it is as admittedly I’m not sure how well their 60’s material did due to not having access to week-by-week charts for the Australian album charts of that decade.
This was a bit of a dud for Elton John here I Australia, not enough for it to be a bomb here but definitely a massive disappointment compared to his first two albums from my main list. He would of course bounce back with his next album Honky chateau.
Burt Bacharach is one of the biggest names when it comes to song writing in music history, as such he released a greatest hits album where he covered all the songs he wrote for the likes of Aretha Franklin and Bobbie Gentry throughout the 50’s which proved to be a massive success here in Australia.
Uriah Heep is best known for their 1978 hit “Free me,” however they had a decent amount of success during the first half of the decade with their albums including this breakthrough of theirs which was a decent hit for them here in Australia.
From what I can gather, this was a blues and psychedelia band that saw decent success in their native UK throughout the 60’s. I’m guessing these guys were also decently big here in Australia even though it would be purely through their albums which I don’t know for certain.
Stephen Stills is known both for his involvement with Crosby Stills Nash and Young as well as the lead singer of the Buffalo Springfield, so it only makes sense that his solo debut would be a decent success for him here in Australia given how both these bands were on top of the world when this came out.
This is one of two albums that Grand funk railroad had success with here in Australia during the first half of the decade, although neither of these albums contained their one and only hit “The locomotion” as that became a s such in Australia due to how well it did on the Billboard charts.
Although these guys never saw that much success with their albums here in Australia, they did do decently enough for many of them to appear on my site including their second album which was light on hit singles in exchange for it being a success.
This is the only successful album that Byrds frontman David Crosby had on his own, it was his first solo album which he released following the massive success he had with the supergroup Crosby Stills Nash and Young.
If you read the NZ side of my site, you may recognise these guys for their one and only hit in NZ “Dance the body music” which had Japanese album art of a topless woman with big boobs. Here they are with their breakthrough album from five years prior which did decently well here in Australia and I’m guessing was a massive success in NZ due to their later hit.
This is the only album Blackfeather released during their brief time together, it doesn’t even have their biggest hit “Bopping the blues” as that appeared on a live album that was a massive dud for them on the album charts during the first half of the decade.
This is the only entry from the Hollies on this list, mainly because it became a surprise success due to “Too young to be married” getting an Australian and NZ exclusive release which allowed it to become a massive hit in both countries. It’s hard to tell how well the rest of their output did in the 60’s given the limited weekly album data.
This is one of two entries to come from Canned heat on this list, they did score two hits in Australia during the final stretch of the 60’s with “On the road again” and “Going up the country” which suggested they saw plenty of success with their albums here. I can’t verify this as I have limited access to 60’s weekly data in Australia.
