Best of the 70's: Boston by Boston

Sitting at number 48 on the Best of the 70's list is this 1976 classic.  I distinctly remember buying my first album Firefall in 1976 and know this album by Boston couldn't have been far behind.

From age 10-13 I played this album to death.  By 16 I was so burned out on Boston I couldn't listen to them anymore and I bet I haven't listened to this album in full until today in over 20 years.  It's fun hearing it now and interesting to try and think of it's importance in the music of the 70's. 

I have to say I'm stunned that this sits at number 48 on the countdown, but I never truly thought of the impact of this album.  For one Tom Scholz completely invented the arena rock sound on this album.  For two this album sold like crazy hitting 18 million in sales since its release.  Those huge numbers paved the way for similar sounding albums from bands like Journey, Styx, etc.  If you think about it the difference between these guys and say Kansas at the time, who the same year put out Leftoverture, is that Boston was fully focused on creating a full set of songs that could all be released as singles on the radio.  Bands like Kansas, Styx, and Journey were still experimenting around with art and prog rock, but Boston threw all of that out the window and created a simple rock album, what we think of today as classic rock.

Boston was also important in the change of radio audiences.  Boston was made to be heard on FM radio, not AM which dominated the market in 1976.  As others followed their lead FM would rise to the top and end the AM dominance. 

Maybe I'm giving this album too much credit, but I'm pretty sure you could hear every song off of this album on some classic rock station at any time in this country.  When an album is that popular for that long it's hard to overstate it's impact.

If you are in the mood for classic rock, put on the original.

Following the Rhapsody rating method I give it 3 out of 5 stars for Pretty Good.