I was tagged in a note on Facebook by my own personal Lady Gaga (shout-out, Heather!) where she listed 15 albums that would always stick with her. The instructions were simple: think of 15 albums off the top of your head that, for some reason or another, have always stayed with you. I’m just now getting around to typing this, but I immediately wrote down my 15 right then. I ended up with 18 on my list, so I feel like that’s cheating a little. I might whittle it down to the proper 15, so the Facebook gods don’t frown upon me. Then again, this is my blog and not Facebook, so maybe I just rewrote the rules. These albums have not only stayed with me, but have also helped shaped me in some way. (Deep thoughts from a shallow mind?) Play on…
1. 1. OUT OF THE BLUE ~ Debbie Gibson. This is the album that formed me into the teenybopper I would forever become. I grew up on country music, and this is about the time I discovered pop. (KKRD, say what!?) I saddled up on the Deb Gib bandwagon, and never looked back.
2. 2. STEP BY STEP ~ New Kids on the Block. Hold the phones, kids, let me stop ya right there. I became a die-hard Blockhead immediately, and this slot almost went to HANGIN’ TOUGH. As an album, SBS takes me back to so many memories of the Kids. Many of my fave NKOTB songs are on this album, and I remember New Kids mania like it was yesterday. The MAGIC SUMER and NO MORE GAMES tours are concert standouts for me.
3. 3. FOREVER YOUR GIRL ~ Paula Abdul. My feelings on Ms. Abdul NOW can’t take away my feelings I had then, or my forever feelings for this album. I was crazy about Paula, and this tape got worn out more than once. I also loved SPELLBOUND, and was able to see her UNDER MY SPELL tour.
4. 4. DEBORAH ~ Deborah Gibson. I think it’s too bad that too many people focused on the shift from the name Debbie to Deborah instead of focusing on this brilliant album. This is easily my favorite album by any artist of all time. While I remember being sad she didn’t have the same chart success as her early albums, I remember always feeling like I had a secret and that only some of us knew about it. What a brilliant secret. Debbie Gibson is the eternal Electric Youth, much like myself.
5. 5. BLUE ~ LeAnn Rimes. I feel about LeAnn very much how I feel about Deborah. They are my 2 favorite artists, in leagues all their own, light years above and beyond the rest of the music industry. (I’m not even being dramatic on that, it’s seriously how I feel.) I have to admit when I first heard the song BLUE I was annoyed. I wasn’t *CRAZY* for the Patsy Cline sound (if you will). I was at Fan Fair in Nashville the summer of 96 and LeAnn made her first appearance. She was still only 13 years old, but when she took the stage, she had me at BLUE. LeAnn sang only three songs, but I walked away from her performance a fan for life. (and BLUE became a favorite.)
6. 6. …BABY ONE MORE TIME ~ Britney Spears. I know that Britney is far (and I do mean far) from the vocalist Deborah and LeAnn are, but something about her drew me in with the release of her first single and album. Much like OUT OF THE BLUE, this album laid the ground work for the fan I was to become. Britney will forever be one of my all-time favorite entertainers, and I have been known to slap haters in the face before. (that was a mild warning to all the haters.)
7. 7. COME ON OVER ~ Shania Twain. I was one of the maybe 12 people who bought Shania’s self-titled debut album. (I loved WHAT MADE YA SAY THAT? and DANCE WITH THE ONE THAT BROUGHT YA.) I also loved her album THE WOMAN IN ME. By the time Shania released this, her third, she was already a huge crossover artist and she was changing the landscape of music. I was able to see her live show, which gave me even more respect and admiration for her.
8. 8. NO STRINGS ATTACHED ~ *NSYNC. I was a dedicated Boy of the Backstreet thanks to my best friend Ang, and she and I snubbed our noses at these BSW’s. (Backstreet Wanna Be’s) Ang and I fell for the DRIVE MYSELF CRAZY video from *NSYNC’s first album, but we kind of kept that to ourselves. (we careful not to let our secret out.) By the time BYE BYE BYE was sweeping the world, Ang and I could no longer hide our love for the guys. We bought this album in California on a Spring Break trip and listened to it for 26 hours straight coming home. When Ang says *N, I say SYNC.
9. 9. TWISTED ANGEL ~ LeAnn Rimes. This album came out when I lived in Los Angeles, and is almost like a soundtrack to that year of my life. LeAnn had been going through a lot of personal issues in her own life, which was all played out in the media… I was happy to see her emerge with not only an album of all new material, but an album of all new excellent material. LeAnn took heat for stepping out of the country boundaries with this, but like Tim McGraw has said- “some say it’s too country, some say it’s too rock and roll, but it’s just good music if you can feel it in your soul.” Word.
10 10. BREAKAWAY ~ Kelly Clarkson. Because I watched American Idol from the very first episode of the very first season, I feel like I discovered Kelly Clarkson and she’s my best friend. (I don’t have to explain Jimmie Logic, do I?) I loved her debut album, but this is kind of like Shania and COME ON OVER… this album took Kelly to an entire new level in my world. Fan for life.
11. 11. NEVER GONE ~ Backstreet Boys. I was a BSB fan from early on, but they were eclipsed in my world by *NSYNC. When this album was released, *NSYNC had disbanded and boy bands were all but extinct. I wasn’t expecting much from the album, and I got the exact opposite. Start to finish, this is one of my all time favorite albums. (meaning that if I ordered these by favorite and not by date, it would be well above #11) I was able to see the Never Gone Tour, just before Kevin Richardson jumped ship. One of the best shows… period. And Nick Carter will always hold a special place in my heart.
12 12. FAMILY ~ LeAnn Rimes. As of now, this is probably my 2nd favorite album of all time, just behind DEBORAH. I can’t explain why I love this album so much, so I’m not going to try. LeAnn is a true talent who never fails to impress me. I feel like this list will need to be altered in the years to come as she releases more material. I feel like I should already save a spot here for LADY & GENTLEMEN, and it hasn’t even been released yet.
13 13. BLACKOUT ~ Britney Spears. Like I said before, I am a forever-fan of Britney. For the 2 years that her life was in a downward spiral, I was still here in Kansas loving her, still slapping the faces of haters. (I think I got a few extra slaps in during that dark time frame.) This album was released in all the baldness, and musically, Britney still had it. I’m not sure if she knew she still had it, and the fact the album is called BLACKOUT still scares me a little, but with this album I held out hope that my Britney would come back one day, full throttle.
14 14. LEGALLY BLONDE: THE ORIGINAL BROADWAY CAST RECORDING ~ Laura Bell Bundy and Company. I recorded Legally Blonde the Musical when it aired on MTV on my DVR. (And I feel I need to take this moment to thank whoever thought of that brilliant idea??) I wasn’t sure how a movie I loved so much could translate into a musical on the Broadway stage, but it didn’t take long for the musical to replace the movie in my heart. OMIGOD YOU GUYS!! I became best friends immediately (again, Jimmie World) w/ Laura Bell Bundy. I feel like this soundtrack (aka spot #14 on this list) needs to share space with ACHIN’ & SHAKIN’, Laura Bell’s debut country album released just this year. Ms. Bundy came to my tiny town to perform for a festival and I was able to spend the afternoon with her, and she sealed her fate as one of my favorite artists.
15 15. HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 3: SENIOR YEAR ~ Soundtrack. If you know anything about me, then you probably know this isn’t a joke. This would be the movie that bumped THE WIZARD OF OZ as my favorite movie of all time. Sometimes I blame Zac Efron, sometimes I blame the fact that this movie just completes the HSM trilogy (if it’s legal to even call it that) and warms my heart.
I decided to play fair and stop my list at fifteen,
but I have a few extras to throw out here.
HONORABLE MENTIONED: ELECTRIC YOUTH by Debbie Gibson, SITTIN ON TOP OF THE WORLD and WHATEVER WE WANNA by LeAnn Rimes, CELEBRITY by *NSYNC, CABBAGE PATCH DREAMS by The Cabbage Patch Kids, 9 TO 5 by Dolly Parton. And a special shout-out to MY WORLD 2.0 by Justin Bieber, for making sure that I remain a teenybopper at heart forever.
And Jimmie Taylor’s greatest GREATEST HITS albums? THE IMMACULATE COLLECTION by Madonna, MY PREROGATIVE by Britney Spears, LeAnn Rimes, Spice Girls, THE HITS CHAPTER ONE by Backstreet Boys, Martina McBride, Faith Hill, Shania Twain… I need to just stop now.
