John Mellencamp: The Essential Album-by-Album Guide

CHESTNUT STREET INCIDENT (1976)
Key Tracks: "American Dream," "Good GIrls"
Quick Take: It takes more than a leap of faith to be excited by Mellencamp's first five or six albums. He launched his career as "Johnny Cougar," a sobriquet thrust upon him by then-manager Tony DeFries, and Chestnut Street Incident presents an artist whose instincts run to recycled Stones riffs and Springsteen-derived braggadocio — an embarrassing combination. His version of "Oh, Pretty Woman" is fine and "American Dream" contains traces of the songwriter he would grow into, but especially compared to his later output, this one is a non-starter.