196) Nuggets: Original Artyfacts From the First Psychedelic Era, 1965-1968

Buy the album at Rhino.com

This collection of sixties garage rock, compiled by rock critic and soon-to-be Patti Smith guitarist Lenny Kaye, became a touchstone for Seventies punks. The twenty-seven-track, two-LP set was a radical idea in 1972 -- while rock was getting bigger, Nuggets established a new canon out of forgotten AM-radio hits -- brutally simple singles, such as the Standells' "Dirty Water," the Shadows of Knight's "Oh Yeah!" and the Count Five's "Psychotic Reaction." Rhino expanded Nuggets into a sprawling four-CD box in 1998.

Total album sales: Under 500,000

Peak chart position: N/A

Next: R.E.M.

Back to RS 500 Albums!
Back to RS 500 Songs!