1973! Part 2!

In 1973, the musicians we knew and loved didn’t let us down.  There were new albums from The Rolling Stones, Stevie Wonder, The Who, The Beach Boys, Marvin Gaye, The Moody Blues, Paul Simon, and each of The Beatles.  But the year held additional delights an amazing variety of talented newcomers made their debuts.  There was more great music to be enjoyed if you knew what names to look for at your local record store.

Bruce Springsteen put out his debut album Greetings from Asbury Park, N. J., and then followed it up ten months later with The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle

After having a hit single with “Hang On Sloopy” with his band The McCoys followed by years spent working with Edgar Winter’s various bands, Rick Derringer made his debut as a solo artist in 1973.

Aerosmith also came on strong that year with a self-titled LP powered by their first major hit, “Dream On.”

Queen also put out a self-titled debut record in ’73, and even at that early stage the vocal acrobatics of Freddie Mercury and the high impact guitar of Brian May couldn’t be missed.

Mike Oldfield enjoyed a sleeper success with a debut record called Tubular Bells consisting of two lengthy instrumental montages.  The album got minimal attention at first, but when segments of it were featured in the 1973 film The Exorcist, it became a worldwide hit.

And what would our collective cultural consciousness be without the arrival of “Free Bird” from Lynyrd Skynyrd’s first album, (Pronounced 'Lĕh-'nérd 'Skin-'nérd).

And while several artists made debuts that put them on the musical map, there were quite a few freshman records that only hinted at the success to come—including ABBA’s Ring Ring and the debut duo release from Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham, Buckingham Nicks—while Bachman-Turner Overdrive released their first two albums in ’73, but didn’t score any hits until the following year.