The first album you heard by ____ is still your favorite

[2steves]

Selling England by the Pound---Genesis

Peter Gabriel --Car

CSN-

[Tangram]

Probably more not my favorite than they are:

NOT:
TD - Thief
Jeff Beck - Blow by Blow
Genesis - And Then There Were Three
Beatle - Help
Peter Gabriel - PG3
Alan Parsons Project - Turn of a Friendly Card
Elton John - Don't Shoot Me I'm Only The Piano Player
Camel - Breathless
Moody Blues - Days of Future Passed
Soft Machine - Third

Favs:
King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King
Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
Chicago - VII
Kitaro - Asia
Pete Bardens - Seen One Earth
Steve Hackett - Voyage of the Acolyte
Yes - Fragile

That's all I can think of at the moment

[the winter tree]

Genesis Foxtrot
Bowie Low
Led Zeppelin 1
David Sylvian Gone To Earth

[Halmyre]

Joni Mitchell - Hejira

[Johnkil]

King Crimson-ITCOTCK
Steve Hackett - Acolyte

[Socrates]

Rather than just rattling off lists, isn't it more interesting to discuss why the first album you hear remain the favourite, in particular in those cases where the general consensus that other albums are superior?

In particular in those cases where a band has a distinctive style, the first album you hear can give you a wow experience, which you can only get once. Other albums, brilliant as they may be, don't have the association of this initial hit between the eyes.

The two examples I can immediately think of are System of a Down - Toxicity and Isis - Wavering Radiant. Harder to think of an example in mainstream prog, other than maybe Yessongs - the studio albums always sounded tame to me by comparison.

[hippypants]

Spirit--s/t--took me a while to warm up to it because it had a unique style to it or their sound or something. They had a different sound apart from the Frisco psych scene. I bought it and then sold the album and then bought it back again, then bought a cassette, and then CD. The same is true for King Crimson's ITKOTCK. Why I got rid of them, I have no idea. Prog shame. (Having said that, I still enjoy some of Spirits' other releases. Twelve Dreams comes close at times to rivaling s/t.)

[SteveSly]

My first Yes album was "Going For The One". I actually did not get it at all when I bought it, but kept pulling it out and today it remains my favorite Yes album. To me "Awaken" ranks right up there with the greatest prog epics of all time.

[rickawakeman]

Camel-Rain Dances

[Plasmatopia]

Rush - A Farewell to Kings
Flower Kings - Unfold the Future
Magma - MDK (although there's a few I still haven't heard, so...)
Yes - Fragile

I can't explain why and I don't think the reasons are anything other than personal taste...influenced by time, place, state of mind, etc.

[Jerjo]

It's hard for me to remember back that far on too many bands and on others my favorites shift. Plus in my youth I started on a lot of compilations. My first Beatles album was the Red Album, first Stones was Hot Rocks, first Who was Meaty, Beaty...and so on. Then I went back into the catalog, adding on the actual albums.

Supertramp - Crime of the Century
Boston - S/T (easiest call of the list)
Cheap Trick - Heaven Tonight
Pat Metheny/Lyle Mays - As Falls Wichita
Nazareth - Hair of the Dog
BB King - Live at the Regal
Alan Parsons Project - Tales of Mystery

[happytheman]

The Yes Album... Yes
Selling England by the Pound... Genesis
Moonmadness... Camel
In a Glass House... Gentle Giant
The World became the World.. PFM
Meddle... Pink Floyd
Sgt. Pepper.. The Beatles
ITCOTCK... King Crimson
I could go on and on... But you get the picture.. I cut my teeth on the classics first.

[yamishogun]

Rush - Power Windows (but soon a tie with A MP and PeW... and of course with A Farewell to Kings and Hemispheres...)
Yes - 90125 (soon a tie with The Yes Album )
Genesis - Duke (later tied with W&W and Selling England By the Pound)
Pink Floyd - The Wall
Porcupine Tree - In Abstentia
Alan Parsons Project - Turn of a Friendly Card
Threshold - Hypothetical
Dream Theater - Images and Words
Hot Butter - Popcorn

[Progbear]

Because it was mentioned in another thread...Ragnarök: Fjärilar i magen.

[Socrates]

Another example just occured to me: Can - Soon Over Babaluna. Not ranked at the top of most peoples' lists, but it was my first introduction to the Can sound.

[llanwydd]

The Yes Album - Yes
Welcome Back My Friends - ELP
Wind and Wuthering - Genesis
Live at Carnegie Hall - Renaissance
Discipline - King Crimson
Life's Rich Pageant - R.E.M.
Fillmore East - Allman Bros.
Sgt. Pepper - Beatles

[jake]

Faust - Faust Tapes
Capt Beefheart - Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller)
Zappa - Roxy and Elsewhere
Johnny Winter And Live
Rory Gallagher - Live in Europe
John Cale - Slow Dazzle

[Lou]

Van Halen - VH1
Heart - Little Queen
Max Webster - Universal Juveniles
Izz - I Move
Magenta - Seven
Arena - Immortal
Jadis - Somersault
Steven Wilson - The Raven
Pain of Salvation - Remedy Lane

[SongForAmerica]

The Blue Nile: A Walk Across the Rooftops
The Flower Kings: Flower Power
Kerry Livgren: Seeds of Change
Marillion: Clutching at Straws
Rare Bird: Epic Forest
Chris Squire: Fish Out of Water
White Willow: Ex Tenebris

[Rarebird]

My first ELP was Welcome back my friends... because it was the only ELP album I could find, that had Jerusalem and Karn Evil no 9. These are still my favorite songs and those are the first I heard, because our English teacher played them in English class.