1968 was a banner year for what is now referred to as Classic Rock with seminal albums from The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, Kinks, Simon & Garfunkel, The Doors, Creedence Clearwater Revival and many others.
But, if you had to pick the five best, then Indiana University Music Professor Glenn Gasssays they are:
1) The Beatles (White Album): "I always have to put the Beatles first, and the White Album was really just this beautiful, pastiche collage of almost every kind of popular music.
“It’s astonishing when you think about it. If you wanted to create an encyclopedia of popular music of the 20th century, you couldn’t do better than the White Album. And they do it all really well. The Beatles are just so damn good. It’s just astonishing.”
2) Beggars Banquet - The Rolling Stones: "It’s just one great song after the other. They sounded totally new, like the hardest, meanest rock you’d ever heard, but going back to blues and country and American roots wellsprings for inspiration. I think it’s like the most underrated album of rock history.”
3) The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society: “That’s a terrific album, and it’s as pastiche-like and sprawling as the White Album... It had the misfortune of being totally overshadowed by the Rolling Stones and the Beatles. The Kinks just couldn’t get a break. That should have been a huge hit, and it wasn’t..."
4) John Wesley Harding - Bob Dylan: "John Wesley Harding is actually December 1967, but I’ve always considered it a '68 album. That album did more than any other to say, ‘It’s over. Psychedelia is done.’
“It’s the most lean, sparse, almost scary album. There’s nothing psychedelic or Sgt. Pepper’s about it at all...”
5) Music From Big Pink - The Band: "With their holy songs and the Old West look of the band’s album portraits, The Band embraced the roots of old America. In the time of violence and riots, it was like The Band was trying to say they were the real America. They showed everyone how to make music as adults, as musicians, not as pop stars, not as overgrown teenagers.”