Vinyl Albums that Make Great Father’s Day Presents

The Captain and Me, by the Doobie Brothers
When the Doobie Brothers released this album in 1973, it rode the charts for a full year and went double platinum. Many consider it the band’s best and most consistent album to date. Not surprisingly, The Captain and Me includes some of the Doobie Brothers’ best songs. “Natural Thing,” the album’s opening track, shows off the band’s melodic and harmonic range right away, and “China Grove” unleashes one of the most iconic guitar riffs of all time. “Evil Woman,” one of the album’s louder tracks, combines gritty blues guitar with the smooth arrangements and vocal delivery that became the band’s trademark.

Brothers In Arms, by Dire Straits
Speaking of iconic guitar riffs, Dire Straits played themselves into the history books with “Money for Nothing,” the second track on their 1985 album Brothers In Arms. While undeniably the band’s most well-known song, with a music video that dominated MTV, “Money for Nothing” isn’t the only good track on this Grammy-winning album. The dominant keyboard melody in the 1950s-inspired “Walk of Life” will stick in your head for days, and “Why Worry” is beachy and laid-back without being listless. Even though Brothers In Arms was one of the CD format’s earliest successes, it needs to be heard on vinyl to be fully appreciated.

George Thorogood and the Destroyers, by George Thorogood and the Destroyers
An album for dads who keep a heavy bag in the garage and own at least one sleeveless t-shirt, George Thorogood’s self-titled debut is a selection of blues standards delivered with minimal frills, but plenty of volume, grit, and sleaze. Later albums see the band skew more towards rock ‘n roll, but this is very much a blues album. That’s not to say it doesn’t rock, though. Thorogood’s version of Amos Milburn’s “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer” begins with a truncated version of John Lee Hooker’s “House Rent Boogie,” creating an 8-minute blues medley sustained by his band’s masterful rhythm section. My other favorite track here is “Delaware Slide,” one of Thorogood’s originals and a raucous ode to his home state that should be its official song, if it isn’t already.

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, by Wilco
Not all dad rock comes from the 1970s. Now that Generation X is raising kids, some bands from their youth have been around long enough to qualify, and Wilco is definitely one of those bands. In fact, there’s a good chance your dad will love Yankee Hotel Foxtrot even if he isn’t a Gen-Xer; this is Wilco’s most popular, and most controversial, album to date. The controversy stems from Wilco’s former record label refusing to release the album, at which point Wilco left their roster and streamed the album on their website for free before releasing it through Nonesuch Records in 2002. Tracks like “Kamera” and “Pot Kettle Black” are great examples of their blend of psychedelica, country, and idiosyncratic pop.

Greatest Hits 1974-78, by the Steve Miller Band 
The Steve Miller Band is one that sneaks up on people, in that they were so versatile that people remember their songs more than the band itself. Luckily, this Greatest Hits album exists to remind people that, yes, one band wrote all these awesome songs. As the album’s title suggests, the featured tracks are from the mid-1970s, when the band transitioned from psychedelic music to a more straightforward rock approach. This turned out to be a wise move, because songs like “The Joker,” “Swingtown,” and “Take the Money and Run” made this era their most successful one. And if your dad was an Everybody Loves Raymond fan, he may remember hearing “Jungle Love” as the show’s theme song for a couple of season.

Born in the USA, by Bruce Springsteen
Perhaps the most classically dad-rock musician of the modern era, Bruce Springsteen songs might as well be the official soundtrack for father-child bonding. This album, released in 1984, cemented Springsteen’s working-class optimist image and paired it with synthesizers and poppier arrangements. It went on to be the best-selling album of 1985, and produced as many charting hits as Michael Jackson’s Thriller and Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation. No small feat, that, and this album lives up to the hype. Aside from the title track, one of his most enduring hits, “Dancer In the Dark” and “I’m On Fire” made great singles, and “No Surrender” is every bit as bouncy and fun as its more famous counterparts.
 
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