Platinum Albums With Great Guitar

General Music Discussion
#1

A lot of the best guitar players haven’t had platinum selling albums, especially the guys who tend to do more instrumental music than songs with vocals. Either that, or they’re great players who choose to play music that’s too uncommercial to reach a huge audience. So, what are some bands that do reach huge audiences who have really great guitarists that you like or at least a specific album that went platinum that you love the guitar playing on it?

I think the Whitesnake album with “Still Of the Night” that has David Coverdale and John Sykes is a great album from both a vocal and guitar standpoint that happened to go multi-platinum. I think Slash is pretty good and I like Axl Rose’s vocals on Appetite For Destruction and Use Your Illusion 1 and 2 albums.

Of course the Led Zeppelin albums went multi platinum and they had great vocals and great guitar playing and I love them. They were maybe the most popular band of the ones I really love for the guitar playing as well as the vocals and songwriting. Deep Purple also had some platinum albums like Machine Head with both great vocals and great guitar.

I don’t think Dokken’s albums went platinum but some of them sold pretty well and they have great guitar playing by George Lynch. Lynch is really a great player who maybe got overlooked by some metal fans because Dokken wasn’t heavy enough for their taste. Dio’s Holy Diver and The Last In Line albums both went at least gold and maybe platinum by now and I love both the goals and the guitar playing. You don’t hear a lot of people talking about Vivian Campbell these days but his playing in the two albums was great and a big influence on me.

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#2

I tried going through the RIAA’s “Diamond” certified albums and seeing which ones might be regarded as having “great” guitar. I tried to identify a) Albums where guitar has a significant role, regardless any value judgment about it, b) Albums where the guitar playing could arguably be classified as having some “shred” qualities to it, c) Albums where guitarists today generally recognize artistic importance or significance to the guitar playing. Note that an album could satisfy b without satistfying c, and vice versa, and b and c are both subjective and fodder for debate.

Here’s the RIAA link I used as a source:
https://www.riaa.com/gold-platinum/?tab_active=top_tallies&ttt=DA#search_section

Based on my first cut, here are the diamond albums that I think satisfied all of a, b, and c:
Journey, Greatest Hits
Metallica, Metallica
Van Halen, Van Halen
Van Halen, 1984

Albums that satify “shred”, but are iffier on “importance/influence”:
Bon Jovi, Slippery When Wet
Def Leppard, Hysteria
Def Leppard, Pyromania

Albums that satisfy “importance/influence” but are iffier on “shred” (note that this includes compilations and “best of” albums even when it’s arguable that the primary influence of the content predates the compilation (e.g. The Beatles, 1)):
Guns N’ Roses, Appetite for Destruction
Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin II
Led Zeppelin, Houses of the Holy
Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin IV
Led Zeppelin, Physical Graffiti
Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon
Pink Floyd, The Wall
Prince and the Revolution, Purple Rain Soundtrack
AC/DC, Back in Black
Bob Marley and the Wailers, Legend
Creedence Clearwater Revival, Chronicle: 20 Greatest Hits
Doobie Brothers, Best of the Doobies
Eagles, Greatest Hits Volume II
Eagles, Eagles/Their Greatest Hits 1971 - 1975
Eagles, Hotel California
Eric Clapton, Unplugged
Green Day, Dookie
James Taylor, James Taylor’s Greatest Hits
Michael Jackson, Thriller
Nirvana, Nevermind
Simon and Garfunkel, Simon and Garfunkel’s Greatest Hits
The Beatles, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
The Beatles, The Beatles
The Beatles, The Beatles 1962 - 1966
The Beatles, Abbey Road
The Beatles, 1
The Beatles, 1967 - 1970
The Doors, The Best of The Doors
The Rolling Stones, Hot Rocks
U2, The Joshua Tree
ZZ Top, Eliminator

Albums I’d give credit for at least one of “b” or “c”, but I think would be “controversial” inclusions:
Boston, Boston
Santana, Supernatural
Creed, Human Clay
Aerosmith, Aerosmith’s Greatest Hits
Kid Rock, Devil Without a Cause
Smashing Pumpkins, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness

Perhaps the most interesting is Santana. Carlos Santana has been hugely influential when you look at his entire career. By the standards of the mid-1970’s, we might have classified him as a “shredder”, but by contemporary standards he fits more in the same kind of category as Led Zeppelin. And while Supernatural was a huge commercial success, you could argue that it’s not his most “adventurous” guitar playing. On the flipside you could describe Supernatural as a triumph of maturity and restraint over flash for the sake of flash, by an artist at the peak of his powers.

Edit: As part of this exercise, I learned about the existence of a Diamond record for country act “Florida Georgia Line”, who I had never heard of previously. After watching the video for their biggest single, I did a little more reading and was dismayed to learn that they weren’t, as I assumed, a genre parody act in the same vein as The Darkness. Apparently these guys are the unironic “Nickelback of Country”. Incidentally, Nickelback also has a Diamond record (“All the Right Reasons”). While Nickelback is unapologetically calculated, I find that some of their songs at least have catchy hooks; I’m not sure that’s the case for Florida Georgia Line, but I really don’t feel motivated to make the effort to find out.

The most prominent country act in the “Diamond” list is Garth Brooks, with 7 albums. While Brooks himself is hugely influential as a performer, I don’t think even country artists would describe the actual guitar playing on his albums as being particularly influential. You could argue that Brad Paisley is making history in country guitar right now, but he wasn’t included in my exercise because he doesn’t have a diamond record yet.

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#3

Hey @Frylock, that’s a really a beautifully compiled list of albums and I like the a,b and c for criteria you included. Was the reason you didn’t include G&R Use Your Illusion I and II because neither was certified diamond?

Do you really think that Slippery When Wet has more “shred” than Led Zeppelin? I haven’t listened to the album recently enough to be sure but I would say if you take the time when the albums were recorded, Page was shredding more impressively than Sambora if you judge Page’s speed and overall virtuosity compared to his contemporaries and then compare Sambora to what his contemporaries were doing at the time. If you don’t take into account how the “shred” compared to other players of that particular time, then Sambora probably does shred a little more than Page but not by much. I bet the “Heartbreaker” solo Page does is probably just as fast as anything Sambora does unless Sambora does tapping. I don’t remember if Sambora used tapping in his solos or not.

Like I said,I haven’t listened to Slippery When Wet in a long time but still I really doubt he shreds any more than Slash, who you put in the “iffy” category. I’m not even sure the two Def Leppard albums have any better shred than Appetitie For Destruction. The solo at the outtro of “Paradise City” has some pretty fast licks.

#4

Correct. Just checked, and Illusion I and II are each 7x Platinum. I imagine they’ll make Diamond eventually (10x Platinum).

And regarding, say, Bon Jovi vs. Led Zeppelin, for the “shred” criteria I was trying to look through a modern lens rather than comparing them to their peers in historical context. I hinted about this in my discussion about Carlos Santana at the bottom. It’s cool for us to think about drawing that line in different ways, and break down some of the “shreddier” highlights of blues-rock type players. I’m not religious about how I’ve broken any of this stuff down. My main concern was to have my full post err on the side of including albums that people might dismiss without giving a closer look. I probably could have moved Green Day’s “Dookie” down to my “controversial” list, but I think the amount of influence it had tends to be underappreciated in hindsight. I also recognized some albums that I personally cannot get into at all, like Dark Side of the Moon (except maybe the solo in “Time”).

#5

David Lee Roth - Eat 'Em and Smile

David Lee Roth,Steve Vai,Billy Sheehan,Gregg Bissonette - crazy band!

And very nice outfits.

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#6

Took a look at the “multiplatinum” albums that didn’t make diamond. Here’s an incomplete list of “artists of interest to guitarists, with multiple multi-platinum albums.” This includes some artists whose influence or significance may be questionable (e.g. Poison), on the grounds that they made guitar-centric records with some songs that people still want to learn to play. I’m not an expert on country, so while I included some country artists with obvious historical significance, I left out, for example, Alan Jackson, even though I recognize Brent Mason did some badass guitar playing on some of Alan Jackson’s records (and presumably on other country records I’m not familiar with). There are also some huge-selling country acts like Garth Brooks and Alabama where I haven’t heard people argue there’s anything especially exciting about the guitar playing, but if anybody wants to argue in their favor, I’m happy to have someone convince me. My rock bias is evident in the fact that I included some popular rock acts that a person might argue aren’t any more “interesting” guitar-wise than some of the country albums I left out.

So here’s an unscientific, incomplete, rock-biased subset of “artists with guitar records that went multi-platinum”: (I decided to include a few with only one “multiplatinum” album, those ones are marked with a “*”; and I’m too lazy to fully check against the diamond list, so Bob Marley gets a star here even though he has another record that went Diamond)

AC/DC
Aerosmith
Alice in Chains
Allman Brothers*
Asia*
Audioslave*
Bad Company
Beck*
Billy Squier
Black Sabbath
Blink-182
Bob Dylan
Bob Marley & The Wailers*
Bon Jovi
Bonnie Raitt
Boston
Brad Paisley
Brian Setzer Orchestra*
Bruce Springsteen
Bryan Adams
Charlie Daniels Band
Cheap Trick*
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Crosby, Stills & Nash
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
Damn Yankees*
Dave Matthews Band
Deep Purple*
Dire Straits
Doobie Brothers
Eagles
Ed Sheeran
Edgar Winter Group*
Elvis Presley
Eric Clapton
Extreme*
Foreigner
George Benson*
George Harrison*
George Jones*
George Strait
Glen Campbell*
Grateful Dead
Green Day
Guns N" Roses
Hank Williams Jr.*
Harry Chapin*
Heart
Isley Brothers
James Taylor
Jane’s Addiction*
Jimi Hendrix
John Mayer
Johnny Cash
Journey
Judas Priest*
Kansas
Kenny Chesney
Kid Rock
KISS
Korn
Led Zeppelin
Lenny Kravitz
Linkin Park
Living Color*
Los Lobos*
Lynyrd Skynyrd
Megadeth*
Metallica
Motley Crue
Neil Young
Nirvana
Oasis*
Offspring
Ozzy Osbourne
Pantera*
Peter Frampton*
Pink Floyd
Poison
Queen
Queensryche*
Quiet Riot*
Radiohead*
Rage Against the Machine
Ratt
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Robert Cray*
Rush
Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble
Santana
Scorpions
Soundgarden
Steely Dan*
Stone Temple Pilots
Ted Nugent
Tesla*
The Beatles
The Black Keys
The Clash*
The Doors
The Police
The Rolling Stones
The Who
Tool
U2
Van Halen
Various (Woodstock: Music from the Original Soundtrack and More)*
Velvet Revolver*
Waylon Jennings*
Weezer*
White Lion*
White Zombie
Whitesnake
Yes
ZZ Top

#7

And to round things out, I didn’t go through the single-platinum album list in detail (there are just over 2600 single-platinum albums in total), but here’s a roundup of some of the “of interest to guitarists” artists that have 3 or more single-platinum albums (some will overlap with the diamond and multiplatinum lists). Again, this is incomplete and unscientific:

Elvis Presley
George Strait
The Rolling Stones
The Beatles
Rush
Alabama
The Doors
Kenny Chesney
James Taylor
Bob Dylan
AC/DC
The Who
Steely Dan
Prince
KISS
Isley Brothers
Hank Williams Jr.
Foo Fighters
Dave Matthews Band
Alice Cooper
Yes
Lynyrd Skynyrd
Bruce Springsteen
Bon Jovi
Aerosmith
U2
Scorpions
Queen
Nirvana
Linkin Park
Iron Maiden
Cheap Trick
Black Sabbath
The Police
System of a Down
Smashing Pumpkins
Simon & Garfunkel
Rick Springfield
Pearl Jam
Pantera
Ozzy Osbourne
Neil Young
Megadeth
Led Zeppelin
Korn
Judas Priest
Johnny Cash
Jimi Hendrix
Hank Williams
Glen Campbell
Eric Clapton
ZZ Top
Weezer
Tesla
Slipknot
Santana
Radiohead
Pink Floyd
Motley Crue
Merle Haggard
John Mayer
Heart
Green Day
George Benson
Doobie Brothers
Dokken
Dire Straits
Diamond Rio
Def Leppard
Deep Purple
David Lee Roth
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Charlie Daniels Band
Bryan Adams
Brad Paisley
Allman Brothers

#8

Odd to see Mellon Collie get a nod from RIAA, but somehow Siamese Dream didn’t. I thought Mellon Collie was a bit inconsistent though at times brilliant (though, the very “live in the room” production sound (especially the drums, which I always thought sounded a bit muffled) for a lot of the mix was kind of an interesting choice for that band at that time). Siamese Dream, though, would be a short-list pick for me for best guitar album to come out of the “grunge” scene. Not only is Corgan an immediately identifiable, quirky-yet-brilliant soloist, but holy shit, that rhythm guitar sound… When “Cherub Rock” kicks in at the very start, at the time I’d never heard anything like that before. It was just massive, and to my ears completely unprecedented in “mainstream” rock music.

#9

It’s based on sales figures. Mellon Collie is 10x Platinum (where Platinum indicates 1,000,000 units sold). 10x Platinum puts you into the “Diamond” category. Siamese Dream is currently 4x Platinum.

#10

Still, I guess I’m mostly surprised Mellon Collie outsold Siamese Dream by a factor of more than two. Then again, “Tonight, Tonight” got a TON of radio airplay back in the day, whereas “Today” was probably a little dark and heavy for pop radio in 1995…

#11

Why you need a “Platinum” album???

#12

The most influential (to me) country playing flies under the shred radar—just a slew of tasty guitar parts that make the song without being technically flashy.

Much in the way that the guitar part at the end of Billie Jean or George Harrison’s solo on Something are just so perfect.

I get the sense that I’m definitely in the minority on this forum in strongly preferring pop to shred though.

THANK YOU for this detailed list!

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#13

Totally valid. I guess I’d say the interpretation of “influential” I was using here was along the line of “commanding attention” and “inspiring imitation”. As you note, something doesn’t have to be technically demanding or “flashy” to inspire imitation. Going further, something doesn’t even need to be particularly original or groundbreaking to capture the imagination of a generation of young guitarists at a particular time, though obviously stuff that is original or groundbreaking has a better chance of doing that. And then we get into the whole question of what it is to even be original, and how much of originality is just recombining existing ingredients in an interesting way…

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#14

My own motivation was just to look at the intersection of “what guitarists think is cool” and “what millions of other people thought was cool”. Of course there’s lots of cool guitar stuff that doesn’t sell millions of records.

#15

That’s because a lot of great guitarists have never had big careers because while they had great playing ability, they weren’t able to translate that into being able to sell a lot of records. This thread takes a look at musicians who did both - having that great playing ability and also utilizing that ability to sell millions of albums. A lot of guys can play very well. A lot of guys have sold a lot of albums. Not many manage to do both well.