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40 Greatest One-Album Wonders

The best one-and-dones, including Lauryn Hill, Jeff Buckley, Young Marble Giants, and more

Koh Hasebe/Shinko Music/Getty, Anthony Barboza/Getty, David Tonge/Getty

Some of rock’s greatest stories are short ones. After making one, solitary studio full-length, these acts were promptly derailed by death, internal band politics or the simple desire to put something down and never pick it back up. Here are the best one-and-dones.

Editor’s Note: A version of this list was originally published July 2016

From Rolling Stone US

39

Derek & the Dominos, ‘Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs’ (1970)

It’s Eric Clapton’s masterpiece, of course, but neither the travails of smack addiction nor his infamous infatuation with Patti Harrison deserve full credit for driving him to the most intense playing and singing of his career. Clapton was, for once, first among equals, not competing for attention in a supergroup or seeking anonymity as a sideman. As keyboardist, singer and songwriting partner, Bobby Whitlock has Clapton’s back throughout, the rhythm section of bassist Carl Radle and drummer Jim Gordon motor along with nuanced precision, and Duane Allman’s soaring slide work is a pitch-perfect counterpoint to Clapton’s own clipped, stinging phrases. The band couldn’t hold it together, however, dissolving during a follow-up session.

40

Sex Pistols, ‘Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols’ (1977)

By the time that punk firebrands Sex Pistols put out what would be their only drop of album-length venom, they were already the most notorious band in the United Kingdom. The people behind the official U.K. pop charts wouldn’t even print the name of the band, pegged as foul-mouthed hooligans, when “God Save the Queen” made it to Number Two in May 1977. The LP was destined to be a cultural turning point no matter what was on it; but because Bollocks contained 12 distinctly angry salvos that begged for chaos (“Anarchy in the U.K.”), reveled in laziness (“Seventeen”) and embraced the obscene (“Fuck this and fuck that”), it exploded in a way that has caused reverberations in music ever since, inspiring everyone from Axl Rose to, obliquely, Neil Young. The band’s lust for chaos would ultimately get the better of them, as quarreling with manager Malcolm McLaren and feelings of antipathy toward his bandmates led Johnny Rotten to quit the band onstage, a little over two months after the album came out.