bapu
Where's Pedro?
 
I need some bathroom reading material.
 

Right here!
 
Not in the bathroom, however!
 
For me, it was The Doors, starting with Light My Fire ... and I knew this was better than the Beatles for me, and it meant a lot more.
 
After that ... Janis Joplin and the Holding Company ... Cheap Thrills ... still one of the best albums EVER.
 
Others on my top stuff very early, would have been The Jimi Hendrix Experience ... and what an experience that was ... and the first Crosby, Still, Nash and Young.
 
Creedence Clearwater Revival, the first album.
 
All of these were valuable albums to my formation. 
 
Led Zeppelin 1 and 2 fit in there some.
 
Later, after I moved to California, Amon Duul 2 (Yeti and Dance of the Lemmings) and Tangerine Dream (Atem and Phaedra).
 
ITCOTCK was not something I heard until much later, surprisingly enough. Although at this time, I also picked up Liege & Lief, by Fairport Convention, that still is one of my favorite albums of all time, and it there was a song that I have never failed to enjoy, is ... "Reynardine".
 
The noisy and loud stuff never got to me much, and was the part of FM radio, that helped make it commercial in those days ... sadly enough. And killed the radio waves with a lot of ... crabs!

I've been thinking about this for a couple of days, trying to come up with just one. Would it be Sgt. Pepper? Or Who's Next? Dark Side Of The Moon or Grand Funk's Red Album (bet you never thought you'd see those 2 together in the same "best of" fred)? Emerson, Lake and Palmer's first?
Now craigb throws in Boston, confounding me even more.
These fred's come up every few years and I think I gave the same response last time.
Revolver.
Such a wide range of sounds and styles, pop to pschycodelia to eastern mysticism and political rants. I even like Yellow Submarine, sometimes. Great production, too.

For me personally it would have been Jean Michelle Jarre's Oxygen.  It had the most impact on me introducing the whole concept of electronic music and making me wanting to go out and get into it.  I have been doing it ever since!
 
Tangerine Dream's Logos was another one that came out a little after that. 
 
Just out of interest Jarre's Oxygen 3 which he released last year is also quite amazing too. Nothing like the first one but seriously good none the less.  He has not lost his touch only got better.

Dark Side Of The Moon changed everything. That one is why I picked up the guitar.
Then it was The Wall, Wish You Were Here and Animals.

Frank Zappa's "Make A Jazz Noise Here" was pretty life changing for me musically. I'd always liked Zappa but to hear the sheer brilliance of the musicianship on that album and to know it was all live, just blew my mind. Between the ages of 18-20 I must have listened to the whole thing all the way through every single day. Even after all this time I reckon I could whistle the whole lot note for note along with the record, even all the crazy horn solos and Zappa's ridiculously complex melodies. I had it on double cassette and wore two copies out before finally buying it on CD. 

ampfixer
Ya, Ya, Ya, just answer the question. It seems nobody can read instructions anymore. What ALBUM..... just 1.

I'm not sure that I can actually finger pick the whole album.

Today, I'm going to start off the day with Blow by Blow.......and no, not the white powder stuff.

kennywtelejazz
...
If pressed for one album only my one album would be "Woodstock " that album had it all going on

Kenny

I have to agree, although there are some other concert films that are also really good (Stamping Ground is one of them) that also have the energy and the flash.
 
However, it's hard to not accept that some moments of Woodstock were filmed by some great film makers years later ... how about Martin Scorcese ... and he has never talked about it, although I think he was too stoned to care ... but the visuals, in some parts, look so much like many parts of his films.
 
Jimi's moment is sad for me, playing the anthem in front of trash, sort of like saying that the music is not important anymore ... and that hurts. And this is where the European scene takes off, and becomes better than the American scene in music. It all became too commercial after Woodstock and killed a lot of things that it should not have.
 
Some bits and pieces ... Janis Joplin was mostly cut off because she went nuts scream for love in one song, and the band and producers did not know how to handle it. Some of it is in the other album, but somehow, it just felt to me like another "Ball and Chain", and some folks just left her hanging there! End of the band! The other one, was the Incredible String Band, that got moved around so bad, that when they got on stage and did their folk/poetry theater thing, it got laughed off the stage and folks did not get it, and could not relate to it. I guess it was OK to be ripped on acid, but not to be serious about your work ... and this comes back to Jimi again ...
 
For a "live" album I would say it's probably the best one ever. However, the one thing that really got me listening, was "Chunga's Revenge" and then the following week seeing a band called "Babe Ruth" make Iggy look like an idiot on stage at the Whiskey a Go Go. The following week I got to see the film 200 Motels in a full screen ... and great sound ... and that still is one of my favorite films and music shows ... and the "Suites" done off it recently at UCLA only show what a great piece it was.

ampfixer
Ya, Ya, Ya, just answer the question. It seems nobody can read instructions anymore. What ALBUM..... just 1.

That's impossible ... there is not just one ... never was! The world is too big for just one, and I don't think the mind is so small that it can only think of ... one ... 
 
Ohh wait ... I'm 87 already ... what is "one"?