Our Top 10 J. Geils Band albums list takes a look at a United States East Coast band formed in the late 1960s out of the city of Worcester, Massachusetts. The J. Geils Band were a rock and roll band with a heavy influence of rhythm and blues. They formed a loyal following in the 1970s and enjoyed some semi-successful hit singles throughout the decade. However, it was in 1980 when the band became a household name with the release of their album Love Stinks which featured some very big time hit singles. They would become one of the biggest bands in the world in 1981 with the release of their Freeze Frame album and the number one single “Centerfold.” Of course, any rock and roll band who had a long time loyal following would have some loyal fans who weren’t happy with their newfound commercial success. Nonetheless, there popularity in the early 80s that was also probably due to the fact of MTV’s love of the band and their videos being placed in heavy rotation on the channel fueled the group’s huge popularity.
As classic rock history has shown with many rock and roll bands who would achieve mass stardom, not everybody gets along or agrees in the direction that the band is going. Just like we saw with The Beatles, The Police, Guns N’ Roses and so many more bands at the peak of their popularity, the J.Geils Band pretty-much fell apart. Peter Wolf left the band in 1983 and two years later the band broke up. Of course there was some reunions over the years, but the band never regained the popularity and commercial success they enjoyed in the early 80s.
# 10 – Blow Your Face Out
We open up our Top 10 J. Geils Band albums list with the band’s great live album Blow Your Face Out. While it’s usually unfair to rank live albums against studio albums, the Blow Your Face Out album so clearly defined how great of a live band J. Geils were. It was essential to place this album on on our J.Geils Band list. The album was released on April 22nd 1976. It was the band’s second live album release. The Blow Your Face Out album was a 2 record set housed in a great gatefold package. This is easily one of the best live rock and roll albums released during the classic rock era.
# 9 – The Morning After
Continuing with our J.Geils Band albums list we turn to the very cool album The Morning After. The title has really nothing to do with the Poseidon Adventure theme song, but simply is a reference to a hangover. This is a great J.Geils Band album released on October 2nd 1971. It was the band’s second album release. The Morning After album hit number 64 on the Billboard top 200 albums chart list. It also hit number 73 in Canada. Standout tracks included the great song “Looking for Love,” “I Don’t Need You No More,” and one of our favorite J.Geils Band songs of all time “Whammer Jammer,” written by Juke Joint Jimmy which is basically a pseudonym for all members of the J. Geils Band contributing to a song’s composition. I just love that name
# 8 – J. Geils Band
In the number eight spot on our J.Geils Band songs list we turn to the band’s debut album simply entitled The J. Geils Band. The album was released on November 16th 1970. It was recorded at A&R studios in New York City. This great album defined all the different styles of music that inspired this band to become one of the great rock and roll bands of the 1970s. There was definitely a heavy blues influence within the music.Yet there was also Peter Wolf’s great rhythm and blues soul singing that carried all these songs away. The album was fueled by a mix of originals and some covers including the great John Lee Hooker song “Serves You Right To Suffer, the Albert Collins song “Snow-Cone,” and the Smokey Robinson tune “First I look At The Purse.”
# 7 – Ladies Night
Moving along with our J.Geils Band albums list we present the very cleverly named album Ladies Invited. This was the band’s fourth album release. The album was released on November 9th 1973. It would be their second highest charting album so far on the Billboard top 200 peaking at number 51. For those wondering who the female was on the cover, it was actress Faye Dunaway who many people probably did not know would eventually marry Peter Wolf. Standout tracks on the album included the songs “Did You No wrong,” “I Can’t Go On,” and “My Baby Don’t Love Me.”
# 6 – Sanctuary
The J. Geils Band album Sanctuary would be the final album the group released before the band would celebrate their mega selling album issued two years later in 1980 entitled Love Stinks. The band had a top 40 hit with the album’s first single entitled “One Last Kiss,” which hit number 35 on the US Billboard Hot 100.
# 5 – Hotline
At the halfway point on our J. Geils Band albums list we take a look at their great album entitled Hotline. The album was released on September 9th 1975. Hotline broke the top 40 section of the Billboard Top 200 Albums charts. It was also one of the shortest running albums. However it was an album that was very even as every song was simply fantastic and showed off that great J. Geils Band sound of rock and roll meets r&b.
# 4 – Nightmares…and Other Tales from the Vinyl Jungle
The album Nightmares…and Other Tales from the Vinyl Jungle album was released on September 24th 1974. It was the band’s fifth studio album release. The album hit the number twenty six spot on the Billboard Top 200 albums charts. The album would spawn the band’s biggest hit single of their career up to that point in the great song “Must Of Got Lost.” The song would hit number twelve on the Billboard Hot 100. The group would not chart that high again until the single “Centerfold,” was released in 1981.
# 3 – Bloodshot
For many long time J. Geils band fans, the album Bloodshot stands as the band’s greatest rock and roll album. The LP Bloodshot was released on April 12th 1973. It would become the band’s highest charting album on the Billboard Top 200 albums charts until the Freeze Frame album was released in 1981. Bloodshot shot all the way up to number 10 on the Billboard Top 200 album charts. The album’s lead single “Give It To Me,” was a top 40 hit. Yet, it was the album itself that fans went nuts over as one of the best rock albums released in 1973.
# 2 – Love Stinks
If you had never heard of the J. Geils Band before the release of the album Love Stinks, you knew who they were after this great album was released. The Love Stinks album was released on January 28th 1980. The album quickly rose up the charts hitting number 18 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums charts list. Three singles from the album were released starting with the rocking number entitle “Come Back.” However it was the album’s third single and title track “Love Stinks,” that helped ignite the J. Geils Band mania that would engulf the music world over the next couple of years. And who could ever forget that video with Peter Wolf singing the words “Love Stinks.” in the mouth of a giant fish.
# 1 – Freeze Frame
We close our our top 10 J. Geils Band albums list with the band’s most successful album of their career entitled Freeze Frame. Anyone who had a television loaded with MTV in 1981 remembers this album. The singles “Freeze Frame,” and “Centerfold,” were two of the most widely played videos on the channel during MTV’s early days. The song “Centerfold,” would become the band’s first and only number one single of their career. The album itself also went all the way to number one on the Billboard Top 200 album charts. Yeah this one was pretty successful.
Top 10 J. Geils Band albums article published on Classic RockHistory.com© 2021
Classicrockhistory.com claims ownership of all its original content and Intellectual property under United States Copyright laws and those of all other foreign countries. No one person, business or any organizations is allowed to republish any of our original content anywhere on the web or in print without our permission.
Thanks to Classic Rock History for this article – J. Geils being one of my very favorite American bands (pre-Freeze Frame), especially live.
“Full House” and “Blow your Face Out” – Two of the greatest rock/rock-n-roll live albums of all time.
(Definitely in my personal Top Ten live albums)
If you ever saw the J. Geils Band in concert circa the early 1970s through early 1980s (as I had the pleasure several times), you know what I am talkin’ about.
These two live albums each still pack a powerhouse punch, almost 50 years later – both timeless.
As stated on the back cover of Blow Your Face Out” –
“Made Loud To Be Played Loud” (But also the sound engineering was superb, especially for live albums)
Although not noted herein, Monkey Island is a terrific album, highly underrated and underappreciated by critics.
I believe a number of fans and music critics didn’t take into account that the J. Geils Band was looking to broaden their musical horizons at this point in their journey, and Monkey Island succeeded in doing just that.
As a Geils fan, song-for-song, I personally believe it (Monkey Island) to be Geils’ strongest and best-engineered studio album, only rivaled by the saucy funk/blues-rock/and rock of “Bloodshot”