Boston: Boston (LP)

Three decades ago, in the summer of 1976, there was a band and an album simply titled Boston. The 17 million-selling debut album and its 7 million-selling 1978 follow-up, Don't Look Back, remain two of the most enigmatic case studies of the modern rock age. Unjustly denigrated as paragons of so-called "corporate rock," they were in fact the same basement tapes that mastermind Tom Scholz submitted as demos. Their commercial release fooled corporate executives in one of rock's great deceptions. Thirty years later, those master tapes have been digitally remastered - for the first time by Scholz himself - and the secrets of Boston and Don't Look Back are made visible so that history can be reconsidered Nearly 25 million copies later, the irony of Boston being belittled by critics for the grandiosity of its production is a last laugh for Scholz and his key collaborator, vocalist Brad Delp. "This demo and the album that followed turned the disco-crazy music industry on its head, breaking all the known rules of being successful in the world of rock 'n' roll," Scholz writes. Boston was in the right place at the right time as an alternative to the disco and nascent punk rock movements of 1976. Certified gold on the Billboard Albums chart a month after its release and platinum a month later, it spent a solid 2 1/2 years on the list, producing the hit singles "More Than A Feeling," "Long Time" and "Peace Of Mind."