From Sinatra to NIN: 50 years of concept discs

There's really no way to pinpoint the exact origin of the concept album. Does the focus of Woody Guthrie's 1940 debut, "Dust Bowl Ballads," give it the nod as first-ever? What about thematic sets of 78s before that? Consider this merely a half-century of signposts.

THE '50s

Whatever might be argued as an earlier precedent, most agree that the first successful attempt at the concept album came from Frank Sinatra, beginning with 1954's "In the Wee Small Hours." The remarkable run of Capitol Records releases that followed — from the buoyant ("Songs for Swingin' Lovers!," the travel-themed "Come Fly With Me") to the despairing (1958's wrenching "Only the Lonely") — established him as a conceptual master.

Other greats added conceptual twists — chiefly country star Marty Robbins, via 1959's "Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs," and Ray Charles, whose "The Genius Hits the Road" consisted entirely of geographical songs (like "Georgia on My Mind").

THE '60s

The earliest rock example? Not "Sgt. Pepper." Not "Tommy." Some might argue that the distinction belongs to the Beach Boys' 1963 release "Little Deuce Coupe," whose tunes all centered on cars.

The first albums to elevate such a conceit, however, are "Face to Face," a 1966 collection of character studies from the Kinks; the Mothers of Invention's aptly titled "Freak Out!"; and "The Who Sell Out."

The summer of '67 brought "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," more an assortment with a persona attached than a genuine concept album.

Pete Townshend's first magnum opus, "Tommy," to this day one of few concept albums with a distinct narrative, came to life a year later, leading the Who to perform it live for more than a year.

THE '70s

This was the concept album's heyday, capped by the flowering of Pink Floyd with "Dark Side of the Moon" and the Syd Barrett homage "Wish You Were Here." David Bowie and his band arrived in '72 in the guise of "Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars" and carried the conceit through "Diamond Dogs" two years later.

Country stars got in on the act: Willie Nelson with "Yesterday's Wine," "The Red-Headed Stranger" and "Phases & Stages"; Kenny Rogers with "The Ballad of Calico" and, in the next decade, "The Gambler."

Marvin Gaye assembled his fluid song cycle "What's Going On," while, as the decade closed, Stevie Wonder took a "Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants." George Clinton also started exploring conceptual space on his records with Parliament and Funkadelic.

Prog-rock reached its zenith — and then its nadir — as Yes told "Tales From Topographic Oceans," Genesis sacrificed "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway," Rush zoomed into "2112" and Jethro Tull got "Thick as a Brick" and so on.

THE '80s

Pink Floyd closed the previous decade with "The Wall," then three years later revealed "The Final Cut." Styx got in on the act, first with "Paradise Theater," then the more futuristic bomb "Kilroy Was Here."

Queensryche committed the first of its two "Operation: Mindcrime" works to vinyl, while Iron Maiden flirted with concept on "Seventh Son of a Seventh Son."

On the punk and proto-indie side, the Dead Kennedys dissected modern society with "Plastic Surgery Disasters," while Husker Du related the saga of an impressionable young lad being hurled through its "Zen Arcade."

Prince struck platinum via persona in "Purple Rain" and "Parade."

THE '90s

Hip-hop finally joined the fray, with the Fugees' "The Score" setting a new standard for conceptualizing, and Prince Paul, who earlier had worked wonders with De La Soul, penning his "A Prince Among Thieves."

"Dream Theater" picked up where Queensryche left off. Radiohead seemed to be mining Pink Floyd's veins, but protested any concept-album tag for "OK Computer."

Industrial rock giants Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson got aggressively ugly with, respectively, "The Downward Spiral" and "Antichrist Superstar."