The music industry has been churning out billions of dollars for decades, but in music, money isn’t everything.
Fortunately, there is ample evidence of this, and some of the most eloquent are found in a series of great albums recorded with little or no budget.
With up-and-coming and unproven artists, money is often a problem, and music companies are not in a hurry to invest, even when they see the artist’s undeniable potential.
Many musicians have made their debut releases “muscle”, but this has not prevented the best of them from turning out to be the start of extremely successful careers.
Bands like The Black Keys, White Stripes and Boston made their first recordings at home using whatever equipment they could find, others like Bruce Springsteen and Paul McCartney did it even when they were already global stars.
Today we focus on seven surprisingly cheaply recorded albums – to remind ourselves that it doesn’t take a gigantic budget to create something worthwhile and sometimes downright fundamental to music history.
Black Sabbath – Black Sabbath (1970)
When Ozzy Osbourne and company get paid £1,000 to record their debut album, they feel like they’ve hit the jackpot.
“I felt like I was already rich,” Ozzy recalls. “I spent some of the money on new shoes. I went barefoot during that period because I literally couldn’t afford shoes.”
Each of the four musicians took £100 to pay off their personal debts and only had £600 left over for the records, but they put it to good use.
The album received criticism in the press, but became a commercial success and today has a huge place in history as the first true heavy metal album.
Nirvana – Bleach (1989)
Exactly $606.17 it cost Nirvana to record their debut album.
That’s the bill music producer Jack Endino finally hands them for the 30 hours of studio time it took to get the job done.
The money didn’t even come from the band itself – it was provided by guitarist Jason Everman, who later briefly became Nirvana’s second guitarist.
The result of the cheap recordings is a hugely significant album, which gave the band its initial push several years before it shook the world and turned grunge into the hottest musical trend.
Bob Dylan – Bob Dylan (1962)
One of the reasons Dylan’s debut album came out so cheap is the speed of the recordings.
The legendary guitar poet met John Hammond of Columbia Records in September 1961 and signed to the label the following month.
Later, he spent only six hours in the studio, spread over two days, and they were enough for him to record a total of 17 songs.
As far as is known, the studio time cost just $402, just over $4,000 in today’s money.
Despite the imperfect recordings, and although the album was not a huge success, Dylan managed to lay the foundations for what he would achieve in the years to come.
Kiss – Dressed to Kill (1975)
Kiss’ first two albums didn’t sell well, and the band was forced to take a lean approach to their third release as well.
The budget is so tight that the four have no money for a music producer to provide them with the much-needed outside perspective.
The president of their then-label Casablanca Records took over the production role, but the project remained quite modest in scale.
On the cover, the members of Kiss are photographed in suits, but in fact only drummer Peter Criss owns his own suit, and the others are forced to borrow from their manager.
Despite everything, the album is an important step in the development of Kiss and contains one of their most famous songs – Rock and Roll All Nite.
The Beatles – Please Please Me (1963)
In 1967, the famous Liverpool quartet recorded one of the most expensive albums of its time – Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, which also caused a musical revolution in a number of aspects.
Just four years earlier, however, the Beatles had created their debut album Please Please Me under far more modest circumstances and with just £400 to spend.
The band’s music producer, George Martin, recalls that at that time in the early 1960s, there just wasn’t much money in the Parlophone music company.
That’s why the Beatles can’t count on much studio time, but in the end they managed only 10 hours and recorded 14 songs in them, which would later drive the world crazy.
The Black Keys – The Big Come Up (2002)
Dan Auerbach and Pat Carney are still ordinary young people from the suburbs in the early 2000s, and they don’t have the opportunity to generously finance their first album.
But Carney managed to save enough money to buy a Korg D12 turntable, and with it the duo indulged in recording in the drummer’s basement.
“We were humble, middle-class guys and we were poor at the time because we worked in crappy places. So it was a big deal for me to get a desk like that, none of our friends had anything like that,” Carney recalls.
They also buy two microphones from eBay and that’s all they need to record The Big Come Up.
And while the album didn’t sell well, it earned The Black Keys a devoted fan base, garnered critical attention, and paved the way for far greater success.
Iron Maiden – The Soundhouse Tapes (1979)
Before releasing their first full-length album in 1980, the British heavy metal band produced an EP called The Soundhouse Tapes, which cost them just £200.
The budget went to keep a studio for one weekend, during which four songs were recorded – Prowler, Invasion, Strange World and Iron Maiden.
Another £50 would have cost them to mix the songs in the studio, but they can’t afford that expense and are releasing the recordings in their raw form.
This beginning is more than humble, especially knowing the heights the band later reached.
But the hastily recorded EP worked for Iron Maiden and helped them sign their first record deal.
