Significant longplayers from yesteryear
21 September 2026
TOM WAITS (76 now) released his 4th album, named
SMALL CHANGE today, 50 years ago, on 21 Sept 1976.
It peaked at #89 in the US, actually his first charting album.
Waits: “It’s all about ambulance drivers, night watchmen, ticket takers, street sweepers,
tattoo parlors, stage door jockeys, shoe string hotels from New York City to Chicago, Buffalo, Los Angeles, all the way from Tuxedo Junction to swing town. Did it in five nights on the corner of Selma and Cahuenga. Recorded complete and direct to 2-track stereo tape.”
Los Angeles Times said: “He has not only fulfilled the promise of his early
work, but extended it in a way that makes him one of America’s most valuable
pop performers. By refusing to stay in the safe mold of his first albums, he
enriched his art.”
ALBUM