I think that for many of us, this type of album must have had a big influence in formation of our early taste in music.  
There were two in particular that helped to give me a slightly wider view of the musical landscape.  Up until the time I heard them, my taste was quite strictly defined within the confines of blues based heavy rock and that taste had been partly shaped by some sampler albums too.  

They were released as offers to the readers of NME in 1985.

The first was called Tapeworm and I thought most of it was a bit crap, but loved a few of the tracks 
It was the first time I heard Robert Cray, for example, and hearing The Faith Brothers made me go out and find their album, 'Eventide'.  I loved the tracks by Guadalcanal Diary, The Blasters and The Beat Farmers.    The Simply Red track made me dislike them even more!

NME 017 - 'Tapeworm'



A1 –Juicy Bananas - Bad Man

A2 –Fine Young Cannibals - Love For Sale

A3 –The Pogues - The Wild Cats Of Kilkenny

A4 –The Robert Cray Band - Phone Booth

A5 –Champion Doug Veitch - Not The Heart (NME Remix)

A6 –Paul Quinn - Ain't That Always The Way (Demo)

A7 –The Faith Brothers* - Stranger On Home Ground (String Version)

A8 –Win - Unamerican Broadcasting

A9 –Chakk - Cut The Dust (Demo)

A10 –The Jesus And Mary Chain - Inside Me

A11 –Frank Sidebottom - Anarchy In The UK

B1 –Wayne Smith - Under Mi Sleng Teng

B2 –Trouble Funk - Drop The Bomb

B3 –Shirley Brown - Love Fever (Remix)

B4 –Savajazz - Everything We Do

B5 –Simply Red - Money’s Too Tight (Dub)

B6 –Guadalcanal Diary - Watusi Rodeo

B7 –The Blasters - Common Man

B8 –The Beat Farmers - Reason To Believe

B9 –Los Lobos - Volver



The other one was a sampler of tracks from the Blue Note label and it had a massive influence on me because I realised that there was a lot more to jazz than trad and New Orleans styles that were on the TV and the few Brubeck and Modern Jazz Quartet albums that my parents owned.  
This was great!  I went out to the secondhand record shops and began hoovering up stuff by Miles, Monk, Art Blakey, Cannonball Adderley and others.  I'm still hugely in love with this type of music.


NME 018 'Straight No Chaser'






A1 –Cannonball Adderley With Miles Davis - Alison’s Uncle

A2 –Kenny Dorham - Afrodisia

A3 –Ike Quebec - Loie

A4 –Hank Mobley - This I Dig Of You

A5 –Thelonious Monk - Straight No Chaser

A6 –Clifford Brown - Brownie Speaks

A7 –Jimmy Smith - I’m Movin’ On

A8 –Herbie Hancock - Watermelon Man

A9 –Johnny Griffin - It’s Alright With Me

B1 –Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers - Mosaic

B2 –Bud Powell - Blue Pearl (Alternate Take)

B3 –Sonny Rollins - Wonderful! Wonderful!

B4 –Thad Jones - April In Paris

B5 –Lee Morgan - The Sidewinder

B6 –The Horace Silver Quintet - Finger Poppin’

B7 –Jackie McLean - Let’s Face The Music And Dance

B8 –Kenny Burrell - Midnight Blue




So, which samplers and compilations had a profound effect on you?