Has it really been 40 years since a 22-year-old Bostonian named James Taylor released his breakthrough album Sweet Baby James? Or, since seminal New York punk band The Velvet Underground, led by Lou Reed, released their album Loaded which included the rock standard "Sweet Jane"?

As I celebrate my 40th year as Record Research, I look back four decades and find these "Classics" to be as exciting and powerful as when I first heard them.