Tom Waits – Heart of Saturday Night (LP, Anti)

Expanding beyond the folk and pop stylings of his first album, ‘Heart of Saturday Night,’ Waits second studio release, established his reputation as a versatile and distinctly American songwriter. Its bluesy jazz arrangements featured bass, drums, sax and Waits on piano. The title track, a melancholy ode to Saturday night rituals, and the tenderly romantic hymn-like ‘San Diego Serenade’ are enduring classics covered by an array of artists from Diana Krall and Nancy Griffith to folk hero Eric Anderson. The album also features the first of what would become a signature for Waits, the spoken word-poetry song, ‘Diamonds on My Windshield’. Waits delivers these lyrics as pure beat jazz in the stylings of Kerouac , Langston Hughes and Bob Kaufman.