Great Music to Intro Non-Audiophiles to the Hobby


my bro/sis in law came by, not audiophiles or big music buffs by any means, but do enjoy some music quite a bit.

played them U2's "in a little while" off 'all that you can't leave behind' and suddenly they got it....heads spinning looking for other speakers, perplexed how there was imaging between the speakers...awesome.

figure good intro music to non-audiophiles has to be very well-known & very well-recorded. other ideas include:

Stones: Sticky Fingers (Can't You Hear Me Knocking) or Goat's Head Soup (Angie)

Pink Floyd: anything off Wish You Were Here or Dark Side..

U2: aforementioned

AC/DC: 74' Jailbreak remaster

what else?
128x128rhyno
I agree with the two post above, but arguably there is some well-known music out there that sounds great and would most likely impress even non-audiophiles. Here are a few suggestions from my collection:

Carole King "The Carnegie Hall Concert" on MoFi - incredibly well-recorded and a collection of her best-known songs; can't imagine it would not drop listeners' jaws hearing it on a high-end system for the first time.

Fleetwood Mac - virtually all of their records sound tremendous; if you have or can get a mint copy of "Rumours" or "Fleetwood Mac," I'd be surprised if they didn't appreciate how good they sound and are packed with hits.

Foreigner "Foreigner" sounds terrific; "Cold as Ice" and "The Damage is Done" have always put smiles on my non-audiophile friend's faces

Supertramp "Crime of the Century" has quite a few songs that should impress even those who are not big Supertramp fans. The entire record is superbly recorded.

Diana Krall - yes, I know, most audiophiles get nauseous at this point hearing her music, but for those who are not yet oversaturated, her records do sound great.

Pink Floyd "Comfortably Numb" from "The Wall." Amazing song that sounds equally amazing. Actually, the entire album sounds tremendous.

Sting "Fragile" from "Nothing Like the Sun." Sublime.

If you're just looking for something they might like to choose from (although you don't mention about how old they are) I can think of a slew of recordings on CD mostly from the 70's ('cause I'm an old fogey).

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (Deluxe Edition, usually any of the DSD remasters sound good...usually)

Hot Rocks (DSD)

Al Dimeloa's Elegant Gypsy (a bunch of different remasters, most all of them good)

I Robot from Alan Parsons

Dog and Butterfly and Little Queen from Heart

Cassandra Wilson's New Moon Daughter

Romantic Warrior by Return To Forever

Frampton Comes Alive (25th Aniv, DeLuxe Edition)

Al Stewart, Year of the Cat

461 Ocean Blv and Slowhand for Eric Clapton

Let It Roll, George Harrison

The Love Album, The Beatles

Glass Houses, Billy Joel

Marsallis and Clapton Play the Blues (2011)
Late for the Sky by Jackson Bowne if they enjoy meloncoly love lyrics which would win an award for poetry.
The Pink Floyd sound much better from the vinyl than from the CD imo.
I would suggest the inevitable Patricia Barber and some Cassandra Wilson's albums like: Blue light 'til dawn, Traveling Miles, Thunderbird, Glamoured...
In case if you want to impress gay you should spin some Abba or Be gees tracks.