It was easy to find jazz records that deserved a year-end salute; maybe ‘too’ easy. The heavy lifting came from figuring out which stood above the rest for this Best of 2017 list.

“Anna (Go to Him)” impacted the Beatles’ songwriting, and Arthur Alexander’s heartfelt vocal style influenced John Lennon’s intensely personal performances.

The short story is that Foghat had two platinum-selling albums back in the ’70s, of which ‘Boogie Motel’ was not one of them.