Raymond Scott‘s experimental electronic music album Soothing Sounds For Baby, Volume 1 is released. Created entirely on electronic instruments and sequencers of his own creation – decades ahead of the widespread use of such equipment – the LP is a series of somewhat repetitive instrumentals which will supposedly help infants sleep better. 
Decca Records releases the Zombies‘ second album, Begin Here, featuring the single “Tell Her No”.
Dot Records releases the Leonard Nimoy‘s album Mr. Spock’s Music From Outer Space, a collection of songs both in and out of character as Spock. Aside from providing material for future Golden Throats albums, this record sparks a feud between Nimoy and Roddenberry; Roddenberry claims co-writing credit on the Star Trek theme (which is featured on the LP) and credit for creating Mr. Spock, and demands – to coin a phrase – a piece of the action.
Deram Records – an offshoot of UK label Decca – releases the second Moody Blues album, Days Of Future Passed, an orchestral/rock collaboration intended to show off the company’s stereo recording techniques for classical recordings (and intended to write off the band’s massive promotional debts owed to the label). The results is a perennially popular album now regarded as a rock classic, including the enduring hit singles “Nights In White Satin” and “Forever Afternoon (Tuesday?)”.
Regal Zonophone Records releases the first album by The Move, a UK rock band which, after several personnel changes, will eventually morph into the Electric Light Orchestra in the 1970s. Singles include “Fire Brigade” and “Wild Tiger Woman”.
Iron Butterfly‘s psychedelic rock album In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida is released; a much-shortened version of the 17-minute (!!) song of the same name becomes a radio hit and a prime specimen of the genre.
Island Records releases the debut album by White Noise, an ad hoc early electronic music group including David Vorhaus and members of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.
Decca Records releases the fifth album by the Moody Blues, To Our Children’s Children’s Children, featuring the single “Watching And Waiting”. This is the first of two albums the band will release in 1970.
Regal Zonophone Records releases the second album by Birmingham rock group The Move, Shazam. (The album is simultaneously issued in the United States and Canada by A&M Records.) The final album with original lead singer Carl Wayne, Shazam is a bizarre collision of heavy metal and showtunes and standards without even the slightest hint of irony. After this album, Roy Wood takes over as the band’s leader.
Decca Records releases the sixth album by the Moody Blues, A Question Of Balance, featuring the singles “Question” and “Melancholy Man”. Thanks to the band’s large following, the album – the second to be released by the band in 1970 – is an international bestseller.
Fly Records releases the third album by Birmingham rock group The Move, Looking On. The group sports an elegant, elaborate new sound on this outing, having recruited budding songwriter/performer Jeff Lynne from another local band, the Idle Race. Lynne’s interaction with Move frontman Roy Wood will lead to the formation, a year later, of the Electric Light Orchestra.
Carole King’s career-making album Tapestry is released by CBS records, featuring the singles “I Feel The Earth Move”, “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman”, “It’s Too Late” and “You’ve Got A Friend”.
Threshold Records releases the Moody Blues album Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, featuring the single “The Story In Your Eyes”.
Electric Light Orchestra‘s self-titled debut album is released in the UK, though it proves to be the last released collaboration between founders (and former Move members) Roy Wood and Jeff Lynne; Wood leaves the band after an unpromising live debut. The album is released in the US in March 1972, where a phone call to clarify the album’s title results in a misunderstood written note that leads to the American release going out under the unintentional title No Answer.
Decca Records releases the eighth album by the Moody Blues, Seventh Sojourn (the seven, in this case, referring to the seventh album by the band since the addition of Justin Hayward and John Lodge in the 1960s). The album includes the singles “Isn’t Life Strange” and “I’m Just a Singer in a Rock and Roll Band”.
Electric Light Orchestra‘s second album is released in the UK, featuring the single “Roll Over Beethoven” and ELO’s longest song ever, “Kuiama,” clocking in at over 11 minutes.
EMI Records releases Roy Wood‘s first solo album, Boulders, following his departure from The Move and Electric Light Orchestra. Aside from a single instrument on a single song, every voice and instrument on the album is performed by Wood himself.
Electric Light Orchestra‘s third album, On The Third Day, is released, featuring the singles “Showdown” and “Ma-Ma-Ma Belle”.
Warner Bros. Records releases – in Europe only – the Electric Light Orchestra live album The Night The Light Went On (In Long Beach) (over the objections of Jeff Lynne).
Virgin Records releases Mike Oldfield‘s second prog-rock instrumental album, Hergest Ridge, the eagerly-awaited follow-up to his debut LP, Tubular Bells.
Electric Light Orchestra‘s fourth album, Eldorado, is released, featuring the single “Can’t Get It Out Of My Head”. This is the first ELO album with a full orchestra (as opposed to previous albums’ practice of overdubbing three string players endlessly), and the first to be released in the US before its UK release date.
Charisma Records releases Genesis‘ epic-length double album The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, a mythological concept album which proves to be Peter Gabriel’s last studio album with the band. The album will go on to be widely regarded as one of the creative peaks for the group.
Mushroom Records releases the debut Split Enz album Mental Notes, the product of two months of concentrated recording sessions in Sydney, Australia (and three years of playing live and building a following). The album is a modest success story in Australia and the band’s native New Zealand, and is critically acclaimed for its originality.
Virgin Records releases Mike Oldfield‘s third prog-rock instrumental album, Ommadawn.
Jet Records releases Roy Wood‘s second solo album, Mustard, which shows off the ELO/Move co-founder’s penchant for ’50s-style rock and his ability to play every instrument in a given song by himself.
Electric Light Orchestra‘s fourth album, Face The Music, is released, featuring the singles “Evil Woman” and “Strange Magic”. The band lineup featured on this album stays largely intact through the early 1980s.
CBS Records releases Chicago’s Greatest Hits (also known as Chicago IX), the first compilation of hit singles from the group, covering their most popular songs from 1969 through 1974.
A group of veteran session musicians working under producer Alan Parsons and songwriter Eric Woolfson releases its debut album, The Alan Parsons Project – Tales Of Mystery And Imagination: Edgar Allan Poe. The “group” becomes known, somewhat unintentionally, as the Alan Parsons Project, though that was intended to be part of the album title. Themed around the works of Poe, the album becomes a prog rock cult classic and sells well enough that Parsons and Woolfson begin planning a more futuristic project…
Asylum Records releases Warren Zevon‘s self-titled second album, his first album since 1969.
Mushroom Records releases the second Split Enz album, Second Thoughts, much of which is material that already appeared on the band’s debut album.