Editing Al Stewart (section)

===Early albums (1967–1973)===
Stewart's debut album, ''[[Bedsitter Images]]'', was released in 1967. A revised version appeared in 1970 as ''The First Album (Bedsitter Images)'' with a few tracks changed, and the album was reissued on CD in 2007 with all tracks from both versions.

''[[Love Chronicles]]'' (1969) was notable for the 18-minute title track, an anguished autobiographical tale of sexual encounters that was the first mainstream record release ever to include the word "fucking".<ref>{{cite book|title=The Subcultures Reader |last=Gelder |first=Ken |author2=Thornton, Sarah|publisher=Routledge |year=1997| location=London |page=413|isbn= 978-0-415-12727-1|oclc=34513133|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=1jHcXUTNmIw}}</ref> It was voted "Folk Album of the Year" by the UK music magazine ''[[Melody Maker]]'' and features [[Jimmy Page]] and [[Richard Thompson (musician)|Richard Thompson]] on guitar.

His third album, ''[[Zero She Flies]]'', followed in 1970 and included a number of shorter songs which ranged from acoustic ballads and instrumentals to songs that featured electric lead guitar. These first three albums (including ''The Elf'') were later released as the two-CD set ''To Whom it May Concern: 1966–70''.

In 1970, Stewart and fellow musician [[Ian A. Anderson]] headed to the small town of [[Pilton, Somerset]]. There, at [[Michael Eavis]]'s [[Worthy Farm]], Stewart performed at the first-ever [[Glastonbury Festival]] to a field of 1,000 hippies, who had paid just £1 each to be there.

On the back of his growing success, Stewart released ''[[Orange (Al Stewart album)|Orange]]'' in 1972. It was written after a tumultuous breakup with his girlfriend and muse, Mandi, and was very much a transitional album, combining songs in Stewart's confessional style with more intimations of the historical themes that he would increasingly adopt (e.g., "The News from Spain" with its [[progressive rock]] overtones, including dramatic piano by [[Rick Wakeman]]).

The fifth release, ''[[Past, Present and Future (Al Stewart album)|Past, Present and Future]]'' (1973), was Stewart's first album to receive a proper release in the United States, via [[Janus Records]]. It echoed a traditional historical storytelling style and contained the song "Nostradamus," a long (9:43) track in which Stewart tied into the rediscovery of the [[Nostradamus|claimed seer]]'s writings by referring to selected possible predictions about 20th century people and events. While it ran too long for mainstream radio [[airplay]] at that time, the song became a hit on many US FM and college radio stations, which were flexible about runtime.

Airplay helped the album to reach No. 133 on the ''[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]'' album chart in the US. Other songs on ''[[Past, Present and Future (Al Stewart album)|Past, Present and Future]]'' characterized by Stewart's "history genre" mentioned American President [[Warren G. Harding]], [[Ernst Röhm]], [[Christine Keeler]], [[Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma|Louis Mountbatten]], and [[Operation Barbarossa]].