Jefferson Airplane тобының алғашқы альбомының жарыққа шығуы

Jefferson Airplane Takes Off is the debut studio album by the American rock band Jefferson Airplane, released on 15 August 1966 by RCA Victor. The personnel differs from the later "classic" lineup: Signe Toly Anderson was the female vocalist and Skip Spence played drums. Both soon left the group—Spence in May 1966, Anderson in October—and were replaced by Spencer Dryden and Grace Slick, respectively.

By late 1965, Jefferson Airplane had caught the attention of "virtually every record label of significance". The band, as well as their associated nightclub, had already achieved relative popularity with the general San Francisco public; however, their profile was raised significantly when Ralph J. Gleason of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote favorably of them in his "On the Town" column, remarking, "I don't know who they will record for, but they will obviously record for someone." Original bassist Bob Harvey later recalled, "After Ralph Gleason did that column there was pandemonium. I never believed that a newspaper column could have that kind of effect until I actually saw it happen." Under the guidance of manager Matthew Katz, the group turned down recording offers from Capitol, Valiant, Fantasy, Elektra, and London. They considered pursuing a deal with Columbia Records, who had already signed Bob Dylan and the Byrds, but they were rejected after sending in a demo recording; "Columbia didn't like us," reflected Paul Kantner, "because we weren't in their model. The Byrds were much more orderly We were a little anarchic musically." Katz was first invited to check out RCA Victor by the recently signed Rod McKuen, who had written some songs he hoped to give to the band. McKuen introduced Katz to the label's A&R manager Neely Plumb, who sent Al Schmitt to San Francisco to hear the band. Schmitt was pleased with the group, and soon Plumb and Katz began negotiating a contract. The deal was solidified when RCA offered a then unheard of advance of US$25,000, five times more than what Capitol offered, as well as "good production money." The band officially signed with RCA on 15 November 1965.

The album was produced by Tommy Oliver and engineered by Dave Hassinger. Oliver had previously worked with various mainstream pop singers such as Doris Day, while Hassinger was specifically requested by the band due to his work on The Rolling Stones' song "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction". The recording sessions began on 16 December 1965. The first songs to be recorded were "Runnin' 'Round This World" and "It's Alright", neither of which appeared on the final record. The band continued through 18 December before returning to San Francisco for the holiday season. They recorded again on 19 28 February 1966 and 16 21 March. A total of 14 songs were recorded over the three sets of sessions.

Jefferson Airplane Takes Off is regarded as being more grounded in straightforward folk rock than the band's subsequent releases. Katz dubbed the band's sound "fo jazz", which Anderson described as rock with "folk roots [and] jazz chords". Balin wrote or co wrote all of the original material on the album and sang most of the lead vocals, leading William Ruhlmann of AllMusic to state that Jefferson Airplane at the time "was still Balin's group", before Grace Slick joined and became the group's "vocal and visual focal point." Kantner and Anderson provided backup vocals and harmonies, Although the exact sales figures are not known, Tamarkin estimates that 10,000 to 20,000 copies were sold in California within the first few months; however, in the rest of the US, the album was largely unnoticed with "perhaps as few as 1,000 copies finding their way to consumers." Nevertheless, the strength of the album's sales in the band's home state pushed it onto the Billboard Top 200 on 17 September 1966. It spent a total of 11 weeks on the chart and peaked at number 128 on 1 October.