MusicRadar

3. Smashing Pumpkins – Siamese Dream (1993)

The 4,000,000 sales of the Pumpkins' finest hour were hard-earned, as Vig found himself contending with the narcotic excess and sporadic brilliance of SP's sticksman Jimmy Chamberlin.

Butch Vig says:

"Jimmy was unpredictable. Sometimes he didn't show, or he'd be too fucked-up to perform. I remember threatening that I was going to play the drum parts, although there was no way I could have played like him. When he was sober, his performances were incredible."

"Jimmy [Chamberlin] was unpredictable. Sometimes he didn't show, or he'd be too fucked-up to perform," Butch Vig

"It's one of the most ambitious-sounding records I've ever produced, and a lot of that is down to Jimmy's 'push-pull' feel. He has unbelievable dynamics, so I was able to use really good condenser mics on the snare and toms. Sometimes he'd explode into rock, and sometimes he'd be playing little grace notes on the snare, often all in the same performance, so I had to make sure the mics were able to capture all that."