Recordings with incredible effects or imaging that we may not know about

Roger Waters: Amused to Death. For so many years I thought that its the neighbor's dog barking outside (Right side, the street side from my sweet spot) 
Funny thing, the sound of that f@)&ng dog is so realistic, I forgot that it was there even when I listened to the album when residing on the 7-th floor of the apartment building...

I love me some Floyd.  I don't have this album and will definitely check it out.  Thanks!

Maybe not quite as dramatic as the previous posts, but I like the first cut from Santana’s Abraxas (Singind Winds, Crying Beasts). When dialed in, the chimes on both sides should have a very ethereal feel and sound to them, very airy, very 3D, a few feet forward and outside from the plane of the speakers. They should sound like fingers gently running thru them, making them ring with a variety of colorful  tones.

Off the top of my head.. I've always had a soft spot for...

"Fiesta" Dallas Wind Symphony/Howard Dunn/ Reference Recordings/(lp)

Thanks for chiming in guys,  I'll check out all of these

Listen to a Vangelis or Alexander Vollenweider album, lots of ambient "stuff" going on...

I'm not a big "new age" listener, but have a small collection of 70-80's records. Great stuff for a momentary escape.

These 2 albums always come with me to shows- Vangelis record "China" and AV ablum White Winds" Great reason to blast "Yin & Yang"  and "Brothership"  on a top notch table.
Always blows away unsuspecting listeners in the room.

Pink Floyds "DSM"-"On the Run" never gets old, especially on a killer system.

Julian Lennon - The album is called Help Yourself  
The track I know has the all around you effect is called Would You

Circa 1999 I had a 27" picture tube tv mounted in a cabinet (GE I think). Whenever I put (e.g.) a football game on I could distinctly hear the higher frequency components of crowd noise coming from spots far outside the span of the tv set with its usual pair of small front-firing speakers. I marveled at it and wondered how to replicate the psychoacoustics. Several years later the picture went bad, and I found to my dismay that the replacement tv (same type, size, mounting etc. but a different brand) did not produce the effect. I had expected that whether the effect was from the old tv or from some acoustic anomaly related to its mounting position in the room, I would hear the same thing. I never did, nor have I heard it again with the flatscreens that have since replaced the old beasts.

Chris Whitley - "Perfect Day". Purchased this CD 20 years ago, played it once and put it away. Played it two days ago and was blown away by this remarkably well-recorded album. Focus is on percussion within the soundscape (wood blocks, rim-shot sort of accents). Sound may be due to my new B&W 804s.

Turn the lights out and listen to Jean Michel Jarre Oxygen!

Duran Duran Tiger Tiger has the circling thing - in fact many albums had that affect - Ultravox used effects to.
Beach Boys Caroline No (train crossing dogs barking at the end)

Just cleaned my above reference... limitless boundaries and unlimited depth..!

Jennifer Warnes- The Hunter has a couple nice ones with good sonics

Another Beach Boys one is Surfs Up with some cool sonic goodies 

Trixie Whitley did one with, I can't remember his name offhand, that has some ear goodies. Black Dub is the record. 

jic...

All are CDs…. All are fabulously well recorded.
Urban Jazz Coalition – Long Street & Mama’s Eyes
Infinite Journey; Pleasure Seekers; Mama’s Eyes
I call this group an acid jazz type. Although their music is predominately progressive. Many ear candy cues in the above listed albums, especially those I pointed out.

Spyro Gyra – 20/20
An anniversary collection. Loads of birdies.

Milt Jackson – Vibraphone player par excellant. ‘burning in the Woodhouse’ album is a good example or smattering of his abilities. Other Jaqckson albums show off his talent and spread his instrument our in front of the speakers and beyond their actual limits. Outstanding demo with tube power. Impacts, sustains and decays are remarkable.

Larry Carlton Sapphire Blue – title cut. Incredible show of drums as the finale. In all, an incredible jazz rock & blues fusion. It always is a crowd pleaser.

Illinoisw Jacquette – Jacquette’s Got it… pretty much the entire album although not in the LSD ear candy mode, but in the solo’s during the various cuts. The tracks range from tried and true covers whose tempo alters enough to satisfy most, even non jaz aficionados. He did this album at age 80 with the Harvard band a 16 or 17 piece big band that comes off A+ across the board with drive and fidelity, location and timber.

Paul Simon – Graceland remastered > Homeless. An acapella rendition which hangs each voice in its own space solidly again, laterally across the listening area and well beyond the speakers. Scary cool sounding. Tangible. The space about the singers is captured similarly and just as well.

For sound effects and special cues, and If you can find these or still have them:
Firesign Theater – pick one, they’re all great. Personal favs: Don’t Crush That Dwarf; waiting for the Electrician
Monty Python – again… it’s a pick ‘em affair.
Plenty of positional cues and sound effects. Loads of ancillary ongoing side tracks which propels two scenarios simultaneously.
Both are hilarious yet worth playing on the ‘big rig’.

60s stereophonic mixing tid bits
Spirit – 12 Dreams of Dr. Sardonnicus
Quicksilver Messenger Service – What About Me… and others.
Jimi Hendrix – electric Lady Land

Most tracks on "Welcome Oblivion" by How To Destroy Angels have layers and layers of sound to dig through. 

I was afraid this would happen,  Just got off of Fleabay,  I've already bought a couple of these,  this could get expensive. 

@slaw +1!! RR of Symphonic Dances under Eiji Oue, both as HDCD or LP fills the whole house with Music!!! Thru my all-Naim stereo it makes me jump/sing/cry all at once! Truly supernatural recording...

I play my analogue via surround sound
I was surprised to hear on Led Zep 2 Thank You, half way through, random talking out of middle surround right - something that stereo would never have picked out
Makes you wonder if this was by design or laziness and not noticed so left in
There is  of course the Beatles theory with Led Zep, that lots are built in that are there for Led Zep's amusement

Off the top of my head when this topic arises as it has over the years the single recording that pops into my head for sound effects  and multitracked vocals "I'm not in love" by 10 cc. I have a Japanese Shim recording on a sampler and it is quite remarkable. The history of the making of this recording is worth checking out.

From my memory, "Crime of the Century" is very good.

Simon and Garfunkel - Punky’s Dilema

@tablejockey 

Kudos on Vangelis and A Vollenweider  ( I have lots of both ) 

A few of my faves are : 

Yello - Touch 
Yello - Toy 
Yello - Zebra
Jon & Vangelis - Friends of Mr Cairo
Osama Kitajima - Beyond the Circle
Cyber Octave - In the Mix 
Deep Forest - Music Detected
Andreas Vollenweider - Down to the Moon, White Wind, and Dancing with the Lion
Cirque du Soleil - Mystere  ( non live ) 
Blue Man Group - Audio 

Frank Zappa - The Yellow Shark

dweller,

Frank Zappa - “The Yellow Shark”

Wish someone would release it on vinyl.

Moby Grape, intro to "Omaha"

Ha!  Great post!  Most have already noted my favorites.  And all along I thought I was crazy......Happy New Year one and all!

+ for Andreas Vollenweider White Winds 
Also try his
Behind the Gardens- Behind the Wall- Under the Tree

 The first few seconds of Simple on Collective Soul's CD Collective Soul come in above my right ear. 

+1 on 10cc

+ for Amused  To Death, especially the Blue-Ray version. Even better than the already good RB version. 

QSound was an ambience processing technology that produced recordings with very dramatic sound staging/imaging.  Roger Waters "Amused to Death" featured some good effects and Madonna's Greatest Hits Collection was even more dramatic.  They did a bunch of others before going bust, so I'd hunt them down.  The sound was highly variable (often bad) in all other ways, but - if you want imaging - this is your tech.

in more conventional ways, records like "Space Age Bachelor Pad Music" and "The Shaft Soundtrack" (title track) are also good examples - they're both potted to an inch of their lives, so images move around.  

Yet a different variation of image processing can be found on Lindsey Buckingham's album "Under the Skin".  On some tracks, he moves densely layered overdubs of his voice around the stage ("Show You How") to pretty dramatic effect.  Nothing natural at all about this recording, tho.

Mono binaural recordings for headphones can be pretty amazing, some of them. 

For those into Game of Thrones there are lots of audio delights. The best one that I recall is I believe season 2 there is a scene with Arya in the woods and just as the quiet scene concludes a crow calls out very loudly. It starts at the far right way up, flies across the room in front of you and then exits about eye level on the left. This was through a two channel system using an Oppo 103D. This crow made me duck my head and I almost jumped out of the way. It was simply uncanny.

Check out the track "husks and shells" from volcano choir. If I want to listen to something to unwind and only have a few minutes I play that and in 4 minutes I'm transformed. 

Michael Brook - "Albino Alligator"

Another vote for Andreas Vollenweider "White Winds" and "Caverna Magica."  Main instrument is electro acoustic harp but also lots of synth, some percussion and effects.  Well recorded, very good separation, and ambience if your system allows.  WW has occasional use of triangle which I sometimes use to judge tonality, musicality, launch and decay.  It should sound right.

Talking Heads: "Papa Legba", especially the beginning. Circles completely around behind you several times.

Believe it or not, Madonna's "Lucky Star" was also a surprise. The keyboards are all over the place, then right next to your ears, it's as if you're wearing headphones if dialed in properly - enormous soundstage. (Get it on the "Snatch" film soundtrack if you don't want an entire CD of her material).

This thread is a keeper! Good stuff, kudos all around.

"A Meeting by the River"  Ry Cooder/U M Bhatt

Water Lily Acoustics/ 45 rpm /lp

Wow!  So natural!

Prefab Sprout - Andromeda Heights - track 7 - between 2:30 and 2:50

you will hear tapping on one of the drums from well behind you and out on the right side, like from a non existent right rear surround speaker.

Apart from that little surprise - every second of the album is superb and sounding good.

Klaatu

Klaatu barada nikto

@bdp24 

Among it's credits for lp monitoring include:

ET 2 tonearm
Dynavector 17 D3

Both are some of my long time components.

Pink Floyd UMMAGUMMA Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict.
Mind blowing.

I want to thank everyone that chimed in on this,  So far I have purchased 5 of these that I didn't already have.  I hope it was helpful to others. 
Tim

@timlub 
Which 5???

...and yes, helpful.  Thanks.

Roger Waters: Amused to Death
Jean Michel Jarre Oxygen
Paul Simon – Graceland remastered
Illinoisw Jacquette - But a different album, I bought Best of Verve
Spyro Gyra – 20/20  again,  bought Very Best of
Will most likely still purchase : Urban Jazz Coalition – Long Street

I never thought of Oxygene as sonic spectacular, it is plain and simply my all-time fav electronics... But since it got mentioned, let me add another one by Mike Oldfield: "The Songs of a Distant Earth". Over-digitized but with some impressive sound effects! Must-have if you like Oxygene, Rendez-Vous, Zoolook. I forgive some cheeziness to the dude who made Tubular Bells. Correction: I forgive him anything!!

...And The Gods Made Love - Hendrix - Electric Ladyland