Emerson, Lake & Palmer is the debut album by the English progressive rock band Emerson, Lake & Palmer, released in the UK in November 1970 on Island Records (catalog no. ILPS 9132). The album's initial North American release was several weeks later, in January 1971, on Atlantic Records' Cotillion Records subsidiary (catalog no. SD 9040). Recording took place at Advision Studios in July 1970 when the group had yet to perform live, and lasted for three months. The album was supported by the group's show at the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival.

Emerson, Lake & Palmer went to number four on the UK Albums Chart and number 18 on the Billboard 200 in the US. "Lucky Man" reached number 48 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in the US.

Although the composition of this track was attributed to the three band members on early pressings of Emerson, Lake & Palmer, "The Barbarian" is in fact an arrangement for rock band of Béla Bartók's 1911 piano piece Allegro Barbaro. Musicologist Edward Macan notes, in his 2006 book on ELP's work Endless Enigma, that Bartók's widow contacted the band shortly after the album's release to request that the song's author credit be corrected.

"Take a Pebble" by Greg Lake is a full band arrangement, with the primary sections being a jazz arrangement by keyboardist Keith Emerson, and the middle section being a folk guitar work by Lake with water-like percussion effects by Carl Palmer, plus a bit of clapping and whistling. The end returns to the jazz arrangement by Emerson, starting with a modal based improvisation on top of the primary ostinato.

...
Wikipedia