Led by John Kay, Steppenwolf's blazing biker anthem "Born to Be Wild" roared out of speakers everywhere in the fiery summer of 1968, John Kay's threatening rasp sounding a mesmerizing call to arms to the counterculture movement rapidly sprouting up nationwide. German immigrant Kay got his professional start in a bluesy Toronto band called Sparrow, recording for Columbia in 1966. After Sparrow disbanded, Kay relocated to the West Coast and formed Steppenwolf, named after the Herman Hesse novel. "Born to Be Wild," their third single on ABC-Dunhill, was immortalized on the soundtrack of Dennis Hopper's underground film classic Easy Rider. The song's reference to "heavy metal thunder" finally gave an assignable name to an emerging genre. Steppenwolf's second monster hit that year, the psychedelic "Magic Carpet Ride," and the follow-ups "Rock Me," "Move Over," and "Hey Lawdy Mama" further established the band's credibility on the hard rock circuit.

Monster is the fourth studio album by Canadian-American rock band Steppenwolf. The album was released in November 1969, by ABC Dunhill Records. It was their first LP with new lead guitarist Larry Byrom instead of Michael Monarch. The album was Steppenwolf's most political album, making references to important issues at the time, such as the Vietnam War.

Early Steppenwolf is a collection of live recordings by Steppenwolf when they were still known as "The Sparrow". It was released in July 1969 on the ABC Dunhill Records label. Prior to the formation of the Steppenwolf partnership in 1968, music producer arranger, Gabriel Mekler changed the name of the band based on a book he was reading at the time by Hermann Hesse. Nick St. Nicholas was one of the driving forces in music of the hippie counterculture movement, the Summer of Love, having booked the band at the Matrix club in the San Francisco Bay Area. On May 14, 1967, the manager of the Matrix club recorded two shows, including a 20-minute version of The Pusher. These are the live recordings released by ABC Dunhill Records as Early Steppenwolf.

The group's second album was virtually a re-creation of its predecessor, only slightly more sophisticated in its range of songs and the manner of playing them, and the in-house writing had improved, though the latter also became highly derivative. Steppenwolf the Second embraces everything from hard rock to psychedelia to blues, and the band is in excellent form, playing very hard and edgy, except on the deliberately lyrical, reflective "Spiritual Fantasy," a rare acoustic number for the group.