I was looking at this list below started to count how many of these albums I haven’t heard. Instead of making a total, I decided to take the more visual route, and highlight in bold the ones I just never got around to listening to. Now these are full albums, not singles or “a few songs.”
Alas, I realized one thing after doing this list: I’m not a big Rolling Stones or Van Morrison fan.
The Rolling Stone 100 Greatest Albums of All Time
1. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beatles
2. Pet Sounds, The Beach Boys
3. Revolver, The Beatles
4. Highway 61 Revisited, Bob Dylan
5. Rubber Soul, The Beatles
6. What’s Going On, Marvin Gaye
7. Exile on Main Street, The Rolling Stones
8. London Calling, The Clash
9. Blonde on Blonde, Bob Dylan
10. The Beatles (“The White Album”), The Beatles
11. The Sun Sessions, Elvis Presley
12. Kind of Blue, Miles Davis
13. Velvet Underground and Nico, The Velvet Underground
14. Abbey Road, The Beatles
15. Are You Experienced?, The Jimi Hendrix Experience
16. Blood on the Tracks, Bob Dylan
17. Nevermind, Nirvana
18. Born to Run, Bruce Springsteen
19. Astral Weeks, Van Morrison
20. Thriller, Michael Jackson
21. The Great Twenty-Eight, Chuck Berry
22. Plastic Ono Band, John Lennon
23. Innervisions, Stevie Wonder
24. Live at the Apollo (1963), James Brown
25. Rumours, Fleetwood Mac
26. The Joshua Tree, U2
27. King of the Delta Blues Singers, Vol. 1, Robert Johnson
28. Who’s Next, The Who
29. Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin
30. Blue, Joni Mitchell
31. Bringing It All Back Home, Bob Dylan
32. Let It Bleed, The Rolling Stones
33. Ramones, Ramones
34. Music From Big Pink, The Band
35. The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars, David Bowie
36. Tapestry, Carole King
37. Hotel California, The Eagles
38. The Anthology, 1947 – 1972, Muddy Waters
39. Please Please Me, The Beatles
40. Forever Changes, Love
41. Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols, The Sex Pistols
42. The Doors, The Doors
43. The Dark Side of the Moon, Pink Floyd
44. Horses, Patti Smith
45. The Band, The Band
46. Legend, Bob Marley and the Wailers
47. A Love Supreme, John Coltrane
48. It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, Public Enemy
49. At Fillmore East, The Allman Brothers Band
50. Here’s Little Richard, Little Richard
51. Bridge Over Troubled Water, Simon and Garfunkel
52. Greatest Hits, Al Green
53. The Birth of Soul: The Complete Atlantic Rhythm and Blues Recordings, 1952 – 1959, Ray Charles
54. Electric Ladyland, The Jimi Hendrix Experience
55. Elvis Presley, Elvis Presley
56. Songs in the Key of Life, Stevie Wonder
57. Beggars Banquet, The Rolling Stones
58. Trout Mask Replica, Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band
59. Meet the Beatles, The Beatles
60. Greatest Hits, Sly and the Family Stone
61. Appetite for Destruction, Guns n’ Roses
62. Achtung Baby, U2
63. Sticky Fingers, The Rolling Stones
64. Phil Spector, Back to Mono (1958 – 1969), Various Artists
65. Moondance, Van Morrison
66. Led Zeppelin IV, Led Zeppelin
67. The Stranger, Billy Joel
68. Off the Wall, Michael Jackson
69. Superfly, Curtis Mayfield
70. Physical Graffiti, Led Zeppelin
71. After the Gold Rush, Neil Young
72. Purple Rain, Prince
73. Back in Black, AC/DC
74. Otis Blue, Otis Redding
75. Led Zeppelin II, Led Zeppelin
76. Imagine, John Lennon
77. The Clash, The Clash
78. Harvest, Neil Young
79. Star Time, James Brown
80. Odessey and Oracle, The Zombies
81. Graceland, Paul Simon
82. Axis: Bold as Love, The Jimi Hendrix Experience
83. I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You, Aretha Franklin
84. Lady Soul, Aretha Franklin
85. Born in the U.S.A., Bruce Springsteen
86. Let It Be, The Beatles
87. The Wall, Pink Floyd
88. At Folsom Prison, Johnny Cash
89. Dusty in Memphis, Dusty Springfield
90. Talking Book, Stevie Wonder
91. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Elton John
92. 20 Golden Greats, Buddy Holly
93. Sign ‘o’ the Times, Prince
94. Bitches Brew, Miles Davis
95. Green River, Creedence Clearwater Revival
96. Tommy, The Who
97. The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan
98. This Year’s Model, Elvis Costello
99. There’s a Riot Goin’ On, Sly and the Family Stone
100. In the Wee Small Hours, Frank Sinatra
20 thoughts on “Top 100”
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Great list! I’m with you on the Rolling Stones and Elvis 🙂
I’m not a big Elvis fan myself. What was the fascination with him anyway. Rolling Stones is pretty hit and miss for me…..the Beatles also.
You’ve never listen to Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band? Just kidding, I’ve never heard of them. Impressive list.
Yeah, I think I was born too late to “get” Elvis. Personally, I like the fat, drugged out Elvis who ate whole flats of peaches as a way to lose weight.
Capt. Beefheart is a fav among rock journalists. I have no idea why, but maybe I ought to download an album and see what’s so great about the music.
I’m impressed. You’ve heard a lot of albums. 🙂
Here I thought I was pretty musically knowledgeable, and along comes Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band to ruin the illusion for me! I will Google them in a bit, but how could they have one of the top 100 and I have zero name recognition? I’m crushed. 😉
I’m sure eating all those peaches is why Elvis was on the litterbox all day…wasn’t he in the can when he died?
Ml: That’s what I heard! Dennis Leary did a bit on it back in the day on his “No Cure for Cancer” show.
Gina: Capt. Beefheart…What can I say? I’ve heard the name, but never the music.
Oh, I’m so excited for those of you who’ve never experienced the musical stylings of Don Van Vliet, A.K.A. Captain Beefheart. You may not know what’s happened to you after you’re done.
Your “missing LPs” are very similar to mine. One suggestion, though – listen to Odessey & Oracle. It’s not the hippy-trippy 60s rock most people expect. It is the one true “Pet Sounds,” IMHO. Unbelievably great album.
Oh, and to everyone expressing curiosity here, Captain Beefheart is just plain dumb and awful. It just barely qualifies as “music.” Don’t bother.
Hmm…I’m getting a feeling that Capt. Beefheart might make this week’s Mix Six.
Some advice first: don’t listen to anyone who thinks Captain Beefheart is dumb and awful.
That said, I was surprised to find I own no less than 2/3 of these (65), plus another 8 in different forms (e.g. box sets containing essentially the same tracks). Of the remainder, I think I’ve heard at least a track or two of all but two (Guns ‘n’ Roses and Public Enemy).
And by the way Meet The Beatles, however much it is loved by nostalgic US fans, shouldn’t be listed, because it’s a product of Capitol’s butchery of the Beatles’ catalogue to rip off American consumers by giving them fewer tracks per album. The original British track listings are definitive.
Captain Beefheart… that is so weird. How the heck do you hear of some of these albums?
I have a couple of surprising omissions too…but c’mon: including greatest hits albums on a list like this? Pretty much by definition a greatest hits album is going to be better, song for song at least (rather than as an album per se), than a regular release. It’s cheatin’, sez I…kinda like including EPs (again, because it’s easier to put out five or six excellent songs than ten or twelve).
Captain Beefheart’s gonna booglarize ya baby…
“How the heck do you hear of some of these albums?”
Get the round thingy spinning, then set the needle on it (carefully). Stick yer head in the big horn thing and enjoy!
But what do I know? I think Captain Beefheart is dreck. I’m a moron.
(I’m still blown away at how many people are unawares of the good Sir Van Vliet. Google him. He’s an interesting cat. Just stay away from his recordings.)
Captain Beefheart is who rock snobs and critics use to 1. Degrade anyone who likes someone trying experimental things in music as unoriginal, ie “Radiohead’s not doing anything with Kid A and Amnesiac that Captain Beefheart didn’t do 30 years ago” and 2. Make people feel ignorant for not having the name recognition. It’s sort of the Sonic Youth affect: all rock snobs name drop them, almost none of them actually listen to them.
nice list dude! im only 13 but ive already listened to 36 of those albums. i cant believe you haven’t listened to axi:bold as love! beautiful album.
Threre’s only so much time to listen to full albums. And since I’m not a big Hendrix fan, I would rather listen to something else.
Thanks for dropping by, Avi.