Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time is the cover story of a special issue of Rolling Stone magazine published in November 2003. The list was based on the votes of 273 rock musicians, critics and industry figures, each of whom submitted a weighted list of 50 albums. Various music genres were featured in the list, including pop, rock, soul, blues, folk, jazz, hip hop, and combinations thereof. The accounting firm Ernst & Young devised a point system to weigh votes for 1,600 submitted titles.
Contents |
Top 10 albums
Pos. | Album Name | Artist | Release date |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band | The Beatles | June 1967 |
2 | Pet Sounds | The Beach Boys | May 1966 |
3 | Revolver | The Beatles | August 1966 |
4 | Highway 61 Revisited | Bob Dylan | August 1965 |
5 | Rubber Soul | The Beatles | December 1965 |
6 | What's Going On | Marvin Gaye | May 1971 |
7 | Exile on Main St. | The Rolling Stones | May 1972 |
8 | London Calling | The Clash | December 1979 |
9 | Blonde on Blonde | Bob Dylan | May 1966 |
10 | The Beatles (also known as The White Album) | The Beatles | November 1968 |
Artists with the most albums on the list
- 11 The Beatles (with 4 in the top 10, including 3 in the top 5) – 10 of their 12 studio albums along with U.S. exclusive Meet The Beatles! (12)<ref name="cite-3">"It's Beatlemania on all-time-best rock album list ", USA Today, November 17, 2003.</ref>
- 10 Bob Dylan (with 2 in the top 10, including 1 in the top 5) – 10 of his 31 studio albums (34)
- 10 The Rolling Stones (with 1 in the top 10) – 10 of their 21 studio albums (25)
- 8 Neil Young – 5 of his 29 studio albums (33), 1 Buffalo Springfield studio album, 1 Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young studio album, 1 live album
- 8 Bruce Springsteen– 8 of his 12 studio albums (16)
- 8 Eric Clapton - 3 Cream albums, 1 Bluesbreakers album, 1 Yardbirds album, 1 Derek and the Dominos album, 2 solo albums
- 7 The Who – 6 of their 10 studio albums (11); 1 live album
Number of albums from each decade
- 1950s and earlier – 29 albums (5.8%)<ref name="cite-3"/>
- 1960s – 126 (25.2%) (with 7 of the top 10 and all of the top 5)<ref name="cite-3"/>
- 1970s – 183 (36.6%) (with 3 of the top 10)<ref name="cite-3"/>
- 1980s – 88 (17.6%)<ref name="cite-3"/>
- 1990s – 61 (12.2%)<ref name="cite-3"/>
- 2000s – 13 (2.6%)<ref name="cite-3"/>
Criticism
Following the publicity surrounding the list, rock critic Jim DeRogatis, a former Rolling Stone editor, published Kill Your Idols: A New Generation of Rock Writers Reconsiders the Classics (ISBN 1-56980-276-9) in 2004. This featured a number of younger critics arguing against the magazine's high evaluation of various "classic" albums, including DeRogatis taking on Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, which had been Rolling Stone's top choice.
See also
- NME's The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, a similar list
- All Time Top 1000 Albums, a similar list
- The 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time, also from Rolling Stone magazine
- The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, also from Rolling Stone magazine
- The 100 Greatest Artists of All Time, also from Rolling Stone magazine
- 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, a similar list, ordered by time period
- List of greatest hits albums
- Albums considered the greatest ever