We’ve covered the singles. Now it’s time for: the Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time.
The ‘All Time’ rider not quite so dismissive of human history this time, given that the first album was released sometime in the late 19th Century.
In time honoured tradition we start with the top 10;
- 10. Lauryn Hill – The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill
- 9. Bob Dylan – Blood On The Tracks
- 8. Prince and The Revolution – Purple Rain
- 7. Fleetwood Mac – Rumours
- 6. Nirvana – Nevermind
- 5. The Beatles – Abbey Road
- 4. Stevie Wonder – Songs In The Key Of Life
- 3. Joni Mitchell – Blue
- 2. Beach Boys – Pet Sounds
- 1. Marvin Gaye – What’s Going On
The full list is here.
This time out, commercial performance and critical acclaim are more in line than the songs were. 34 of the 100 biggest selling albums make it into the hallowed 500.
The one album to appear in the top 10 of both lists is Rumours, which completes the synchronised sweep of occupying 7th position here as well on the UK and US sales lists.
Dovetailing of critical / commercial success does not extend to the most prolific purveyor of albums: Garth Brooks. He may have six of the 100 biggest selling albums in US history but he doesn’t make the grade where the pollsters are concerned. Still no love for Chris Gaines.
Chart performance matches closely to the RS 500 songs. 117 of these songs were Billboard #1s with a total of 314 making the top 40.
The highest rated album not to breach the top 40 is Public Enemy: It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back at #15 on the list having peaked at #42 on the charts.
The highest rated act never to even trouble the top 100 is Velvet Underground & Nico at #23. The VU cement a place as critical darlings.
Four of their five studio albums appear. The one that misses out is the Doug Yule-led finale Squeeze that you may struggle to remember existed. Or in the case of ardent VU fans may prefer to pretend never existed.
The other notable critical smash conspicuous by a lack of actual sales are Big Star who place all three of their 70s studio albums. Their only omission being the 2005 reformation effort; In Space.
Others have managed to combine art and commerce to good effect.
Kanye places six of his studio albums on the list – as said last time, whether the critical acclaim survives his personal transgressions is another matter.
- Kendrick Lamarr scores with three of his four studio albums.
- Jimi Hendrix has a perfect record of all three studio albums making the list.
- Nirvana miss out with Bleach, but Nevermind and In Utero are joined by their MTV Unplugged performance.
As usual, The Beatles enter the conversation.
Their position is complicated by Capitol bowdlerising the early albums meaning they released more albums in the US than UK.
Removing Capitol’s tinkering, they recorded 12 studio albums, eight of which appear here.
With an added extra from the Capitol cash ins:
- Abbey Road #5
- Revolver #11
- Sgt Pepper #24
- White Album #29
- Rubber Soul #35
- Meet The Beatles #197
- A Hard Day’s Night #263
- Help! #266
- Let It Be #342
Pretty impressive that their career encompassed so much and ended with their most acclaimed album. In order of recording at least.
No one can match Bob Dylan for longevity.
2001s Love and Theft appears at #411 – his 31st studio album, released 39 years after the first.
The big hitters are:
- 9. The Beatles + two solo John Lennon and one each for Paul McCartney and George Harrison.
- 8. Bob Dylan
- 6. Rolling Stones, Neil Young (who also has a seventh with CSN&Y) and Kanye
- 5. David Bowie, Bruce Springsteen and Led Zeppelin
- 4. Joni Mitchell, Velvet Underground (Lou Reed with a fifth solo effort), The Who, Prince, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Radiohead and Pink Floyd
There is a reason why these names always crop up: they are legends.
But it does lend itself to predictability. There are 244 acts that appear on both the song and album lists.
All those usual suspects are reflected in the decade by decade tally with the 70s once again taking the honours and way ahead of the rest.
Where it differs to last time is that the 90s rise from fourth to second, led by alternative rock and the expanding influence of rap.
1970 to 72 are the peak years, that three year stretch contributing 23, 22 and 23 albums.
All but three years from 1964 through to 80 make it into double figures. Just like last time, 1974 bucks the trend, falling well short of the rest of the decade and contributing only eight.
Just like the songs list, soundtracks fare badly in comparison to sales figures. There are only six of them in comparison to the eight in the 100 biggest sellers. Purple Rain #8 and Saturday Night Fever #163 are back again, The Beatles factor sees their first two films represented (justice for Yellow Submarine!) with a couple more well deserved deeper cuts in Superfly #76 and The Harder They Come #174.
It’s the other way round for the live album. Only Garth Brooks Live and Eric Clapton Unplugged made the biggest sellers. Apologies to fans of Garth and Eric, but the pollsters do it better with this far more exciting selection:
- James Brown – Live At The Apollo, 1962 #65
- Allman Brothers – At Filmore East #105
- Aretha Franklin – Amazing Grace #154
- Johnny Cash – At Folsom Prison #164
- Sam Cooke – Live At The Harlem Square Club, 1963 #240
- Nirvana – MTV Unplugged #279
- BB King – Live At The Regal #299
- Neil Young – Rust Never Sleeps #296
- Kiss – Alive! #305
- The Who – Live At Leeds #327
- MC5 – Kick Out The Jams #349
There are a surprising 16 “Greatest Hits” in the mix. Which is where things get really confusing as to why these were deemed worthy of inclusion.
I can appreciate that some of the earlier artists are better served by a collection of their singles, like Robert Johnson, Buddy Holly and Jerry Lee Lewis. Though we then have Bob Marley & The Wailers, Madonna and Sly & The Family Stone, all of whom feature with studio albums and compilations. Fair enough, in each of their cases a compliation will be a great listen but why why they’re deemed more worthy than anyone else’s best of is a mystery to me.
Then we have the ones that aren’t just a greatest hits but a career spanning box set. I’ve crunched the numbers and the ideal for a great album is 10 to 12 tracks. No surprise there. Merle Haggard proves there are always exceptions with Down Every Road providing 100 tracks. Again, nothing against Merle but there are plenty of excellent box sets out there, so it seems a pretty arbitrary inclusion.
As a vast contrast the Merle Haggard retrospective brevity is represented by Fela Kuti and Africa 70s: Expensive Shit #402. Two tracks, totaling 24 minutes. Some may call that “a single.”
Its also one of three album titles that has failed to mind its language along with:
Sex Pistols – Nevermind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols #80
* For those in need of clarification; Bollocks = vulgar slang in Britain for the exclamation of ‘nonsense’. As well as also referring to Testicles.
And, also: Ewww!
And, <cough> Lana Del Ray at #321
The arbitrary nature of these lists takes a step up with country of origin and genre.
Given that this is Rolling Stone, its understandable that it orients towards US based rock. You could say its commendable that they have reached out to other areas like Jazz and Nigerian Jùjú.
Or you could say that the fact that a whole continent is represented by just King Sunny Ade, Fela Kuti and the Indestructible Beat Of Soweto might be selling Africa short.
Still better than Asia which has only Damo Suzuki of Can, purveyor of that traditional Japanese sound of Krautrock. BTS did make the songs list so that’s two out of 1,000. Or given that Damo is a fifth of Can, more accurately 1.2 out of 1,000.
They have made efforts to be more inclusive with a much greater selection of rap acts in the latest version -while still leaving the likes of Jazz subject to a few token efforts from Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, John Coltrane and Alice Coltrane. A case of damned if you do reach out to other areas, and damned if you don’t.
It all leads to the conclusion that these polls are entirely pointless in determining musical worth.
Whilst still generating talking points for music nerds to endlessly pore over and debate.
Let’s round off with useless trivia:
The perfect harmony of a married couple is well represented. Or not so perfect given the dysfunction and outright abuse of some of these. Not all of them lived happily ever after. But these pairings all produced some amazing work together;
- Paul & Linda McCartney
- Ike & Tina Turner
- Richard & Linda Thompson
- Chris Frantz & Tina Weymouth
- Christine & John McVie
- Agneta & Bjorn
- Anni-Frid & Benny
- Jack & Meg White
- Stephen Morris & Gillian Gilbert
- Phil Spector & Ronnie Bennett
- Kim Gordon & Thurston Moore
Then there’s these power couples that appear on the list separately;
- Patti Smith & Fred ‘Sonic’ Smith
- Beyonce & Jay-Z
- Kurt Cobain & Courtney Love
- John & Alice Coltrane
Lastly: Pop Quiz!
How many albums feature a colour in their title? Glad you asked, 37 of them. See if you can guess them all, as a headstart here’s the colours;
- Black = 10
- Blue = 7
- Pink = 3
- Blonde = 3
- Green 2
- Red = 2
- White = 2
- Gold = 2
- Yellow = 1
- Orange = 1
- Brown = 1
- Silver = 1
- Purple = 1
- Grey = 1
I’ll leave you wracking your brains as to which album references brown.
The good news is: we can all meet up again in a few years when they next revise the lists – and do it all over again.
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As you can tell, I love a list analysis. Nicely done, JJ. And I don’t know whether it was your disclaimer or mt’s, but I’m glad that Wenner caption was there. What an idiot. If he even bothered to study his own magazine’s list, he’d have seen the ridiculousness of his “articulate” argument.
Thanks Chuck. I’d already submitted this before I saw Wenner’s unenlightened comments but I wholeheartedly endorse the disclaimer mt added. I’m sure the current RS staff wish his name wasn’t so intertwined with the magazine even though he no longer has any input.
{Editor’s note: JJ’s great writing always stands perfectly well on its own. But due to current events news-making by Wenner subsequent to article submission, I elected to add the note.
I greatly appreciate JJ’s indulgence and support for the choice.}
Thanks for a great sequel. This list is not quite as egregiously negligent as the songs list, at least given that LPs weren’t really a thing until the 50s.
Still, as you mention, they decided to include compilations, which would give them a chance to include older artists. So why Robert Johnson but not Blind Willie McTell? Or, why Taylor Swift and not Bessie Smith? They didn’t have to open that can of worms.
Also, I love the Beatles, but “Help” is not a great album. It’s just barely a good album. It’s half-great (with most of those greats being singles) and half filler, and not even the “connective tissue” kind of filler of the list’s #1 pick. Maybe give the Beatles 8 rather than 9 slots and spare a mention of Odetta…
Also, while trying to find a downloadable version of the list, I chanced upon this article. Seems like Bill’s got some competition when it comes to fake names! Too bad these didn’t make it to the RS list:
https://uproxx.com/music/beastie-boys-ad-rock-fake-albums-rolling-stone/
Totally agree with you on Help! I love The Beatles but it seems a case of reputation carrying more weight than the album deserves. Even Let It Be, its got some great songs but I wouldn’t have it anywhere near the greatest of all time.
That Ad-Rock list is hilarious. They sound so plausible and to drop in a random Phil Collins album is genius. Difficult to pick out a favourite but I particularly enjoyed;
Strategic Orchestrations — My Suzuki Sierra Is Bumpin’
and
Janice Montcrieff – Pour Me Another Glass Of Whine, You Baby
Ad-Rock is a man after my heart.
Help! is a great album. It’s much better than A Hard Day’s Night, IMO.
AHDN really only has four good songs (the title track, “I Should Have Known Better”, “Can’t Buy Me Love”, and “Things We Said Today”), none of which are as good as “Ticket to Ride” or “Yesterday” or even “I’ve Just Seen A Face”.
I’ll upvote for boldness, but…no way!
A Hard Day’s Night is a nearly perfect album. Not every track is stunning on its own, but they keep a nice pace, change up the styles, and include enough gems to keep things exciting. And yet, some of my favorite songs are the deep cuts, my #1 being the closer “I’ll Be Back.”
The highs of Help are really high, but it’s a collection of great singles with a few great B-sides, plus of bunch of padding. Not a collection that is greater than the sum of its parts, which is what I think should count for a great album.
I’d rate them about the same. AHDN also has “If I Fell”, which I think is a brilliant song. But I think “Help!” is pretty darned good. There’s more good than filler (but there is filler).
Since I know you keep track of this kind of thing…
Was there any artist (not album) on the list you hadn’t heard of before looking at the list?
There’s plenty on the list that haven’t had much, if any, impact on the UK charts but to get onto the list means they must have had plenty of critical acclaim. Which means that even if I wasn’t that familiar with their music I have come across them. That includes acts like X, Minutemen, J Dilla and some of the world music entries like Rosalia and King Sunny Ade.
There is though one name on the album list and one on the song list that I had never heard of before.
Step forward Eric Church. Turns out he’s spent one week on the UK album chart at #70 in 2014. Passed me by I’m afraid Eric. Checks out that he’s a country artist who don’t transfer well over here.
On the songs list there was Jamaican dancehall singer; Sister Nancy.
If you aren’t familiar with Sister Nancy, you probably somehow missed Kanye West’s “Famous” (which heavily samples “Bam Bam”) when it came out. Even though it barely made the top 40 in both the US and the UK, it was a huge news item in 2016, mostly for the controversial video that had naked Madame Tussauds figures.
The list of live albums is a good one. They’re all great albums, but seriously, Live At Leeds should be much higher up. I realize these lists are, as you say, “entirely pointless in determining musical worth,” but, c’mon. Alive is better than Live At Leeds? I don’t think so.
Excellent work as always, JJ. And thanks for the riddle at the end. I’m going to spend the rest of the day trying to come up with those colorful album titles.
Edit: Does “Blues” count as “blue?”
I might be biased towards Live At Leeds given that I borrowed its title for my username and lived a few minutes walk from the venue it was recorded at for a few years. Even so I’d agree with you about placing it higher than Alive. Music press here in the 90s often used to refer to it the greatest live album ever.
Blues does indeed count as blue.
Another why-do-you-care-about-this-so-much preference I have for lists like these is some sort of exclusion buffer for recent releases. So, no albums included from the past X years. To ensure that they do in fact stand the test of some time, rather than reflect impulses and embarrassing fads.
What should X equal? I’d say 10 years, but 5 would be reasonable as well. Then, when you do an update to the list, you can see what newer releases still seem worth a damn, especially relative to the older classics.
All of this is to say that Bad Bunny ain’t gonna last…
I wouldn’t bet on that last part. He had the biggest album in America for all of 2022, which means the critical acclaim for his 2018 album probably will endure.
You’re probably right. And the charts will always be there as a record. But still, in the grand scheme of things, the music itself will largely be forgotten for the next high-charting fad.
I say this with all the confidence of Jay-Z in 2009 regarding the death of autotune, and Theodor Adorno in 1933, with his essay “Farewell to Jazz,” that silly little fad.
Or the Decca record executive that turned down The Beatles in 1962 reportedly saying that guitar groups are on the way out. Turns out he wasn’t wrong, just that he was 50 years ahead of his time.
This “X-years” concept would make a great article.
What’s amazing about pop music (and I guess, pop culture in general) is how strong, influencing and prevalent something can be. And then – in, let’s say a decade, it will often decisively lean to either:
“Still brilliant and will last,” or
“Has aged poorly. What were we thinking, that we gave it such prominence?”
This is why I have a closet full of harem pants.
I can’t touch that.
Please, Aaron, don’t hurt ’em.
Stop. Harem Time.
The reign of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band is over, apparently. I remember the old RS lists. Now that I finally agree with its lofty placing at the top, the Citizen Kane of rock and roll falls out of the top ten. Not really cool to champion “A Day in the Life”, but that song just floors me. For years, I’d annoy my two musician friends by suggesting that the album could have been improved if George Harrison switched-out “Within You Without You” with “A Northern Song”, which looks so lonesome on the Yellow Submarine soundtrack. The former has grown on me.
Another irony, the five-star ratings Bruce Springsteen albums automatically garnered came to an end, and then “The Boss” releases Western Stars, which to my ears sounds, like a late-period masterpiece but received an un-Rolling Stone-like four-star rating.. I remember a poster, who recently came out as Lotion’s lead singer raving over it, and I thought, yeah, his enthusiasm was matching mine. And this is how my random name-checking is related to TNOCS.
Somebody was quibbling over the 6 that Mr. Breihan assigned to “Walk Away, Renee”. Music is subjective. I don’t get mad or anything. But I admit to being confused. Both “Penny Lane” and “Walk Away, Renee” were released before I was born, but I always felt an intense affinity to the latter. So I responded to the post(not my own post) by mentioning that Lotion covered “Walk Away, Renee”. I couldn’t believe the response I got: “Yes, we did.”
So what is the point of this post?
Online music websites are great. Especially Stereogum, and the subculture of TNOCS, which I enjoy being a part of. But I do mourn what Rolling Stone has become, and even worse, of what I thought it once was, or what I thought it was. My fond memories of buying every issue at either the supermarket or Tower Records are tainted by Jann Wenner’s shocking comments. Just depressing stuff.
I’m with you on Within You Without You. It’s not the easiest track to get into when you’re young. Definitely not the song you’d select as representative of their work. It’s grown on me but still not something I’d ever choose to add to a Beatles compilation. I like it more as a signifier that they were happy to follow their own instincts going off in various directions even on the same record, rather than playing it safe and giving their fans more of the same.
JJ, great article, but I do have some issues!!
1. 300 is not a lot. Not when you’re producing a top 500 and determining the best albums ever. It looks impressive on the face of it but I would think that those albums towards the bottom of the 500 won’t have needed many votes to get onto the list. Totally right that the outcome is heavily dependant on who they asked. They make a big deal about asking Billie Eilish, Beyonce and rising artists like H.E.R but the panel is obviously weighted enough that they get the right outcome for the RS brand while allowing some new blood in to give the impression they’re progressing.
2. I’m not in favour of limiting the options, if the 6th best album of one band is better than another’s best then so be it. Though I do think there is an element of reputation carrying some artists lesser albums. Which may be down to asking people to name their top 50. It’s a big ask, wouldn’t surprise me if some people got to numbers 41 to 50, ran out of inspiration (and the inclination to give it anymore time) and just thought, oh yeah, The Beatles, they’ll do.
3. The 90s comes out pretty well here but I get you point. Once we get to the 00s there’s a big drop off. Probably goes back to your point about who they asked.
4. That is a very big question. Off the top of my head and in no particular order;
Beatles – Revolver
Dexy’s Midnight Runners – Too Rye Aye
Super Furry Animals – Rings Around The World
Robyn – Honey
The Charlatans – Between 10th and 11th
Ride – Going Blank Again
Lana Del Ray – Norman Fucking Rockwell!
Spoon – Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Wet Leg – Wet Leg
Beth Orton – Central Reservation
Steve Mason – Boys Outside
New Pornographers – Twin Cinema
Modest Mouse – Good News For People Who Love Bad News
Tears For Fears – Songs From The Big Chair
Madness – The Liberty of Norton Folgate
Bob Dylan – Highway 61 Revisited
Velvet Underground – Loaded
Marianne Faithfull – Broken English
Belle and Sebastian – The Boy With the Arab Strap
Boo Radleys – Giant Steps
The Hold Steady – Boys and Girls In America
Courtney Barnett – Sometimes I Sit and Think
Van Morrison – Astral Weeks
Curtis Mayfield – Superfly
Chemical Brothers – Born In The Echoes
There’s so many more, barely touched on the 60 and 70s and missing whole genres. I reckon I’d need at least a week to think about it and do justice to the question.
When an artist has a fluke hit, they end up being remembered, sometimes derogatorily, as a one-hit wonder instead of a beloved cult band. And that’s definitely Kevin Rowland. Too-Rye-Aye is a great album.
Greetings from Timbuk 3 is like Too-Rye-Aye. It’s not all about one song.
“All in All(This One Last Wild Waltz)” rules.
Over here Dexy’s weren’t a one hit wonder; two #1s, another two top 10s and eight top 20s in total. Yet Come On Eileen so totally overshadows everything else that ask any non fan to name more than one song and they’ll probably struggle.
Kevin really suffered for his art. He made the rest of the band suffer as well. COE got played at every wedding reception, anniversary and significant birthday party I went to in the 80s and 90s. It became a go to party tune, a status totally at odds with the feel of much of Too-Rye-Aye. Music takes on a life of its own once you release it.
I’m going to have to check out Timbuk 3 now. That one song is all I know.