Thursday, February 27, 2020

The Top 100 Classic Rock Albums of All Time

First posted 5/2/2011; last updated 9/4/2020.

Classic Rock:

The Top 100 Albums

This list was originally posted on Facebook on May 2, 2011. It was based on an aggregate of 13 best-of lists focused on classic rock (sources listed at bottom of page). It has been updated here on the blog with 31 lists now factored in. While there isn’t uniform agreement on exactly what era “classic rock” spans, it generally stretches from the mid-‘60s to sometime into the ‘80s so I eliminated post-‘80s albums (only two would have made the list: Nirvana’s Nevermind and Radiohead’s OK Computer). Click on an album title to go to a more detailed page about that album.

Check out other best-of-genre lists here.

1. Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin IV (1971)
2. Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon (1973)
3. The Beatles Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)
4. AC/DC Back in Black (1980)
5. The Jimi Hendrix Experience Are You Experienced? (1967)
6. The Who Who’s Next (1971)
7. Fleetwood Mac Rumours (1977)
8. Eagles Hotel California (1976)
9. The Doors The Doors (1967)
10. Bruce Springsteen Born to Run (1975)
11. Pink Floyd Wish You Were Here (1975)
12. Pink Floyd The Wall (1979)
13. Boston Boston (1976)
14. The Rolling Stones Exile on Main Street (1972)
15. The Beatles Revolver (1966)
16. Van Halen Van Halen I (1978)
17. Queen A Night at the Opera (1975)
18. Led Zeppelin Physical Graffiti (1975)
19. The Jimi Hendrix Experience Electric Ladyland (1968)
20. The Beatles The Beatles (aka “The White Album”) (1968)
21. The Beatles Abbey Road (1969)
22. The Rolling Stones Sticky Fingers (1971)
23. Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin II (1969)
24. Aerosmith Toys in the Attic (1975)
25. David Bowie The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1972)
26. Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young Déjà Vu (1970)
27. Deep Purple Machine Head (1972)
28. AC/DC Highway to Hell (1979)
29. Meat Loaf Bat Out of Hell (1977)
30. The Rolling Stones Let It Bleed (1969)
31. Jethro Tull Aqualung (1971)
32. Elton John Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973)
33. The Who Tommy (1969)
34. Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin I (1969)
35. U2 The Joshua Tree (1987)
36. Derek and the Dominos Layla & Other Assorted Love Songs (1970)
37. Lynyrd Skynyrd Pronounced Leh-Nerd Skin-Nerd (1973)
38. Rush Moving Pictures (1981)
39. Cream Disraeli Gears (1967)
40. Neil Young Harvest (1972)
41. The Who Quadrophenia (1973)
42. Guns N’ Roses Appetite for Destruction (1987)
43. Supertramp Breakfast in America (1979)
44. The Beach Boys Pet Sounds (1966)
45. Bob Dylan Blonde on Blonde (1966)
46. The Doors L.A. Woman (1971)
47. Black Sabbath Paranoid (1970)
48. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers Damn the Torpedoes (1979)
49. Bad Company Bad Company (1974)
50. Yes Fragile (1971)
51. Van Halen 1984 (1984)
52. Santana Abraxas (1970)
53. The Clash London Calling (1979)
54. Peter Frampton Frampton Comes Alive! (live, 1976)
55. Bon Jovi Slippery When Wet (1986)
56. The Police Synchronicity (1983)
57. Van Morrison Moondance (1970)
58. Bob Dylan Blood on the Tracks (1975)
59. The Allman Brothers At Fillmore East (live, 1971)
60. Eric Clapton Slowhand (1977)
61. The Rolling Stones Beggars Banquet (1968)
62. Lynyrd Skynyrd Street Survivors (1977)
63. Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band Night Moves (1976)
64. Def Leppard Hysteria (1987)
65. Led Zeppelin Houses of the Holy (1973)
66. The Beatles Rubber Soul (1965)
67. The Rolling Stones Some Girls (1978)
68. Dire Straits Brothers in Arms (1985)
69. Journey Escape (1981)
70. Bruce Springsteen Born in the U.S.A. (1984)
71. Grateful Dead American Beauty (1970)
72. The Allman Brothers Band Eat a Peach (1972)
73. Steely Dan Aja (1977)
74. Eric Clapton 461 Ocean Boulevard (1974)
75. ZZ Top Tres Hombres (1973)
76. Aerosmith Rocks (1976)
77. Foreigner 4 (1981)
78. Def Leppard Pyromania (1983)
79. The Cars The Cars (1978)
80. ZZ Top Eliminator (1983)
81. Steve Miller Band Fly Like an Eagle (1976)
82. Creedence Clearwater Revival Cosmo’s Factory (1970)
83. Eagles The Long Run (1979)
84. King Crimson In the Court of the Crimson King (1969)
85. Bob Dylan
Highway 61 Revisited (1965)
86. The Beatles Let It Be (1970)
87. Fleetwood Mac Fleetwood Mac (1975)
88. Rush 2112 (1976)
89. Van Morrison Astral Weeks (1968)
90. Foreigner Foreigner (1977)
91. John Lennon Imagine (1971)
92. Styx The Grand Illusion (1977)
93. Neil Young After the Gold Rush (1970)
94. The Sex Pistols Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols (1977)
95. Jefferson Airplane Surrealistic Pillow (1967)
96. Bruce Springsteen Darkness on the Edge of Town (1978)
97. Crosby, Stills & Nash Crosby, Stills & Nash (1969)
98. The Jimi Hendrix Experience Axis: Bold As Love (1967)
99. REO Speedwagon Hi Infidelity (1980)
100. The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour (1967)


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5 comments:

  1. Thank you for all of the time and effort you have devoted to this over the years.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is certainly the best list of greatest rock albums I have seen. There are no "don't belong" in this list. great job.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This is the best top 100 classic rock album lists I have ever seen. There is not 1 album on here that doesn't deserve to be there.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I know this is an old list but I agree with it much more than any greatest rock album list I have ever seen. And, like you said, there are no albums here that do not belong.

    ReplyDelete