The Wire:100 Most Important Records Ever Made |
The Wire is a UK music magazine which was founded in 1982. As explained on their website, they cover “a wide range of global alternative, underground and experimental musics. The Wire celebrates and interrogates the most visionary and inspiring, subversive and radical, marginalised and undervalued musicians on the planet, past and present, in the realms of avant rock, electronic music, hiphop, new jazz, improvised music, modern composition, traditional musics and more.” In 1992, they created their list of the 100 most important records ever made for their 100th issue in June 1992, saying “To mark our milestone we've chosen the most significant records made in the 20th Century - in a chart which sets down all the finest most marvellous and most great moments on record as they happened.” The list isn’t ranked, but in chronological by dates of recording, not release. The list oddly throws a handful of songs into a mostly album-oriented list. This is also an interesting mix of bona fide classics and obscurities. Check out other publications and organizations’ best-of album lists here.
1. Igor Stravinsky (composer) L’Oiseau de Feu (The Firebird) (ballet, composed 1910) / Pétrouchka (aka “Petrushka”) (ballet, composed 1910-11) / Le Sacre Du Printemps (The Rite of Spring) (ballet, composed 1913)
11. Robert Johnson The Complete Recordings (recorded 1936-37, released 1990)
21. Charlie Parker The Complete Savoy Sessions (box set: 1944-48, released 2000)
31. The Five Royales “Dedicated to the One I Love” (1957)
41. The Kingsmen “Louie Louie” (1963)
51. The Kinks “See My Friends” (1965)
61. The Rolling Stones Let It Bleed (1969)
71. Marvin Gaye Let’s Get It On (1973)
81. Kraftwerk Trans-Europa Express (Trans Europe Express) (1977)
91. Michael Jackson Thriller (1982)
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First posted 12/11/2021; last updated 6/10/2024. |