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)
2. Louis Armstrong Hot Fives and Hot Sevens (recorded 1927-28, released 1999)
3. Dinwiddie Colored Quartet Early Negro Vocal Quartets Volume One (recorded 1894-1928, released 1991)
4. Blind Willie Johnson Praise God I’m Satisfied (recorded 1927-30, released 1977)
5. Jelly Roll Morton Centennial: His Complete Victor Recordings (recorded 1930, released 1990)
6. Various Artists On the Halls (1930)
7. Dziga Vertov Enthusiasm: Symphony of the Donbas (1931)
8. Bessie Smith The Complete Recordings Vol. 1: The World’s Greatest Blues Singer / Any Woman’s Blues / Empty Red Blues / The Empress / Nobody’s Blues But Mine (box set, recorded 1923-33, released 1991)
9. Various Artists Really! The Country Blues (compilation: recorded 1927-33, released 1962)
10. Charley Patton Founder of the Delta Blues (compilation: 1929-34, released 1969)
11. Robert Johnson The Complete Recordings (recorded 1936-37, released 1990)
12. Alban Berg Lulu (composed 1937, released 1979)
13. Billie Holiday With The Teddy Wilson Orchestra Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia (recorded 1933-44, released 2001)
14. Muggsy Spanier The Great 16 (compilation: recorded ? to 1939, released 1956)
15. Count Basie The Original American Decca Recordings (recorded 1937-39, released 1992)
16. Coleman Hawkins “Body and Soul” (1940)
17. Duke Ellington The Blanton-Webster Band (box set: 1939-42, released 1990)
18. Anton Webern Complete Works Conducted By Pierre Boulez (covers music composed in Webern’s lifetime from 1883-1945, recorded 1978)
19. Béla Bartók At the Piano (recorded 1920-45)
20. Woody Herman Four Brothers (compilation: recorded 1948, released 1988)
21. Charlie Parker The Complete Savoy Sessions (box set: 1944-48, released 2000)
22. Oliver Messaien Turangalia Symphony (1950)
23. Thelonious Monk Genius of Modern Music, Vol. 1 (1947) / Genius of Modern Music, Vol. 2 (1951)
24. Various Folk Music of the Mediterranean (compilation: 1952)
25. Art Tatum The Solo Masterpieces (1953)
26. Elvis Presley “That’s All Right (Mama)” / “Blue Moon of Kentucky” (1954)
27. Julie London Julie Is Her Name (1955)
28. Sonny Rollins Saxophone Collosus (1956)
29. Frank Sinatra Songs for Swingin’ Lovers! (1956)
30. Lennie Tristano Intuition (recorded 1956)
31. The Five Royales “Dedicated to the One I Love” (1957)
32. Chuck Berry “Sweet Little Sixteen” (1958)
33. Miles Davis Kind of Blue (1959)
34. Bo Diddley Go Bo Diddley (1959)
35. Gil Evans Out of the Cool (1960)
36. Ornette Coleman Change of the Century (1960)
37. Karlheinz Stockhausen Gesang Der Junglinge / Kontakt (1960)
38. Bill Evans Trio The Complete Village Vanguard Recordings (live, recorded 1961)
39. Oliver Nelson The Blues and the Abstract Truth (1961)
40. Booker T And The MGs “Green Onions” (1962)
41. The Kingsmen “Louie Louie” (1963)
42. Charles Mingus The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady (1963)
43. La Monte Young Sunday Morning Blues (1963)
44. Albert Ayler Trio Spiritual Unity (1964)
45. Eric Dolphy Out to Lunch! (1964)
46. Ezz Reco and the Launchers “King of Kings” (1964)
47. Various Artists A Collection of 16 Tamla/Motown Hits (compilation: released 1965)
48. James Brown “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag” (1965)
49. John Coltrane A Love Supreme (1965)
50. Bob Dylan Highway 61 Revisited (1965)
51. The Kinks “See My Friends” (1965)
52. The Beatles Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)
53. The Jimi Hendrix Experience Axis: Bold As Love (1967)
54. Morton Subotnick Silver Apples of the Moon (1967)
55. The Velvet Underground White Light/White Heat (1967)
56. Sly & the Family Stone “Dance to the Music” (1968)
57. Frank Zappa & the Mothers of Invention We’re Only in It for the Money (1968)
58. Various Artists Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era 1965-1968 (box set: 1964-68, released 1972)
59. Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band Trout Mask Replica (1969)
60. The Melodians Pre-Meditation (1969)
61. The Rolling Stones Let It Bleed (1969)
62. Scott Walker Scott 3 (1969)
63. Joni Mitchell Ladies of the Canyon (1970)
64. The Meters Look-ka Py Py (1970)
65. Soft Machine Third (1970)
66. The Stooges Fun House (1970)
67. Dr. Roger Payne (producer) Songs of the Humpback Whale (1970)
68. Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin IV (1971)
69. Ravi Shankar And Ali Akbar Khan In Concert (1972)
70. Steely Dan Can’t Buy a Thrill (1972)
71. Marvin Gaye Let’s Get It On (1973)
72. Bob Marley & the Wailers Catch a Fire (1973)
73. Stevie Wonder Innervisions (1973)
74. Can Soon Over Babaluma (1974)
75. Philip Glass Music in Twelve Parts (1974)
76. Brian Eno Another Green World (1975)
77. Grupo Folklorio Y Experimental Nuevayorquino Concepts in Unity (1975)
78. Patti Smith Horses (1975)
79. Fela Ransome Kuti and the Africa 70 Kalakuta Show (1976)
80. The Clash The Clash (1977)
81. Kraftwerk Trans-Europa Express (Trans Europe Express) (1977)
82. Hans Jurgen Syberberg Hitler, a Film from Germany (soundtrack, 1977)
83. Evan Parker Monoceros (1978)
84. Pere Ubu Dub Housing (1978)
85. Alegre All-Stars They Don’t Make ‘Em Like Us Anymore (1979)
86. The Pop Group Y (1979)
87. Public Image Ltd. Metal Box (aka “Second Edition”) (1979)
88. Minor Threat Minor Threat (EP, 1980)
89. The Fall Slates (EP, 1981)
90. Grandmaster Flash And The Furious Five “The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel” (1981)
91. Michael Jackson Thriller (1982)
92. King Sunny Ade Juju Music (1983)
93. Hüsker Dü Zen Arcade (1984)
94. Madonna “Into the Groove” (1985)
95. Christian Marclay Record Without a Cover (1985)
96. Cecil Taylor In Berlin (1986)
97. Various The Indestructible Beat of Soweto (1986)
98. Ami Koita Tata Sira (1988)
99. Mr. Fingers “Washing Machine” (1988)
100. Public Enemy “Bring the Noise” (1988)
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First posted 12/11/2021; last updated 6/10/2024. | 
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