[AAL2014]

I've been fascinated lately by taking a look at the Best Albums By Year on this site. Certain years stood out to me with how incredible their top 10's and 20's were. Other years I hadn't listened to more than 1 or 2 from the top 20 (gotta work on that shit). However, this has been a topic I've always been interested in, which years had the absolute greatest output ever?

My goal here is to have some fun and use the current standings for each year to get a more concrete view on the best years in the history of modern music as well as, of course, igniting some discussion on what is, to me, a fascinating topic.

Each thread will feature a different decade and the poll will only be open for a limited time. The current top 10 for each year will be listed to give everyone a slight recap of some of the years best records (however, vote for a year based off of any of its output). The 3 years with the most votes will advance to a new thread once all decades have been voted on. The top 5 out of that batch will move to one final thread. In the event of a tie, the year with more total points on the site will advance, unless anyone can suggest a better option. So let's begin with 1959-1969. Hope to have a lot of fun with this thread, Merry Christmas, BEA.


1959
-Kind of Blue- Miles Davis, Mingus Ah Um- Charles Mingus, Time Out- Dave Brubeck, Shape Of Jazz To Come- Ornette Coleman, Chuck Berry Is On Top, Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers, Moanin' In The Moonlight- Howlin Wolf, The Genius of Ray Charles, Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs- Marty Robbins, Chega De Saudade-João Gilberto

1960
-Sketches of Spain- Miles Davis, Giant Steps- John Coltrane, At Last!- Etta James, Blues & Roots- Charles Mingus, Joan Baez (s/t), Elvis Is Back!- Elvis Presley, The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery, Soul Station- Hank Mobley, We Insist!- Max Roach's Freedom Now Suite, Muddy Waters at Newport 1960

1961
-King of the Delta Blues Singers- Robert Johnson, My Favorite Things- John Coltrane, Sunday at the Village Vanguard- Bill Evans Trio, Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation- Ornette Coleman, Waltz for Debby- Bill Evans Trio, Showcase- Patsy Cline, The Blues and the Abstract Truth- Oliver Nelson, Someday My Prince Will Come- Miles Davis, Two Steps From The Blues- Bobby Bland, West Side Story (The Original Soundtrack Recording)

1962
-Modern Sounds In Country and Western- Ray Charles, Howlin' Wolf, Bob Dylan (s/t), Green Onions- Booker T and the M.G.'s, Tijuana Moods- Charles Mingus, Live at the Village Vanguard- John Coltrane, Tous Les Garçons Et Les Filles- Françoise Hardy, Takin' Off- Herbie Hancock, Go- Dexter Gordon, Jazz Samba- Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd.

1963
-The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady- Charles Mingus, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, Please Please Me- The Beatles, Live At The Apollo- James Brown, With The Beatles, Monk's Dream- Thelonious Monk, Night Beat- Sam Cooke, Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus, A Christmas Gift For You (various artists), Night Train- The Oscar Peterson Trio

1964
- A Hard Day's Night- The Beatles, The Times They Are A-Changin'- Bob Dylan, Getz/Gilberto, Out To Lunch!-Eric Dolphy, Beatles For Sale, Another Side of Bob Dylan, Presenting The Fabulous Ronettes, Meet The Beatles!, Live At the Star Club, Hamburg- Jerry Lee Lewis, Jazz På Svenska- Jan Johansson

1965
-Highway 61 Revisited- Bob Dylan, Rubber Soul- The Beatles, A Love Supreme- John Coltrane, Bringing It All Back Home- Bob Dylan, Help!- The Beatles, Otis Blue- Otis Redding, My Generation- The Who, The Beach Boys Today!, Pastel Blues- Nina Simone, Spiritual Unity- Albert Ayler Trio

1966
-Revolver- The Beatles, Pet Sounds- Beach Boys, Blonde On Blonde- Bob Dylan, Aftermath- The Rolling Stones, Freak Out!- Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, Sounds of Silence- Simon & Garfunkel, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary And Thyme- Simon & Garfunkel, The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators, Black Monk Time- Monks, Ascension- John Coltrane

1967
-Sgt Pepper- The Beatles, The Velvet Underground & Nico, The Doors (s/t), Are You Experienced- Jimi Hendrix, Forever Changes- Love, Magical Mystery Tour- The Beatles, The Piper At The Gates of Dawn- Pink Floyd, Songs of Leonard Cohen, Axis: Bold As Love- Jimi Hendrix, Disraeli Gears- Cream

1968
-The Beatles (The White Album), Astral Weeks- Van Morrison, Electric Ladyland- Jimi Hendrix, Odessey And Oracle- The Zombies, Beggars Banquet- The Rolling Stones, White Light/White Heat- The Velvet Underground, The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society, At Folsom Prison- Johnny Cash, Music From The Big Pink- The Band, Bookends- Simon and Garfunkel

1969
-Abbey Road- The Beatles, In The Court of the Crimson King- King Crimson, Led Zeppelin II, Let It Bleed- The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin I, The Velvet Underground (s/t), Tommy- The Who, Trout Mask Replica- Captain Beefheart, Five Leaves Left- Nick Drake, The Band (s/t)
_________________
Attention all planets of the solar federation: We have assumed control.

[FelixC]

You can't beat 1969. 3 classic Creedence Clearwater Revival albums, 2 Led Zeppelins, 2 Neil Youngs, 2 Rolling Stones, 2 Moody Blues, Janis Joplin's Kozmic Blues, The Doors, Sly and the Family Stone, Allman Brothers, Yes, etc. The only other better year in music was 1971

[Moeelkins]

I was literally just thinking about this a while back! Great thread! I'm curious what will end up on top

[rkm]

You might find this interesting.

I made this chart, which shows two sets of data... #1 Album Overall Rank for each year, and the Top Ten Albums Overall Rank Average for each year (lower numbers are better).

Based on this, the best years are: 1967, 1969, 1971, 1994, 1991, 1968, 1977.
The worst years are: 2015, 2014, 1981, 2013, 1966, 1990, 1965.

[AAL2014]

[DanielNunes93]

1967! All that psychedelic music

[AAL2014]

[drakonium]

I have like 2 67 albums just in my overall top 10 so...

Funny how you have almost only jazz pre-64 and almost only rock post-65, with a mix of both during those two years.

[Temporary33]

None of these years are that great.

[travelful]

I'd consider 1967 and 1969 two of the top years in music history personally.