The Midnight Special (And Other Southern Prison Songs)
by Lead Belly

The Midnight Special (And Other Southern Prison Songs) by Lead Belly
Year: 1941
Overall rank: 4,172nd   Overall chart history
Average Rating: 
73/100 (from 29 votes)
  Ratings distribution   Average rating history
Accolades:
Award Best album of 1941 (1st)
Award Top 10 albums of the 1940s (4th)
Award Best albums of all time (4,172nd)

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Lead Belly bestography

The Midnight Special (And Other Southern Prison Songs) is ranked as the best album by Lead Belly.

Lead Belly album bestography « Higher ranked (4,173rd)
The Midnight Special (And Other Southern Prison Songs)
This album (4,173rd)
The Midnight Special (And Other Southern Prison Songs)
Lower ranked (6,622nd) »
Negro Sinful Songs

(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).

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The Midnight Special (And Other Southern Prison Songs) track list

  Track ratings The tracks on this album have an average rating of 76 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).

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The Midnight Special (And Other Southern Prison Songs) rankings

Rankings summary
Overall rank: 4,172nd | 1940s rank: 4th | 1941 rank: 1st
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YearSourceChartRankRank Score
2026downandoutTop 100 Music Albums of the 1940s4/10019
2026Exist-en-cielTop 100 Music Albums of the 1940s28/10015
2026SiromynianTop 3 Music Albums of 19411/2 -
2026 HaydenTop 85 Music Albums of the 1940s2/8520
2026SiromynianTop 33 Music Albums of the 1940s3/3319
2026 junodog4Top 10 Music Albums of the 1940s4/1014
2026arnellarsen1941 - The Very Best Albums3/75 -
2025 VictorValeTop 11 Music Albums of the 1940s2/1118
2025jonny5244Highest Rated Albums by Year85/88 -
2025 EyeKanFlyTop 23 Music Albums of the 1940s9/2313
2025TodFitzTop 63 Music Albums of the 1940s57/632
2025TodFitzTop Music Albums of the 1940's37/43 -
2025 HaydenCatfish & Collard Greens67/100 -
2024 KitchenSinkTop 50 Music Albums of the 1940s9/5017
2024martinthoTop 15 Music Albums of the 1940s1/1520
2024OlliTop 68 Music Albums of 19411/70 -
2024 IgtonumamaTop 100 Music Albums of the 1940s79/1004
2024OlliTop 100 Music Albums of the 1940s17/10017
2023henrygreen0203Top 23 Music Albums of the 1940s13/2310
2022zgarrison88Top 6 Music Albums of the 1940s6/63
Total Charts: Help The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. 34
Total Rank Score: Help The total rank score. 349
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The Midnight Special (And Other Southern Prison Songs) collection

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The Midnight Special (And Other Southern Prison Songs) ratings

Average Rating: 
73/100 (from 29 votes)
  Ratings distribution Help Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AV
where:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.

Showing latest 5 ratings for this album.  | Show all 29 ratings for this album.

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RatingDate updatedMemberAlbum ratingsAvg. album rating
 
80/100
 
04/02/2026 15:13 cicadelic  Ratings distribution  12,97273/100
 
50/100
 
02/03/2026 04:54 brent13  Ratings distribution  2,06367/100
 
75/100
 
01/27/2026 01:28 Exist-en-ciel  Ratings distribution  11,24370/100
 
80/100
 
11/17/2024 00:57 davidleewrong  Ratings distribution  2,35781/100
 
75/100
 
09/02/2024 19:16 duelek  Ratings distribution  1,92175/100

Rating metrics: Help Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)

This album has a Bayesian average rating of 73.1/100, a mean average of 73.4/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 73.4/100. The standard deviation for this album is 16.3.

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The Midnight Special (And Other Southern Prison Songs) favourites

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The Midnight Special (And Other Southern Prison Songs) comments

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Rating:  
80/100
From 09/02/2020 18:02 | #257691
Folk blues é a alma do negro americano!
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1. The Midnight Special (And Other Southern Prison Songs) by Lead Belly
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