Forty Licks
by The Rolling Stones

Forty Licks by The Rolling Stones
(Compilation album)
Year: 2002
Release date: 2002-09-30
Overall rank: 9,115th   Overall chart history
Average Rating: 
81/100 (from 224 votes)
  Ratings distribution   Average rating history
Accolades:
Award Top albums of 2002 (171st)
Award Top albums of of the 2000s (1,583rd)
Award Best albums of all time (9,115th)

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The Rolling Stones bestography

Forty Licks is ranked 34th best out of 105 albums by The Rolling Stones on BestEverAlbums.com.

The best album by The Rolling Stones is Exile On Main St. which is ranked number 49 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 18,327.

The Rolling Stones album bestography « Higher ranked (9,055th)
Singles Collection: The London Years
This album (9,115th)
Forty Licks
Lower ranked (9,319th) »
Foreign Tongues

(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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Forty Licks track list

  Track ratings The tracks on this album have an average rating of 82 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).

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#
Track
Rating/Comments
2.
Track pick (900 - 120 votes)
Average Rating: 90 (120 votes)Comments: View 0
11.
Track pick (890 - 116 votes)
Average Rating: 89 (116 votes)Comments: View 0
17.
Track pick (880 - 66 votes)
Average Rating: 88 (66 votes)Comments: View 0

Track pick (1000 - 100 votes) Top-rated track as rated by BestEverAlbums.com members.

Forty Licks rankings

Forty Licks rankings summary
Overall rank: 9,115th | 2000s rank: 1,583rd | 2002 rank: 171st  Overall chart history
Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings).Help Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 7 hours ago)

Forty Licks collection

Forty Licks ratings

Average Rating: 
81/100 (from 224 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 3 ratings for this album.  | Show all 224 ratings for this album.

Sort Sort by
RatingDate updatedMemberAlbum ratingsAvg. album rating
 
50/100
 !
06/24/2026 16:33 Leonard  Ratings distribution  6,60670/100
 
75/100
 !
06/04/2026 01:55 Exist-en-ciel  Ratings distribution  15,52870/100
 
80/100
 !
04/10/2026 10:17 Gedi  Ratings distribution  36783/100

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 is rated in the top 1% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 80.7/100, a mean average of 79.9/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 81.1/100. The standard deviation for this album is 16.0.


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Forty Licks favourites

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Forum mentions

This album has been referenced 26 times on the forums, Explore the wider forum discussion to see what members have said about it.
From BestEverAlbums 07/10/2026 08:00 in Chart of the day (#5369): By blueandthemoon
Today's chart of the day Top 100 Greatest Music Albums by ) 1. (2005) 2. by (2008) 3. (2005) 4. by (2006) 5. by (1997) 6. by (1997) 7. (2003) 8. by (2006) 9. by (2008) 10. by (2003) 11. by by by (2000) 15. by (1995) 16. by (1995) 17. by (2007) 18. by (2003) 19. by (2004) 20. by (1968) 21. by (2005)…
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From MoggieMiner 08/25/2021 01:04 in What album are you listening to right now?
Thank you Mr Watts for the fantastic and unique beat which has kept the Rolling Stones together literally. A man of great integrity, style and ultimately Cool. Loyal and True, I have know doubt your wife will miss you greatly along with your extended family. Love and Kindness to them, as well as…
View forum post →

From BestEverAlbums 12/01/2020 17:02 in Monthly overall chart movements
The overall chart is ever changing, and it's difficult to keep up with the detail of what's happening. So, for those people who are interested, this post attempts to show the latest movements - biggest climbers, movers, new entries and leavers for the top 100, 250, 500 & 1000 over the past month,…
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Forty Licks comments

Showing latest 5 comments | Show all 6 comments |
Most Helpful First | Newest First | Positive Sentiment First | Longest Comments First
(Only showing comments with -2 votes or higher. You can alter this threshold from your profile page. Manage Profile)
Rating:  
90/100
From 12/14/2016 09:41 | #180121
This album shouldn't be allowed to be on the list....it's a compilation!
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
80/100
I don't really care for The Rolling Stones albums as a whole. Thats why this album is perfect for me. All the good songs I like and not having to listen to the many songs I do not like on each album.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
90/100
Honestly Ive always struggled to really get into The Rolling Stones on an album level, but have always enjoyed their top tier songs. The first disc of this compilation is just pure heaven.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (2 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Not bad for a compilation album... The first disc is perfect. The second on the other hand contains some of their later material I'm forced to skip.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From 01/09/2011 01:06 | #17446
Why are greatest hits albums allowed? It's ridiculous.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +3 votes (3 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

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