Once Upon A Time
by Simple Minds

Album
Once Upon A Time by Simple Minds
Year: 1985
Release date: 1985-10-21
Overall rank: 2,590th   Overall chart history
Average Rating: 
74/100 (from 206 votes)
  Ratings distribution   Average rating history
Accolades:
Award Top albums of 1985 (30th)
Award Top albums of of the 1980s (380th)
Award Best albums of all time (2,590th)

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Simple Minds bestography

Once Upon A Time is ranked 2nd best out of 26 albums by Simple Minds on BestEverAlbums.com.

The best album by Simple Minds is New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84) which is ranked number 771 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 2,237.

Simple Minds album bestography « Higher ranked (2,590th)
Once Upon A Time This album (2,590th)
Once Upon A Time Lower ranked (2,837th) »
Sparkle In The Rain

(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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Once Upon A Time rankings

Once Upon A Time rankings summary
Overall rank: 2,590th | 1980s rank: 380th | 1985 rank: 30th  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: 21 minutes ago)

Once Upon A Time collection

Once Upon A Time ratings

Average Rating: 
74/100 (from 206 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 206 ratings for this album.

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RatingDate updatedMemberAlbum ratingsAvg. album rating
 
75/100
 !		10/03/2026 13:37 Siromynian  Ratings distribution  1,78974/100
 
85/100
 !		09/09/2026 18:46 Johnnyo  Ratings distribution  9,84977/100
 
50/100
 !		08/28/2026 00:03 Melway94  Ratings distribution  11883/100

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 18% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 73.8/100, a mean average of 72.7/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 73.9/100. The standard deviation for this album is 15.5.


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Once Upon A Time favourites

Showing latest 10 members who have added this album as a favourite  | Show all 17 members

NYAndreas
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matterhornrider
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tim0505
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TerryTezza
Rivera

Once Upon A Time forum mentions

This album has been referenced 12 times on the forums, Explore the wider forum discussion to see what members have said about it.
From Johnnyo 09/09/2026 18:45 in What album are you listening to? (cont.)
“What album are you listening to? (cont.)”
View topic (4 mentions) →

From BestEverAlbums 06/28/2026 08:00 in Chart of the day (#5357): By TerryTezza
“Today's chart of the day Top 100 Greatest Music Albums by ) 1. by (1982) 2. by by (1973) 4. by (1969) 5. by by by by by (1982) 11. by (1989) 12. by by (1979) 14. by (1967) 15. (1986) 16. by by by (2006) 20. by (1987) 21. by (1988) 22. by (1975) 24. (1981) 25. by by by (1980) 28. (1966) 29. by…”
(1 mentions across Chart of the Day topics)
View latest topic →

From neilgee 12/16/2023 20:55 in What music video are you watching right now?
“What music video are you watching right now?”
View topic (2 mentions) →

View all forum mentions

Once Upon A Time comments

Showing latest 5 comments | Show all 13 comments |
Top Comments First | Newest First | Positive Sentiment First | Longest Comments First
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Rating:  
90/100
From 10/06/2012 08:20 | #51815 | TOP COMMENT Help Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
Once Upon a Time was embraced by millions of new listeners and was critically well received. It generate four worldwide hit Alive & Kicking, Sanctify Yourself, Ghostdancing and All the Things She Said. It's also a great album.
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From 06/24/2012 13:07 | #45276 | TOP COMMENT Help Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
Alive and Kicking is one of the best songs this band ever did. The rest of the CD is decent, if not spectacular.
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Rating:  
50/100
From 11/18/2012 23:53 | #55426 | TOP COMMENT Help Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
Simple Minds were a great band before this album....couple of good songs on this album, but they changed their sound and became a terrible band after. Hard to believe how a band could be so great then so bad only a few years later (Edited)
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Rating:  
85/100
From 04/29/2013 18:34 | #74797 | TOP COMMENT Help Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
Remember this one back in my schooldays 'Ghost Dancing'one of my first singles when I started collecting singles seriously had this on cassette at the time for me 80's Walkman great times top album favs here Once Upon a Time,Alive & Kicking,Ghost Dancing
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Rating:  
85/100
From 03/13/2018 17:12 | #210821 | TOP COMMENT Help Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
Excellent mid eighties synth rock album featuring some classic tracks. I like all the music on this album, difficult to pick out favourites. I always think that this was an immediate follow on from 'Don't You Forget About Me', a track which I don't believe was actually featured originally on any album other than later compilations. It would have sat well on this album.
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Best Albums of  1985
1. Hounds Of Love by Kate Bush
2. Rain Dogs by Tom Waits
3. Brothers In Arms by Dire Straits
4. Meat Is Murder by The Smiths
5. Psychocandy by The Jesus And Mary Chain
6. Songs From The Big Chair by Tears For Fears
7. The Head On The Door by The Cure
8. Tim by The Replacements
9. Steve McQueen by Prefab Sprout
10. Rum Sodomy & The Lash by The Pogues