Switched-On Bach
by Walter Carlos

Switched-On Bach by Walter Carlos
Year: 1968
Overall rank: 10,982nd   Overall chart history
Average Rating: 
66/100 (from 31 votes)
  Ratings distribution   Average rating history
Accolades:
Award Top albums of 1968 (139th)
Award Top albums of of the 1960s (774th)
Award Best albums of all time (10,982nd)

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Walter Carlos bestography

The best album by Wendy Carlos is Switched-On Bach which is ranked number 10982 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 109.

Walter Carlos album bestography « Higher ranked (10,982nd)
Switched-On Bach
This album (10,982nd)
Switched-On Bach
Lower ranked (11,415th) »
A Clockwork Orange

(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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Switched-On Bach track list

  Track ratings The tracks on this album have an average rating of 75 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).

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Switched-On Bach rankings

Switched-On Bach rankings summary
Overall rank: 10,982nd | 1960s rank: 774th | 1968 rank: 139th  Overall chart history
(Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). (Last updated: 1 hour ago).
Filter Filter
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YearSourceChartRankRank Score
2026Exist-en-cielTop 63 Music Albums of 196858/630
2026 PurplepashTop 34 Music Albums of 196832/340
2026 LiedzeitTop 22 Music Albums of 196815/222
2026joathomeTop 38 Music Albums of 196837/380
2026jdizzle123456Greatest Electronic Albums of All Time12/50 -
2026 videoheadcleanerTop 100 Music Albums of the 1960s84/1003
2026 MadhattanJackTop 51 Music Albums of 196835/512
2026 videoheadcleanerTop 20 Music Albums of 196812/202
2026 LiedzeitTop 100 Music Albums of the 1960s31/10014
2025JohnnyoAlbums of the year 1968 by Acclaimed Music55/73 -
2025stevengnzTop 42 Music Albums of 196830/422
2024JunomoogmelloTop 100 Music Albums of the 1960s100/1000
2024 HeliosTop 40 Music Albums of 19687/404
2023 sssvnnnMeer Bach (für Clavier)86/86 -
2023 HeliosTop 100 Music Albums of the 1960s26/10015
2022UncutUncut: The 500 Greatest Albums of the 1960s (301-400)32/100 -
2021 ApplerillTop 46 Music Albums of the 1960s9/4617
2021 desh79Top 50 Music Albums of 196830/502
2021 ListmeisterTop 43 Music Albums of 19684/435
2021 ListmeisterTop 100 Music Albums of the 1960s28/10015
Total Charts: Help The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. 28
Total Rank Score: Help The total rank score. 109
You can include this album in your own chart from the My Charts page!

Switched-On Bach collection

Switched-On Bach ratings

Average Rating: 
66/100 (from 31 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 31 ratings for this album.

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RatingDate updatedMemberAlbum ratingsAvg. album rating
 
70/100
 !
12/20/2025 10:00 Exist-en-ciel  Ratings distribution  15,35470/100
 
70/100
 !
09/26/2025 04:20 Purplepash  Ratings distribution  4,95975/100
 
90/100
 !
01/18/2025 09:49 videoheadcleaner  Ratings distribution  12,36185/100
 
80/100
 !
06/26/2023 21:51 Helios  Ratings distribution  6,20869/100
 
60/100
 !
05/05/2023 01:04 MadhattanJack  Ratings distribution  5,99266/100

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 65.9/100, a mean average of 63.9/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 63.9/100. The standard deviation for this album is 21.7.


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Switched-On Bach comments

Showing all 1 comments |
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Rating:  
60/100
From 09/20/2018 20:11 | #221360
I bought this for a bit of fun really. When it comes to electronic music Tangerine Dream and JM Jarre are my mainstays. Considering the technology at the time and what was achieved with fairly limited equipment this is pretty clever stuff. To quote what Robert Moog contributed to the sleeve notes 'This album is the most stunning breakthrough in electronic music to date'. A bit 'plinky plonky' in execution but that is more down to the available timbres from the early Moog synthesizer. One side is enough in one helping and for me, side two is more accessible, forming a bridge to the more 'modern' music I tend to listen to. Possibly follow up with Black Sabbath to get back to reality!
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

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