Franks Wild Years
by Tom Waits

Franks Wild Years by Tom Waits
Year: 1987
Release date: 1987-08-17
Overall rank: 1,673rd   Overall chart history
Average Rating: 
78/100 (from 280 votes)
  Ratings distribution   Average rating history
Accolades:
Award Top albums of 1987 (33rd)
Award Top albums of of the 1980s (256th)
Award Best albums of all time (1,673rd)

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Tom Waits bestography

Franks Wild Years is ranked 9th best out of 27 albums by Tom Waits on BestEverAlbums.com.

The best album by Tom Waits is Rain Dogs which is ranked number 113 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 11,213.

Tom Waits album bestography « Higher ranked (1,562nd)
Bad As Me
This album (1,673rd)
Franks Wild Years
Lower ranked (1,676th) »
Heartattack And Vine

(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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Franks Wild Years 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
15.
Track pick (860 - 73 votes)
Average Rating: 86 (73 votes)Comments: View 0

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

Franks Wild Years rankings

Franks Wild Years rankings summary
Overall rank: 1,673rd | 1980s rank: 256th | 1987 rank: 33rd  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: 3 hours ago)
Filter Filter
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YearSourceChartRankRank Score
2026 TamthebamBest Of The 80's Pt.3 (201-300)15/100 -
2026cicadelicSounds Album Of The Year 198747/50 -
2026 imacgillTop 100 Music Albums of 198746/1003
2026TroutMaskGregTop 11 Music Albums of 19876/113
2026JamesMowbrayTop 100 Music Albums of 19873/1005
2026adbrack1988Top 100 Music Albums of the 1980s59/1008
2026 MadhattanJackTop 69 Music Albums of 198741/692
2026 junodog4Top 100 Music Albums of the 1980s20/10016
2026juanr1096Top 51 Music Albums of 198712/514
2026shanelovesyou1111Top 73 Music Albums of 198731/733
2026 HeliosTop 80 Music Albums of 198739/803
2026 zags7000Top 100 Music Albums of 198714/1004
2026 junodog4Top 20 Music Albums of 19873/205
2026 paladisiactop 60r albums (60), #0001-0100*28/66 -
2026Exist-en-cielTop 60 Music Albums of 198716/604
2026 Robert Anton WilsonTop 100 Music Albums of the 1980s16/10017
2026HyggevinylTop 52 Music Albums of 19875/525
2026 AAL2014Top 53 Music Albums of 198720/533
2026HyggevinylTop 100 Music Albums of the 1980s98/1001
2026 MonetLikeYogurtTop 100 Greatest Music Albums38/10061
Total Charts: Help The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. 231
Total Rank Score: Help The total rank score. 1,026
You can include this album in your own chart from the My Charts page!

Franks Wild Years collection

Franks Wild Years ratings

Average Rating: 
78/100 (from 280 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 280 ratings for this album.

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RatingDate updatedMemberAlbum ratingsAvg. album rating
 
85/100
 !
07/31/2026 18:56 JamesMowbray  Ratings distribution  5,62069/100
 
95/100
 !
03/30/2026 01:36 thedudeabides  Ratings distribution  16983/100
 
100/100
 !
03/23/2026 14:01 Jofunkystrass  Ratings distribution  695/100
 
75/100
 !
03/18/2026 16:21 Exist-en-ciel  Ratings distribution  15,46870/100
 
70/100
 !
02/28/2026 16:43 DaveH68  Ratings distribution  1,36376/100

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 3% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 77.6/100, a mean average of 76.3/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 77.8/100. The standard deviation for this album is 15.0.


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Franks Wild Years comments

Showing latest 10 comments | Show all 14 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:  
100/100
From 07/20/2025 00:07 | #310216
Possibly my favorite album of all time (Edited)
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
75/100
Didn't like it on the first listen, but it's grown on me. Not as good as Swordfishtrombones or Rain Dogs, but a solid album nonetheless. (Edited)
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
80/100
From 12/31/2019 16:49 | #246235
Great stuff.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
70/100
From 02/18/2018 11:44 | #208667
Questo ennesimo, strambo, parto della fantasia di Tom Waits è un disco compiuto, un ballo in maschera a cui partecipano solo i freaks, un accompagnamento notturno non romanticamente epico come "Raindogs" ma comunque intenso.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
80/100
From 04/13/2017 06:34 | #189191
Extraordinarily experimental and pretty hard to listen to around the middle (because it's so sad). I have to value the creative arrangements but at the same time I miss the fun you can find in other Waits albums. Also, I have a specific problem with how some of the vocals/recordings sound on this album that sound flat, that I hadn't noticed in at least his earlier recordings.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
100/100
From 04/21/2016 12:17 | #164222
It is my favorite Tom Waits album and is somewhere on my chart
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
90/100
Another brilliant Tom Waits album. For all the talk that it's a musical, or whatever the hell it's meant to be, at the end of the day, it's a stunning record full of great songs. I do almost think if it though as a kind of final part of a trilogy after, swordfish, and, Rain dogs. As for the songs, temptation, innocent when you dream, more than rain, and, telephone call from Istanbul, are all fantastic, as are, cold, cold ground, train song, and, i'll be gone. In fact the whole album is great. I especially like the sinatra-esque, straight to the top, which switches into a kind of nightmare version of Sinatra's own, new york, new york, on, i'll take new York. It's another breathtaking album from Waits, got to be up there in his top five or six. (Edited)
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
75/100
Not as strong as Rain Dogs, but still chock full of Tom Waits quality. Underrated. (Edited)
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From 11/13/2013 19:49 | #92202
I'd so love to see the play performed.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
100/100
From 11/19/2011 14:06 | #30842
I love this album.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (2 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

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