Greatest 100 Albums of All Time
by The Guinness Book of British Hit Singles & Albums with NME
(2006) 
British Hit Singles & Albums (originally known as The Guinness Book of British Hit Singles and The Guinness Book of British Hit Albums) was a music reference book originally published in the United Kingdom. In 2004 the book became an amalgamation of two earlier Guinness publications, originally known as British Hit Singles and British Hit Albums. The publication of this amalgamation ceased in 2006. These are their best albums of all time. The survey was put together by the book of British Hit Singles and Albums and NME.com to celebrate 50 years of the Official UK Album Chart, with votes coming in from the around the world. (N.B. The albums in this chart are not just restricted to those from the UK.)
(Official website: https://www.nme.com)
There are 39 comments for this chart from BestEverAlbums.com members and Greatest 100 Albums of All Time has an average rating of 66 out of 100 (from 85 votes). Please log in or register to leave a comment or assign a rating.
The entries in this chart have a zero rank score because the chart has not been updated within the last ten years (points from overall charts are decayed over a ten year period).
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Year of Release:
1994
Appears in:
Rank Score:
11,233
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Buy album
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Year of Release:
1967
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Rank Score:
43,286
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Buy album
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Year of Release:
1966
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Rank Score:
49,552
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Buy album
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Year of Release:
1997
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Rank Score:
63,504
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Buy album
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Year of Release:
1995
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Rank Score:
17,492
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6.
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Year of Release:
1991
Appears in:
Rank Score:
37,743
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Year of Release:
1989
Appears in:
Rank Score:
23,026
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Year of Release:
1973
Appears in:
Rank Score:
60,060
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Year of Release:
1986
Appears in:
Rank Score:
33,868
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Buy album
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Year of Release:
1995
Appears in:
Rank Score:
29,129
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Total albums: 100. Page 1 of 10
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Greatest 100 Albums of All Time composition
| Decade | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1930s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1940s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1950s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1960s | 12 | 12% | |
| 1970s | 30 | 30% | |
| 1980s | 14 | 14% | |
| 1990s | 23 | 23% | |
| 2000s | 21 | 21% | |
| 2010s | 0 | 0% | |
| 2020s | 0 | 0% |
| Artist | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|||
| The Beatles | 5 | 5% | |
| Led Zeppelin | 3 | 3% | |
| Radiohead | 3 | 3% | |
| Queen | 3 | 3% | |
| Coldplay | 3 | 3% | |
| Pink Floyd | 3 | 3% | |
| U2 | 2 | 2% | |
| Show all | |||
Greatest 100 Albums of All Time similar charts
| Title | Source | Type | Published | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Top 100 Greatest Music Albums |  RFNAPLES | Overall chart | 2013 | |
| 100 Greatest Albums Ever | Q | Overall chart | 2006 | |
| Top 100 Greatest Music Albums | Channel 4 | Overall chart | 2005 | |
| Overall Top 100 Ranked Correctly |  Mother Nature's Son | Custom chart | 2014 |  |
| 100 Greatest Albums Ever | Q | Overall chart | 2003 | |
| Virgin All-Time Top 1000 Albums | Virgin | Overall chart | 2000 | |
| Top 100 Albums | ABC | Overall chart | 2006 |  |
| The 100 Greatest Albums Of All Time | Absolute Radio | Overall chart | 2012 | |
| Top 100 Greatest Music Albums | Narcan | Overall chart | 2011 |  |
| Top 100 Greatest Music Albums | Q | Overall chart | 1997 | |
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Other overall charts
| Title | Source | Type | Published | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 100 Best Albums - 2024 Edition | Apple Music | Overall chart | 2024 | |
| The 300 Greatest Albums of All Time (1-100) | Paste | Overall chart | 2024 | |
| Los 48 mejores discos de la historia | Esquire España | Overall chart | 2022 |  |
Other charts by The Guinness Book of British Hit Singles & Albums with NME
| Title | Source | Type | Published | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Greatest 100 Albums of All Time | The Guinness Book of British Hit Singles & Albums with NME | Overall chart | 2006 | |
View all 1 charts here from The Guinness Book of British Hit Singles & Albums with NME .
Greatest 100 Albums of All Time ratings
Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AVwhere:
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 chart. | Show all 85 ratings for this chart.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Chart ratings | Avg. chart rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 01/22/2025 17:36 | Johnnyo | 2,557 | 80/100 |
| ! | 12/11/2020 07:56 |  pjohnsongolf | 272 | 89/100 |
| ! | 11/24/2020 21:53 | sampins | 17 | 84/100 |
| ! | 10/18/2020 08:11 | Steppenwolf666 | 88 | 89/100 |
| ! | 09/25/2020 03:32 | ChadMiles | 29 | 64/100 |
Rating metrics:
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 charts can have several thousand ratings)
This chart has a Bayesian average rating of 66.4/100, a mean average of 63.9/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 64.3/100. The standard deviation for this chart is 24.4.
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Greatest 100 Albums of All Time comments
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From Steppenwolf666 10/18/2020 08:15 | #259394
2 albums by Oasis in the top 5, and 2 albums by The Libertines = irrelevant chart. People thinking about what was popular at the time, and forgetting everything else, does not make a worthwhile chart of any significance.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From MM1Barker 07/29/2020 16:42 | #256416
I wpuld say that Morning Glory is the best Oasis album, so I can't seem to think why Definitly Maybe is even close to the top with beautfully created albums like Nevermind and Darkside of the moon are below it. Apart from this I think it gives a good representation of the Greatest 100 albums.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From 
Goliath 07/09/2020 17:43 | #255321
Goliath 07/09/2020 17:43 | #255321
Number 1 should definitely notbe and there are some early 2000's albums here that were current at the time of the vote and should not be there. Exactly half of these albums are in the BEA over-all chart so it's not as bad as some voted charts I've seen.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From 
Boltzmann 03/15/2020 18:31 | #248766
Boltzmann 03/15/2020 18:31 | #248766
This is a joke, right?
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From Johnnyo 04/18/2019 06:55 | #235171
Won't rate it as it's not a members chart but Oasis no. 1! That's a really no no for me. After seeing that, I completely lost interest.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From YikYak 08/06/2016 16:34 | #172401
42 albums and 30 artists! I can't really hate this at all
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | -2 votes (0 helpful | 2 unhelpful)
From 
DeusExMackia 03/23/2016 18:40 | #162387
DeusExMackia 03/23/2016 18:40 | #162387
A lot of the right albums here, but all in the wrong order. And far, far too much Beatles in the upper end.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (2 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From mianfei 02/24/2016 06:24 | #160645
This list has the worst aspects of popular lists by people who don't know.
Even if strong public radio networks allow the people of Britain to know more "cutting-edge" music than those of cloistered suburbs in Australia and Red America, this tendency has lessened since hardcore and thrash metal emerged.
Consequently, the people who voted on this are not likely to have known most of the major musical trends of the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s as this was being written. They may also nto be aware of what was going on in the 1960s, despite Piero Scaruffi and David Keenan having written their essential works prior to this list's issuing.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From boyd94 01/22/2016 18:57 | #157354
Definitely Maybe at the top? Seriously?
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +3 votes (3 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From luis721 09/27/2015 00:38 | #150522
Good chart.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | -2 votes (0 helpful | 2 unhelpful)
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