Top 500 Albums of All Time
by Rolling Stone (2003)

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Rolling Stone is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California. These are their best albums of all time. Rolling Stone is an American magazine devoted to music and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco in 1967. In 2003, Rolling Stone published an article describing what it considered to be the top 500 music albums of all time.
(Official website: https://www.rollingstone.com)

There are 89 comments for this chart from BestEverAlbums.com members and Top 500 Albums of All Time has an average rating of 66 out of 100 (from 149 votes). Please log in or register to leave a comment or assign a rating.

There is a more recent chart by Rolling Stone in which rank scores have been awarded - The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time by Rolling Stone (2020)

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Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

The Beatles

Year of Release:

1967

Appears in:

3,484 charts

Rank Score:

43,574

Rank in 1967:

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Year of Release:

1966

Appears in:

2,848 charts

Rank Score:

39,332

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Year of Release:

1966

Appears in:

3,578 charts

Rank Score:

49,976

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Year of Release:

1965

Appears in:

2,364 charts

Rank Score:

27,475

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Year of Release:

1965

Appears in:

2,343 charts

Rank Score:

26,960

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Year of Release:

1971

Appears in:

1,633 charts

Rank Score:

18,998

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Year of Release:

1972

Appears in:

1,967 charts

Rank Score:

19,858

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Year of Release:

1979

Appears in:

2,820 charts

Rank Score:

31,192

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Year of Release:

1966

Appears in:

2,030 charts

Rank Score:

24,998

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Overall Rank:

Average Rating:

88 (2,400 votes)

Comments:

175

10.

The Beatles (The White Album)

The Beatles

Year of Release:

1968

Appears in:

2,945 charts

Rank Score:

37,557

Rank in 1968:

Rank in 1960s:

Overall Rank:

Average Rating:

89 (3,820 votes)

Comments:

342

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Top 500 Albums of All Time composition

Decade	Albums	%

1930s	0	0%
1940s	0	0%
1950s	4	4%
1960s	37	37%
1970s	42	42%
1980s	11	11%
1990s	5	5%
2000s	1	1%
2010s	0	0%
2020s	0	0%

Artist	Albums	%

The Beatles	8	8%
Bob Dylan	5	5%
Led Zeppelin	4	4%
The Rolling Stones	4	4%
Stevie Wonder	3	3%
The Jimi Hendrix Experience	3	3%
The Clash	2	2%
Show all

Country	Albums	%

	57	57%
	32	32%
	5	5%
	2	2%
	2	2%
	1	1%
	1	1%

Compilation?	Albums	%
No	89	89%
Yes	11	11%

Live?	Albums	%
No	97	97%
Yes	3	3%

Soundtrack?	Albums	%
No	98	98%
Yes	2	2%

Title	Source	Type	Published
Top 500 Albums of All Time	Rolling Stone	Overall chart	2005
Top 500 Albums of All Time	Rolling Stone	Overall chart	2012
Top 100 Greatest Music Albums	P H Dias	Overall chart	2012
Top 100 Greatest Music Albums	album guru joe	Overall chart	2013
The Top 100 Albums	VH1	Overall chart	2001
Top 100 Greatest Music Albums	RFNAPLES	Overall chart	2013
If son of Scaruffi marry RS editor, this would be their...	SingingPeasant96	Custom chart	2013
Virgin All-Time Top 1000 Albums	Virgin	Overall chart	2000
ƵnotMⅡne」Los 100 mejores discos de la historia	II	Custom chart	2025
Top 40 Greatest Music Albums	musicante	Overall chart	2019

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Title	Source	Type	Published
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

Title	Source	Type	Published
Top 500 Albums of All Time	Rolling Stone	Overall chart	2003
Top 500 Albums of All Time	Rolling Stone	Overall chart	2005
Top 500 Albums of All Time	Rolling Stone	Overall chart	2012
The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time	Rolling Stone	Overall chart	2020

View all 31 charts here from Rolling Stone.

Top 500 Albums of All Time ratings

Average Rating:

66/100 (from 149 votes)

Showing latest 5 ratings for this chart. | Show all 149 ratings for this chart.

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Rating	Date updated	Member	Chart ratings	Avg. chart rating
100/100 !	05/20/2022 22:12	DiegoB50	6	96/100
70/100 !	08/27/2021 16:07	Goliath	351	86/100
60/100 !	04/20/2021 12:53	Guigou	48	77/100
75/100 !	12/11/2020 07:55	pjohnsongolf	272	89/100
85/100 !	11/24/2020 21:53	sampins	17	84/100

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 66.1/100, a mean average of 64.3/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 64.9/100. The standard deviation for this chart is 23.6.

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Top 500 Albums of All Time comments

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Rating:

70/100

From

Goliath 08/27/2021 16:18 | #272928

Considerably better than Rolling Stone's latest effort, 23 in common with my top 100. As usual, random compilations ruin the list, got to get Elvis, Chuck Berry etc in there it seems, great singles artists, but could only produce mediocre albums, so should not be here. Works as a greatest artist list maybe. So no, not 'complete and utter garbage' but not the great list you would expect from a publication which thinks it knows all about music either.

Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

From YuGiOh2004 08/16/2021 03:01 | #272558

Has Rolling Stone EVER made a list that WASN'T COMPLETE UTTER GARBAGE???

Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Rating:

60/100

From Guigou 04/20/2021 12:53 | #268780

4 beatles dans le top 10? C'est pas un peu trop ?

Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Rating:

65/100

From Dimitritov 01/15/2018 19:01 | #205759

Good music but save choices. I listened to all the albums on the chart and it helped me to appreciate some well known artist (Beatles and Bob Dylan) and to discover some new stuff. One thing that I don't understand is that there are so many compilations on this chart.

Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Rating:

60/100

From Azkushang 10/13/2015 00:34 | #151375

Dark Side of the Moon 43, too low. Wheres "In the court of the crimson King" Rolling Stone magazine?

Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +3 votes (3 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Rating:

85/100

From LSquared 03/12/2015 18:50 | #136627

Quibble all you want about the make-up, but this is an accurate reflection of the Rolling Stone list. Just a shame that it is capped at 100 entries.

Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Rating:

10/100

From

makerofbuckets 03/07/2015 03:43 | #136298

Over 10 compilations? Really?

Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Rating:

90/100

From bribri56 11/17/2014 04:02 | #127209

Great reflection of the readership of RS magazine in the early 00s. We're mostly middle-aged now (some older). This list is OUR list, and the 20-somethings and 30-somethings who have time out from their studies or MacJobs to write crap about classic rock and R&B based lists should go back to their dorms or apts and listen to Radiohead till their ears bleed.

Helpful? (Log in to vote) | -2 votes (1 helpful | 3 unhelpful)

From Alexruss 05/29/2014 13:54 | #113195

where is the rest? can anybody link me the rest 400 Albums? i can not go farther than 100.

Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +3 votes (3 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Rating:

85/100

From

tgarritsen 12/17/2013 02:16 | #97830

Misses albums past 2003 ofcourse, so not as great as their more uptodate list.

Helpful? (Log in to vote) | -1 votes (0 helpful | 1 unhelpful)

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Top 500 Albums of All Time by Rolling Stone (2003)

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Top 500 Albums of All Time
by Rolling Stone (2003)