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

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: www.rollingstone.com)

There are 64 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 151 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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Buy album United States
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Year of Release:
1977
Appears in:
Rank Score:
11,884
Rank in 1977:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album United States
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Year of Release:
1967
Appears in:
Rank Score:
29,277
Rank in 1967:
Rank in 1960s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album United States
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Year of Release:
1973
Appears in:
Rank Score:
71,836
Rank in 1973:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album United States
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Year of Release:
1975
Appears in:
Rank Score:
8,645
Rank in 1975:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album United States
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Year of Release:
1969
Appears in:
Rank Score:
6,967
Rank in 1969:
Rank in 1960s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album United States
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Year of Release:
1984
Appears in:
Rank Score:
3,799
Rank in 1984:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album United States
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Year of Release:
1965
Appears in:
Rank Score:
17,203
Rank in 1965:
Rank in 1960s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album United States
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Year of Release:
1988
Appears in:
Rank Score:
7,056
Rank in 1988:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album United States
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Year of Release:
1971
Appears in:
Rank Score:
4,225
Rank in 1971:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album United States
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Year of Release:
1957
Appears in:
Rank Score:
3,944
Rank in 1957:
Rank in 1950s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Total albums: 100. Page 5 of 10

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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%
Country Albums %


United States 57 57%
United Kingdom 32 32%
Canada 5 5%
Ireland 2 2%
Mixed Nationality 2 2%
Australia 1 1%
Jamaica 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%

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[Rolling Stone was founded in 1967.]

Top 500 Albums of All Time ratings

Average Rating: 
66/100 (from 151 votes)
  Ratings distributionRatings distribution 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 chart. | Show all 151 ratings for this chart.

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05/20/2022 22:12 DiegoB50  Ratings distributionRatings distribution 696/100
 
70/100
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08/27/2021 16:07 Goliath  Ratings distributionRatings distribution 34786/100
 
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08/16/2021 03:01 YuGiOh2004  Ratings distributionRatings distribution 125/100
 
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06/04/2021 01:49 Skroskznik  Ratings distributionRatings distribution 9492/100
 
60/100
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04/20/2021 12:53 Guigou  Ratings distributionRatings distribution 4476/100

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).
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This chart has a Bayesian average rating of 66.1/100, a mean average of 64.2/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 64.9/100. The standard deviation for this chart is 23.8.

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Top 500 Albums of All Time comments

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Rating:  
70/100
From 08/27/2021 16:18
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)
Rating:  
25/100
From 08/16/2021 03:01
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 04/20/2021 12:53
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 01/15/2018 19:01
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 10/13/2015 00:34
Dark Side of the Moon 43, too low. Wheres "In the court of the crimson King" Rolling Stone magazine?
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (2 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
85/100
From 03/12/2015 18:50
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 03/07/2015 03:43
Over 10 compilations? Really?
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
90/100
From 11/17/2014 04:02
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 05/29/2014 13:54
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 12/17/2013 02:16
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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Best Albums of 1967
1. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles
2. The Velvet Underground & Nico by The Velvet Underground & Nico
3. The Doors by The Doors
4. Are You Experienced by The Jimi Hendrix Experience
5. Forever Changes by Love
6. Magical Mystery Tour by The Beatles
7. Songs Of Leonard Cohen by Leonard Cohen
8. The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn by Pink Floyd
9. Axis: Bold As Love by The Jimi Hendrix Experience
10. Strange Days by The Doors
11. Disraeli Gears by Cream
12. Surrealistic Pillow by Jefferson Airplane
13. Days Of Future Passed by The Moody Blues
14. I Never Loved A Man The Way I Love You by Aretha Franklin
15. Something Else By The Kinks by The Kinks
16. The Who Sell Out by The Who
17. Safe As Milk by Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
18. Chelsea Girl by Nico
19. Goodbye And Hello by Tim Buckley
20. John Wesley Harding by Bob Dylan
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