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: 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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This chart is currently filtered to only show albums from the 1980s. (Remove this filter)
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Year of Release:
1982
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Rank Score:
16,083
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Year of Release:
1982
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Rank Score:
559
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Year of Release:
1987
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Rank Score:
18,290
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Year of Release:
1984
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Rank Score:
3,419
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Year of Release:
1988
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Rank Score:
7,039
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Year of Release:
1987
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Rank Score:
11,222
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Year of Release:
1984
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Rank Score:
15,990
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Year of Release:
1980
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Rank Score:
10,100
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Year of Release:
1986
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Rank Score:
10,772
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Year of Release:
1984
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Rank Score:
7,901
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Total albums: 11. Page 1 of 2
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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% | |
| The Jimi Hendrix Experience | 3 | 3% | |
| Stevie Wonder | 3 | 3% | |
| U2 | 2 | 2% | |
| Show all | |||
Top 500 Albums of All Time similar charts
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| Top 500 Albums of All Time | Rolling Stone | Overall chart | 2005 | |
| Top 500 Albums of All Time | Rolling Stone | Overall chart | 2012 | |
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| ƵnotMⅡne」Los 100 mejores discos de la historia |  II | Custom chart | 2025 | |
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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 Rolling Stone
| Title | Source | Type | Published | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 = (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 149 ratings for this chart.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Chart ratings | Avg. chart rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 05/20/2022 22:12 | DiegoB50 | 6 | 96/100 |
| ! | 08/27/2021 16:07 |  Goliath | 351 | 86/100 |
| ! | 04/20/2021 12:53 | Guigou | 48 | 77/100 |
| ! | 12/11/2020 07:55 |  pjohnsongolf | 272 | 89/100 |
| ! | 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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From Goliath 08/27/2021 16:18 | #272928
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)
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)
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)
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)
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)
From 
makerofbuckets 03/07/2015 03:43 | #136298
makerofbuckets 03/07/2015 03:43 | #136298
Over 10 compilations? Really?
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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)
From 
tgarritsen 12/17/2013 02:16 | #97830
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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