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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Top 500 Albums of All Time composition
| Decade | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
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| 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 | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
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| 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 Who | 2 | 2% | |
| Show all | |||
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Other overall charts
Other charts by Rolling Stone
Year charts
| Title | Source | Type | Published | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The 100 Best Albums of 2024 | Rolling Stone | 2024 year chart | 2024 | |
| The 100 Best Albums of 2023 | Rolling Stone | 2023 year chart | 2023 | |
| Top 100 Music Albums of 2022 | Rolling Stone | 2022 year chart | 2022 | |
| The 50 Best Albums of 2021 | Rolling Stone | 2021 year chart | 2021 | |
| The 50 Best Albums of 2020 | Rolling Stone | 2020 year chart | 2020 | |
| 50 Best Albums of 2019 | Rolling Stone | 2019 year chart | 2019 | |
| 50 Best Albums of 2018 | Rolling Stone | 2018 year chart | 2018 | |
| 50 Best Albums of 2017 | Rolling Stone | 2017 year chart | 2017 | |
| 50 Best Albums of 2016 | Rolling Stone | 2016 year chart | 2016 | |
| 50 Best Albums of 2015 | Rolling Stone | 2015 year chart | 2015 | |
| 50 Best Albums of 2014 | Rolling Stone | 2014 year chart | 2014 | |
| 50 Best Albums of 2013 | Rolling Stone | 2013 year chart | 2013 | |
| Best Albums of 2006 | Rolling Stone | 2006 year chart | 2006 | |
| Best Albums of 2005 | Rolling Stone | 2005 year chart | 2005 | |
Decade charts
| Title | Source | Type | Published | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 100 Best Albums of the 2010s | Rolling Stone | 2010s decade chart | 2019 | |
| 100 Best Albums of the 2000s | Rolling Stone | 2000s decade chart | 2011 | |
| 100 Best Albums of the Nineties | Rolling Stone | 1990s decade chart | 2010 | |
| 100 Best Albums of the Eighties | Rolling Stone | 1980s decade chart | 1989 | |
Overall charts
| 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 | |
[Rolling Stone was founded in 1967.]
Top 500 Albums of All Time ratings
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).
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Showing latest 5 ratings for this chart. | Show all 149 ratings for this chart.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Chart ratings | Avg. chart rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
100/100  | 05/20/2022 22:12 | DiegoB50 | | 96/100 |
70/100 | 08/27/2021 16:07 |  Goliath | | 86/100 |
60/100 | 04/20/2021 12:53 | Guigou | | 77/100 |
75/100 | 12/11/2020 07:55 |  pjohnsongolf | | 89/100 |
85/100 | 11/24/2020 21:53 | sampins | | 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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Goliath 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.
Has Rolling Stone EVER made a list that WASN'T COMPLETE UTTER GARBAGE???
4 beatles dans le top 10? C'est pas un peu trop ?
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.
Dark Side of the Moon 43, too low. Wheres "In the court of the crimson King" Rolling Stone magazine?
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.
makerofbuckets 03/07/2015 03:43
Over 10 compilations? Really?
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.
where is the rest? can anybody link me the rest 400 Albums? i can not go farther than 100.
tgarritsen 12/17/2013 02:16
Misses albums past 2003 ofcourse, so not as great as their more uptodate list.
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