Top 20 Greatest Music Albums
by s_swimley

Since my tastes are really varied, I tried not to duplicate too many artists. Though my formative years were during the "Grunge" heyday, I certainly have an appreciation of all eras. With an LP and CD collection over 800, spanning everything from Mozart to Motorhead, it's hard to pick out 20 unique albums. What I tried to to is take what I believe to be either the defining album of an artist's career or a groundbreaking album that paved the way for other artisits and a new movement. However, these are the albums I find myself putting on no matter what the situation calls for or what mood I'm in....perennial favorites if you will.

• Chart updated: 04/06/2010 12:49
• (Created: 09/26/2008 00:45).
• Chart size: 20 albums.

There are 8 comments for this chart from BestEverAlbums.com members and Top 20 Greatest Music Albums has an average rating of 73 out of 100 (from 13 votes). Please log in or register to leave a comment or assign a rating.

• Summary
• Composition
• Ratings
• Favourites
• Comments
• Your feedback

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).

View the complete list of 57,000 charts on BestEverAlbums.com from The Charts page.

This chart is currently filtered to only show albums from United Kingdom. (Remove this filter)

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• Title
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• Date Added

1.

Abbey Road 

 The Beatles

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Year of Release:

1969

Appears in:

3,725 charts

Rank Score:

58,444

Rank in 1969:

1

Rank in 1960s:

1

Overall Rank:

3

Average Rating:

 92 (4,619 votes)

Comments:

476

3.

The Dark Side Of The Moon 

 Pink Floyd

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Year of Release:

1973

Appears in:

4,127 charts

Rank Score:

61,647

Rank in 1973:

1

Rank in 1970s:

1

Overall Rank:

2

Average Rating:

 92 (5,328 votes)

Comments:

592

5.

Led Zeppelin II 

 Led Zeppelin

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Year of Release:

1969

Appears in:

1,947 charts

Rank Score:

21,306

Rank in 1969:

3

Rank in 1960s:

13

Overall Rank:

41

Average Rating:

 87 (2,744 votes)

Comments:

175

7.

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band 

 The Beatles

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Year of Release:

1967

Appears in:

3,484 charts

Rank Score:

44,251

Rank in 1967:

1

Rank in 1960s:

3

Overall Rank:

8

Average Rating:

 90 (4,589 votes)

Comments:

491

11.

Tommy 

 The Who

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Year of Release:

1969

Appears in:

1,004 charts

Rank Score:

6,832

Rank in 1969:

11

Rank in 1960s:

39

Overall Rank:

240

Average Rating:

 81 (1,457 votes)

Comments:

81

13.

The Wall 

 Pink Floyd

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Year of Release:

1979

Appears in:

2,251 charts

Rank Score:

25,940

Rank in 1979:

2

Rank in 1970s:

7

Overall Rank:

31

Average Rating:

 86 (3,496 votes)

Comments:

267

18.

Physical Graffiti 

 Led Zeppelin

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Year of Release:

1975

Appears in:

1,362 charts

Rank Score:

12,288

Rank in 1975:

4

Rank in 1970s:

28

Overall Rank:

103

Average Rating:

 85 (2,054 votes)

Comments:

137

Total albums: 7. Page 1 of 1

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Top 20 Greatest Music Albums composition

Decade	Albums	%
1930s	0	0%
1940s	0	0%
1950s	2	10%
1960s	5	25%
1970s	6	30%
1980s	3	15%
1990s	4	20%
2000s	0	0%
2010s	0	0%
2020s	0	0%

Artist	Albums	%
The Beatles	2	10%
Pink Floyd	2	10%
Led Zeppelin	2	10%
Steely Dan	1	5%
Grateful Dead	1	5%
The Who	1	5%
The Dave Brubeck Quartet	1	5%
Show all

Country	Albums	%
	10	50%
	7	35%
	2	10%
	1	5%

Top 20 Greatest Music Albums similar charts

Title	Source	Type	Published	Country
Greatest 100 Albums of All Time	The Guinness Book of British Hit Singles & Albums with NME	Overall chart	2006
The Top 100 Albums	VH1	Overall chart	2001
Top 100 Albums	ABC	Overall chart	2006
100 Greatest Albums Ever	Q	Overall chart	2006
Top 50 Greatest Music Albums	joem92	Overall chart	2010
Virgin All-Time Top 1000 Albums	Virgin	Overall chart	2000
100 Greatest Albums Ever	Q	Overall chart	2003
Top 500 Albums of All Time	Rolling Stone	Overall chart	2003
The Definitive 200	National Association of Recording Merchandisers	Overall chart	2007
Top 100 Albums Ever	Consequence of Sound	Overall chart	2010

Top 20 Greatest Music Albums similarity to your chart(s)

Top 20 Greatest Music Albums ratings

Showing latest 5 ratings for this chart. | Show all 13 ratings for this chart.

Sort ratings

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• Date updated
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Rating	Date updated	Member	Chart ratings	Avg. chart rating
80/100	04/11/2015 18:23	calsper	646	71/100
55/100	04/05/2012 14:34	armoury	175	82/100
75/100	07/14/2011 16:32	Triple Seis	1,251	79/100
70/100	04/25/2009 06:50	telefunker	901	49/100
60/100	03/18/2009 17:08	damon-albarn	43	66/100

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 72.5/100, a mean average of 62.3/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 62.3/100. The standard deviation for this chart is 17.5.

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Top 20 Greatest Music Albums comments

Showing all 8 comments |
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Rating:  

55/100

From armoury 04/05/2012 14:34

good chart but too classics based and way too small

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

Rating:  

80/100

From joannajewsom 10/15/2008 08:44

I like the changes you've made.

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

Rating:  

60/100

From maxxy 10/09/2008 05:51

I agree with bananabrother--lot better.

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Rating:  

55/100

From banana brother 10/09/2008 03:19

Great changes, i love the brubeck and mingus adds

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From s_swimley 10/09/2008 02:08

I think maxxy was pretty accurate with the rough draft comment. I went back through my collection to find some more "worthy" entries and this is what I've come up with. Yes, a lot is mainstream, but I believe a component of a great album is it's popularity and ability to reach people.

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

Rating:  

80/100

From joannajewsom 09/27/2008 03:20

You lost me at #12

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Rating:  

60/100

From maxxy 09/26/2008 06:18

you should get some less mainstream stuff.

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Rating:  

60/100

From maxxy 09/26/2008 06:17

uuhh seems like a rough draft

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