Top 100 Greatest Music Albums
by RupertRonco

One album per artist.

Ranking my top 100, even worse, THE greatest 100 albums of all time is hopelessly futile. The word "greatest" opens a Pandora's box of ambiguity by itself. So....

I tried to define greatest as: most influential, most groundbreaking, or best quality music from a writing and musicianship standpoint. The majority of these selections fit the aforementioned criteria, with the exception of some albums I just happen to like so much, I cannot exclude them from the list. It will remain a work in progress.

Standard selections at the end. I don't like that many of the lists are so similar, but it would be blasphemous for me to not mention them among my top 100.
There are 27 comments for this chart from BestEverAlbums.com members and Top 100 Greatest Music Albums has an average rating of 82 out of 100 (from 33 votes). Please log in or register to leave a comment or assign a rating.
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.

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Collector's summaryLog in or register to discover the great albums that are missing from your music collection!
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Buy album United States
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[First added to this chart: 09/18/2012]
Year of Release:
1967
Appears in:
Rank Score:
43,263
Rank in 1967:
Rank in 1960s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Top rated album (90/100 - 4592 votes)  90 (4,592 votes)
Comments:
Buy album United States
  • Amazon
  • eBay
  • iTunes
  • Spotify
  • #Sponsored
[First added to this chart: 09/18/2012]
Year of Release:
1969
Appears in:
Rank Score:
28,418
Rank in 1969:
Rank in 1960s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Top rated album (89/100 - 2431 votes)  89 (2,431 votes)
Comments:
Buy album United States
  • Amazon
  • eBay
  • iTunes
  • Spotify
  • #Sponsored
[First added to this chart: 09/18/2012]
Year of Release:
1959
Appears in:
Rank Score:
22,233
Rank in 1959:
Rank in 1950s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Top rated album (89/100 - 2280 votes)  89 (2,280 votes)
Comments:
Buy album United States
  • Amazon
  • eBay
  • iTunes
  • Spotify
  • #Sponsored
[First added to this chart: 09/18/2012]
Year of Release:
1973
Appears in:
Rank Score:
10,533
Rank in 1973:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album United States
  • Amazon
  • eBay
  • iTunes
  • Spotify
  • #Sponsored
[First added to this chart: 09/18/2012]
Year of Release:
1975
Appears in:
Rank Score:
44,749
Rank in 1975:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Top rated album (91/100 - 4056 votes)  91 (4,056 votes)
Comments:
Buy album United States
  • Amazon
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  • iTunes
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  • #Sponsored
[First added to this chart: 09/18/2012]
Year of Release:
1972
Appears in:
Rank Score:
5,202
Rank in 1972:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album United States
  • Amazon
  • eBay
  • iTunes
  • Spotify
  • #Sponsored
[First added to this chart: 09/18/2012]
Year of Release:
2002
Appears in:
Rank Score:
3,266
Rank in 2002:
Rank in 2000s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album United States
  • Amazon
  • eBay
  • iTunes
  • Spotify
  • #Sponsored
[First added to this chart: 09/18/2012]
Year of Release:
2001
Appears in:
Rank Score:
2,347
Rank in 2001:
Rank in 2000s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album United States
  • Amazon
  • eBay
  • iTunes
  • Spotify
  • #Sponsored
[First added to this chart: 09/18/2012]
Year of Release:
2005
Appears in:
Rank Score:
502
Rank in 2005:
Rank in 2000s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album United States
  • Amazon
  • eBay
  • iTunes
  • Spotify
  • #Sponsored
[First added to this chart: 09/18/2012]
Year of Release:
1992
Appears in:
Rank Score:
2,039
Rank in 1992:
Rank in 1990s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Total albums: 100. Page 1 of 10
Don't agree with this chart? Create your own from the My Charts page!

Top 100 Greatest Music Albums composition

Decade Albums %


1930s 0 0%
1940s 0 0%
1950s 1 1%
1960s 10 10%
1970s 22 22%
1980s 6 6%
1990s 17 17%
2000s 39 39%
2010s 5 5%
2020s 0 0%
Artist Albums %


Gentle Giant 1 1%
Kate Bush 1 1%
The Doors 1 1%
Riverside (PL) 1 1%
Beardfish 1 1%
Kansas 1 1%
Spock's Beard 1 1%
Show all
Country Albums %


United States 44 44%
United Kingdom 34 34%
Sweden 7 7%
Canada 3 3%
Mixed Nationality 3 3%
Germany 3 3%
Finland 2 2%
Show all

Top 100 Greatest Music Albums chart changes

Leavers
Leaver Revolver
by The Beatles
TitleSourceTypePublishedCountry
Best Ever Prog Rock btener11Custom chart2013
Top 100 Greatest Music AlbumsMansoOverall chart2020
Top 100 Greatest Music Albums 1234567890Overall chart2011Unknown
If The BEA Overall Chart Had A One Album Per Artist Rule... RomanelliCustom chart2025
BEA 100 (One Album per Artist) BozoTyrannusCustom chart2020
Best Albums(1 Per Artist)dougcummingsCustom chart2022
Top 100 Greatest Music Albums RFNAPLESOverall chart2013
Top 99 Greatest Music AlbumsencyclopediagOverall chart2017
Top 90.3 Listener Voted AlbumsKEXPOverall chart2008United States
Top 100 Greatest Music AlbumsLightRayOverall chart2015

Top 100 Greatest Music Albums similarity to your chart(s)


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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums ratings

Average Rating: 
82/100 (from 33 votes)
  Help 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).
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Showing latest 5 ratings for this chart. | Show all 33 ratings for this chart.

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RatingDate updatedMemberChart ratingsAvg. chart rating
 
85/100
 !
12/20/2022 12:36 Larcx13   1,14586/100
 
85/100
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07/03/2021 11:55 Goliath   35186/100
 
100/100
 !
07/18/2020 14:20 bonnequestion   3798/100
 
75/100
 !
12/25/2018 20:03 NSPE   35077/100
 
90/100
 !
12/10/2017 12:27 DommeDamian   1,00489/100

Rating metrics: Help 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 82.4/100, a mean average of 78.8/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 81.3/100. The standard deviation for this chart is 19.9.

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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums favourites

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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums comments

Showing latest 10 comments | Show all 27 comments |
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From 08/24/2024 12:18 | #304918
Come back and update this chart please! It rules :)
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
85/100
From 12/20/2022 12:36 | #292086
seriously?
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
90/100
From 11/21/2014 15:53 | #127626
Your chart has some real attitude great I get a bit bored with people picking the obvious classics But every list needs some
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
45/100
From 07/18/2014 18:58 | #117011
yawn
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (1 helpful | 1 unhelpful)
Rating:  
95/100
From 10/22/2013 22:49 | #88924
Awesome progressive and original chart, King Crimson, Pink Floyd, Rush, Dream Theater, Porcupine Tree... My only disappointed is with Bowie and Sabbath positions, too low, but in general we have the same tastes. I will listen to some recommendations. Thx and congrats.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
40/100
From 10/12/2013 15:40 | #88291
Top 5 is decent, but the rest is just wrong. The reason the albums are standard is because they are obviously popular for a reason, and should not be ranked lowly because they are common.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | -1 votes (0 helpful | 1 unhelpful)
Rating:  
90/100
From 10/01/2013 07:00 | #87306
Very good progressive rock Chart.
Nice idea to quickly accumulate the classical albums on the last 1o positions.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
100/100
From 09/29/2013 10:20 | #87151
An awesome, intelligent list.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
85/100
From 07/04/2013 06:10 | #80416
Not familiar with 1/2 the list, more so with the 2nd half. I don't care about he list but more so why some of these albums I've never heard are must listens. Hopefully you'll expand to comment on 'em. Love the variety.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From 06/23/2013 00:11 | #79657
Original content, not original context. It was in reference to you copying material and pitching it as your own.
I appreciate the feedback. It's well articulated and adds great depth to this conversation.

Music is to be shared and enjoyed, it's here to make our lives better. Your bitterness is neither well founded, nor appreciated.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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