Best Albums of 1965

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Listed below are the best albums of 1965 as calculated from their overall rankings in over 58,000 greatest album charts. (Chart last updated: 5 hours ago).

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1965 year summaryThe best artists of 1965 were Bob Dylan, The Beatles, John Coltrane, Otis Redding, Nina Simone, The Beach Boys, The Byrds, The Who, The Rolling Stones and Vince Guaraldi.

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11.

Mr. Tambourine Man

The Byrds

"The Byrds debut album brings folk rock to the masses. It's an enjoyable album although sonically it all sounds the same, still, it's an excellent and influential LP. The jangly guitars dominate, a sound that The Beatles had used on the previous year's, what you're doing, on their, Beatles for sal..." [+] Reply

- garycottier | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (2 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

1965

Appears in:

415 charts

Rank Score:

1,895

Rank in 1965:

Rank in 1960s:

103

Overall Rank:

918

Average Rating:

78 (409 votes)

Comments:

12.

Here Are The Sonics!!!

The Sonics

"What do you need to provide the energy needed for a song ? Nowadays it seems to be easy , but imagine doing this in the 60s. Where a concept of fierce but very fast song almost did not exist. The answer is screaming with your voice , to cheer everyone at the beginning of each song, and believe yo...""What do you need to provide the energy needed for a song ? Nowadays it seems to be easy , but imagine doing this in the 60s. Where a concept of fierce but very fast song almost did not exist. The answer is screaming with your voice , to cheer everyone at the beginning of each song, and believe you will be infected every time that he shouts.I always liked the name of this band ... The Sonics . They reminded me of "Sonic Youth" but I did not believe that the material they produced could be compared to something that I love ,made in later years. "The Witch" can bewitch anyone with its unforgettable beat and its strange-movement guitar that looks bluesy but closely deludes the people who say that it is simple. And in the middle of the song when everything looks calm The Band accelerates everything coming next to tenuous line of punk. This acceleration lasts only a few seconds , but believe this was the best 23 seconds of the band, when the drums decide to stop playing and the song starts to be serious , not really, and in the first song you are already beginning to be infected.Other songs (Do you love me , Roll Over Beethoven) make you want to dance , they are quite simple however can lead anyone to madness when the band shows its Unforgettable ability and geniality to transform this to a wonder machine. And those screams at the beginning of the song, that add a lot of energy to every song, only give you ever more desire to get up from the chair and dance, not a formal dance, but the dance of madness and dance of evolution. "Psycho" is my favorite of that album, also came very close to punk, and divided the three chords with "Like A Rolling Stone" by Bob Dylan. And its unforgettable lyrics (although not so smart) sticks in your memory, taking you from the boredom of the day the most boring moments.ending the album "Strychine" leads the band to a new progression, a new style of music that was to come, already showing what the following bands would bring. Known by few this album was (for me) the first step toward punk, and an evolution in rock. Don't stop screaming bro." [+] Reply

Antonio-Pedro | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +5 votes (6 helpful | 1 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

1965

Appears in:

308 charts

Rank Score:

1,536

Rank in 1965:

Rank in 1960s:

116

Overall Rank:

1,131

Average Rating:

77 (297 votes)

Comments:

13.

Out Of Our Heads

The Rolling Stones

"I rate the UK version of this album as their third best of the sixties after Let it Bleed and Beggars Banquet. Despite losing Satisfaction, Play with Fire and The Last Time I just feel the UK version flows better. Some of the replacements aren't too shabby anyway...Heart of Stone, Gotta Get Away ..." [+] Reply

- LittleM1971 | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +4 votes (4 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

1965

Appears in:

354 charts

Rank Score:

1,446

Rank in 1965:

Rank in 1960s:

122

Overall Rank:

1,198

Average Rating:

76 (518 votes)

Comments:

14.

Spiritual Unity

Albert Ayler Trio

"Okay, this is one of the harder jazz albums to get into. "Ghosts" (both variations) has a pretty scary combination of catchiness and atonal insanity!" Reply

Mother Nature's Son | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (2 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

1965

Appears in:

208 charts

Rank Score:

1,219

Rank in 1965:

Rank in 1960s:

146

Overall Rank:

1,387

Average Rating:

75 (225 votes)

Comments:

15.

Jackson C. Frank

"This is such an amazing record. Basically the definitive example of an excellent artist coming along, dropping a unique and timeless masterpiece then disappearing. He just never got the credit he deserved in his career or in his day which is sad. This album is a stunner. Outside of maybe Pink Moo...""This is such an amazing record. Basically the definitive example of an excellent artist coming along, dropping a unique and timeless masterpiece then disappearing. He just never got the credit he deserved in his career or in his day which is sad. This album is a stunner. Outside of maybe Pink Moon is there another album as absolutely vulnerable, honest, melancholy and transfixingly real as this? The album is full of perfect gems, from the classic opener "Blues Run The Game" to the end, you are just let in this room and this space with this lost soul expressing himself directly to you. I notice my enjoyment of this album has a lot to do with mood. Usually I don't gravitate to this intensely lost and down an album. But last night after work I just felt a need and I listened to it 2 times through and every chord and word and aspect rang true. Listening now I still adore it and all, but it doesn't have the same earth shattering effect that it does when I'm more on the wavelength of the record. Also listening now and its interesting that the whole album isn't truly sad and blue. Some songs especially on "side 1" such as "Don't Look Back" and "Yellow Walls" aren't straight up tear jerkers. But all amazing songs... But really side 2 takes the vibe to a new level of intense. Maybe its just that the second half songs are more distinctly in the minor key...? IDK. Its amazing though listening to the run of perfection that is track "Milk And Honey", to "My Name Is Carnival" to (especially these next 2) "I Want To Be Alone" and finally "Just Like Anything". I swear listening to "I Want To Be Alone" last night was an out-of-body experience. It struck a nerve so deep and blue that i was all shook up. Follow this by the insanely unique and almost chirpy depression at the heart of "Just Like Anything" and you have something truly special. So you may ask why is this not number 1? Well there was an album I heard for the first time last week that I absolutely fell in love ith. And its so incredibly different from Jackson C Frank's debut and only album, that it is gonna be a laugher listening to them back to back. But enough about that. For now, I say this album is awesome. And everyone should listen to it. Grade: 9.4/10" [+] Reply

Mercury | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +6 votes (6 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

1965

Appears in:

198 charts

Rank Score:

1,190

Rank in 1965:

Rank in 1960s:

148

Overall Rank:

1,426

Average Rating:

81 (187 votes)

Comments:

16.

I Put A Spell On You

Nina Simone

"I was impressed by this album way more than I thought I would be, jeez this woman has a voice. Feelin Good and I Put a Spell on You are both incredible songs and it's nice to see Simone give a nod to an amazing artist like Brel (she has an admirable accent for an American but as a French-speaking..." [+] Reply

- SamNassiri98 | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +3 votes (3 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

1965

Appears in:

221 charts

Rank Score:

1,096

Rank in 1965:

Rank in 1960s:

156

Overall Rank:

1,555

Average Rating:

80 (204 votes)

Comments:

17.

Live At The Regal
Live

B.B. King

"This record --- and BB King --- doesn't need me to enhance any reputation. Obviously this is one of the greatest blues recordings ever made." Reply

swhaze | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

1965

Appears in:

229 charts

Rank Score:

966

Rank in 1965:

Rank in 1960s:

171

Overall Rank:

1,748

Average Rating:

79 (228 votes)

Comments:

18.

Turn! Turn! Turn!

The Byrds

"Basically an inferior version of, Mr. Tambourine man. Turn! turn! turn!, features the same ingredients, Dylan covers, some traditional songs, and some originals, but they just don't have the same freshness as the first album. The title track is nice, another U.S. No:1 hit for the band, and, the w..." [+] Reply

- garycottier | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (2 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

1965

Appears in:

224 charts

Rank Score:

836

Rank in 1965:

Rank in 1960s:

189

Overall Rank:

1,983

Average Rating:

76 (260 votes)

Comments:

19.

Bert Jansch

"ON THE ROAD Strollin' down the highway I'm going to get there my way Dusk till dawn I'm walkin' Can hear my guitar rocking? (Strolling Down The Highway) If Neil Cassady & the gang (from Jack Kerrouc’s classic On The Road) weren’t so into jazz - if they had been born perhaps just five years years ...""ON THE ROAD Strollin' down the highway I'm going to get there my way Dusk till dawn I'm walkin' Can hear my guitar rocking? (Strolling Down The Highway) If Neil Cassady & the gang (from Jack Kerrouc’s classic On The Road) weren’t so into jazz - if they had been born perhaps just five years years later - Jansch is the kind of music they would have been into. Music about the inherent conflict born of being human and having human desires. Between freedom & responsibility. Safety and comfort vs. excitement and adventure and the desire for something new. The freedom to explore and not be tied down while searching for the ultimate expression of who your are. In a way, this is the folk equivalent of that Southern Rock archetype that The Allmans' & Skynyrd loved to wax poetic about - The Ramblin' Man. The Renegade. The Outlaw. “Ain’t no girl going to tie me down.” Hey girl, oh how my heart is torn Hey girl, now that your baby's born What shall it cost? Is my freedom lost? What is the price of nature's own way (Oh How Your Love is Strong) But there’s a weariness in this album. A realization that this particular path is not the easiest. There’s an internal conflict. That maybe he’s got it all wrong. That maybe he’d been better off - happier, more content, even more self-realized - if he had just stuck back home. Married that love that he knocked up back in his early twenties. Settled down & relaxed. Been a good father. Because life on the road ain’t easy. Loneliness ain’t easy. Because restlessness is just greed in another form. It’s an impatience. An inability to surrender to the moment and just be. Ask me why a rambler ain't got no home Ask me why I sit and cry alone I wish I knew I wish I knew If I knew, I'd know what to do (Rambling’s Going To Be the Death of Me) But like Cassidy and the rest of the beats, Jansch probably had no other choice. And this is THE album for embracing those regrets you’ve made along the way with a kindred spirit. For accepting that a part of you never would have been satisfied with that orthodox life. The wife you no longer found attractive. The 2.5 kids and the hour commute to that cubicle 8 floors up in the sky. It’s an album that helps you embrace the randomness of life. Accepting that life doesn’t go according to expectations. For accepting the regret. For accepting that you’ve probably made your life a whole lot more difficult than it had to be because that’s part of who you are. That’s part of being human. We’re never satisfied. Never content. And that Jansch is able to capture this uniquely human quality and the conflict born of it in a folk album is staggering. And makes it one of the true great masterpieces of 60s music. I love what I wrote about this album a few years back when I first heard it shortly after joining BEA… Herein lies sparse, finger-picked folk songs on acoustic guitar mostly about how one's quest for personal freedom can sometimes be the very cause of our loneliness & isolation. In a sense one's quest for freedom to find the ultimate can leave you old and exhausted at the side of the road. Wearied. Jealous of all the smart folks who were satisfied with less. Because less is almost always more. But some of us alas need to go On The Road to learn this. Grade: A+. Do you want a kickass record collection? Of course you do! Why else would you be here, right? Well then there are two folk albums from 60s that EVERY music aficionado NEEDS. One has to be Dylan. Duh. So take your pick between Freewheelin’ and Another Side. It doesn’t really matter. They’re both Dylan at his folk peak before he plugged in. And then get THIS. Jansch’s debut. England’s true answer to Dylan (it certainly wasn’t Donovan. Donovan was something else completely.) Jansch was already rocking on just a acoustic guitar on this here album. His guitar playing lightyears beyond what most of The Village doing across the pond. And then you’ll be set. Sated. Satisfied to have two of the best folk albums of all time. Until you’re not. " [+] Reply

Repo | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

1965

Appears in:

167 charts

Rank Score:

737

Rank in 1965:

Rank in 1960s:

201

Overall Rank:

2,201

Average Rating:

77 (178 votes)

Comments:

20.

Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!)

The Beach Boys

"The general consensus that this album is regressive after the creative leap of the, today, album, is slightly misleading. It features some of the beach boys most forward thinking moments. The most famous off course is the brilliant, California girls, the intro is stunning. The non vocal, summer m..." [+] Reply

- garycottier | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +5 votes (5 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

1965

Appears in:

185 charts

Rank Score:

604

Rank in 1965:

Rank in 1960s:

237

Overall Rank:

2,606

Average Rating:

74 (252 votes)

Comments:

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Total albums: 682. Page 2 of 69

Best Albums of 1965 composition

Artist	Albums	%

Various Artists	7	1%
The Beatles	6	1%
Frank Sinatra	5	1%
The Animals	5	1%
The Supremes	5	1%
The Rolling Stones	5	1%
The Kinks	4	1%
Show all

Country	Albums	%

	384	56%
	116	17%
	32	5%
	19	3%
	18	3%
	13	2%
	11	2%
Show all

Compilation?	Albums	%
No	646	95%
Yes	36	5%

Live?	Albums	%
No	649	95%
Yes	33	5%

Soundtrack?	Albums	%
No	669	98%
Yes	13	2%

« View best albums of 1964View best albums of 1966 »

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