Best Albums of the 1950s

« View best albums of the 1940sView best albums of the 1960s »

Listed below are the best albums of the 1950s as calculated from their overall rankings in over 41,000 greatest album charts.

Best albums by year or decade

Decade:

Year:

1950s decade summary

Year	Albums The number of albums from each year featuring in the greatest album charts.	Score Total rank score for each year (made up of the total rank score from all albums in that year)	Top Ranked Album The top ranked album from each year and where it ranks in the overall chart.
1950	88	3,881	The Famous 1938 Carnegie Hall Ja... (2,493rd)by Benny Goodman
1951	116	3,428	Genius Of Modern Music: Volume 1 (3,229th)by Thelonious Monk
1952	138	5,853	Bird & Diz (2,345th)by Charlie Parker & Dizzy Gillespie
1953	174	5,422	Black Coffee (2,126th)by Peggy Lee
1954	198	9,208	Chet Baker Sings (1,084th)by Chet Baker
1955	270	12,183	In The Wee Small Hours (405th)by Frank Sinatra
1956	358	27,974	Elvis Presley (412th)by Elvis Presley
1957	457	40,645	Blue Train (360th)by John Coltrane
1958	467	35,096	Lady In Satin (657th)by Billie Holiday
1959	486	79,357	Kind Of Blue (40th)by Miles Davis
Total	2,752	223,047

The best artists of the 1950s were Miles Davis, Dave Brubeck, Frank Sinatra, Charles Mingus, Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Art Blakey, The Dave Brubeck Quartet, Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane.

View chart at point in time

Share this chart

Share | |

Collector's summary (top 1,000)Log in or register to discover the great albums that are missing from your music collection!

Sort by

Kind Of Blue

Miles Davis

Year of Release:

1959

Appears in:

1,380 charts

Rank Score:

30,826

Rank in 1959:

Rank in 1950s:

Overall Rank:

Average Rating:

89 (1,923 votes)

Comments:

140

Mingus Ah Um

Charles Mingus

Year of Release:

1959

Appears in:

514 charts

Rank Score:

7,578

Rank in 1959:

Rank in 1950s:

Overall Rank:

259

Average Rating:

84 (583 votes)

Comments:

Time Out

The Dave Brubeck Quartet

Year of Release:

1959

Appears in:

522 charts

Rank Score:

6,483

Rank in 1959:

Rank in 1950s:

Overall Rank:

Average Rating:

Comments:

Year of Release:

1957

Appears in:

431 charts

Rank Score:

5,409

Rank in 1957:

Rank in 1950s:

Overall Rank:

360

Average Rating:

84 (522 votes)

Comments:

In The Wee Small Hours

Frank Sinatra

Year of Release:

1955

Appears in:

371 charts

Rank Score:

4,773

Rank in 1955:

Rank in 1950s:

Overall Rank:

405

Average Rating:

80 (535 votes)

Comments:

Elvis Presley

Year of Release:

1956

Appears in:

450 charts

Rank Score:

4,721

Rank in 1956:

Rank in 1950s:

Overall Rank:

412

Average Rating:

80 (644 votes)

Comments:

The Shape Of Jazz To Come

Ornette Coleman

Year of Release:

1959

Appears in:

346 charts

Rank Score:

4,303

Rank in 1959:

Rank in 1950s:

Overall Rank:

448

Average Rating:

81 (407 votes)

Comments:

Here's Little Richard

Little Richard

Year of Release:

1957

Appears in:

305 charts

Rank Score:

3,400

Rank in 1957:

Rank in 1950s:

Overall Rank:

560

Average Rating:

79 (397 votes)

Comments:

Art Blakey And The Jazz Messengers

Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers

Year of Release:

1959

Appears in:

275 charts

Rank Score:

2,870

Rank in 1959:

Rank in 1950s:

Overall Rank:

652

Average Rating:

83 (270 votes)

Comments:

10.

Lady In Satin

Billie Holiday

Year of Release:

1958

Appears in:

283 charts

Rank Score:

2,843

Rank in 1958:

Rank in 1950s:

Overall Rank:

657

Average Rating:

80 (299 votes)

Comments:

« prev
1
2
3
4
...
99
100
next »
Goto Page:

Total albums: 1,000. Page 1 of 100

Best Albums of the 1950s composition

Year	Albums	%

1950	40	4%
1951	42	4%
1952	52	5%
1953	57	6%
1954	69	7%
1955	89	9%
1956	123	12%
1957	158	16%
1958	181	18%
1959	189	19%

Artist	Albums	%

Billie Holiday	18	2%
Frank Sinatra	16	2%
Various Artists	16	2%
Sonny Rollins	15	2%
Miles Davis	15	2%
Ella Fitzgerald	12	1%
Sarah Vaughan	12	1%
Show all

Country	Albums	%

	765	77%
	54	5%
	33	3%
	31	3%
	24	2%
	10	1%
	8	1%
Show all

Compilation?	Albums	%
No	946	95%
Yes	54	5%

Live?	Albums	%
No	989	99%
Yes	11	1%

« View best albums of the 1940sView best albums of the 1960s »

Hi, we'd really appreciate your help!

If you enjoy our site, please consider supporting us by sparing a few seconds to disable your ad blocker. We work very hard to ensure our site is as fast (and free!) as possible, and we respect your privacy.

A lot of hard work happens in the background to keep BEA running, and it's especially difficult to do this when we can't pay our hosting fees :(

Recognised Year Charts (2019)
1. 50 Best Albums of 2019 by Rolling Stone (2019)
2. Best albums of 2019 by Fopp (2019)
3. The 50 Best Albums of 2019 by Billboard (2019)
4. Top 10 Albums of the Year 2019 by Bleep (2019)
5. Les Inrocks Albums of the Year 2019 by Les Inrocks (2019)
6. NME Albums Of The Year 2019 by New Music Express (2019)
7. Our 50 favourite albums of 2019 by The Vinyl Factory (2019)
8. The Best Albums of 2019 by FLOOD Magazine (2019)
9. The Best Albums of 2019 by The Line Of Best Fit (2019)
10. Gorilla vs. Bear's Albums of 2019 by Gorilla vs. Bear (2019)
11. OOR's Eindlijst 2019 [OOR Top 20 Albums of 2019] by OOR (2019)
12. The 20 best albums of 2019 by Dazed (2019)
13. BrooklynVegan's Top 50 Albums of 2019 by BrooklynVegan (2019)
14. Uncut's Top 75 albums of 2019 by Uncut (2019)
15. Albums Of The Year 2019 by Louder Than War (2019)
16. The Top 50 Albums of 2019 by Crack Magazine (2019)
17. The Wire's Top 50 Releases 2019 by The Wire (2019)
18. Top 99 Music Albums of 2019 by The Quietus (2019)
19. The 50 best albums of 2019 by Independent (2019)
20. Top 50 Albums of 2019 by Vive Le Rock! (2019)