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 49,000 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	121	5,167	Voice Of The Xtabay (1,936th)by Yma Sumac
1951	137	4,144	Genius Of Modern Music: Volume 1 (2,820th)by Thelonious Monk
1952	154	7,406	Bird & Diz (1,924th)by Charlie Parker & Dizzy Gillespie
1953	186	5,929	Black Coffee With Peggy Lee (1,879th)by Peggy Lee
1954	222	10,676	Chet Baker Sings (752nd)by Chet Baker
1955	315	14,940	In The Wee Small Hours (385th)by Frank Sinatra
1956	423	32,021	Elvis Presley (373rd)by Elvis Presley
1957	547	45,454	Blue Train (315th)by John Coltrane
1958	544	40,257	Lady In Satin (583rd)by Billie Holiday
1959	601	84,163	Kind Of Blue (38th)by Miles Davis
Total	3,250	250,158

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

View chart at point in time

Share this chart

Share | |

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

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

Sort by

Kind Of Blue

Miles Davis

Year of Release:

1959

Appears in:

1,575 charts

Rank Score:

26,961

Rank in 1959:

Rank in 1950s:

Overall Rank:

Average Rating:

89 (2,170 votes)

Comments:

160

17.

Birth Of The Cool
Compilation

Miles Davis

Year of Release:

1957

Appears in:

348 charts

Rank Score:

2,501

Rank in 1957:

Rank in 1950s:

Overall Rank:

741

Average Rating:

80 (446 votes)

Comments:

23.

'Round About Midnight

Miles Davis

Year of Release:

1957

Appears in:

236 charts

Rank Score:

1,852

Rank in 1957:

Rank in 1950s:

Overall Rank:

1,001

Average Rating:

82 (297 votes)

Comments:

27.

Milestones

Miles Davis

Year of Release:

1958

Appears in:

201 charts

Rank Score:

1,526

Rank in 1958:

Rank in 1950s:

Overall Rank:

1,189

Average Rating:

81 (219 votes)

Comments:

31.

Ascenseur Pour L'échafaud
Soundtrack

Miles Davis

Year of Release:

1958

Appears in:

181 charts

Rank Score:

1,389

Rank in 1958:

Rank in 1950s:

Overall Rank:

1,281

Average Rating:

81 (203 votes)

Comments:

48.

Porgy And Bess

Miles Davis

Year of Release:

1959

Appears in:

151 charts

Rank Score:

860

Rank in 1959:

Rank in 1950s:

Overall Rank:

1,954

Average Rating:

79 (179 votes)

Comments:

159.

Bags' Groove
Compilation

Miles Davis

Year of Release:

1957

Appears in:

46 charts

Rank Score:

234

Rank in 1957:

Rank in 1950s:

159

Overall Rank:

5,658

Average Rating:

77 (51 votes)

Comments:

192.

Blue Moods

Miles Davis

Year of Release:

1955

Appears in:

43 charts

Rank Score:

190

Rank in 1955:

Rank in 1950s:

192

Overall Rank:

6,775

Average Rating:

73 (43 votes)

Comments:

284.

Blue Haze

Miles Davis

Year of Release:

1956

Appears in:

41 charts

Rank Score:

119

Rank in 1956:

Rank in 1950s:

284

Overall Rank:

9,940

Average Rating:

74 (40 votes)

Comments:

340.

Miles Davis And The Modern Jazz Giants
Compilation

Miles Davis

Year of Release:

1959

Appears in:

26 charts

Rank Score:

Rank in 1959:

Rank in 1950s:

340

Overall Rank:

12,428

Average Rating:

76 (22 votes)

Comments:

« prev
1
2
next »

Total albums: 16. Page 1 of 2

Best Albums of the 1950s composition

Year	Albums	%

1950	42	4%
1951	41	4%
1952	60	6%
1953	62	6%
1954	73	7%
1955	88	9%
1956	118	12%
1957	153	15%
1958	172	17%
1959	191	19%

Artist	Albums	%

Billie Holiday	18	2%
Miles Davis	16	2%
Various Artists	16	2%
Frank Sinatra	16	2%
Sonny Rollins	15	2%
Ella Fitzgerald	12	1%
Elvis Presley	11	1%
Show all

Country	Albums	%

	778	78%
	36	4%
	32	3%
	30	3%
	20	2%
	13	1%
	11	1%
Show all

Compilation?	Albums	%
No	944	94%
Yes	56	6%

Live?	Albums	%
No	964	96%
Yes	36	4%

Soundtrack?	Albums	%
No	979	98%
Yes	21	2%

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

If you enjoy our site, please consider supporting us by sparing a few seconds to disable your ad blocker.

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 :(

We work very hard to ensure our site is as fast (and FREE!) as possible, and we respect your privacy.

Recognised Year Charts (2022)
1. The 50 Best Albums of 2022 by Billboard (2022)
2. Top 40 Albums of 2022 by Decibel (2022)
3. Top 10 Albums of the Year 2022 by Bleep (2022)
4. Best Albums of 2022 by Passion of the Weiss (2022)
5. The 20 best albums of 2022 by Time Out (2022)
6. 25 Best Albums of 2022 by Revolver (2022)
7. Kerrang!'s Albums Of 2022 by Kerrang! (2022)
8. Albumism's 100 Best Albums of 2022 by Albumism (2022)
9. Exclaim!'s 50 Best Albums of 2022 by Exclaim! (2022)
10. Best albums of 2022 by Okayplayer (2022)
11. Gigwise's 51 Best Albums of 2022 by Gigwise (2022)
12. Les Inrocks Albums of the Year 2022 by Les Inrocks (2022)
13. The Best Albums of 2022 by No Ripcord (2022)
14. The 50 Best Albums of 2022 by NPR (2022)
15. KCRW's Best Albums of 2022 by KCRW (2022)
16. Under the Radar's Top 100 Albums of 2022 by Under The Radar (2022)
17. BrooklynVegan's Top 50 Albums of 2022 by BrooklynVegan (2022)
18. The 80 Best Albums of 2022 by PopMatters (2022)
19. The Skinny's Top 10 Albums of 2022 by The Skinny (2022)
20. Albums Of The Year 2022 by Rough Trade (2022)