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	3,860	The Famous 1938 Carnegie Hall Ja... (2,503rd)by Benny Goodman
1951	116	3,533	Genius Of Modern Music: Volume 1 (3,155th)by Thelonious Monk
1952	138	5,900	Bird & Diz (2,295th)by Charlie Parker & Dizzy Gillespie
1953	174	5,430	Black Coffee (2,136th)by Peggy Lee
1954	198	9,253	Chet Baker Sings (1,083rd)by Chet Baker
1955	270	12,251	In The Wee Small Hours (399th)by Frank Sinatra
1956	357	28,230	Elvis Presley (408th)by Elvis Presley
1957	457	40,833	Blue Train (360th)by John Coltrane
1958	468	35,336	Lady In Satin (665th)by Billie Holiday
1959	486	79,459	Kind Of Blue (40th)by Miles Davis
Total	2,752	224,086

The best artists of the 1950s were Miles Davis, Dave Brubeck, Frank Sinatra, Charles Mingus, Elvis Presley, Art Blakey, Buddy Holly, 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:

1,384 charts

Rank Score:

30,784

Rank in 1959:

Rank in 1950s:

Overall Rank:

Average Rating:

89 (1,926 votes)

Comments:

141

Mingus Ah Um

Charles Mingus

Year of Release:

1959

Appears in:

516 charts

Rank Score:

7,549

Rank in 1959:

Rank in 1950s:

Overall Rank:

260

Average Rating:

84 (584 votes)

Comments:

Time Out

The Dave Brubeck Quartet

Year of Release:

1959

Appears in:

525 charts

Rank Score:

6,522

Rank in 1959:

Rank in 1950s:

Overall Rank:

Average Rating:

Comments:

Year of Release:

1957

Appears in:

433 charts

Rank Score:

5,441

Rank in 1957:

Rank in 1950s:

Overall Rank:

360

Average Rating:

84 (523 votes)

Comments:

In The Wee Small Hours

Frank Sinatra

Year of Release:

1955

Appears in:

373 charts

Rank Score:

4,816

Rank in 1955:

Rank in 1950s:

Overall Rank:

399

Average Rating:

80 (537 votes)

Comments:

Elvis Presley

Year of Release:

1956

Appears in:

453 charts

Rank Score:

4,751

Rank in 1956:

Rank in 1950s:

Overall Rank:

408

Average Rating:

80 (645 votes)

Comments:

The Shape Of Jazz To Come

Ornette Coleman

Year of Release:

1959

Appears in:

347 charts

Rank Score:

4,314

Rank in 1959:

Rank in 1950s:

Overall Rank:

446

Average Rating:

81 (407 votes)

Comments:

Here's Little Richard

Little Richard

Year of Release:

1957

Appears in:

306 charts

Rank Score:

3,416

Rank in 1957:

Rank in 1950s:

Overall Rank:

562

Average Rating:

79 (398 votes)

Comments:

Songs For Swingin' Lovers!

Frank Sinatra

Year of Release:

1956

Appears in:

249 charts

Rank Score:

2,903

Rank in 1956:

Rank in 1950s:

Overall Rank:

646

Average Rating:

80 (299 votes)

Comments:

10.

Art Blakey And The Jazz Messengers

Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers

Year of Release:

1959

Appears in:

276 charts

Rank Score:

2,885

Rank in 1959:

Rank in 1950s:

Overall Rank:

655

Average Rating:

83 (271 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	182	18%
1959	189	19%

Artist	Albums	%

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

Country	Albums	%

	766	77%
	54	5%
	33	3%
	31	3%
	24	2%
	10	1%
	8	1%
Show all

Compilation?	Albums	%
No	947	95%
Yes	54	5%

Live?	Albums	%
No	990	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 :(

Recent Member Charts
1. Top 99 Music Albums of 1991 by vruslov (2020)
2. Top 54 Music Albums of 1992 by pa (2020)
3. Top 40 Music Albums of 1983 by LosWochos (2020)
4. Top 59 Music Albums of the 2000s by Museman (2020)
5. Top 4 Music Albums of the 2000s by Errol (2020)
6. Top 86 Music Albums of the 1980s by vruslov (2020)
7. Top 60 Music Albums of 2004 by kadupheming (2020)
8. Top 23 Music Albums of 1992 by greatson (2020)
9. Top 82 Music Albums of 1986 by vruslov (2020)
10. Top 43 Music Albums of the 2010s by Museman (2020)
11. Remembering those who past in 2017 by Johnnyo (2020)
12. Top 47 Music Albums of 1991 by greatson (2020)
13. Other albums which U must own by Johnnyo (2020)
14. Top 100 Greatest Music Albums by sageamagoo (2020)
15. Top 89 Music Albums of 2011 by vruslov (2020)
16. Top 80 Music Albums of 2010 by vruslov (2020)
17. Best Concerts by jeremy9 (2020)
18. Top 53 Music Albums of 2018 by Wasinski (2020)
19. Top 34 Music Albums of 2002 by JMGL95 (2020)
20. Top 55 Music Albums of 1995 by Wasinski (2020)