Best Albums of the 1960s

« View best albums of the 1950sView best albums of the 1970s »

Listed below are the best albums of the 1960s as calculated from their overall rankings in over 49,000 greatest album charts.

Best albums by year or decade

Decade:

Year:

1960s 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.
1960	560	24,845	Giant Steps (460th)by John Coltrane
1961	533	23,176	My Favorite Things (614th)by John Coltrane
1962	585	19,846	Modern Sounds In Country And Wes... (1,182nd)by Ray Charles
1963	601	50,548	The Black Saint And The Sinner Lady (100th)by Charles Mingus
1964	692	49,159	A Hard Day's Night (228th)by The Beatles
1965	813	156,613	Highway 61 Revisited (26th)by Bob Dylan
1966	872	206,345	Revolver (4th)by The Beatles
1967	1,122	329,072	Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club... (6th)by The Beatles
1968	1,455	239,779	The Beatles (The White Album) (13th)by The Beatles
1969	1,801	371,985	Abbey Road (3rd)by The Beatles
Total	9,034	1,471,367

The best artists of the 1960s were The Beatles, The Velvet Underground, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, The Beach Boys, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Velvet Underground & Nico, Led Zeppelin, The Doors and The Rolling Stones.

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 The Beach Boys. (Remove this filter)

Sort by

Pet Sounds

The Beach Boys

Year of Release:

1966

Appears in:

2,711 charts

Rank Score:

49,896

Rank in 1966:

Rank in 1960s:

Overall Rank:

Average Rating:

88 (3,117 votes)

Comments:

342

93.

The Beach Boys Today!

The Beach Boys

Year of Release:

1965

Appears in:

359 charts

Rank Score:

2,095

Rank in 1965:

Rank in 1960s:

Overall Rank:

891

Average Rating:

79 (526 votes)

Comments:

130.

Smiley Smile

The Beach Boys

Year of Release:

1967

Appears in:

289 charts

Rank Score:

1,412

Rank in 1967:

Rank in 1960s:

130

Overall Rank:

1,258

Average Rating:

76 (416 votes)

Comments:

179.

Friends

The Beach Boys

Year of Release:

1968

Appears in:

178 charts

Rank Score:

903

Rank in 1968:

Rank in 1960s:

179

Overall Rank:

1,881

Average Rating:

76 (280 votes)

Comments:

202.

Wild Honey

The Beach Boys

Year of Release:

1967

Appears in:

182 charts

Rank Score:

755

Rank in 1967:

Rank in 1960s:

202

Overall Rank:

2,175

Average Rating:

75 (331 votes)

Comments:

262.

All Summer Long

The Beach Boys

Year of Release:

1964

Appears in:

130 charts

Rank Score:

521

Rank in 1964:

Rank in 1960s:

262

Overall Rank:

2,946

Average Rating:

74 (216 votes)

Comments:

279.

Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!)

The Beach Boys

Year of Release:

1965

Appears in:

159 charts

Rank Score:

472

Rank in 1965:

Rank in 1960s:

279

Overall Rank:

3,195

Average Rating:

74 (211 votes)

Comments:

333.

Surfer Girl

The Beach Boys

Year of Release:

1963

Appears in:

118 charts

Rank Score:

360

Rank in 1963:

Rank in 1960s:

333

Overall Rank:

3,980

Average Rating:

70 (176 votes)

Comments:

393.

Surfin' Safari

The Beach Boys

Year of Release:

1962

Appears in:

107 charts

Rank Score:

278

Rank in 1962:

Rank in 1960s:

393

Overall Rank:

4,899

Average Rating:

64 (151 votes)

Comments:

402.

Surfin' U.S.A.

The Beach Boys

Year of Release:

1963

Appears in:

105 charts

Rank Score:

270

Rank in 1963:

Rank in 1960s:

402

Overall Rank:

5,036

Average Rating:

68 (151 votes)

Comments:

« prev
1
2
next »

Total albums: 14. Page 1 of 2

Best Albums of the 1960s composition

Year	Albums	%

1960	52	5%
1961	61	6%
1962	48	5%
1963	51	5%
1964	69	7%
1965	93	9%
1966	102	10%
1967	136	14%
1968	187	19%
1969	201	20%

Artist	Albums	%

The Beatles	17	2%
The Beach Boys	14	1%
The Rolling Stones	14	1%
John Coltrane	13	1%
Bob Dylan	10	1%
The Kinks	9	1%
Frank Sinatra	9	1%
Show all

Country	Albums	%

	617	62%
	214	21%
	30	3%
	28	3%
	22	2%
	18	2%
	13	1%
Show all

Compilation?	Albums	%
No	967	97%
Yes	33	3%

Live?	Albums	%
No	965	97%
Yes	35	4%

Soundtrack?	Albums	%
No	986	99%
Yes	14	1%

« View best albums of the 1950sView best albums of the 1970s »

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. Les Inrocks Albums of the Year 2022 by Les Inrocks (2022)
5. The 30 best albums of 2022 by The A.V. Club (2022)
6. BPM’s Top 50 Albums Of 2022 by Beats Per Minute (2022)
7. The 80 Best Albums of 2022 by PopMatters (2022)
8. Albums Of The Year 2022 by Rough Trade (2022)
9. The Skinny's Top 10 Albums of 2022 by The Skinny (2022)
10. The Loud And Quiet best albums of 2022 by Loud And Quiet (2022)
11. The 20 best albums of 2022 by Dazed (2022)
12. Dit zijn de 20 beste albums van 2022 by OOR (2022)
13. Best Albums of 2022 by Norman Records (2022)
14. Gorilla vs. Bear's Albums of 2022 by Gorilla vs. Bear (2022)
15. Kerrang!'s Albums Of 2022 by Kerrang! (2022)
16. The Best Albums of 2022 by Complex (2022)
17. Best albums of 2022 by Okayplayer (2022)
18. Albums Of The Year 2022 by Louder Than War (2022)
19. Gigwise's 51 Best Albums of 2022 by Gigwise (2022)
20. The Best Albums of 2022 by No Ripcord (2022)