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 54,000 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	638	26,808	Giant Steps (430th)by John Coltrane
1961	598	23,006	My Favorite Things (602nd)by John Coltrane
1962	628	21,106	Modern Sounds In Country And Wes... (1,070th)by Ray Charles
1963	657	49,752	The Black Saint And The Sinner Lady (92nd)by Charles Mingus
1964	769	49,268	A Hard Day's Night (222nd)by The Beatles
1965	914	147,086	Highway 61 Revisited (27th)by Bob Dylan
1966	995	189,310	Revolver (4th)by The Beatles
1967	1,212	302,190	Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club... (7th)by The Beatles
1968	1,571	226,919	The Beatles (The White Album) (13th)by The Beatles
1969	1,970	347,778	Abbey Road (3rd)by The Beatles
Total	9,952	1,383,223

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

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 John Coltrane. (Remove this filter)

Sort by

18.

A Love Supreme

John Coltrane

Year of Release:

1965

Appears in:

1,303 charts

Rank Score:

16,919

Rank in 1965:

Rank in 1960s:

Overall Rank:

Average Rating:

87 (1,459 votes)

Comments:

56.

Giant Steps

John Coltrane

Year of Release:

1960

Appears in:

505 charts

Rank Score:

4,143

Rank in 1960:

Rank in 1960s:

Overall Rank:

430

Average Rating:

83 (617 votes)

Comments:

69.

My Favorite Things

John Coltrane

Year of Release:

1961

Appears in:

388 charts

Rank Score:

2,935

Rank in 1961:

Rank in 1960s:

Overall Rank:

602

Average Rating:

81 (478 votes)

Comments:

111.

Ascension

John Coltrane

Year of Release:

1966

Appears in:

262 charts

Rank Score:

1,749

Rank in 1966:

Rank in 1960s:

111

Overall Rank:

1,013

Average Rating:

77 (321 votes)

Comments:

233.

Olé Coltrane

John Coltrane

Year of Release:

1961

Appears in:

140 charts

Rank Score:

615

Rank in 1961:

Rank in 1960s:

233

Overall Rank:

2,545

Average Rating:

79 (168 votes)

Comments:

257.

Meditations

John Coltrane

Year of Release:

1966

Appears in:

100 charts

Rank Score:

552

Rank in 1966:

Rank in 1960s:

257

Overall Rank:

2,776

Average Rating:

80 (137 votes)

Comments:

374.

Coltrane "Live" At The Village Vanguard
Live

John Coltrane

Year of Release:

1962

Appears in:

77 charts

Rank Score:

312

Rank in 1962:

Rank in 1960s:

374

Overall Rank:

4,490

Average Rating:

79 (82 votes)

Comments:

543.

Coltrane's Sound

John Coltrane

Year of Release:

1964

Appears in:

59 charts

Rank Score:

180

Rank in 1964:

Rank in 1960s:

543

Overall Rank:

7,066

Average Rating:

79 (73 votes)

Comments:

566.

Impressions
Live

John Coltrane

Year of Release:

1963

Appears in:

53 charts

Rank Score:

169

Rank in 1963:

Rank in 1960s:

566

Overall Rank:

7,437

Average Rating:

76 (62 votes)

Comments:

639.

Coltrane Live At Birdland
Live

John Coltrane

Year of Release:

1964

Appears in:

45 charts

Rank Score:

141

Rank in 1964:

Rank in 1960s:

639

Overall Rank:

8,612

Average Rating:

77 (42 votes)

Comments:

« prev
1
2
next »

Total albums: 13. Page 1 of 2

Best Albums of the 1960s composition

Year	Albums	%

1960	57	6%
1961	61	6%
1962	49	5%
1963	51	5%
1964	66	7%
1965	93	9%
1966	99	10%
1967	142	14%
1968	193	19%
1969	189	19%

Artist	Albums	%

The Beatles	17	2%
The Rolling Stones	14	1%
The Beach Boys	14	1%
John Coltrane	13	1%
Miles Davis	12	1%
Nina Simone	10	1%
Bob Dylan	10	1%
Show all

Country	Albums	%

	632	63%
	208	21%
	33	3%
	24	2%
	24	2%
	16	2%
	13	1%
Show all

Compilation?	Albums	%
No	969	97%
Yes	31	3%

Live?	Albums	%
No	960	96%
Yes	40	4%

Soundtrack?	Albums	%
No	983	98%
Yes	17	2%

« 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 Decade Charts (2020s)
1. 100 Best Albums of the 2010s: Staff Picks by Billboard (2019)
2. Top 100 Albums of the Decade by Crack Magazine (2019)
3. NME's Greatest Albums of The Decade: The 2010s by New Music Express (2019)
4. Top 50 Albums of the 2010s by The Wild Honey Pie (2019)
5. 100 Best Albums of the 2010s by Rolling Stone (2019)
6. The 50 best albums of the decade – 2010 to 2019 by Independent (2019)
7. The Needle Drop's Top Albums Of The 2010s by The Needle Drop (2019)
8. The 200 Best Albums of the 2010s by Pitchfork (2019)
9. The A.V. Club's 50 best albums of the 2010s by The A.V. Club (2019)
10. BrooklynVegan's Top Albums of 2010s by BrooklynVegan (2020)
11. All The Best Albums Of The 2010s, Ranked by Uproxx (2019)
12. Gorilla vs. Bear Albums of the 2010s by Gorilla vs. Bear (2019)
13. The 50 Best Albums of the Decade by Deep Cuts (2019)
14. The 100 Best Albums Of The 2010s by Stereogum (2019)
15. The 101 Best Albums of the 2010s by Spin (2020)
16. The 100 Best Albums of the 2010s by Paste (2019)
17. Die besten Platten 2010-2019 by Spex (2019)
18. BEST OF 2011 - 2020: Die besten Alben des Jahrzehnts by laut (2020)
19. Tiny Mix Tapes 2010s: Favorite 100 Music Releases of the Decade by Tiny Mix Tapes (2019)
20. Top 100 Albums of the 2010s by Consequence of Sound (2019)