Best Albums of the 1960s

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Explore the best albums of the 1960s, based on over 2 million album rankings across 60,000 charts. Last updated: 3 hours ago

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1960s decade summaryThe best artists of the 1960s were The Beatles, The Velvet Underground, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, The Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones, The Doors, Led Zeppelin, John Coltrane and King Crimson.

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Abbey Road

The Beatles

"When I was curious about The Beatles I asked a friend who absolutely loves them where I should start. Without question he handed me Abbey Road and now I understand why. This album is the culmination of The Beatles' long and winding road together. It represents what each of the members brought to ..." Reply

- | Helpful? (Log in to vote) · 6

Year of Release:

1969

Appears in:

3,778 charts

Rank Score:

53,444

Rank in 1969:

Rank in 1960s:

Overall Rank:

Average Rating:

Comments:

"I finally listened to this album two days ago. I hadn't sat down to do so before, so I figured I'd see what was all the hype. I enjoyed it for the most part, but didn't think much of it at the moment. I put my headphones away and went to get ready for bed. I calmly brushed my teeth, flossed, shav...""I finally listened to this album two days ago. I hadn't sat down to do so before, so I figured I'd see what was all the hype. I enjoyed it for the most part, but didn't think much of it at the moment. I put my headphones away and went to get ready for bed. I calmly brushed my teeth, flossed, shaved, and washed my face prior to heading back to my bedroom. I decided to pull out my laptop and review a few albums. I settled on listening to several Switchfoot albums, but I found that just going a few seconds into the first song caused me to grow very, very tired. I fell asleep soon after the first song ended and my review was never completed. I had some interesting dreams that night. One of my dreams involved a giant talking tree named 'Joshua' and my struggle to fight him off as he grew hostile. Another dream involved some guy walking into a record store I was working at, slamming Refused's 'The Shape of Punk to Come' on the counter and asking me, "HOW MUCH?"; to which I responded with the price, but then he kept screaming at me about how he wanted it to rock his socks off. He came back later with his socks still on and proceeded to assault me for it. I woke up pretty early and felt odd. I wasn't myself, but I couldn't figure out what was going on. I turned over a few times but couldn't shake the feeling off, so I turned my light on to see of anything was different about me. I looked down at my legs to see that I was, in fact, not myself. I all of a sudden had legs like a beetle, and it was hideous and horrifying. Nothing like this had ever happened to me and I was speechless. I felt the legs with my hands and I wanted to vomit. I shook it off like it was a bad dream and fell back to sleep. My alarm went off and I wasn't able to reach my snooze button. I couldn't reach very far at all. I looked down to see that my covers were off and I now possessed the body of some disgusting insect, like a cockroach or a beetle. I exclaimed, "Oh, God! What is this? Why am I an insect? Why did this happen?" I tried to stand up, but I couldn't get out of bed. I struggled to turn myself over but it took me what seemed like twenty minutes to do so. I finally turned over completely but fell off the bed in the process. I was a massive, human sized insect, and this really sucked. My brother apparently heard a thump and came to see what happened. He didn't see me at first, but going to the other side of the bed, he appeared to be terrified, jumped up, and exclaimed, "WHERE IS MY SHOE?!?" He ran out of the room as I tried to pick myself up. 5 minutes later I finally got up and was able to kind of move around. Suddenly, I felt a hard blow to the back of my head. The blow came several times as my brother began beating me over the head with a shoe. I yelled, "Hey, it's me! I'm an insect now! Stop hitting me!!". My brother wasn't interested in what I had to say as he kept hitting me and yelling, "DIE YOU DISGUSTING BASTARD I HATE YOU STUPID THINGS YOU SHOULDN'T EVEN EXIST DIE DIE DIE!" He hit me for another minute until he finally stopped, glared at me, and said, "WHERE IS MY BIGGER SHOE?!?". He ran out of the room and I looked around the room. "Maybe I'll be back to normal tomorrow," I said as I gazed at the clock. It was 10:22. "OH GOD....I gotta go to work..." I opened the door, stepped out, and checked to see if the coast was clear. Seeing nobody, I headed out the door and headed towards my office building. After walking about a quarter of a mile, I was hit over the head with a shoe. "DIE, YOU DISGUSTING PIECE OF SHIT!!" yelled the businessman-looking guy. He hit me a few more times before heading off some other direction. Walking a little bit further down the road I was hit a few more times by a few other people. Finally, I reached my office building and walked through the door. Immediately, the 8 or so people in the main lobby were reaching for their shoes. I couldn't even get a word out before they all ran up and began to relentlessly slam the shoes over my head. I tried reasoning with them: "Guys! I work here! Stop it!" After 8 minutes, they stopped, and I headed towards my desk and sat down. As an animator, my current task was to animate some walk cycles. I spent ten minutes trying to finish the last few frames before my boss entered the room. "Hey, boss, I almost have the walk cy..." He began to hit me over the head with his shoe. I tried reasoning with him: "Hey! Boss! It's me, I work for you!" This seemed to register with him as he lowered his shoe. "Oh, you're him...ok, well show me what you've gotten done so far." my boss said. I hit the play button, and what happened next I could not explain. My character that I was working on had all the movements right, and his steps were flawless, but he was going backwards! My boss began hitting me over the head again with his shoe. "THAT WILL NOT WORK FOR ANYTHING YOU WORTHLESS BASTARD!" After 10 more minutes, he stopped, walked out of my workplace, and I continued to work in my task. After several hours, my workday was finally over. A few shoes were thrown at me or slammed over my head on the way home, but I had gotten used to it. I didn't even bother doing my typical routine as I plopped down on my bed and tried to sleep. I was woken up quickly with my brother yelling, "DIE, YOU PATHETIC INSECT SCUM!" as he slammed a gigantic shoe over my entire body, and just leaving it there, assuming it had killed me. I still didn't fail to fall asleep...and I drifted..and drifted...just wanting this nightmarish day to end. My alarm went off at 6:00. I reached over with no struggle to hit the snooze button as I tried to drift back off. I then realized that I had my own arm back. Ecstatic, I leaped out of bed and rushed to the bathroom mirror to see that I was myself again. Excited, I approached my brother and exclaimed, "HEY! I'M MYSELF AGAIN! ISN'T THIS GREAT?!?" "DIE YOU MISERABLE SACK OF SHIT!" he exclaimed as he hit me over the head with his shoe several times. "WHY DOES THIS KEEP HAPPENING?!?" I yelled as I struggled to get my brother to stop hitting me. This is what I get for listening to 'Revolver'. I wouldn't recommend it unless you want to become a disgusting, mutant creature and get pummeled with shoes.." Reply

- | Helpful? (Log in to vote) · 6

Year of Release:

1966

Appears in:

3,629 charts

Rank Score:

46,078

Rank in 1966:

Rank in 1960s:

Overall Rank:

Average Rating:

91 (4,633 votes)

Comments:

488

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

The Beatles

"A true 'album,' Sgt. Pepper's is the ultimate psychedelic experience. The mood shifts from song to song are perfect, from the aching She's Leaving Home into the freak-circus Mr. Kite to the droning Within You Without You to the quaint, music hall of When I'm Sixty-Four into the psychedelia of Lov..." Reply

Caesar01 | Helpful? (Log in to vote) · 10

Year of Release:

1967

Appears in:

3,524 charts

Rank Score:

40,128

Rank in 1967:

Rank in 1960s:

Overall Rank:

Average Rating:

90 (4,638 votes)

Comments:

494

The Beatles (The White Album)

The Beatles

"Like any other double album you care to mention, this could probably have been streamlined into something even more magical than it already is, but there is a certain charm to all this – it feels quite rough and ragged and almost thrown together, but in a good way of course and it is the antithes..." Reply

- TheSmiths82-87 | Helpful? (Log in to vote) · 6

Year of Release:

1968

Appears in:

2,984 charts

Rank Score:

35,059

Rank in 1968:

Rank in 1960s:

Overall Rank:

Average Rating:

89 (3,868 votes)

Comments:

342

In The Court Of The Crimson King (An Observation By King Crimson)

King Crimson

"21st Century Schizoid Man is a serious contender for best song ever recorded and the rest of the album is not all that far behind. A masterpiece indeed." Reply

Bork | Helpful? (Log in to vote) · 15

Year of Release:

1969

Appears in:

2,093 charts

Rank Score:

26,263

Rank in 1969:

Rank in 1960s:

Overall Rank:

Average Rating:

Comments:

10.

"This might not be a popular opinion but I consider this album to be better than both "The White Album" and "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band". The compositions, songwriting, the emotions, the singing... just top-notch. Some of the songs even at their most simplest, really do have a long-term..." Reply

KHAN2705 | Helpful? (Log in to vote) · 12

Year of Release:

1965

Appears in:

2,361 charts

Rank Score:

24,847

Rank in 1965:

Rank in 1960s:

Overall Rank:

Average Rating:

Comments:

13.

"Led Zeppelin II was one of the more intriguing blues influenced hard rock albums of any era. The styles vary throughout, as each track stands out on its own. Its abundant riff magic amid powerful rhythmic drive had been done already, as the first album's "How Many More Times" possessed that initi..." Reply

rockbluesfolkjaz | Helpful? (Log in to vote) · 4

Year of Release:

1969

Appears in:

1,980 charts

Rank Score:

20,061

Rank in 1969:

Rank in 1960s:

Overall Rank:

Average Rating:

Comments:

15.

"It took me a while to get into the Stones honestly. I'm still not huge on them, being more of a Beatles-oriented guy, but this album stood out to me as my favorite Stones one." Reply

colonelchibbers | Helpful? (Log in to vote) · 5

Year of Release:

1969

Appears in:

1,804 charts

Rank Score:

16,328

Rank in 1969:

Rank in 1960s:

Overall Rank:

Average Rating:

85 (2,129 votes)

Comments:

141

16.

Led Zeppelin

"I have owned "Mothership" for a number of years and tried listening to it a few times, but never got into it. So I bought this album in february 2016 due to the position on the overall chart and the amazing reviews of this and the other Zeppelin albums I bought this one first as i thought id star..." Reply

- Bungalowracoon | Helpful? (Log in to vote) · 4

Year of Release:

1969

Appears in:

1,819 charts

Rank Score:

16,229

Rank in 1969:

Rank in 1960s:

Overall Rank:

Average Rating:

Comments:

17.

"When I first heard this I considered it the worst thing I had ever listened to. If not for the acclaim I would have ignored it forever, but I came back and I'm very glad I did. It's not an immediate or inviting album. It's not easy to connect to. Morrison is a storyteller first and foremost and c..." Reply

babyBlueSedan | Helpful? (Log in to vote) · 5

Year of Release:

1968

Appears in:

1,550 charts

Rank Score:

15,244

Rank in 1968:

Rank in 1960s:

Overall Rank:

Average Rating:

84 (1,732 votes)

Comments:

139

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Total albums: 204. Page 1 of 21

Best Albums of the 1960s composition

Year	Albums	%

1960	57	6%
1961	66	7%
1962	50	5%
1963	49	5%
1964	71	7%
1965	90	9%
1966	99	10%
1967	139	14%
1968	184	18%
1969	195	20%

Artist	Albums	%

John Coltrane	17	2%
The Beatles	17	2%
The Beach Boys	15	2%
Miles Davis	15	2%
The Rolling Stones	15	2%
Nina Simone	10	1%
Bob Dylan	10	1%
Show all

Country	Albums	%

	635	64%
	204	20%
	38	4%
	23	2%
	22	2%
	17	2%
	10	1%
Show all

Compilation?	Albums	%
No	970	97%
Yes	30	3%

Live?	Albums	%
No	961	96%
Yes	39	4%

Soundtrack?	Albums	%
No	978	98%
Yes	22	2%

Best Albums of the 1960s chart changes

Biggest climbers Biggest climbers in top 100 since last month
Up 5 from 100th to 95th Another Side Of Bob Dylan by Bob Dylan
Up 4 from 74th to 70th Karma by Pharoah Sanders
Up 2 from 85th to 83rd With The Beatles by The Beatles

Biggest fallers Biggest fallers in top 100 since last month
Down 4 from 83rd to 87th Hot Buttered Soul by Isaac Hayes
Down 2 from 70th to 72nd My Favorite Things by John Coltrane
Down 2 from 96th to 98th Goodbye And Hello by Tim Buckley

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

Best Albums of the 1950s

1. Kind Of Blue by Miles Davis

2. Mingus Ah Um by Charles Mingus

3. Time Out by The Dave Brubeck Quartet

4. Blue Train by John Coltrane

5. Elvis Presley by Elvis Presley

6. In The Wee Small Hours by Frank Sinatra

7. Here's Little Richard by Little Richard

8. The Shape Of Jazz To Come by Ornette Coleman

9. Art Blakey And The Jazz Messengers by Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers

10. Berry Is On Top by Chuck Berry