Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time

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Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" magazine cover

"The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" is a 2003 special issue of American magazine Rolling Stone and a related book published in 2005. The lists were compiled based on votes from selected rock musicians, critics, and industry figures. The lists predominantly feature American and British music from the 1960s and the 1970s, topped by the Beatles' 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, with a top 10 that featured four entries from the Beatles (Nos. 1, 3, 5 and 10), two from Bob Dylan (No. 4 and 9), and one each from the Beach Boys (No. 2), Marvin Gaye (No. 6), the Rolling Stones (No. 7) and the Clash (No. 8).

In 2012, Rolling Stone published a revised edition of the list drawing on the original and a later survey of albums up until the early 2000s. It was made available in "bookazine" format on newsstands in the US from April 27 to July 25. The new list contained 38 albums not present in the previous one, 16 of them released after 2003.

Background

The first version of the list, published as a magazine in November 2003, was based on the votes of 273 rock musicians, critics, and industry figures, each of whom submitted a weighted list of 50 albums. The accounting firm Ernst & Young devised a point system to weigh votes for 1,600 submitted titles. The list includes a few compilations, and "greatest hits" collections.

The following authors contributed to the citations made of each album:

• Pat Blashill
• Anthony DeCurtis
• Ben Edmonds
• Gavin Edwards
• Jenny Eliscu
• David Fricke
• Mark Kemp
• Greg Kot
• Joe Levy
• Parke Puterbaugh
• Austin Scaggs
• Karen Schoemer
• Bud Scoppa
• Rob Sheffield
• David Thigpen
• Barry Walters
• Tammy Mustafa

An amended list was released in book form in 2005, with an introduction written by Steven Van Zandt. As the editor's foreword explains, some compilation albums were removed, and Robert Johnson's The Complete Recordings was substituted for both of his King of the Delta Blues Singers volumes, making room for a total of eight new entries on the list. The Complete Recordings would be reinstated to the list in the 2012 edition.

List statistics

Number of albums from each decade

Decade	Number of albums	Percentage
1950s	10	2.0%
1960s	105	21.0%
1970s	186	37.2%
1980s	84	16.8%
1990s	73	14.6%
2000s	40	8.0%
2010s	2	0.4%

Artists with the most albums

11 albums

• Bob Dylan (one credited to Bob Dylan and the Band; two in the top 10 at the No. 9 and No. 4 spots)

10 albums

• The Beatles (four in the top 10 at the No. 10, No. 5, No. 3, and No. 1 spots)
• The Rolling Stones (one in the top 10 at the No. 7 spot)

8 albums

• Bruce Springsteen

7 albums

• The Who

6 albums

• Elton John (in 2003 edition)

5 albums

• Led Zeppelin
• David Bowie
• Bob Marley and the Wailers
• Radiohead
• U2
• Neil Young (two credited to Neil Young and Crazy Horse)

4 albums

• James Brown
• The Byrds
• Elvis Costello (three credited with the Attractions)
• Grateful Dead
• Pink Floyd
• The Police
• Prince
• Otis Redding
• Roxy Music
• Sly and the Family Stone
• The Smiths
• Talking Heads
• Stevie Wonder
• The Velvet Underground (one album credited with Nico)

3 albums

• The Band (one credited to Bob Dylan and The Band)
• The Beach Boys (one in the top 10 at the No. 2 spot)
• Big Star
• Black Sabbath
• Jackson Browne
• Ray Charles
• The Clash (one in the top 10 at the No. 8 spot)
• George Clinton (two with Funkadelic, one with Parliament)
• Cream
• Creedence Clearwater Revival (in 2003 edition)
• Miles Davis
• The Doors
• Nick Drake (in 2003 edition)
• Eminem (in 2003 edition)
• Marvin Gaye (one in the top 10 at the No. 6 spot)
• Al Green
• The Jimi Hendrix Experience
• Michael Jackson
• The Kinks
• Madonna
• Nirvana
• Randy Newman
• Elvis Presley
• Public Enemy (in 2003 edition)
• R.E.M.
• Red Hot Chili Peppers (in 2003 edition)
• Simon & Garfunkel
• Steely Dan
• The Stooges
• Tom Waits
• Muddy Waters
• Kanye West (in 2012 edition)
• Jay Z

Reception

Writing in USA Today newspaper, Edna Gundersen described the list as predictable and "weighted toward testosterone-fueled vintage rock". The Rolling Stone 500 has also been criticised for being male-dominated, outmoded and almost entirely Anglo-American in focus. Jonny Sharp, a contributor to NME's own 500 greatest albums list, described the Rolling Stone list as a "soulless, canon-centric [list] of the same tired old titles," noting: "looking at their 500, when the only album in their top 10 less than 40 years old is London Calling, I think I prefer the NME's less critically-correct approach."

Following the publicity surrounding the list, rock critic Jim DeRogatis, a former Rolling Stone editor, published Kill Your Idols: A New Generation of Rock Writers Reconsiders the Classics in 2004. This featured a number of generally younger critics arguing against the high evaluation of various "great" albums, some of which had been included in the list, including DeRogatis taking on Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, which had been Rolling Stone's top choice.

See also

• NME's The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, a similar list
• All Time Top 1000 Albums, a similar list
• The 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time, also from Rolling Stone magazine
• The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, also from Rolling Stone magazine
• The 100 Greatest Artists of All Time, also from Rolling Stone magazine
• 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, a similar list, ordered by time period
• List of greatest hits albums

External links

• 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, Rolling Stone