Top Classic Rock Albums

  I looked at five different lists of top 100 classic rock albums as reference* to see what came out as the most popular. I compiled the list below from albums that showed three or more times on the reference lists I used. As would be expected there are some surprising omissions and some unexpected inclusions.

  In total there were 284 different albums listed and 160 different artists overall. Surprisingly no showing of Iron Maiden in the final list with only two of their albums getting an mention at all, Number of the Beast and 7th Son of a 7th Son which both got two listings. I would also have expected more showings from Black Sabbath and Deep Purple but both bands only have one album to show in the Top 70.

 Some surprise showings (well to me anyway) were Pulp, Blur, LCD Soundsystem, Daft Punk and Joni Mitchell,not quite sure how these qualify for Classic Rock but there you go.

  The top six albums on the list had a mention in all the references I used, the next 30 had four mentions and the rest had three. Also worth pointing out 35 of these albums were released in the 70's and 27 of them also featured in my Best 70's Classic Rock Album list so a good amount of consistency there really.

Special mention has to be made for The Who, whose album Who's Next topped this list and Quadrophenia which topped the Classic Rock Albums of the 70' which I did.

 I only have nineteen of these albums on vinyl ( more if you count CD copies) so I need to visit more second hand vinyl shops.

Top 70 Classic Rock Albums

The Who                        Who's Next

Pink Floyd                     Dark Side Of The Moon

Led Zeppelin                 IV

Jimi Hendrix                 Electric Ladyland

        

Guns n Roses              Appetite For Destruction

Black Sabbath             Paranoid

           

AC/DC                            Back in Black

Beatles                            Abbey Road

Beatles                            White Album

Beatles                            Revolver

Bon Jovi                         Slippery When Wet

David Bowie                  Ziggy Stardust

The Clash                       London Calling

Cream                             Disraelli Gears

The Doors                       The Doors

Deep Purple                    Machine Head

Eagles                             Hotel California

Fleetwood Mac               Rumours

Jimi Hendrix                   Are You Experienced

Led Zeppelin                  Physical Graffiti

Lynryd Skynyrd             Pronounced Leh-nerd Skin-nerd

Metallica                        Master of Puppets

Nirvana                          Nevermind

Pearl Jam                        Ten

Pink Floyd                      The Wall

Queen                             Night at the Opera

Radiohead                      OK Computer

Rolling Stones                Sticky Fingers

Rolling Stones                Let it Bleed

Rolling Stones                Exile on Main Street

Sex Pistols                      Never Mind The Bollocks

Bruce Springsteen          Born to Run

U2                                   Joshua Tree

Van Halen                       Van Halen

Van Halen                       1984

AC/DC                            Highway to Hell

Aerosmith                       Toys in the Attic

Alice Cooper                  Billion Dollar Babies

Allman Brothers             Live At Filmore East

Beatles                            Sgt Pepper

Boston                             Boston

Bad Company                 Bad Company

David Bowie                   Hunky Dory

Bod Dylan                       Blood on the Tracks

Bob Dylan                       Bonde on Blonde

Bob Dylan                       Hi ghway 61 Revisited

Dire Straits                      Brothers in Arms

Def Leppard                    Hysteria

Def Leppard                    Pyromania

Eric Clapton                    Layla & Other Assorted Love Songs

Foreigner                         4

Jimi Hendrix                    Bold As Love

Jethro Tull                        Aqualung

King Crimson                  Court of the Crimson King

Led Zeppelin                    1

Led Zeppelin                    2

Van Morrison                   Astral Weeks

Meatloaf                          Bat Out Of Hell

Prince                              Purple Rain

Pink Floyd                       Wish You Were Here

Rage Against Machine    Rage Against The Machine

Rush                                 2112

Rush                                 Moving Pictures

Red Hot Chiili Peppers    Blood Sugars

Soundgarden                    Super Unknown

Thin Lizzy                        Jailbreak

The Who                          Tommy

Neil Young                       After the Goldrush

Yes                                    Fragile

*References Used

https://www.udiscovermusic.com/

https://stackers.com/

https://www.besteveralbums.com/

http://davesmusicdatabase.blogspot.com/

Classic Rock Magazine

    

Top Classic Rock Albums From The 70's

     I referenced 5 different lists* showing the 'top 100 albums from the 70's' to give the top 50 shown below. I have listed the albums that have shown in three or more of the lists. Surprisingly only two albums appeared in all five ,Van Halen's first album and The Who with Quadrophenia, not two that I would initially have thought of. Think I would have expected maybe Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath or Pink Floyd to have had at least one album showing in all five lists. 

Over the five different lists there were a total of 287 different albums that got a mention which covered 51 artists. So the list below shows the top two which had a mention in all five lists followed by the next twelve which had four mentions and the rest had 3 mentions. So overall I would say this is a comprehensive list giving the top 50 albums, all be it with some surprise admissions. Cannot believe Deep Purple in Rock did not get a mention but there you go 

 

 Looks like I only have only got 16 of the 50 so looks like I need to do some more vinyl shopping.

Top 50 Albums From The 70's 

Van Halen        Van Halen  

      

The Who            Quadrophenia

Aerosmith                Toys in the Attic

Boston                      Boston

Black Sabbath          Paranoid

Deep Purple             Machine Head  

Kiss                          Destroyer

Led Zeppelin            3

Led Zeppelin            4

Led Zeppelin            Physical Graffiti

Queen                       News of the World

Rush                         2112

Rolling Stones          Sticky Fingers     

The Who                  Who's Next

Aerosmith                 Rocks

Alice Cooper            Killer

Alice Cooper            Love It To Death

Alice Cooper            Billion Dollar Babies

AC/DC                     Highway to Hell

David Bowie            Ziggy Stardust

The Beatles              Let It Be    

The Cars                  The Cars

Bob Dylan                Blood on the Tracks

Eagles                       Hotel California

Fleetwood Mac         Rumours

George Harrison       All Things Must Pass

Jethro Tull                Aqualung

Lynyrd Skynyrd       Pronounced Leh-nerd Skin-nerd

Led Zeppelin            Houses of the Holy

Mott The Hoople      Mott                               

Meatloaf                   Bat Out Of Hell

Ted Nugent               Ted Nugent

Pink Floyd                Animals

Pink Floyd                Wish You Were Here

Pink Floyd                Dark Side of the Moon

Rainbow                   Rainbow Rising

Rolling Stones          Some Girls

Rolling Stones          Exile on Main Street

Scorpions                  Love Drive

Bruce Springsteen    Born to Run

Bruce Springsteen    Darkness on the Edge of Town

Sex Pistols                Never Mind the Bollocks

Thin Lizzy                Jailbreak

Thin Lizzy                Live and Dangerous

Wishbone Ash          Argus

The Who                   Live at Leeds

Neil Young               Harvest

ZZ Top                     Duguello

ZZ Top                     Tres Hombres

* Sources used

Planet Rock Magazine

Classic Rock Magazine

Ultimateclassicrock.com

Rateyourmusic.com

Classicrockhistory.com

Introduction

 

I guess my love for rock music began about 1970, during my last years at school.  As older pupils were allowed to have a common room where we could hang around at lunch time. One of the popular pastimes we used to do was bring albums in and play them during our break from lessons, one of the pupils used to bring his record player in.

 It was during these times listening to the likes of Moody Blues, Jethro Tull, The Who, Stones etc that one album made me sit up and take a bit more notice. This album was Deep Purple in Rock and this became my first rock album purchase and really started my love for rock music. I still love this album today and I think it is one of the best rock albums ever made, I even love the album cover as well.

 For me the 70’s will always be the best decade for music following on from some great music from the 60's. This decade was not just epic for rock music but we had glam rock, great pop music and disco as well not to mention punk later in the later years. No decade has come near this for great genres of all music. Artists sold actual records by the millions based solely on radio play and music press mentions (Sounds, new Musical Express in particular). Then there was top of the pops which became a must watch every week , in my case to see what rock bands may be on (and of course Pans People). Also there was Old Grey Whistle Test with Whispering Bob Harris as the main presenter which tended to have a few more off stream bands but again a must watch show for lovers of rock music.

 Then there were the special Christmas songs which most of the popular bands and artists made and even today these songs are on the radio every year which just shows how good they were. All we get now at Christmas is some bland song by the winner of X Factor or some other reality show – where has the real music gone? Going round the local pubs at this time was fantastic with great music coming from the juke box and not from some wannabe DJ stuck in a corner blasting out what seems to be the same song with same incessant beat all night.

 Anyway I do not want to go on a rant about how awful I feel today's music is so I hope you enjoy my blog on classic rock.