Rolling Stone - Rolling Stone - The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time

Brian Jones and Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones, 1968

The album is going to survive. People love it and are moved by it. They put it on and it changes the way they feel about life.
Elton John

Patti Smith in New York City, 2000

by Rob Sheffield

The Album: The best invention of the past century. The ultimate music format. When it comes to creative expression, nothing beats the album, from the sound in the grooves to the artwork on the cover. Its the deepest way to tell the long, strange story of pop music as it keeps evolving. Every few years, the experts declare the death of the album. But theyre always wrong. For both artists and fans, albums mean more all the time. Thats why ROLLING STONE assembled this epic project: our comprehensive list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. We convened a poll of hundreds of artists, musicians, producers, critics, music-biz figures. We asked them the toughest of questions: what are your all-time favorite albums? We got Top 50 ballots from over 300 voters, including stars like Beyonce, Taylor Swift, Questlove, and Billie Eilish. Our voters were legends from Stevie Nicks to Gene Simmons to Lin-Manuel Miranda, from the Wu-Tang Clans Raekwon to the late Ronnie Spector. We polled rising young rebels like H.E.R., Tierra Whack, and Snail Mails Lindsay Jordan, members of the Grateful Dead and the Velvet Underground, jazz icon Herbie Hancock, Metallicas Lars Ulrich, U2s Adam Clayton and the Edge. We even got a ballot from reggae star Jimmy Cliff, who had his first hit before Billie Eilishs mom was born. As you can see, the voters rose to the occasion.

They went for classics, artistic revolutions, crate-digging cult faves. (As for Ad-Rock from the Beastie Boys, he just made most of them up.) There were zero boundaries or restrictions voters could choose anything, from any era or genre. They went for jazz, country, punk, reggae. Also compilations the only way to do justice to old-school pioneers like Chuck Berry. You cant tell the story without the artwork always a crucial part of the albums mystique. That tradition goes from the Beatles crossing Abbey Road (why is Paul barefoot?) to Kendrick Lamar stepping to the White House. This book is a celebration of the glorious history of the album so far. Music keeps moving into the future yet these classics are always going to be part of that future. Because these are albums the world will go on listening to forever.

This book is a celebration of the glorious history of the album so far.

Aretha Franklin in the studio at Atlantic Records in New York City, 1967

Whats Going On

Marvin Gaye
Tamla/Motown, 1971

Marvin Gayes masterpiece began as a reaction to police brutality. In May 1969, Renaldo Obie Benson, the Four Tops bass singer, watched TV coverage of hundreds of club-wielding cops breaking up the Peoples Park, a protest hub in Berkeley. Aghast at the violence, Benson began to write a song with Motown lyricist Al Cleveland, trying to capture the confusion and pain of the times. Unfortunately, the Four Tops werent interested in the song. But one of Motowns biggest stars and greatest voices turned out to be more receptive. Marvin Gaye was in a dark and contemplative place, wounded by the death of his frequent duet partner Tammi Terrell, yearning to sing subtler and more substantive material, and mulling over his brother Frankies horrifying tales of his recent stint fighting in Vietnam. I knew there was more inside me, he told biographer David Ritz. And that was something no record executive or producer could see. But I saw it. I knew I had to get out there. After some hesitation, Gaye embraced Whats Going On, and with the help of arranger David Van De Pitte, crafted a version of the song that was jazzier and more sophisticated than any Motown recording to date, layering cinematic strings over James Jamersons supernaturally sinuous bass line and a polyrhythmic groove. Gaye unleashed one of his most spectacular vocal performances in a career full of them, scatting and improvising around the main melody. Motown Records founder Berry Gordy initially resisted releasing Whats Going On, telling Gaye that he thought scatting was out of date and protest lyrics were too commercially risky. But when the song became an instant hit, Gordy gave Gaye a single month to craft an album to accompany Whats Going On. Gaye more than rose to the challenge. I work best under pressure and when Im depressed, he told the Detroit Free Press at the time. The worlds never been as depressing as it is right now. Were killing the planet, killing our young men in the streets, and going to war around the world. Human rights thats the theme. What emerged was soul musics first concept album, and one of the most important and influential LPs ever made. John Legend recently described it as the voice of Black America speaking out that we couldnt always smile on cue for you. Building around one finished song lent