Top Ten Rock Albums Of The 1960s*

*as ranked by the users of rateyourmusic.com

#1 The Beatles - Abbey Road (1969)

Actually only my 4th favorite Beatles album. It’s great for sure but it doesn’t bring quite the excitement and experimentation of my three favorite Beatles albums (which are all make the top 10 along with this one.) Side 1 has some great tracks including the classic singles “Come Together” & “Something” and the side closer “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” which is a truly awesome song. Side 2 may be my favorite side of any Beatles album for the way that it all works together so flawlessly.

#2 The Beatles - Revolver (1966)

Revolver is the hip choice for top Beatles album these days. It does have an incredible amount of great songs on it, with a great amount of variety. But “Yellow Submarine “would have worked better as a b-side than an album cut in my opinion. This is actually my 3rd favorite Beatles album.

#3 Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited (1965)

I prefer Blonde on Blonde actually. But it is a brilliant album.

#4 The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967)

This is ranked a bit higher than I’d put it. It’s great but I don’t think it’s as good as many of the albums it’s ranked ahead of.

#5 Bob Dylan - Bringing It All Back Home (1965)

#6 The Beatles - The White Album (1968)

This is my #1. I love the sprawling madness of it all. It has the most re-listen value of any album of the ’60s for me. It’s like document of every kind of popular music made up to that point. Some will say that it has too many clunkers and yeah it does have a few songs that aren’t actually that good but for some reason that makes it even better to me. Hard to explain why.

#7 Bob Dylan - Blonde on Blonde (1966)

This is my favorite Dylan album, at the moment anyway.

#8 Jimi Hendrix - Are You Experienced? (1967)

Great, but it’s a little overrated with it’s placement this high.

#9 The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)

I think years of people calling it overrated have in fact made it now underrated. For me it ranks above Abbey Road & Revolver.

#10 The Kinks - The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society (1968)

A bit overrated in my opinion. I know it’s hip to say the Kinks are super fantastic these days. And yes they were good but no, they were not as good as The Beatles, The Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones, or The Who. Speaking of The Beach Boys, where’s Pet Sounds? It’s #12 among 60s rock albums on RYM, it’d definitely be in my top 10. The top ranked Stones album is Let It Bleed at #18.

Remember the rankings are not mine, they were taken from Rate Your Music - But the comments are mine. Those you can flame away on if you disagree (as I’m sure you will, not everyone can be this brilliant!)

Bob Dylan, The Beatles, 60s, The Velvet Underground, The Kinks

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