1. The Rolling Stones - Exile on Main Street
2. Jackson Browne - Late for the Sky
3. The Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers
4. Bruce Springsteen - Darkness on the Edge of Town
5. Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run
6. Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tracks
7. Carole King - Tapestry
8. The Rolling Stones - Some Girls
9. Bruce Springsteen - Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.
10. Jackson Browne - Running on Empty
11. Van Morrison - Moondance
12. Led Zeppelin - Houses of the Holy
13. Led Zeppelin - Untitled
14. The Who - Who’s Next
15. The Who - Quadrophenia
16. Bob Dylan - Planet Waves
17. Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
18. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Damn the Torpedoes
19. Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
20. Rod Stewart - Every Picture Tells a Story
21. Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
22. Joni Mitchell - Blue
23. Neil Young - Harvest
24. Bruce Springsteen - The Wild, the Innocent, & the E Street Shuffle
25. The Rolling Stones - It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll
26. Pink Floyd - The Wall
27. Van Morrison - His Band and the Street Choir
28. Rod Stewart - Gasoline Alley
29. The Kinks - Muswell Hillbillies
30. Stevie Wonder - Songs in the Key of Life
31. Big Star - #1 Record
32. Big Star - Radio City
33. Van Halen - s/t
34. Stevie Wonder - Innervisions
35. Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin III
36. Flamin Groovies - Teenage Head
37. The Beatles - Let It Be
38. Fleetwood Mac - s/t
39. Lynyrd Skynyrd - (Pronounced 'Lĕh-'nérd 'Skin-'nérd)
40. Marvin Gaye - What’s Going On
41. Boston - s/t
42. Creedence Clearwater Revival - Cosmo’s Factory
43. Willie Nelson - Red Headed Stranger
44. Jimmy Cliff - The Harder They Fall
45. Rod Stewart - Never a Dull Moment
46. The Velvet Underground - Loaded
47. Led Zeppelin - In Through the Out Door
48. Linda Ronstadt - Heart Like a Wheel
49. Jackson Browne - For Everyman
50. Van Morrison - Tupelo Honey
51. Thin Lizzy - Jailbreak
52. Patti Smith - Horses
53. George Harrison - All Things Must Pass
54. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Déjà Vu
55. Neil Young - After the Gold Rush
56. Eagles - The Long Run
57. Eagles - Hotel California
58. Grateful Dead - American Beauty
59. The Modern Lovers - s/t
60. Richard and Linda Thompson - I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight
61. Prince - s/t
62. Sex Pistols - Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols
63. Faces - A Nod Is As Good As a Wink… to a Blind Horse
64. The Cars - s/t
65. Lynyrd Skynyrd - Street Survivors
66. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - s/t
67. Van Morrison - St. Dominic’s Preview
68. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - You’re Gonna Get It!
69. Big Star - Third
70. The Rolling Stones - Black and Blue
71. Supertramp - Breakfast in America
72. Stevie Wonder - Talking Book
73. The Police - Outlandos d'Amour
74. Lou Reed - Transformer
75. Derek and the Dominoes - Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs
76. The Rolling Stones - Goats Head Soup
77. Tom Waits - Closing Time
78. Television - Marquee Moon
79. Sly and the Family Stone - Fresh
80. Elton John - Honky Château
81. Elton John - Madman Across the Water
82. Black Sabbath - Paranoid
83. Gram Parsons - GP
84. Sly and the Family Stone - There's a Riot Goin' On
85. Badfinger - Straight Up
86. Willie Nelson - Stardust
87. Tennessee Ernie Ford & Glen Campbell - Ernie Sings & Glen Picks
88. John Lennon - Imagine
89. Paul McCartney and Wings - Band on the Run
90. Tom Waits - Small Change
91. David Bowie - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
92. Bad Company - s/t
93. Heart - Dreamboat Annie
94. ZZ Top - Tres Hombres
95. AC/DC - Highway to Hell
96. AC/DC - Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
97. REO Speedwagon - You Can Tune a Piano, but You Can’t Tuna Fish
98. Aerosmith - Toys in the Attic
99. Michael Jackson - Off the Wall
NotesApologies to
Tweet for any distress I caused with my late submission. Thank you for including my list in the final tally.
I chose not to include any jazz, live albums or compilations/greatest hits with the exception of
The Harder They Fall since that was emphatically ruled to be eligible. I intentionally omitted some popular artists from my list (e.g., Queen, Steely Dan), but other glaring omissions (e.g., Prine, Townes) reflect unfamiliarity with their catalogs rather than dislike for the artist.
Honorable mentionsI grew up hearing the greatest hits albums from
Chicago and
The Guess Who all the time in my home, but none of their individual albums are worth listing.
The
Saturday Night Fever soundtrack is another one that is inextricably woven into my childhood memories and it has enough great tracks to make my list if not for it being a compilation with a lot of previously-released material.
Labi Siffre has some very great songs ("Dreamer", "Watch Me"), but I couldn't get into any of his records.
Toulouse is a Canadian bilingual disco group that sang in French and English. "C’est toujours à recommencer (It Always Happens This Way)" was just a single, never included on a proper studio album, but definitely an all-time favorite '70s track for me.