The 100 best albums of the '60s according to Best Ever Albums, as featured by Aol

by Claudio Fabretti

27-03-2026

In recent days, we brought you the ranking of the 100 Best Albums of the '70s according to Ultimate Classic Rock magazine, compared with our own site's ranking. Now we're pointing you toward another list published in recent days, this time by the Aol.com portal. It's a ranking of the 50 best albums of the 1960s compiled by Stacker, based on the Best Ever Albums methodology, which ranks records according to their presence and performance across 40,000 editorial and data-driven charts, including those from Rolling Stone, Pitchfork and Billboard. The Best Ever Albums score comes from a formula that factors in how many charts an album appears on and the position it reaches in each one, awarding points accordingly.

"It's hard to deny that the Sixties were one of the most revolutionary decades in the history of music," writes Angelica Leicht in the introduction. "That decade kicked off a sonic revolution that would change the face of music as a whole, and no genre was affected more than rock. Just ten years earlier, the world had discovered rock'n'roll through artists like Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley... Throughout the Sixties, musicians from all corners of the world tried to leave their mark on rock, soaking up influences ranging from funk to folk, from jazz to R&B. The result was the birth of sounds and songs the world had never heard before." That decade, Aol continues, "didn't just mark the birth of a new era of rock. It also cemented some of the biggest and most enduring names in music history, from Jim Morrison to Jimi Hendrix, from Bob Dylan to Janis Joplin, from the Beatles to Cream and the Kinks, among many others. Each of these artists left a distinct mark on the genre, releasing groundbreaking albums and helping shape the music we know today."

So here's the list published by Aol of the 100 best records of the 1960s (full feature here). Once again, you can compare it with OndaRock's own ranking of the best albums of the '60s.

50. The Beatles – “Please Please Me”

49. The Rolling Stones – “Aftermath”

48. Simon & Garfunkel – “Sounds Of Silence”

47. The Stooges – “The Stooges”

46. Crosby, Stills & Nash – “Crosby, Stills & Nash”

45. Otis Redding – “Otis Blue / Otis Redding Sings Soul”

44. The Kinks – “Arthur (Or The Decline And Fall Of The British Empire)”

43. The Moody Blues – “Days Of Future Passed”

42. Jefferson Airplane – “Surrealistic Pillow”

41. Johnny Cash – “At Folsom Prison”

40. Simon & Garfunkel – “Bookends”

39. The Band – “Music From Big Pink”

38. Cream – “Disraeli Gears”

37. The Doors – “Strange Days”

36. The Beatles – “A Hard Day’s Night”

35. The Band – “The Band”

34. The Beatles – “Help!”

33. The Who – “Tommy”

32. Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band – "Trout Mask Replica"

31. The Jimi Hendrix Experience – “Axis: Bold As Love”

30. Neil Young & Crazy Horse – “Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere”

29. Frank Zappa – "Hot Rats"

28. Nick Drake – "Five Leaves Left"

27. Pink Floyd – “The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn”

26. The Rolling Stones – “Beggars Banquet”

25. The Kinks – “The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society”

24. Leonard Cohen – “Songs Of Leonard Cohen”

23. The Velvet Underground – “White Light/White Heat”

22. Bob Dylan – "Bringing It All Back Home"

21. The Velvet Underground – “The Velvet Underground”

20. The Zombies – “Odessey And Oracle”

19. The Beatles – “Magical Mystery Tour”

18. Love – "Forever Changes"

17. The Jimi Hendrix Experience – “Electric Ladyland”

16. The Rolling Stones – “Let It Bleed”

15. Van Morrison – “Astral Weeks”

14. Led Zeppelin – “Led Zeppelin”

13. Led Zeppelin – “Led Zeppelin II”

12. The Jimi Hendrix Experience – “Are You Experienced”

11. Bob Dylan – “Blonde On Blonde”

10. The Doors – “The Doors”

9. The Beatles – “Rubber Soul”

8. Bob Dylan – “Highway 61 Revisited”

7. King Crimson – “In The Court Of The Crimson King”

6. The Beatles – “The Beatles (The White Album)”

5. The Beach Boys – “Pet Sounds”

4. The Velvet Underground & Nico – “The Velvet Underground & Nico”

3. The Beatles – “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”

2. The Beatles – “Revolver”

1. The Beatles – "Abbey Road"

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This article is an English translation of the original Italian text by Claudio Fabretti, published on OndaRock.it. It was translated with the help of artificial intelligence, under the editorial responsibility of OndaRock's editor-in-chief, Claudio Fabretti.

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