The Top 897 Albums of All Time

One of our local radio stations WTMD 89.7FM in Towson Maryland recently did a countdown of the top 897 albums of all time (89.7FM = Top 897 - Get it! radio people... ) anyway as a lover of lists in a list loving land I was enthralled.

The station solicited votes from listeners - we were encourage to send our top 10 albums of all time and the staffers, along with the help of a Cray XT-4 supercomputer would compile the list and Play it for us during the entire month of February.

It was a great month of radio and interesting to hear the diversity of recordings included in th list. Everything from Ella Fitzgerald to Public Enemy made the list. Here's the Top 25.

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1. The Beatles - St. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

2. The Beatles The Beatles (aka The White Album)

3. Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon

4. The Beatles - Abbey Road

5. The Clash- London Calling

6. Bruce Springsteen - Born To Run

7. U2 - The Joshua Tree

8. Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tracks

9. The Who - Who's Next

10. The Beatles- Revolver

11. Led Zeppelin- Led Zeppelin IV

12. Radiohead - OK Computer

13. Paul Simon- Graceland

14. Rolling Stones- Exile On Main Street

15. Grateful Dead- American Beauty

16. Beatles- Rubber Soul

17. Neil Young- Harvest

18. Bob Dylan- Highway 61 Revisited

19. Nirvana- Nevermind

20. Counting Crows - August and Everything After

21. Miles Davis - Kind Of Blue

22. Fleetwood Mac - Rumors

23. Jimi Hendrix - Are You Experienced?

24. Rolling Stones - Let It Bleed

25. Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers None from the 21st Century. 3 from the 1990's 2 From the 80's 12 from the 70's 7 from the 60's and 1 - Miles Davis "Kind of Blue" from the 1950's, Which, by the way, is one of the most played around my house over the past 20 years. The first 21st Century release shows up at #33 Wilco - "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot".  An album the Warner Music paid for TWICE. It's a great story. The top ranking Female artist album was at #36 "Blue" By Joni Mitchell. Now, I LOVE Joni, but I can hardly listen to those early records anymore. The air is thin up around those notes - it makes me dizzy.  Personally, I would have "Court and Spark" - #99 - ranked highest among Joni albums followed by "Heijira" and Maybe even "Hissing of Summer Lawns"  before I got to "Blue" Speaking of Women. Carole King's "Tapestry" a core element of every teen-aged girl's record collection in the 1970's  ruled the charts for months.  It show up here at number 46.  This is where this list starts to smell fishy and the gloves come off.  I'll start - Tapestry a greater album than "Tommy",  "Axis Bold as Love"  "Songs in the Key of Life" or "Hotel California"  I don't THINK So! That's the fun part, debating favorites and defending personal tastes.  Music is so personal, so powerful and so polarizing. Damn, I love it.  Apparently so does my neighbor, Guy. He runs a consulting firm and is a big music fan too. Guy, however, is much more analytical than I and he took a far more complete and detailed look at this list. Check it out HERE. It's quite impressive and insightful. ...and when you've had enough insight. Come back here for more argument!  Whaddda ya mean Devo "Freedom of Choice" is at # 876?? That is easily a Top 800 record!