Iron Maiden - Number of the Beast [but really most Iron Maiden]
Motley Crue - SHout at the Devil
Queensryche Operation Mindcrime
Pink Floyd - The Wall
Dangerous Toys - Self Titled
Def Leppard - pyromania
Dio - Holy Diver
Dio - Magica
Dokken - back for the attack
Lizzy Borden - Master of disguise
megadeth - peace sells...but who's buying
metallica - ride the lightning/master of puppets
pantera - cowboys from hell
ratt - out of the cellar
skid row - self titled

those are just complete albums that have a life of their own. they are instantly recognizable from anyone my age. all this music still holds up to the test of time. none of it sounds dated.

I would probably add Skid Rows Slave to the Grind to my list.

Awesome metal record ... They broke the chains of the record label and recorded the songs they wanted after their successful debut album. Slave to the Grind was the first ever metal album to debut at #1 on the Billboard charts.

I still listen to it all the time ... Monkey Business, Slave to the Grind ... Great metal songs that still stand up today, 25 years after they were recorded.

Skid Row "Youth Gone Wild" tour in Auckland (in 1990) is still one of the best live concerts I have ever seen. 5 young guys given a ticket on the rock n roll express, and they just went nuts on stage.

rd.

God Lives Underwater - Empty

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wow - there's a blast from the past... and as you maintain - good from start to end.

AC/DC, KISS, Metallica, Rolling Stones... yes, fine.
But when does the Wu-Tang Clan get their own pinball machine?

I forgot one of my recent favorites that absolutely blows my socks off:

Wild Throne - Blood Maker

can stream it here: https://wildthrone.bandcamp.com/

I agree with: Van Halen 1

I also wanted to add offspring's smash album to the list. I am not alone on this one, I can assure you.

One personal favorite that I'm sure no one will mention: Beck's one foot in the grave

All the other classic rock albums just seem to always have a couple of horrible songs on them, even Floyd...

Without a doubt, one of the many travesties of Rock 'n' Roll! Big Star flat out invented the Power Pop genre. They are not very well known but many of the albums mentioned in this very thread would probably have never been made without their influence. For me, it is always a toss-up between this album and their first as to which I think is better (Third ain't too shabby either). If you have never listened to them, you owe it to yourself to check it out:

I'm having a hard time thinking of a whole album in this age of MP3's, but off the top of my head I'd say Perfect Strangers by Deep Purple.

free on Amazon prime, I will give this a try. I've only heard Surrounded By Thieves so far.

My favorite metal album, by my favorite metal band is Black Sabbath, Sabotage. I've flipped that LP over many times while working on pins.

Even in this age, I still listen to and buy whole albums. The completionist in me can't stand to song hop or only buy one song. I rarely make playlists and I rarely made mix tapes back in the day.

Yes! I've always referred to this as my desert island album. No honorable mentions allowed. One album and one album only. For me, the answer to this question has been an easy one to give for the last 15+ years...

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Man, if I'm going to be stuck on a desert island I sure hope that they have electricity. These desert island pins and albums would be worthless otherwise!

Venturing into the punk rock genre, these are my 2 favorites ever!

Dead Kennedys: give me convenience or give me death
Day Glo Abortions: Feed us a Fetus

Sooooo many good records and we've only scratched the surface here. All my pins have the volume turned way down because I always listen to music when I play. When people come over to play , I always have to adjust the "balance" between my pins and my stereo so they can hear the pin better. But when I'm alone , I know the sound effects and call outs already , so the music is turned up. If I had to chose between giving up listening to music or my pins , the pins go. Fortunately that's not going to happen.

Ub40
Frankie Goes To Hollywood
Spookytooth

Exile On Main Street: the absolute best Stones album.

Lot's of great albums already mentioned I'll add~

Liars - All of them
Arcade Fire - Funeral
Modest Mouse - Lonesome Crowded West
Flaming Lips - Soft Bulletin
Rancid - Life Wont Wait
LCD Soundsysem - Sounds of Silver
Joe Strummer - Global A-Go-Go
Velvet Underground - Self Titled
Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City
Radiohead - Insomniac
MIA - Arular and Kala
NWA - Straight Outta Compton
Girl Talk - Night Ripper
Michael Jackson - Thriller

Takeshi Terauchi - Manatsu No Umi O Buttobase

Thriller and Purple Rain also come to mind. When they were released in 82 and 84, nothing else came close. Every song on PR is incredible, and while Thriller has 1 or 2 mediocre songs, the 4 anchors are in a league all of their own.

Maybe not the greatest, but all three pretty good- front to back, top to bottom.
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Megadeth-Rust In Peace, perhaps the best riff & solo album in metal history.

I just scrolled through 1200 Classic Rock albums on my itunes list. I only listed the most essential and most accessible to a new listener or someone that is trying to get into the band. I tried to list albums that I would listen to from beginning to end. I left out some bands and some albums because they had some little to some filler or too much filler. This is what I would pass on to a 14 year old kid and go "Hey man check these out!" Hell it is what my uncle did to me from when I was 5 in 1978 until about 16 in 1989 when I started to recommend albums to him.

AC/DC - Back in Black
AC/DC - Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
AC/DC - High Voltage
AC/DC - Highway to Hell
AC/DC - If You Want Blood (You Got It)
Aerosmith - Aerosmith (first album)
Aerosmith - Rocks
Aerosmith - Toys In The Attic
The Allman Brothers Band - Eat a Peach
Alice Cooper - Billion Dollar Babies
Alice Cooper - Killer
Bad Company - Bad Company
Bad Company - Straight Shooter
The Beatles - Abbey Road
The Beatles - Revolver
The Beatles - Sgt Peppers
The Beatles - Magical Mystery Tour
The Beatles - White Album
Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath - Paranoid
Black Sabbath - Masters of Reality
Black Sabbath - Vol 4
Black Sabbath - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
Black Sabbath - Sabotage
Black Sabbath - Heaven and Hell
Black Sabbath - Mob Rules
Blind Faith - Blind Faith
Boston - Boston
Cheap Trick - Cheap Trick
Cheap Trick - In Color
Cheap Trick - Dream Police
Cheap Trick - Live at Budokon
Cheap Trick - Heaven Tonight
Chicago - Chicago Transit Authority
Cream - Disraeli Gears
Cream - Wheels of Fire
Cream - Fresh Cream
Croscy, Stills, Nash -Crosby, Stills, Nash
Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young - Deja Vu
David Bowie - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust
The Doors - The Doors
The Doors - Morrison Hotel
The Eagles - Hotel California
The Eagles - The Long Run
Eric Clapton - Slowhand
Eric Clapton - 461 Ocean Blvd
Emerson, Lake and Palmer - Tarkus
Emerson, Lake and Palmer - Brain Salad Surgery
Frank Zappa - Hot Rats
Frank Zappa - Sheik Yerbouti
Frank Zappa - Over-Nite Sensation
Frank Zappa - Apostrophe
Foreigner - Foreigner
Foreigner - Double Vision
Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
Genesis - Selling England By The Pound
Genesis - A Trick of the Tail
Grateful Dead - Blues For Allah
Grateful Dead - Workingman's Dead
Heart - Little Queen
Jefferson Airplane - Volunteers
Jimi Hendrix - Axis:Bold as Love
Jimi Hendrix - The Jimi Hendrix Experience
Jimi Hendrix - Electric Ladyland
Jimi Hendrix - Live at Woodstock
Jimi Hendrix - Wild Blue Angel (Live at the Isle of Wight Festival)
Johnny Winter - Second Winter
Journey - Evolution
Kansas - Point of No Return
The Kinks - Lola Vs. The Powerman
Kiss - Kiss
Kiss - Love Gun
Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti
Led Zeppelin - Houses of The Holy
Led Zeppelin - Presence
Led Zeppelin - III
Led Zeppelin - IV
Led Zeppelin - I
Led Zeppelin - II
Lynyrd Skynyrd -Pronouced (first album)
Lynyrd Skynyrd - Second Helping
Montrose - Montrose
The Moody Blues - Days of Future Past
Mott the Hoople - All the Young Dudes
Mountain - Climbing!
Neil Young - Everyone Knows this is Nowhere
Neil Young - Harvest
Ozzy Osbourne - Blizzard of Oz
Ozzy Osbourne - Diary of a Madman
Pink Floyd - Animals
Pink Floyd - Meddle
Pink Floyd - The Wall
Pink Floyd - Dark Side of The Moon
Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
Peter Frampton - Frampton Comes Alive!
The Police - Zenyatta Mondatta
The Police - Synchronicity
Robin Trower - Bridge of Sighs
Robin Trower - Twice Removed From yesterday
Rod Stewart - Every Picture Tells a Story
Rod Stewart - Never A Dull Moment
The Rolling Stones - Get Yer Ya Ya's Out
The Rolling Stones - Beggars Banquet
The Rolling Stones - Let it Bleed
The Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers
The Rolling Stones - Some Girls
Rush - Fly By Night
Rush - 2112
Rush - A Farewell to Kings
Rush - Hemispheres
Rush - Permanent Waves
Rush - Moving Pictures
Rush - Signals
Santana - Santana
Santana - Abraxas
Santana - Santana III
Steely Dan - Can't Buy a Cheap Thrill
Steely Dan - Aja
Steppenwolf - Steppenwolf
Steve Miller Band - Fly Like an Eagle
Steve Miller Band - Book of Dreams
Styx - The Grand Illusion
Styx - Pieces of Eight
Styx - Paradise Theater
Supertramp - Breakfast In America
Sweet - Desolation Boulevard
T. Rex - The Slider
T. Rex - Electric Warrior
T. Rex - Tanx
Ted Nugent - Ted Nugent
Ted Nugent - Cat Scratch Fever
Thin Lizzy - Jailbreak
Traffic - John Barleycorn Must Die
Van Halen - Van Halen
Van Halen - Fair Warning
Van Halen - 1984
The Who - Tommy
The Who - Live at the Isle of Wight
The Who - Who's Next
Yes - Close To The Edge
Yes - Fragile
Yes - Going For The One
Yes - Relayer
Yes - The Yes Album
ZZ Top - Tres Hombres

You left out doobie bros with Michael McDonald!

Springsteen- Born to Run and Darkness on the Edge of Town
Bowie- Ziggy Stardust
Clash- London Calling
The Who- Quadrophenia
Stones -Exile on Main Street
Beatles- Sgt. Peppers
Dire Straits- Making Movies
U2- Achtung Baby
Rod Stewart- Every Picture tells a Story

Top 10 for the island. 3 great 2 record sets.

I like the Doobie Brothers but there really isn't an album I can listen to from beginning to end from them.

Rat- pretty good list with great choices from Steely Dan , Genesis, Yes, The Who, and TREX. But a list with 5- Cheap Trick and 3- Styx albums and no Springsteen, U2, and the Clash is just flawed. I played a lot of this list to my girls and they love and have their I-pods full of Stones, Beatles, Bowie, Cream, The Who, Clash,U2, and Springsteen.

I TRUCKING HATE Springsteen (sorry). I also can't stand Bob Dylan...(again sorry) U2 is a great band from the 80's I like the first 4 albums but it is not something I would pass on as classic rock. (U2 is NOT Classic Rock) Yes I did forget The Clash. Go ahead and add..
The Clash - London Calling
The Clash - The Clash
Blue Cheer - Vincebum Eruptum

My list is not perfect and it will forget a few artists... I like The Doobie Brothers, Janis Joplin, James Gang, Humble Pie, Small Faces, The Faces, Grand Funk Railroad, George Thorogood, Free, Foghat, Eddie Money, Deep Purple, CCR, Buffalo Springfield, Bob Seger, Blue Oyster Cult, Blackfoot, Billy Thorpe, Joe Walsh, Jefferson Starship, John Mayall, Loverboy, MC5, Nazareth, The Outlaws, Pat Benatar, Pat Travers, Wings, Queen, Rainbow, Reo Speedwagon, Robert Plant, Roxy Music, Ten Years After, Tom Petty, Tommy Bolin, Uriah Heep, The Velvet Underground, The Stooges, Waren Zevon, West, Bruce, and Laing, .38 Special, The Pretenders, King Crimson, Electric Light Orchestra, Billy Squier, The Band, Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Argent, April Wine, Captain Beefheart.

I like all the above bands but I am not going to go "Hey son listen to this album by REO Speedwagon - REO Speedwagon II" I would say "hey listen to these two tracks on the album "Music Man" and "Golden Country" or "Hey son here is a Greatest Hits of "Grand Funk Railroad" if you find this accessible then I will loan you my copy of "E Pluribus Funk" so you can listen to songs like "I Come Tumblin'" or " People Lets Stop The War" But I would most likely only do this after he had listened to the first 100 albums I listed in my earlier post.

There is nothing wrong with 5 Cheap Trick albums or 3 Styx albums. I love the classic 7 albums from Styx along with their Wooden Nickel label stuff but I named the three big ones that are easily accessible to someone starting out with classic rock. Either the person will hate Styx or they will like them or they will only like a greatest hits album by them. That goes for any of the bands I listed in this specific response post.

Boston
Kansas
Boz scaggs

I just reread the original posting and I will narrow it down to my personal desert island choices and I will limit it to 10 choices.

Rush - Permanent Waves
Robin Trower - Bridge of Sighs
Yes - The Yes Album
Jimi Hendrix - Wild Blue Angel (Isle of Wight concert)
Pink Floyd - Meddle
Genesis - Selling England by the Pound
The Who - Tommy
The Police - Zenyatta Mondatta
Johnny Winter - Second Winter
Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti

RAT-That's cool. You are just passing on what you like. You obviously enjoy the 70's music as I do and I saw most of the bands you listed and liked most of them. I have seen Cheap Trick 3 times and like their music but not a whole album and have not seen Styx but had one of their albums. I think the 65-80 music was the best overall time in history. We like most of the same artists besides Springsteen and Styx. I think Bands like REO Speedwagon wrote some of the worst songs in music . I also don't like STYX love ballads. Everybody has their own taste. I am not a big Dylan lover but do think he wrote a lot of good songs. I met Springsteen and the band in 1975 after a 4 hour show at Duke University and have been backstage 3 times since. I consider him the best writer and live performer ever. Keep on Rocking .

I forgot a classic OZ band. The Black Sorrows "Hold onto me", i played the first CD until it had grooves in it. Joe Camilleri is the MAN

Janes addiction - ritual de Lo habitual. Builds up and peaks at three days then mellows out

Red hot chilli peppers - BSSM

REM - automatic for the people

Radiohead - kid A

Has anyone said Sublime "40oz's to Freedom" Yet?

With all the "Yes" endorsements in this thread, I still can't believe they haven't made it into the R&R Hall of Fame.

Three off the top of my head.

Peter Gabriel- So
Aerosmith- Rocks
Dire Straits- Brothers in Arms

And a very rare 1986 album by a band that had just one album:

David & David- Boomtown

Agree that the DK album is good back to back, but it's a compilation.
I'd put the CCR best of too in there. No skipping necessary.

The Beatles - Sgt. Peppers
Guns n' Roses - Appetite for Destruction
Oasis - Definitely Maybe
U2 - Achtung Baby
The Rolling Stones - Let it Bleed
Led Zeppelin - Houses of the Holy
The Who - Quadrophenia
Radiohead - The Bends
Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
Bob Dylan - The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan

ELO - Eldorado

Supertramp- Crime of the Century
Eagles- Hotel California
Peter Frampton- Frampton Comes Alive
Van Halen- Debut Album
Rolling Stones- Exile on Main Street
ELP- Brain Salad Surgery
Deep Purple- Made in Japan

Doggystyle- Snoop Dogg
2001- Dr.Dre
The Marshall Mathers LP- Eminem
Escape- Journey

My personal list:

Doubting Thomas - The Infidel
Skinny Puppy - Too Dark Park
Skinny Puppy - Last Rights
Husker Du - Zen Arcade
Descendents - Milo Goes to College
AC/DC - Highway to Hell
Neurosis - Through Silver in Blood
Slint - Spiderland
The Tear Garden - Tired Eyes Slowly Burning
Sex Pistols - Never Mind the Bollocks Here's The Sex Pistols
Cop Shoot Cop - White Noise
Dazzling Killmen - Face of Collapse
Death - For the Whole World to See
Slayer - Reign in Blood
Circle Jerks - Group Sex
Medicine - Shot Forth Self Living
The Damned - Machine Gun Etiquette
Social Distortion - Mommy's Little Monster
Guns 'n' Roses - Appetite for Destruction
Anthrax - Among the Living
The Cure - Pornography
The Cure - Disintegration

Man, how did I forget Neurosis! They have a couple. Eye of Every Storm and TSIB are almost religious experiences when I spin them.

Boards of Canada - Geogaddi
Audio acid trip

wow - look at you... exceptional selection.

DJ Shadow - Entroducing

organ grinder... yup. you've got it....

Man, what a surprise (not) to see so much of my favorite stuff from the pinhead crowd. You guys got em all (and quite a few that have not been listened to in far too long). So, thanks for this thread. From the obscure to mainstream, from metal to pop, punk to electronic, you guys have gotten all my top albums covered, and quite a few that are just on the fringe of the top. Really, you guys got 'em.

Except two. Although I have seen several other REM albums mentioned I didn't see anyone say Document yet. And that surprises me because that is the one I believe is their masterpiece. I'd skip on to another radio station in my car if I run across "It's the end of the world...". But if I make the mistake of starting "Finest Worksong" I will undoubtedly listen to the whole thing, including "It's the end". And in the context of the rest of that album, I will love it. But the final few songs are pure magic. I don't know what it is about that album exactly that makes it so special to me, and maybe that not knowing is exactly what makes it so good.

And Steve Earle, Transcendental Blues .

slayer - reign in blood

Its one of the top selling albums of all time.Get it.