Top 10 Greatest Albums of the 1960S

Released in August 1966, Revolver is consistently ranked among the two or three greatest albums ever recorded, featuring backward guitar tracks, string quartets, and tape loops that studio engineers had never attempted before. Its range — from the Motown-influenced 'Got to Get You into My Life' to the avant-garde 'Tomorrow Never Knows' — showed the Beatles could do anything.

Brian Wilson's 1966 masterwork was recorded using 90 session musicians across 17 studio sessions while the rest of the Beach Boys toured. Paul McCartney called it 'the album that made me most jealous' and directly inspired Sgt. Pepper's; it has since sold over 10 million copies and is ranked #2 greatest album by NME.

Bob Dylan's 1965 album opens with 'Like a Rolling Stone,' a 6-minute track that Billboard ranked the greatest rock song ever written. Dylan's electric band shocked folk purists at Newport that summer, but the album's eight tracks permanently merged folk poetry with rock power and changed the medium forever.

The first double album in rock history, Bob Dylan's 1966 opus features 14 tracks across four sides of vinyl — including 'Visions of Johanna' and 'Just Like a Woman.' Recorded partly in Nashville, it has sold over 4 million copies and is ranked #9 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

Jimi Hendrix's 1967 debut introduced electric guitar technique that musicians are still trying to replicate six decades later. It spent 33 weeks on the UK Albums Chart and entered the US chart at #5 — remarkable for a debut — and features 'Purple Haze,' 'Foxy Lady,' and 'Hey Joe.'

Recorded in the summer of 1969 as the Beatles' relationships fractured, Abbey Road is their final recorded album (Let It Be was recorded first). Its 17-minute medley on Side 2 is considered the greatest sustained sequence in rock history; it has sold 31 million copies worldwide.

Produced by Andy Warhol in 1967 with his iconic banana cover, this album sold only 30,000 copies on release but inspired generations — Brian Eno famously said 'everyone who bought one of those 30,000 copies started a band.' Its unflinching examination of heroin, sadomasochism, and urban alienation was unlike anything in pop music.

Recorded in a single session on December 9, 1964, John Coltrane's spiritual four-part suite is widely considered the greatest jazz album ever made. Named to TIME magazine's 100 Greatest Albums, it sold 500,000 copies in its first year — enormous for a jazz record — and consists of 'Acknowledgement,' 'Resolution,' 'Pursuance,' and 'Psalm.'

The Beatles' 1965 album was the first in which they wrote all their own material and used no cover versions. Bob Dylan credited it with inspiring him to write more personal lyrics; Brian Wilson cited it as the direct inspiration for Pet Sounds. Paul McCartney called it 'the album where we became artists rather than just musicians.'

Released in August 1966, Revolver is consistently ranked among the two or three greatest albums ever recorded, featuring backward guitar tracks, string quartets, and tape loops that studio engineers had never attempted before. Its range — from the Motown-influenced 'Got to Get You into My Life' to the avant-garde 'Tomorrow Never Knows' — showed the Beatles could do anything.

Brian Wilson's 1966 masterwork was recorded using 90 session musicians across 17 studio sessions while the rest of the Beach Boys toured. Paul McCartney called it 'the album that made me most jealous' and directly inspired Sgt. Pepper's; it has since sold over 10 million copies and is ranked #2 greatest album by NME.

Bob Dylan's 1965 album opens with 'Like a Rolling Stone,' a 6-minute track that Billboard ranked the greatest rock song ever written. Dylan's electric band shocked folk purists at Newport that summer, but the album's eight tracks permanently merged folk poetry with rock power and changed the medium forever.

The first double album in rock history, Bob Dylan's 1966 opus features 14 tracks across four sides of vinyl — including 'Visions of Johanna' and 'Just Like a Woman.' Recorded partly in Nashville, it has sold over 4 million copies and is ranked #9 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

Jimi Hendrix's 1967 debut introduced electric guitar technique that musicians are still trying to replicate six decades later. It spent 33 weeks on the UK Albums Chart and entered the US chart at #5 — remarkable for a debut — and features 'Purple Haze,' 'Foxy Lady,' and 'Hey Joe.'

Recorded in the summer of 1969 as the Beatles' relationships fractured, Abbey Road is their final recorded album (Let It Be was recorded first). Its 17-minute medley on Side 2 is considered the greatest sustained sequence in rock history; it has sold 31 million copies worldwide.

Produced by Andy Warhol in 1967 with his iconic banana cover, this album sold only 30,000 copies on release but inspired generations — Brian Eno famously said 'everyone who bought one of those 30,000 copies started a band.' Its unflinching examination of heroin, sadomasochism, and urban alienation was unlike anything in pop music.

Recorded in a single session on December 9, 1964, John Coltrane's spiritual four-part suite is widely considered the greatest jazz album ever made. Named to TIME magazine's 100 Greatest Albums, it sold 500,000 copies in its first year — enormous for a jazz record — and consists of 'Acknowledgement,' 'Resolution,' 'Pursuance,' and 'Psalm.'

The Beatles' 1965 album was the first in which they wrote all their own material and used no cover versions. Bob Dylan credited it with inspiring him to write more personal lyrics; Brian Wilson cited it as the direct inspiration for Pet Sounds. Paul McCartney called it 'the album where we became artists rather than just musicians.'