Posted Nov 18, 2003 12:00 AM
1. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beatles
2. Pet Sounds, The Beach Boys
3. Revolver, The Beatles
4. Highway 61 Revisited, Bob Dylan
5. Rubber Soul, The Beatles
6. What's Going On, Marvin Gaye
7. Exile on Main Street, The Rolling Stones
8. London Calling, The Clash
9. Blonde on Blonde, Bob Dylan
10. The Beatles ("The White Album"), The Beatles
11. The Sun Sessions, Elvis Presley
12. Kind of Blue, Miles Davis
13. Velvet Underground and Nico, The Velvet Underground
14. Abbey Road, The Beatles
15. Are You Experienced?, The Jimi Hendrix Experience
16. Blood on the Tracks, Bob Dylan
17. Nevermind, Nirvana
18. Born to Run, Bruce Springsteen
19. Astral Weeks, Van Morrison
20. Thriller, Michael Jackson
....
500. Touch, Eurythmics
___________________________
20) Thriller
Michael Jackson
Posted Nov 03, 2003 12:00 AM
Michael Jackson towered over the 1980s the way Elvis Presley dominated the 1950s, and Thriller is the reason why. Still in his early twenties when Thriller was released, the R&B child star of the 1970s had ripened into a Technicolor soulman, a singer, dancer and songwriter with incomparable crossover instincts. He and producer Quincy Jones established the something-for-everyone template of Thriller on 1979's Off the Wall, on which Jackson captures the rare mania of his life -- the applause and paranoia; the need for love and the fear of commitment -- in a crisp fusion of pop hooks and dance beats. On Thriller, the pair heighten the sheen (the jaunty gloss of "The Girl Is Mine," with a guest vocal by Paul McCartney), pump up the theater (the horror-movie spectacular "Thriller") and deepen the funk. With its locomotive cadence and acrobatic-metal guitar solo by Eddie Van Halen, "Beat It" was arguably the first industrial-disco Number One. (Jackson had such an impeccable nose for the down-and-dirty that Jones called him Smelly.) But the most thrilling thing about Thriller was the autobiography busting through the gloss: the angry hiss of denial in Jackson's voice in the funk-rock noir of "Billie Jean"; the to-hell-with-haters cock strut of "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'." Jackson was at the peak of his art and adulthood. It is hard now to separate the wonder of Thriller from its commercial stature (Number One for thirty-seven weeks, seven Top Ten singles, eight Grammys) and Jackson's current nightmare of tabloid celebrity and self-destructive egomania. But there was a time when he was truly the King of Pop. This is it.
Total album sales: 26 million
Peak chart position: 1
_________________________________
202) Bad
Michael Jackson
Posted Nov 01, 2003 12:00 AM
Excessive? Michael Jackson? His follow-up to Thriller -- and his last album with producer Quincy Jones -- was preceded by a seventeen-minute video by Martin Scorcese. But at Bad's best -- the pulsating funk pop of "The Way You Make Me Feel" -- excess gives way to ecstasy, and it spawned five Number Ones.
Total album sales: 6 million
Peak chart position: 1
Total album sales: 26 million
Peak chart position: 1
_________________________________
202) Bad
Michael Jackson
Posted Nov 01, 2003 12:00 AM
Excessive? Michael Jackson? His follow-up to Thriller -- and his last album with producer Quincy Jones -- was preceded by a seventeen-minute video by Martin Scorcese. But at Bad's best -- the pulsating funk pop of "The Way You Make Me Feel" -- excess gives way to ecstasy, and it spawned five Number Ones.
Total album sales: 6 million
Peak chart position: 1
