If you’re going to spend money buying a masterpiece, you may as well use the best possible medium. The 10 albums below are must-have albums that belong in your collection of vinyl records.
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10. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles (1967)
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band has The Beatles at their peak, and that’s saying something considering the albums immediately preceding and following it. Continuing from the 1965 masterpiece Rubber Soul, the band pushed existing recording norms to create more masterpieces pretty much every time out.
On Pepper’s, the band and producer George Martin used an orchestral movement as a scene change in “A Day in the Life.” “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” is psychedelic pop. “Within You Without You” brings traditional Indian folk to the West. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was a No. 1 album in eight countries, and it’s one of the best-selling albums in history.
9. Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd (1973)
In the United States, Dark Side of the Moon has been on the Billboard 200 album chart longer than any record in history. The themes here are greed and conflict. But with Pink Floyd‘s members moved by the psychological demise of former leader Syd Barrett, Dark Side also addresses mental illness.
“Money” is played in a 7/8-time signature, yet still sounds familiar and easy. Like Sgt. Pepper before it, Dark Side of the Moon used the studio as a tool and pushed the boundaries of record making. It has sold more than 45 millions copies and looks to keep selling indefinitely.
8. Blood on the Tracks by Bob Dylan (1975)
Bob Dylan was inspired by the great American songbook; then he re-wrote it. There’s a lot of pain on the epic Blood on the Tracks. People connected with this album because there’s solidarity in feeling alone. The album opens with “Tangled Up in Blue,” a song inspired by Joni Mitchell’s Blue album (Mitchell had already been called “the new Dylan” and was now serving as the original Dylan’s muse).
Blood on the Tracks is a journey. “Shelter from the Storm” sounds like a late-night psalm, while “Idiot Wind” is all painful rage. Retired and focused on his family in the early ’70s, the peace Dylan sought turned to restlessness with Tracks. It ended up topping the U.S. Billboard albums chart.
7. Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen (1975)
Some think Bruce Springsteen’s true work starts here. The romanticized youth and the hope of escape on Born to Run has come to define the Boss. It also sports one of the best album covers ever.
The sessions for the record were long and arduous. Springsteen wanted Phil Spector’s “Wall of Sound.” “Born to Run” didn’t come together until Steven Van Zandt wrote the horn line. Ultimately the album is a rebirth for Springsteen. It’s the sound of his leaving adolescence. Born to Run feels like an album about the American myth, and with it, Springsteen became something of an American myth himself. Born to Run is certified platinum seven times over.
6. What’s Going On by Marvin Gaye (1971)
A masterpiece of social rage, What’s Going On endures not only because it represents Marvin Gaye’s creative apex. It’s also because of the sad reality that many of the issues on this record still haven’t been resolved. There’s a line in “Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)” where Gaye sings, Trigger-happy policing. The album was recorded in only 10 days and topped the U.S. Billboard soul albums chart.
5. Blue by Joni Mitchell (1971)
Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue is on this list, too, and Joni Mitchell loves jazz—she certainly plays the guitar more like a jazz artist than a pop star. Her sound drones and sustains, her right hand keeping a rhythm all its own like a jazz-inspired heartbeat.
[RELATED: The Legacy of Joni Mitchell in 5 Albums]
On Blue, Mitchell’s voice is clear, her lyrics epic and poetic. She talked at the time of how the search can be more exciting than the fulfillment in songwriting. With Blue, Joni Mitchell created one of the greatest works of the 20th century; she searched and fulfilled. The album peaked at No. 15 on the U.S. Billboard 200.
4. OK Computer by Radiohead (1997)
The word “masterpiece” can’t be used enough on this list. OK Computer is a masterpiece. Not only in its musicality, but in Thom Yorke’s prescient lyrics of a dystopian picture of technology run amok, flattening culture and slowly destroying the things we love.
“Paranoid Android” is a grandiose and punk three-part mini symphony. OK Computer changed the sound of modern music. After its release, you began hearing OK Computer-isms on records everywhere.
Radiohead topped many lists in 1997 as band of the year. They won the Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album for OK Computer and received a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year. It’s now in the U.S. National Recording Registry.
3. Kind of Blue by Miles Davis (1959)
Few could seriously argue that Kind of Blue is not at least one of the greatest jazz albums ever. Recorded in only two sessions in 1959, it features Miles Davis along with Julian “Cannonball” Adderley, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, Wynton Kelly, Paul Chambers, and Jimmy Cobb. The influence of Kind of Blue touches more than jazz; it can be heard on rock albums like Dark Side of the Moon and the Allmans’ Idlewild South, and was crucial to the development of another jazz master in Coltrane.
2. Never Mind the Bullocks Here’s the Sex Pistols by Sex Pistols (1977)
If it’s not the greatest debut album of all time, period, it’s certainly the greatest punk rock debut. And what makes it even more special is that it’s also the band’s only album. Here we are, and there we go. Bye-bye. The New York Dolls are as responsible as the Sex Pistols for Never Mind the Bullocks, but if imitation is the finest form of flattery, what happens when the imitators happen to do it better?
1. Purple Rain by Prince and the Revolution (1984)
With the release of Purple Rain, Prince changed the fabric of pop culture to paisley. “When Doves Cry” played endlessly on MTV. Critically praised and commercially successful, Purple Rain replaced Born in the U.S.A. at No. 1 on the Billboard albums chart. It stayed there for over five months before Born in the U.S.A. took it back.
The album and the film it provided a soundtrack for made Prince a legend. Purple Rain is included in the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry, and the film is preserved in the National Film Registry.
Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
