The sad part here is that Janis Joplin was really hitting her stride on her last album: She’d formed her first really great band in Full Tilt Boogie, and moved beyond the Big Brother acid blues to a more rootsy mix, showing what a soulful and versatile singer she was. Though not a hit, “Get It While You Can” was the statement of her life. Just think of the follow-ups we missed out on. 32: John Lennon – Plastic Ono Band Led Zeppelin made its second album during a grueling 1969 world tour, recording it in bits and pieces in studios in the United States and Europe. It includes the smash hit "Whole Lotta Love." Year: 2000

For "Kid A," Radiohead added drum machines, synthesizers, and an ondes martenot, an instrument invented in the 1920s that has an oscillating sound not unlike a theremin. Ahead of the album's release, Radiohead made it available for online streaming. Even so, it went platinum in its first week, debuted at the top of U.S. charts, and was awarded a Grammy for best alternative album.

#4. 'Revolver' by The Beatles

- Best Ever Albums score: 76,868
Year: 1979

Manchester, England's Joy Division introduced itself with "Unknown Pleasures." Standouts on the dark punk album are "She Lost Control" and "Interzone." The band's singer Ian Curtis took his life in the year after the album's release.

#31. 'The Stone Roses' by The Stone Roses

- Best Ever Albums score: 33,803

Historically, the Go-Go’s debut ranks as the first No.1 album ever performed, and largely written, by an all-female band. It’s also a blast of pure fun, showing Charlotte Caffey, Jane Wiedlin, and Kathy Valentine as first-class songwriters who’d absorbed everything great about California pop. “We Got the Beat” and “Our Lips Are Sealed” never get old. 62: The Strokes – Is This It?

Ian Curtis left the world with an influential album that defined the dark and moody, yet still danceable territory that would characterize post-punk. None of Joy Division’s best-known singles are here, but the soundscapes of Closer create a world that’s equally forbidding and enticing. 58: KISS – Alive! Year: 1994

Portishead embraced the sound that came to be called trip-hop with its debut album "Dummy." The influential album won Britain's prestigious 1995 Mercury Music Prize.

#67. 'After the Gold Rush' by Neil Young

- Best Ever Albums score: 19,969
Harvest" was the first hit album for Canada's Neil Young, with help from Nashville session musicians, the London Symphony Orchestra, James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt, and his former bandmates David Crosby, Stephen Stills, and Graham Nash. It features the huge hit "Heart of Gold," along with "Old Man" and "The Needle and the Damage Done." Young later wrote: "'Heart of Gold' put me in the middle of the road. Travelling there soon became a bore, so I headed for the ditch. A rougher ride, but I saw more interesting people there." Manchester, England's Joy Division introduced itself with "Unknown Pleasures." Standouts on the dark punk album are "She Lost Control" and "Interzone." The band's singer Ian Curtis took his life in the year after the album's release.

Several bands appear multiple times on the list—unsurprising for acts that served as the most influential entertainers of their day—while other musicians who were undoubtedly significant didn't make the cut. Some of the winning albums are obscure and beloved by their fans, but little known much further afield. Others are laden with familiar hits. With Is This It?, The Strokes delivered New York punk for a new era, taking the best from the past – mainly the Cars, Stooges, and Velvets – and channeling them into songs that are invariably short and tasty (all under four minutes) and never quite linear. Originally catching on in late 2001, it became a welcome reminder that New York was never going to lose its attitude. 61: Motörhead– Ace of Spades Year: 1995

"(What's the Story) Morning Glory?" was Oasis' follow-up album to "Definitely Maybe" and sold more copies than the debut. Unlike the first album, "(What's the Story) Morning Glory?" was hugely popular in the United States, confirming the band's international hit status.

#47. 'Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not' by Arctic Monkeys

- Best Ever Albums score: 25,450
You can’t compare The Who to the Stones or Zeppelin,” says producer Glyn Johns. “They’re all completely different. The Who is a combination of three extraordinary musicians – the combination of Entwistle, Moon’s flamboyance and Pete Townshend was like nothing I’d ever heard. It was never discussed, it was just the musical chemistry between them, and the energy level. Baba O’Riley and Won’t Get Fooled Again (the latter released in a chart-troubling single edit) stand strong on their own merits and, bookending the album, have come to define the band in their prime. Baba O’Riley’s trilling synth and organ-treated intro heralded another galvanising performance. Daltrey’s cries of ‘teenage wasteland’ seem like a genuine call to arms.Although I would certainly agree with some choices, ( including some of the old chestnuts) that, without fail, will always turn up in these poles, there is a huge percentage of (IMO) important influential, some slightly left field albums missing …. Year: 1971

The opening song on "Hunky Dory" is "Changes," a song that became one of David Bowie's biggest and most enduring hits. Bowie, who died in 2016, said he was inspired by traveling on a promotional bus tour in America to write several of the songs, such as "Andy Warhol" and "Song for Bob Dylan."

#42. 'Come on Feel the Illinoise' by Sufjan Stevens

- Best Ever Albums score: 27,599
Pearl Jam introduced themselves with "Ten" and its standouts "Jeremy,""Even Flow," and "Alive," featuring a two-minute solo by lead guitarist Mike McCready. McCready said the band recorded "Even Flow" dozens of times to get it right. The album got a boost in popularity with Pearl Jam's live shows in 1992. Take Arctic Monkeys away from the nightclub scene, and what do you get? An even better and more thoughtful band, one that can embrace electronica and textured pop without losing the raw edge. AM marked a personal turn in Alex Turner’s writing; it also gave a long-deserved payoff to the band’s mentor, street poet John Cooper Clarke, who gets a song covered. 65: Betty Davis – They Say I’m Different

Another classic band whose albums never score as highly in polls like this as you might think, The Who are possibly best loved for their extraordinary run of 60s singles than for their long-players. Which is odd, because a) they have made some classic albums and b) Pete Townshend is a man full of big ideas. Year: 1992

R.E.M.'s "Automatic for the People" contains the unforgettable hits "Nightswimming,""Man on the Moon," and "Everybody Hurts." Lead singer Michael Stipe has said he has heard from untold numbers of fans that "Everybody Hurts" helped save their lives. The album was a darker, sadder sequel to the Athens, Georgia, band's hugely popular "Out of Time" featuring "Losing My Religion" and "Shiny Happy People."

#52. 'In Utero' by Nirvana

- Best Ever Albums score: 23,929
What's the Story) Morning Glory?" was Oasis' follow-up album to "Definitely Maybe" and sold more copies than the debut. Unlike the first album, "(What's the Story) Morning Glory?" was hugely popular in the United States, confirming the band's international hit status.Sunn O))) - Metta, Benevolence BBC 6Music: Live On The Invitation Of Mary Anne Hobbs (Southern Lord) Year: 1968

The Zombies recorded "Odessey and Oracle" at Abbey Road Studios after the Beatles finished recording "Sgt. Pepper." Guitarist and vocalist Chris White said the band members only had a thousand pounds among them to make the album. Its single "Time of the Season," with its recognizable opening bass notes and breathy vocals, remains hugely popular.

#84. 'Pinkerton' by Weezer

- Best Ever Albums score: 16,474
In Utero" was Nirvana's third and last studio album. A Rolling Stone reviewer called it "brilliant, corrosive, enraged and thoughtful." Nirvana's frontman Kurt Cobain killed himself in 1994. Radiohead’s triumph here was to revive the multi-layered concept album, one that demanded you put on headphones, ponder all the musical surprises, and absorb its take on modern alienation. And wouldn’t you know it, this wilfully noncommercial album produced their biggest singles, at least in the UK, and remains a classic. 15: Prince & the Revolution – Purple Rain