Star Time
Brown fined his musicians on the spot for missed notes and scuffed shoes, which is one reason the band plays like this.
★ 6.7
The Albums canon
Sourced and spun.
Every record chosen by hand and annotated for why it matters.
Browse all 542 records or filter by genre, artist, and year.
Browse all 542 records or filter by genre, artist, and year.
Greatest Hits
Sly's band was mixed by race and by sex at a time when almost no one else's was, and the singles sound like that too.
★ 6.4
Legend
1984
Put together three years after Marley died, and it has essentially never left the American catalogue charts in the forty years since.
★ 6.4
Grievous Angel
1973
Parsons died before it came out, and his road manager stole the body from the airport and burned it in Joshua Tree, as promised.
★ 6.0
Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975)
1976
It was the first album certified platinum, and for decades it traded places with Thriller as the best-selling record in America.
★ 5.8
40 Greatest Hits
Williams was dead at twenty-nine in the back of a Cadillac, having written the plainest and hardest-hitting songs country would ever have.
★ 5.8
Chronicle: The 20 Greatest Hits
Creedence made all of these in about four years and then spent decades in court with their label over who owned them.
★ 5.7
Gold: Greatest Hits
Two of the four were married to the other two, and were divorcing by the end. The sadness sits under melodies in bright major keys.
★ 5.7
Portrait of a Legend
Cooke set up his own record label and publishing company at a time when almost no Black artist in America controlled either.
★ 5.7
The Anthology: 1947-1972
A folklorist recorded him on a Mississippi plantation in 1941. He heard the playback, decided he was good, and moved to Chicago.
★ 5.6
The Birth of Soul: The Complete Atlantic Recordings
He took a gospel song and put worldly words to it, which scandalized the churches and effectively invented soul music in the process.
★ 5.6
20 Golden Greats
Holly was dead at twenty-two, and this is nearly all of it. The hiccup, the specs, and the template the Beatles built on.
★ 5.5
Greatest Hits
Producer Willie Mitchell muffled the drums with a towel and kept the horns low, so nothing ever competes with the top of Green's voice.
★ 5.5
The Anthology 1961-1977
Mayfield wrote the songs the civil rights marches sang, then started his own label so that he would own them.
★ 4.9
The Definitive Collection
Cline recorded Crazy on crutches, weeks after a car crash, and the broken ribs kept her from the high notes until a later session.
★ 4.9
The Definitive Collection
Signed to Motown at eleven, he had a number one at thirteen, and later played nearly every instrument on his own records himself.
★ 4.9
Where Did You Sleep Last Night?
He tuned his twelve-string low and struck it hard enough to carry bass and rhythm at once. Nirvana closed their unplugged set with the title song.
★ 3.5