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Published Oct 3, 2026, 6:51 PM EDT
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The album, as an art form or medium, was not invented in the 1960s, but this was the decade when lots of exciting and groundbreaking things happened with the album, just broadly speaking. Having artists like The Beach Boys, The Beatles, and The Velvet Underground release some masterpieces – especially in the back half of the decade – definitely helped, and without those boundary-pushing albums, the 1970s probably wouldn’t have been as phenomenal a 10-year period for music, either.
As for the first half of the decade? Lots of jazz, really. Some of the best early albums you can listen to that do feel like coherent and consistent listens for 30 to 40 minutes belong to that genre, and then around the mid-point of the 1960s onward, rock really started to dominate. You'll see that below, going through what’s arguably the best album from every year of the 1960s, beginning with 1960 and ending – to hopefully no one’s surprise – with 1969.
10 'Giant Steps' (1960)
John Coltrane
The nature of an undertaking like this means John Coltrane’s best album, 1965’s A Love Supreme, will be snubbed, just because the person writing likes another album from that year a little more. Instead, he’s going to occupy two spots early on in the decade, even if the first, Giant Steps, isn't quite A Love Supreme.
Then again, not much is, but this is still broadly enjoyable and quite approachable jazz, and beyond that, it’s a bit hard to know what to say. Jazz is just difficult to talk about and analyze, unless you're some kind of expert, but hey, it sounds good. Jazz really does dominate the first few years of the 1960s, if you're focusing in on albums, so be prepared for a few more paragraphs of somewhat uncertain commentary.
9 'My Favorite Things' (1961)
John Coltrane
A lot that was likable and present in Giant Steps is also evident in the following year’s My Favorite Things, though this one is perhaps a little less energetic overall (albeit not without its breathless moments). It’s also more sprawling, with only four tracks here, compared to the seven found on Giant Steps, and yet My Favorite Things is a few minutes longer, meaning there are a few epic-length tracks here.
The highlight is definitely “My Favorite Things,” which is a perfect opener where you really don’t feel the almost 14-minute-long length, and then Coltrane putting his own spin on the jazz standard that is “Summertime” is also great. The other two tracks are good, so there you go: a very consistent album, and another one that’s easy to listen to, even if you're not the biggest jazz fan in the world (definitely worth it if you want to try and understand the genre’s appeal a little more; a real gateway sort of album, in that regard).
8 'Mosaic' (1962)
Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers
The title track from Mosaic is pretty great, while the rest of the album is perfectly fine, as far as jazz goes. This one’s a bit of an odd pick, and more obscure than the two aforementioned John Coltrane albums, but 1962 was a year that didn’t really have a ton of noteworthy albums released during it. No, seriously, check yourself if you want to. This is not a cop-out.
Jazz is the one genre where some real albums did seem to come out, as is the case with 1960 and 1961, but there wasn’t really a landmark album there either, jazz or otherwise. Still, Art Blakey delivered a more-than-solid album here, even if his magnum opus came a little earlier in his career (at the tail-end of the 1950s, specifically, 1958’s self-titled Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers, AKA Moanin').
7 'The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady' (1963)
Charles Mingus
And then in contrast, here is a jazz album that does feel like more of a landmark release, being very unusual and still kind of mind-blowing to listen to today, all these decades later. It’s The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady by Charles Mingus, and it feels like one of the most expansive and ambitious jazz albums possibly of all time? And it’s another that’s hard to talk about, owing to the undeniable density of it all.
Words can’t really explain it, and then even trying to do it justice or suggesting why someone should give it their time proves difficult, too. Just give it a listen, if you’ve never heard it before. You don’t have to love jazz to find it interesting, since there’s a lot to grab onto and feel dizzied by here.
6 'Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes' (1964)
The Ronettes
There is a good deal of drama and unease with the history of The Ronettes, and so while it feels tempting to say that it’s a shame there was only ever one official album by the girl group, they were also associated with Phil Spector, and he… well, there’s a lot to get into there. He did impressive work as a record producer, but was controversial otherwise, and then became infamous later in his life to an even greater extent after being convicted of murder.
So, Spector kind of haunts the whole album like a specter, but in any event, Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes is an album that still exists, and it is pretty much perfect as far as pop albums go. The highlights here are some of the best-sounding and most cathartic pop songs ever, and the entire album is worth the price of admission for “Be My Baby” alone (of course).
5 'Rubber Soul' (1965)
The Beatles
The Beatles were mentioned earlier as being instrumental to furthering the concept of an album, indeed doing so with some concept albums. Rubber Soul isn't as conceptual as Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, and then Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band itself isn't as conceptual as some other/later famed concept albums, but what Rubber Soul does have is a consistent sound, and a mostly consistent set of tracks.
Rubber Soul isn't as conceptual as Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, and then Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band itself isn't as conceptual as some other/later famed concept albums, but what Rubber Soul does have is a consistent sound.
It definitely feels complete and satisfying, listening to the whole thing, and it’s probably the first outright masterpiece of an album the band ever did… though certainly not the last, as the inclusion of one other album a bit further down the page will demonstrate quite clearly. Other albums of theirs are great, but had to be snubbed, just because when you get to this second half of the 1960s, there are – without fail – numerous classic albums released in every year.
4 'Pet Sounds' (1966)
The Beach Boys
1966 saw the release of Revolver, the follow-up to Rubber Soul by The Beatles, and people do absolutely love that album too (and understandably so), but the actual best album of 1966 has to be Pet Sounds, by The Beach Boys. It’s obvious, and it’s kind of like, how do you do something better than this? It’s also one of those sorta/almost concept albums, like Rubber Soul, but without a real narrative.
It doesn’t need one, since it also has consistency on its side, and then there is a level of continuity (for lack of a better word) throughout the album, owing to the songs exploring some similar things thematically. And what songs, with the likes of “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” and “God Only Knows” being obvious highlights, and then everything else also being excellent. There’s nothing that can be faulted here, and it’s well and truly worthy of being called one of the best albums of all time.
3 'The Velvet Underground & Nico' (1967)
The Velvet Underground and Nico
1967 was one hell of a year for entertainment, because you had a lot of particularly groundbreaking American movies come out that year, and then on the album front, things were also far from quiet. Picking a highlight proves particularly difficult, as a result, but in terms of breaking the most ground and being almost freakishly forward-thinking, it’s hard to look past The Velvet Underground & Nico, an album that was indeed a collaboration between The Velvet Underground and Nico.
It’s wild to think this album, at the time of writing, is almost 60, because a lot of it remains feeling otherworldly and truly gutsy, but then it’s strange and sometimes alienating while still having great/catchy songwriting. It’s excellent music, and then the fact it did so much in such an unusual way, paving the way for a great deal of music to come, could well honestly be just icing on an already delicious cake.
2 'The Beatles' (1968)
The Beatles
Just as John Coltrane snuck into this whole ranking twice, so too do The Beatles, with this 1968 double album being absolutely massive, not to mention self-titled. The message there is kind of that this is The Beatles, and all the different sides of them, and everything the four members were capable of doing at that point in their careers (all were still young, in their mid-to-late 20s, but the growth as musicians throughout the 1960s up until that point was undeniable).
Of course, sometimes this one gets called The White Album, just because that’s a bit easier, but calling it that really doesn’t reflect how eclectic and colorful the album is. Maybe it’s the canvas that was blank right before The Beatles went ahead and painted a whole bunch of chaotic shapes of every color over it. You can really get lost in this album, which is easily one of the boldest in the history of rock music.
1 'Hot Buttered Soul' (1969)
Isaac Hayes
Saving a hot take for last, because yes, 1969 was a stacked year, and it was a famously good one for rock music, but the best album of that year… eh, why not make it Hot Buttered Soul? This is like the best soul album of all time, or it’s neck and neck with some of the best from the 1970s, like Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life. That one’s also ambitious and flawless from start to finish, but Hot Buttered Soul is more enigmatic, and the way it works as well as it does while being so out-there (some long songs here, with 45 minutes of music and only four tracks) is hard to wrap one’s head around.
Isaac Hayes did something here, nearly 60 years ago, that no other soul/funk/R&B artists have really been able to do, at least not in the same way. It’s next-level stuff, and perhaps the most phenomenal album found in an overall phenomenal year for music.
