I recently went through my lifetime collection and got rid of hundreds of CD’s and LP’s I never intended to listen to again.
All of my “forever” vinyl albums have been copied to CD.
Leaving me with…
Beatles, by far. About 100 CD’s. Only 5-6 are solo/post Fabs releases; less than a dozen are bootleg/unauthorized.
Frank Zappa. I’ve collected his work since 1968. Considering how wildly uneven his recorded output is, I’ve cherrypicked and recompiled dozens of his albums into many custom discs of my own choices. With those compilations, as well as untampered-with original discs, I have at least 30 CD’s.
Stones. About 30 discs. Almost entirely from '65 through '80.
At least a couple of dozen CD’s by each of the following:
J.S. Bach (Organ, Harpsichord/Piano compositions) Brian Wilson (mostly as “The Beach Boys”) Ry Cooder
David Lindley
Bob Brozman
ELP and Keith Emerson solo Nat Cole Trio R. Crumb (Yes, R. Crumb the visual artist. Performing with The Cheap Suit Serenaders, Les Primitifs du Futur, and various albums he’s released of his own esoteric collections)
This post made me laugh—You sound like a character in a Nick Hornby book.
I think you know that you’re overthinking this. Just answer each question to yourself as you please; no one is going to hold you to account for your claims.
If we’re talking actual performers or performing groups, for pop music it’s probably The Beatles if we’re counting both CDs and vinyl, followed by Simon and Garfunkel and Bowie. A decent smattering of The Kingston Trio and Queen.
For Classical, (performing artist(s) remember!) it’s the Academy Of Ancient Music by a landslide, mostly Vivaldi and Handel, plus Scarlattti, Bach, and too many others to remember, followed by the Chicago Symphony, primarily the Solti years. After that, Vladimir Ashkenazy and Glenn Gould.
I’ve always put 7" vinyl under the category of “album” - YMMV
Three or four 7"s each (or split 7"s) from the following:
Agothocles (from Belgium, the kings of split 7"s)
Agoraphobic Nosebleed
Discordance Axis
Despise You
peachy Slap-A-Ham label’s 3 X 7" Bleeeaaauuurrrgghhh compilation series
Brutal Truth
Godstomper
Potato Justice
Burn Up Bled Dry
Well imagine if Snoboarder Bo posts it’ll take up the rest of the page.
Either…
Styx with 10. This Includes vinyl and cassette even though I dont have anything to play them on. Plus one that I own, but is lost somewhere.
Steely Dan/Donald Fagen with 13. These are what I listen to regularly. However, this includes some that I listen to with my Apple Music account.
Cars, Styx and Steely Dan with 7. These are ones that I own on CD or digital.
Since a few people are also counting solo albums by band members…
If I do that, then the clear winner is Yes, with well over 100 albums. Maybe even close to 150. It’d be too much of a project to try to count them all, since there’s been like 300 people in the band over the past 50 years. I did count the number of albums I own by Anderson (14), Howe (24), and Wakeman (36).
If we include side-projects as well, then things get really out of control. Dream Theater may be back in the running.
Well, I would have bet that your pick was Genesis, though they really had not quite as much side and solo projects as Yes. And who wants to own every Phil Collins album anyway ;)?
Led Zeppelin:
all 8 studio albums
the live “The Song Remains The Same” , “How The West Was Won” & "BBC Sessions’’ albums
the post-Bonham collection “Coda” & MANY bootlegs. IMHO, the greatest band EVER