Bat Out of Hell should be on everyones top 25 list but I didn’t feel like I was good enough to reward Meatloaf with a top 10 spot. The same goes with Jailbreak by Thin Lizzy, I don’t think those albums are any worse than an album like Paranoid or Darkside but I don’t see how you can put Meatloaf or Thin Lizzys greatest album ahead of Pink Floyd or Sabbaths greatest album. I guess with the top ten I thought about a few criteria, some carried more weight than others. Best 3 tracks vs. Worst 3 tracks, innovation, sound quality, overall flow of the album, greatness of the band who made the album, influence on the people of that time, are all things that I thought about putting this top 10 together. No matter how much I wanted a hot steamy pan of Meatloaf stuck right in the middle of this list, I just couldn’t slip it infront of the others.
Ohhhh that list makes alot more sense now.
This is one of those lists where the criteria really should be defined. Are we voting for personal favourites, the most influential, the most successful…
I notice that most of the favourites are from the 60s and 70s - as my choices would be. But haven’t later decades produced anything worthy?
I need a little more clarification, too. Are we talking about the loose genre known as “classic rock” here in the poll (which would be artists from the 60s and 70s). Or are we using the term “classic” in the loose sense, and the poll is just supposed to be our top ten rock albums of all time?
This list is the Greatest of all time, it shouldn’t be your favorites in order, The “Greatest” is hard to define or explain. There isn’t a 100% right or wrong answer to be found. I would say that the 80’s and 90’s do have some great albums by: The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pearl Jam, Metallica, Rush, Tool, but I can’t put any of them ahead of my listed top 10.
Well by my own estimation, an album has to be 20 years old to be considered a “classic.” So, “Nevermind” by Nirvana, or “Blood Sugar Sex Magic” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers could make the cut.
Also, just to add a few more that came to me - “Kiss Alive” (by guess who?) and “Thriller” by Michael Jackson can go down on the list.
This is a list of the top 10 Rock albums of all time as I see it, all of the Bands on my list are “Classic Rock” bands but they don’t have to be, if someone wants to put Nirvana, Creed, Nickelback and Santana as their top 4 then so be it. I would question that list greatly, but it’s mostly your opinion. I’m just trying to get a good musical discussion flowing.
I’m sorry to be picky, but from the above it sounds like ‘list your favourite albums of any genre, but not in any particular order’. In your original list, you have, for example, Sgt Pepper and Pet Sounds which are not rock in the sense that the bands mentioned above are.
There’s nothing wrong in listing anything you want, obviously.
Hotel Californina is another contender for the top 10 list.
I left Thriller off the list because it just isn’t Rock and Roll enough.
The Beatles and The Beach Boys are rock and roll, that’s not really even a question in my mind. It’s definantly fine to put up whatever you think is the greatest of all time that’s the beauty of this question. There isn’t a wrong answer. But my top 10 is not a list of my favorites by any means.
All Zeppelin was derivative to the extreme, so I would toss both choices off the list. Replace Sgt. Pepper’s with Revolver. Add a Stones album. My choice would be Beggar’s Banquet or Exile On Main Street. Toss in Surrealistic Pillow and you have a Top Ten.
Queen’s “A Night at the Opera” deserves mention.
I’ve always been wary of putting an age limit on the definition of classic because when I first started listening to albums in the early 60s (the first being Please Please Me), I was definitely defining albums as classic just a few years later. It was obvious that the aforementioned Sgt Pepper, and Highway 61 Revisited - to give just two examples at random - were, and would remain, classic.
Similarly (though I am not au fait enough with music from the past few years to judge myself) I would be surprised if you couldn’t make a pretty good guess as to what has recently been a classic.
Then what is your judging criteria?
ETA: For me rock ‘n’ roll is 50s music.
This is kind of wonky/geeky, but “Truth” by the Jeff Beck Group (1968) belongs on any top 10 or top 25 classic rock list, simply because of its influence. Beck essentially invented heavy metal with that album. Plus, it introduced us to Rod Stewart’s vocals.
I’ve always given that accolade to the Kinks, Yardbirds and Who. And an honourable mention to Blue Cheer.
Which is more than enough reason to exclude it from any list with “Greatest,”" Best," or the like in the title. 
Oh, I know what you mean, but back before he became an insufferable putz, Stewart was a groundbreaking vocalist. Which makes the stuff he did after say, 1971, all the more unforgivable!
I’d add a later Dylan album, Blood on the Tracks. I’d disagree with Boston, I don’t think that first album has held up the way a ‘Top Ten’ should. Either of Santana’s first two albums. I’d also consider putting “Fragile” by Yes in the mix. I’d add “Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys” or ‘John Barleycorn’ by Traffic.
A few criteria that I used while creating my top 10 list were things like, Best 3 tracks vs. Worst 3 tracks, innovation, sound quality, overall flow of the album, greatness of the band who made the album, influence on the people of that time, degree of difficulty on instruments, Lyrical talent, staying power, how many times can I listen to the album on repeat before I commit suicide…things like that.