# Who has the most albums? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 10, 2002, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-the-most-albums/141786 "2002-12-10T16:58:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2014, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-the-most-albums/141786/42 "2014-10-16T15:02:32Z")
> [@Horatio\_Hellpop](#): > > Didn’t Pearl Jam release, like, 50 versions of the live album of a single tour? I think that’s the most one act has dumped on the marketplace in a single year. Or were they all released as a single box set? Forgot about them, yes they did. Wikipedia says 263 official bootlegs, and they were all released as individual shows as far as I know. Certainly the first ones were. Not all of them were released as CDs to record shops though, they were available as made-on-demand or digital download. The Grateful Dead ones, as far as I know, are almost all mass-produced albums. They had the most albums in the charts at one time, though, for certain. ---
**Author:** ![McDeath\_the\_Mad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a3d4f5/32.png) [@McDeath\_the\_Mad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/McDeath_the_Mad)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2014, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-the-most-albums/141786/43 "2014-10-16T16:07:35Z")
The Dave Matthews Band has also release a metric shit ton of albums as well: [Wikipedia Article](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Matthews_Band_discography) > [@](#): > > The discography of Dave Matthews Band, an American rock band, consists of eight studio albums, sixty live albums, two compilation albums, eight video albums, two extended plays, twenty-nine singles (including one as a featured artist), and twenty-one music videos. I’m a pretty big fan, I like the fact that you could see them live 2 nights in a row, they could play the same set list and you’d witness two different concerts. MtM ---
**Author:** ![Steken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@Steken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steken)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2014, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-the-most-albums/141786/44 "2014-10-16T16:33:55Z")
According to Discogs, Japanese noise artist Merzbow has made 254 full-length albums, and 348 appearances all in all. Not bad. ---
**Author:** ![Washoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecae2f/32.png) [@Washoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Washoe)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2014, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-the-most-albums/141786/45 "2014-10-17T01:37:53Z")
From the archives of SCTV—[Gordon Lightfoot Sings Every Song Ever Written](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZlrrwUIwcE). About 30 years ago my sister was dating a guy who worked for Frank Zappa. I asked him to ask Zappa exactly how many albums he had out. Zappa replied “I don’t know.” ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2014, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-the-most-albums/141786/46 "2014-10-17T03:18:42Z")
> [@Washoe](#): > > About 30 years ago my sister was dating a guy who worked for Frank Zappa. I asked him to ask Zappa exactly how many albums he had out. Zappa replied “I don’t know.” The last album Zappa released during his lifetime was _The Yellow Shark_, which according to the current official numbering is #62. Counting all the posthumous albums he is now up to #99. #100 is planned to be _Dance Me This_, an album of Synclavier music assembled by Zappa just before he died. ---
**Author:** ![Learjeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/94ad74/32.png) [@Learjeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Learjeff)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2014, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-the-most-albums/141786/47 "2014-10-17T15:57:30Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > i thought this was gonna be a poll about Dopers who OWN a lot of records, in which case I was gonna mention the Cosmo(?) article about “Elvis Costello’s 500 essential albums”, about which I am intensely jealous. I have barely even HEARD 500 albums let alone consider 500 essential:mad: LOL. I bet that’s a great list! I’m not a huge fan of Costello, but I really respect his taste and range. (I might be a huge fan if I took the time to listen to more of his work.) I’d like to see a list that ranks artists by the following metric: Summation over all original-material albums of the square root of the number sold/distributed. This would reduce the ranking for artists that pumped out lots of albums that weren’t very popular. It’s a different question than the OP’s, but I’d find it interesting. The square root makes it so that super popular albums (like Dark Side of the Moon or Tapestry) don’t push the gauge too much, nor do albums that few people ever heard. Another interesting list would be by song or work, total distribution counts, including covers. That’d put Mozart and Bach on the lists, I bet! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-the-most-albums/141786.md?page=2)