Ten essential albums of the 1960s

If someone wanted to learn more about the sixties, but didn’t know where to start, these are the albums we’d recommend. While they aren’t necessarily the best selling, or the most critically acclaimed, they are certainly the ones that float to the surface all these years later, providing a rough blueprint of era. Narrowing it down to just ten of course leaves out quite a bit (apologies to Pink Floyd, Frank Zappa, the Who, and pretty much the whole Motown catalogue), but this is a great starting point for anyone interested in what is perhaps the most important music decade of the 20th century.

See also: – Ten essential jazz albums if you know squat about jazz – Ten essential gangsta rap albums – The Beatles’ Sgt Pepper inches toward the half-century mark – The Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main Street turns 40 – The five best songs from the Summer of Love – The Jimi Hendrix Experience’s Are You Experienced turns 45