Critic's Choice: Top 200 Albums

Paul Gambaccini wrote regularly for Rolling Stone magazine from 1970 and established himself as a disc jockey for BBC Radio 1 in the UK. In 1977, he asked various British and American music critics, journalists, radio broadcasters and individuals from the music industry to list their top ten albums of all time. Of the 47 people who participated, according to author Clinton Heylin, 31 were music or literary critics. Among these were Robert Christgau, Jonathan Cott, Cameron Crowe, Giovanni Dadomo, Simon Frith, Charlie Gillett, Clive James, Lenny Kaye, Greil Marcus, Dave Marsh, Lisa Robinson, John Tobler, Ed Ward, Chris Welch, Richard Williams and Ellen Willis. From the 47 personal lists, Gambaccini created a top 200 list of albums. The book contains an entry for each album, with its track listing, LP cover and release information, and commentary from one of Gambaccini's contributors on its impact and significance. The top ten albums were as follows: ==1987 edition==

For the next edition of the book, Gambaccini reduced the scope to a top 100. The participants consisted of 81 critics, writers and broadcasters. The other participants included lyricist and UK chart historian Tim Rice, and several MTV video jockeys. All LP covers were reproduced in full colour. The top ten albums were as follows: ==Reception==

In his review of the second edition, Robert Hilburn of the Los Angeles Times wrote that he enjoyed the book but regretted that Gambaccini had chosen to include so many broadcasters and media personalities among his contributors, saying, "Mark Goodman and Alan Hunter may delight MTV audiences, but their jobs have nothing to do with weighing good music." In an attempt to gauge the genuine critical response, Hilburn reduced the number of panelists to 27 – all critics and writers whose work he knew. From their personal top tens reproduced in the book, he calculated that Blonde on Blonde would have topped the list, followed by the Velvet Underground and Presley albums, with Sgt. Pepper in sixth place. In his own top ten, Hilburn placed Presley at number one and Sgt. Pepper at number four. Writing in 2007, CNN entertainment reporter Todd Leopold praised the first edition of the book while ridiculing a top 200 albums list recently compiled by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Leopold recalled that, as a teenage Beatles fan, reading Gambaccini's book was "revelatory" since it introduced him to new music such as the Velvet Underground, the Mothers of Invention, Love's Forever Changes album, and the Harder They Come soundtrack. He added that, "most importantly", he learned about "Robert Christgau, Greil Marcus, Dave Marsh, Ed Ward and the other contentious cornerstones of pop music criticism". ==Notes==