# thirteen
The Velvet Underground & Nico
The Velvet Underground
One of the greatest debuts in rock not just because Lou Reed's lyrics broke new ground, but because the rest of the band made music to match. Electric violas? Ostrich guitars? You'll only hear them here.
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# eighteen
Born To Run
Bruce Springsteen
Lyrics like Bob Dylan's, vocals like Roy Orbison's, and production like Phil Spector's. Most artists under the gun from their record label would've set their standards lower. Bruce Springsteen didn't, and that's why he's The Boss.
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# twenty-five
Rumors
Fleetwood Mac
To create a rock masterpiece, you don't need a lot of convoluted romance and turmoil between band members. You just need five flat-out killer songs. This one might even qualify for six.
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# twenty-eight
Who's Next
The Who
Who'd have dreamed that the remnants of a failed concept album would become the basis for the definitive Who disc? All that was needed, it seems, was to introduce Pete Townshend to the synthesizer.
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# thirty-one
Bringing It All Back Home
Bob Dylan
Dylan was already a master songwriter at the time of this 1965 release, a stunning mix of acoustic folk and amplified rock 'n' roll that for the first time elevated the sound to the level of the word.
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# thirty-two
Let It Bleed
Rolling Stones
Just in time to greet incoming guitar whiz Mick Taylor (and inaugurate the Stones' true golden era), Mick Jagger and Keith Richards come up with their best-ever batch of songs.
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# thirty-four
Songs From Big Pink
The Band
Leave it to a bunch of Canadians to give us a record so steeped in American roots music. This superb debut is the most eclectic and egalitarian of their efforts.
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# thirty-six
Tapestry
Carole King
Maybe it's cheating to let a Brill Building hitmaker in on the singer-songwriter game in the early '70s. But with a tapestry so artfully woven (and massively successful), we're prepared to look the other way.
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# forty-two
The Doors
The Doors
A pin-up pretty frontman who could produce such a menacing howl? A lead organist? The Top 40 had never seen anything like The Doors, and this classic debut remains one of a kind.
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