I’m identifying the best three albums by my fifty favorite rock bands of all time. This blog is for #2 – The Rolling Stones, a band I consider rock-n-roll royalty.

Criteria for selecting the best three albums

Here are the criteria for the list. First. Greatest Hits albums are not permitted. Second – no live albums. Third, I’m including an honorable mention or two for the top 25 bands. The Stones have over 20 albums in their catalog, so expect to see at least two honorable mention albums.

The Rolling Stones albums ranked by ChatGPT

Let’s look at what artificial intelligence has to say about this list. According to ChatGPT below are the top five Rolling Stones albums based on sales and critical acclaim.

This is a good list, especially considering the Stones have more than 20 albums. I will note that Exile on Main Street shows up high on the list. Many fans swear that this record is an awesome double album while others, like me, think it is overrated. Spoiler alert you will not see Exile on Main Street on my list.

Popular releases for this band

Let’s look at some data from Spotify. According to that music streaming platform below are the top five most popular albums by The Rolling Stones. I have mentioned before that Spotify’s algorithm is based on single songs. You see the new single “Angry” which gets a thumbs up by me – good song. The other albums include popular Rolling Stone songs such as “Paint It Black” and “Can’t Get No Satisfaction”.

The third-best album by this band is Some Girls

The third best stop by The Rolling Stones is Some Girls. I remember this album was hugely popular when released back in the late ’70s. It includes several great songs such as “Miss You”, “Shattered”, and “Beast of Burden”. One thing you will notice with all of these albums is excellent album cover art.

The second-best album by The Rolling Stones

The second-best album of The Rolling Stones is Let It Bleed. It is a killer album that was released in the late 1960s. This record includes awesome songs such as “Midnight Rambler”, “Give Me Shelter”, and the classic hit “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”.

Honorable mention albums for this band

Here are the honorable mention albums for the Rolling Stones. First is Beggars Banquet, an excellent album that includes one of my favorite Stone songs “Sympathy for the Devil”. The other honorable mention album is Tattoo You. This album shows the greatness of this band since it is basically a bunch of b-sides and outtakes from previously recorded music. This record includes the hit songs “Start Me Up”, and another one of my favorites “Waiting on a Friend”.

The best album by The Rolling Stones

The best album by The Rolling Stones is Sticky Fingers. A remarkable record for three reasons. First – look at that cover art. Quite controversial at the time and you can imagine why. Second, it includes the hit songs “Brown Sugar”, “Wild Horses”, and my favorite Stones song of all time, “Bitch”. Third, the record showcases the wide diverse range of music the band could play.

There you have it – the three best Rolling Stones albums. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

I am Doug Keating and this is my letter to my sons.