1977's Best Classic Rock Albums

Photographer credits for artists in feature photo are placed at the end of this article.

1977’s Best Classic Rock Albums list takes a look at a year in which sales records were broken by multi million dollar making albums released by Fleetwood Mac, Billy Joel and a handful of other artists. Rock and Roll continued its battle against the rise of disco as the punk movement grew stronger on both sides of the Atlantic. All genres of rock and roll continued to explode in 1977 with great albums released by blues based bands like Foghat, Johnny Winter, progressive rock bands like Yes, Genesis, and Emerson Lake & Palmer, punk and new wave groups like The Ramones, Blondie, and Television, singer songwriters like Dan Fogelberg, Carole King and stunning debut albums by The Sex Pistols, Foreigner and Elvis Costello. That’s just a small sampling of another great year in classic rock history. 1977’s best classic rock albums will take you back to a time when a concert ticket still cost under ten dollars and an 8 track player was the most common way of playing albums in your car.

The list of albums from number 50 to number 10 are in pretty much random order. There is just no way to compare or say that any one of these records is better than the next. However we do believe these were fifty of the most popular and respected ones. Our Top 10 is our top 10 favorites based on sales and impact they had on classic rock history. It’s still just our opinion, but its an opinion based on research, sales data, interviews with fans and musicians, comments and most importantly the experience of growing up as teenager during the decade of the 1970s when rock and roll was our lives.

# 50 – The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl – The Beatles

We open up our 1977’s Best Classic Rock albums list with a live album from The Beatles. Seven years after The Beatles broke up, this live album was welcomed by Beatles fans starving for something new from the band. A live album was better than nothing.

# 49 – Bad Reputation – Thin Lizzy

# 48 – Lace and Whiskey – Alice Cooper

# 47 – Slowhand – Eric Clapton

# 46 – Foot Loose & Fancy Free – Rod Stewart

# 45 – In the City – The Jam

# 44 – Book of Dreams – Steve Miller Band

# 43 – Time Loves a Hero – Little Feat

# 42 – Ghost Writer – Garland Jeffreys

# 41 – Plastic Letters –Blondie

# 40 – The Grand Illusion – Styx

# 39 – Foreign Affairs – Tom Waits

# 38 – Point of Know Return – Kansas

# 37 – Lights Out – UFO

# 36 – Works Volume 1 – Emerson, Lake & Palmer

# 35 – Rattus Norvegicus – The Stranglers

# 34 – Cheap Trick – Cheap Trick

# 33 – Let There Be Rock – AC/DC

# 32 – American Stars ‘n Bars – Neil Young

# 31 – Even in the Quietest Moments – Supertramp

# 30 – Sleepwalker – The Kinks

# 29 – Sammy Hagar – Sammy Hagar

# 28 – Motörhead – Motörhead

# 27 – I Robot – The Alan Parsons Project

# 26 – Peter Gabriel – Peter Gabriel

# 25 – Low – David Bowie

# 24 – Talking Heads: 77 – Talking Heads

# 23 – Rocket to Russia – The Ramones

# 22 – Running on Empty – Jackson Browne

# 21 – My Aim Is True – Elvis Costello

# 20 – Going For The One – Yes

# 19 – Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter – Joni Mitchell

# 18 – Nether Lands – Dan Fogelberg

# 17 – Songs from the Wood – Jethro Tull

# 16 – Foreigner – Foreigner

# 15 – Foghat Live – Foghat

# 14 – A Farewell to Kings – Rush

# 13 – Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols

# 12 – Draw the Line – Aerosmith

# 11 – The Clash – The Clash

# 10 – Out of the Blue – Electric Light Orchestra

Electric Light Orchestra seemed to be getting better with each album they released in the 1970s. Out of the Blue was their best album. A fantastic two record set filled with the most irresistible songs any fan of great rock and roll pop music could not resist.

# 9 – Cat Scratch Fever – Ted Nugent

There is no denying how fantastic this record was from crazy Ted. It’s what we always called him back in the 1970s. Saw him tour with Lynyrd Skynyrd to promote this great record. What a double bill that was.

# 8 – Little Queen – Heart

One word, Barracuda!

# 7 – Animals – Pink Floyd

At times, this is our favorite Pink Floyd album. I saw the Animals tour in 1977 at New York’s Madison Square Garden a week after seeing Fleetwood Mac and a month after seeing Led Zeppelin. Those were the days.

# 6 – News of the World – Queen

With the album’s opening track “We Will Rock You,” and the connected song “We Are The Champions,” Queen infiltrated mass culture on an entire new level for years to come. This album was huge and the News Of The World Tour was spectacular.

# 5 – Street Survivors – Lynyrd Skynyrd

Our favorite Lynyrd Skynyrd album was released just a few days before the band’s tragic airplane crash. With the addition of Steve Gaines to the band, the record stood as the most mature album the band had ever released. It seemed they were on the verge of even more greatness to come before the crash. So sad! Still, one of the best best rock albums ever released.

# 4 – Bat Out Of Hell – Meat Loaf

This album blew many people away the first time they heard it. Meat Loaf’s phenomenal vocals, Jim Steinman’s brilliant original songwriting all surrounded by a group of stellar musicians from Utopia and The E Street band produced by the genius of Todd Rundgren made for an album for the ages.

# 3 – The Stranger – Billy Joel

With each of his first three albums, there was a buzz that Billy Joel would soon become one of the biggest rock stars in the world. The Stranger was the album that got him there. The songs on The Stranger album such as “Scenes From an Italian Restaurant,” would fill the soundtrack of our lives for the past forty plus years.

# 2 – Aja – Steely Dan

If one wanted to find one rock album in classic rock history that was perfect in every conceivable way, it would be Steely Dan’s Aja. And that’s exactly what it seemed Donald Fagan and Walter Becker set out to do.

# 1 – Rumours – Fleetwood Mac

Not many albums in classic rock history featured three distinctive lead vocalists and songwriters that blended so well together musically. Rumours was a once in a lifetime album that broke all sales records and turned Fleetwood Mac into one of the biggest rock bands of all time.