I thought it could be fun if we share with each other summaries of what music we have loved most over the years.

I haven't kept record of this, but here is a rough list of my number one albums.

1984-86
Alphaville - Forever Young
1987-88
Depeche Mode - Some Great Reward
Depeche Mode - Black Celebration
1989
ZZ Top - Afterburner
Def Leppard - Hysteria

(I'm might be forgetting something more embarrassing from the '80s...)

1990-91
Midnight Oil - Diesel and Dust
Midnight Oil - Blue Sky Mining
1991-93
Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms

From 1993 to 1998, my most intense period in terms of buying records, I find it weirdly difficult to remember my #1, but here are some albums that might have had the top spot at some point:
Depeche Mode - Violator
The Sisters of Mercy - Floodland
Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
Simon and Garfunkel - Bridge over Troubled Water
Metallica - Master of Puppets
Judas Priest - Sad Wings of Destiny
The Beatles - White Album
Massive Attack - Protection
Sly and the Family Stone - Stand!

1999(?)-2004
Lou Reed - Berlin
2004-07
Massive Attack - Protection
2007-10
Portishead - Dummy
2010
Steely Dan - Aja


Now you know pretty well where I'm coming from!

Here are the successive albums that took #1 in my life :

1992 Michael Jackson - Dangerous
1996 Queen - best-of I & II
1998 Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magik
2001 Ben Harper - Welcome to the Cruel World
2002 Millencolin - Pennybridge Pioneers / System of a Down - Toxicity
2003 LostProphets - The Fake Sound of Progress (not sure this one has really topped the previous 2, but it is probably the albums I have listened to the most this year)
2004 Queens of the Stone Age - Songs for the Deaf
2005 Elliott Smith - Either/Or

There might have been RATM first album at one time or another I guess, around 2000.

1996-2000: Nirvana- Nevermind
2000-2003: The Beatles- Revolver
2004-2006: Wilco- Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
2006-present: Unsure. I have a bunch of favorites.

My favorite album has pretty much always been Prince's 1999.

The only close contenders came when I was first getting into music:

Janet Jackson- Rhythm Nation 1814
The Cure- Disintegration
Madonna- Like a Prayer

1980-1985 – Simon & Garfunkel: Bridge over Troubled Water
1985-1986 – Dire Straits: Brothers in Arms
1986-1987 – Talking Heads: Little Creatures
1987-1989 – Paul Simon: Graceland
1989-1991 – Talking Heads: Fear of Music
1991-1995 – Van Morrison: Into the Music
1995-2000 – The Kinks: The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society
2000-2010 – The Beach Boys: Surf’s Up

Because I'm still 'quite' young and because I only really got into (pop)music last year this might not be very interesting in my case, but still:

~2002-2005:
Counting Crows - August and Everything After
~2006-2009:
Damien Rice - O
~2010:
Radiohead - In Rainbows

To put some context into this list, I was born in 1991.

2004-2005- Paranoid- Black Sabbath
2006-2007- Abbey Road- The Beatles
2008-2009- Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band- The Beatles
Current Favorite Album- Revolver- The Beatles

Yeah, I really like The Beatles.

2005-2006
Kaiser Chiefs - Employment
2006-2007
The Fratellis - Costello Music
2007-2009
Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
2009-2010
The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
The Zombies - Odessey and Oracle
2010
The Mothers of Invention - Freak Out!
The Magnetic Fields - 69 Love Songs

As you can tell, the gradient of changeability has steepened the more I get into good music. I'm still young though, with a lot of albums to get through.

1983: Billy Joel, An Innocent Man
1984: Prince, Purple Rain soundtrack
1985: Billy Joel, Greatest Hits Vol I & II
1987: Bon Jovi, Slippery When Wet; Def Leppard, Hysteria
1988: Heart, Bad Animals
1989: dc Talk, dc Talk
1992: Geoff Moore & the Distance, Pure & Simple
1994: They Might Be Giants, Flood
1995: Rich Mullins, A Liturgy, A Legacy, and a Ragamuffin Band; Jars of Clay, Jars of Clay
1996: dc Talk, Jesus Freak
1997: Third Day, Third Day
1998: Amy Grant, Behind the Eyes
1999: plumb, candycoatedwaterdrops
2000: The Corrs, Talk on Corners
2003: Broadway soundtrack of Les Miserables
2004: Switchfoot, Beautiful Letdown

You know, I haven't purchased many albums in the past 5 years, as I've switched over to digital music. I kind of miss the days when I'd just put on a CD of a single artist and listen to the whole thing. Now I tend to just randomize my playlist and listen to favorite songs.

2004-2008: Boston - Boston
2008-2009: The Who - Who's Next
2009-present: Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane over the Sea

Not much has changed, although The National's "Boxer" is currently challenging for first place now.

I was born in '92, if that's some context for you.

2004-05 AC/DC - Back in Black
2005-07 Led Zeppelin - IV
2007 The Beatles - Rubber Soul
2007-09 The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
2009-present Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run

That's very easy (born in 1965):
1978-1980: Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon
1980-1983: Van Morrison Common One
1983-present: Van Morrison Astral Weeks

Some very early favourite songs:

1968 (4 years old): Keith West - Grocer Jack (Excerpt From A Teenage Opera); Bee Gees - World; France Gall - Computer Nr. 3

1969: Michael Holm - Mendocino (German version of the Sir Douglas Quintet song); Tommy James & The Shondells - Crimson & Clover

1970: Soulful Dynamics - Mademoiselle Ninette

1971: Ricky Shayne - Mamy Blue; Sweet - Co-co

1972: Juliane Werding - Am Tag, als Conny Kramer starb (German version of The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down)

1973: Les Humphries Singers - Mexico

1974: Jeanette - Porque Te Vas

Born in 1974...

The Nylon Curtain- Billy Joel (1982-1984)
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1985-1999)
Revolver (2000-2006)
Pet Sounds (2007-) But Revolver's a close second.

1987 Sesame Street Alphabet Tape
1988-1989 We Sing Christmas
1989-1993 Very little music listening
1993-1996 Weird Al - Permanent Record Box Set
Mid 1996 Alanis Morisette - Jagged Little Pill
Late 1996 No Doubt - Tragic Kingdom
1997-2002 Nirvana - Nevermind
2002-2007 Bob Dylan - Blonde on Blonde
2007-2010 Back and forth: Blonde On Blonde, Are You Experienced

Born in 1994, got into music in...

2006 - Linkin Park - Meteora
Then there was a mix of The Strokes - Is This It
The Shins - Chutes TOo Narrow
Modest Mouse - Good News...
Then I heard for the first time - Slint - Spiderland

Then came the Radiohead explosion in 2007 -

The Bends
OK Computer
Spiderland again
Daydream Nation
Doolittle by Pixies

Then the Beatles explosion...

Marquee Moon
Revolver
Abbey Road (both for a very short time)
back to Marquee Moon

and now London Calling and Marquee Moon are fighting it out for top spot.

I wonder how many of you are ashamed/embarrassed about your first pick for #1. Personally I'm not, because, although I haven't listened to Meteora for a long time, I still think it's pretty good!

Oh and Gillingham, Damien Rice's O, is a fantastic album.

mid 80s: Stevie Wonder, Songs In The Key Of Life/Sam Cooke, The Man And His Music/John Williams/LSO, Empire Strikes Back/Return Of The Jedi (OST)
1987: Stevie Wonder, Characters (Oh my...)
1988: Aretha Franklin, Who's Zoomin' Who
1989: De La Soul, 3 Feet High And Rising
1991: De La Soul Is Dead/3 Feet High (tie, i guess)
1993: Primal Scream, Screamadelica
1994: Portishead, Dummy
spring 1995: Tricky, Maxinquaye
summer 1995: Screamadelica again
summer 1997: Radiohead, OK Computer/Spiritualized, LAGWAFIS (first tie, then OKC... june 16, what a day..)
fall 1997: Portishead, st
1998: Mercury Rev, Deserter's Songs
early 1999: The United States Of America, st (the beginning of my "Buy more classic stuff" era)
spring 1999: The Flaming Lips, The Soft Bulletin
fall 1999: Van Dyke Parks, Song Cycle
2000: back to The Soft Bulletin

oh, and yeah, i guess there's still some "today vs tomorrow" analogies that you, fello posto-biggo/beatto/botto jungstas, might benefit from... "Endtroducing" was my very own personal '96 "The Suburbs" pre-Monition-eering (read 'Borrrings of da load').... the very same year when "Living Better Through Chemistry" was released..

and sounded like the indisputedly better one of them..

Nostalgic.

My earliest recollection of music is that my mother seemed to prefer Marty Robbins and The Everly Brothers. The first album I have firmly in memory is Johnny Horton's Greatest Hits. I remember it because of the playlist. I was 4 years old when it was released, and I have owned it in all hard formats. So I would have to start there.

Over the next few years, I spent most of my 'music' time listening to classical music anthologies. My pop culture album dawn began with Gary Lewis and the Playboys. "This Diamond Ring" was the lead cut, but the album might have been a best of compilation. About the same time, my parents purchased Herb Alpert's "Whipped Cream and Other Delights"

Bowing to the enormous tide of publicity, my parents finally brought me into the light with the American release "The Beatles Second Album". After that, my musical interests were filled by AM radio by default. We were closer to poor than middle class.

When my father had a turn of fortune in his employment, I received two recordings (not simultaneously). The first was the 45rpm "Strawberry Fields" (flipside is Penny Lane). I still have this in my possession. The second was Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Cosmos Factory".

In the Fall of 1970, I entered High School and my exposure to music was increasingly through album play, but not my albums. I remember "Deja Vu" by CSNY, "Aqualung" by Jethro Tull, Zeppelin's "IV" and "Who's Next" being interchangeable for me as the rock era was ushered in to my world through middling stereo speakers.

In 1973, I took my first summer job. Finally having some dough, I detoured to plunk a chunk down for Elton John's "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road". Within a 2 year period, the conversion to rocker became complete on the advice and criticism of my younger brother, whose 8 track tape copies of "Montrose" (Montrose), Secret Treaties (Blue Oyster Cult), and the eponymous "Ted Nugent" singed my ears and warmed my brain to a pre-melt temperature.

In 1976 my brother joined me as an undergrad at CSU Chico during an era when the school was legendary for nefarious lifestyles. I was making a good killing playing poker and teaching swimming lessons. I spent all my money on music. There was no time for favorites. That changed in 1977 with the release of AC/DC's "Let There Be Rock". Two years later, "Highway To Hell" became the last album that I needed to have a favorite. Since then, the massive amount of immortal rock from the late 60's, the 70's, and the early 80's has kept my head bobbing - even if my pulse is beneath throbbing.

it's your change, moonie... skeletize whoever you want.. we'll meet us in cotton kitten corpses again...

Larry,

I got to say that I am not too keen on "Goodnight Saigon." I always skip it. I love the two other singles: "Allentown" and "Pressure" as well as several album tracks, especially "Laura," "Where's the Orchestra," and "She's Right on Time."

Born in 1992, been into music for aabout 4-5 years. Mine isn't very interesting

2006-2009:
Are You Experienced?
2010:
In the Aeroplane over the Sea

Penguin: I love Boxer, but c'mon! Keep Aeroplane in that top spot.

I don't think I had a lot of favorite albums before I came to AM in early 2007, at which point "Highway 61 Revisited" was already my favorite album of all time. My father was a big fan of Queen, and the only album I can really recall listening to in full before 2004 is "A Night At The Opera". I think I really enjoyed "The Hollies' Greatest Hits" for a while in 2005 though, so I guess:

1988-2003: Nothing
2003-2004: A Night At The Opera
2005: The Hollies' Greatest Hits
2006-present: Highway 61 Revisited

Nothing too interesting,didn't fully get into music until I was about 13.

1987-1999:Nothing
1999-2000:RHCP - Californication
2000-2003:Queen-Greatest Hits
2004-2005:Bob Dylan-Blonde On Blonde/Jimi Hendrix-Electric Ladyland
2005-2006:Beach Boys-Pet Sounds
2006-present:The Smiths-The Queen Is Dead

I don't think I can really break it down by year the way some people have, but here are some albums that, at one time or another, got much more plays than anything else. (That said, for the better part of the last twelve years, my #1 favorite has been Elton's TUMBLEWEED CONNECTION.)

Fiona Apple - WHEN THE PAWN...
The Art of Noise - (WHO'S AFRAID OF?) THE ART OF NOISE!
Belle & Sebastian - TIGERMILK
Belle & Sebastian - IF YOU'RE FEELING SINISTER
Mariah Carey - s/t
Tracy Chapman - s/t
Coldplay - A RUSH OF BLOOD TO THE HEAD
Danger Doom - THE MOUSE AND THE MASK
Miles Davis - KIND OF BLUE
DJ Shadow - ENDTRODUCING...
Nick Drake - BRYTER LAYTER
Césaria Évora - MISS PERFUMADO
Peter Gabriel - PETER GABRIEL 3 ("MELT")
Garbage - VERSION 2.0
Herbie Hancock - HEAD HUNTERS
Billy Joel - THE NYLON CURTAIN
Elton John - TUMBLEWEED CONNECTION
Elton John - GOODBYE YELLOW BRICK ROAD
King Crimson - IN THE COURT OF THE CRIMSON KING
Led Zeppelin - LED ZEPPELIN IV
Massive Attack - MEZZANINE
Joni Mitchell - BLUE
Ennio Morricone - THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY
My Bloody Valentine - LOVELESS
OutKast - SPEAKERBOXXX/THE LOVE BELOW
Arvo Pärt - TABULA RASA
Pink Floyd - THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON
Prince - PURPLE RAIN
Radiohead - THE BENDS
Radiohead - OK COMPUTER
Seal - s/t (1994)
Sigur Rós - AGAETIS BYRJUN
Sigur Rós - ( )
Steely Dan - AJA
The Velvet Underground - THE VELVET UNDERGROUND & NICO
The Verve - URBAN HYMNS
The Who - WHO'S NEXT

I'm not gonna lie, since 2007 (when I got into music), my favorite album has been swapping on and off between Led Zeppelin IV and Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs (as my Icon has shown).

Cool thread. I'm not sure I can remember for certain every album I've considered my favorite. And I'm just going to list them in order.

Past

Metallica - ...And Justice for All
Tool - Aenima
Led Zeppelin - Houses of the Holy
Radiohead - Kid A
Sonic Youth - Sister
The Cure - Disintegration (2004 - present)

Don't remember the years in which I loved them, but in chronological order:

Some Danny Kaye record for kids
None for a while
The Empire Strikes Back Soundtrack - John Williams
American Fool - John Cougar
Business as Usual - Men at Work
Synchronicity - The Police
1967-1970 - The Beatles
Sgt. Pepper's - The Beatles
The White Album - The Beatles
Tommy - The Who
Abbey Road - The Beatles
Bookends - Simon & Garfunkel
Revolver - The Beatles
There's a Riot Goin' On - Sly and the Family Stone
Exile in Guyville - Liz Phair
Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain - Pavement

And CR, Cr has not been dislodged since at least 1995, when I spent much of my entire two week post-college vacation in L.A. listening to that album on my Walkman.

Wonderful thread, Henrik, great idea. But while I was making my own list I noticed the first symptoms of Alzheimer disease, I could perfectly remember my favourite albums when I was young but the recent years got mixed (hahaha)
If you don’t mind I will do a Top 10 breakdown by decades not in order of preference but in a chronological order of “discovery”:

1970-1979 (when I was 5 to 14 years old):
1. VARIOUS “Éxitos” (my first music memories come from a compilation of mid 60s hits from Spanish label Hispavox that included pop gems like “Be My Baby”, “I Only Want to Be With You” or “Tous les garçons et les filles”).
2. GABI, FOFO Y MILIKI “Había una vez un circo” (probably the first album I asked my mother to buy).
3. JOAN MANUEL SERRAT “Joan Manuel Serrat” (mum’s influence).
4. THE BEATLES “Red Album” (I’ve listened to it probably a hundred times).
5. ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK “Jesus Christ Superstar” (I’ve listened to it probably a thousand times).
6. THE BEATLES “Blue Album” (I’ve listened to it probably a million times).
7. SIMON & GARFUNKEL “Bridge over Troubled Waters” (give ear candy to the kids).
8. THE BEE GEES “Here at Last… Bee Gees Live” (ahem, guilty, I know)
9. THE ROLLING STONES “Metamorphosis” (looking for material of the Beatles rivals I bought the less representative album of the Stones, but one of the best, trust me).
10. KING CRIMSON “In the Wake of Poseidon” (turning point #1, there was a whole world outside the music charts waiting for a 14-years-old boy with his third eye wide open, music was going to be my addiction since then).

1980-1989 (when I was 15 to 24 years old):
1. DAVID BOWIE “Hunky Dory” (memories of the happy summer of 1980)
2. LLUÍS LLACH “I si canto trist” (my political period)
3. ROBERT FRIPP “Exposure” (a quite weird teenager, isn't it?)
4. THE CLASH “London Calling” (turning point #2, I was going to look back in anger and living the music of today from then on, that phoney Beatlemania had bitten the dust).
5. THE CURE “Faith” (my goth period).
6. AZTEC CAMERA “High Land, Hard Rain” (memories of the even happier summer of 1983)
7. DAVID BOWIE “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars” (Ziggy came, climbed to my #1 and never abandoned that position, and probably never will)
8. THE SMITHS “The Queen Is Dead” (how I loved that album, and still do)
9. TOM WAITS “Swordfishtrombones” (bought a box with the three first Waits albums for Island after seeing the movie “Down By Law” and I flipped out).
10. THE BEATLES “White Album” (the late 80s were a Beatlemaniac period for me, I rediscovered my first music love and deepened into it).

1990-2009 (25 to 44 years old):
1. PIXIES “Doolittle” (I wanted to be part of the Daydream nation too).
2. BOB DYLAN “Blonde on Blonde” (I always liked Dylan but I bought his complete discography in mid-price vinyl in the early 90s)
3. VAN MORRISON/BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN “Astral Weeks/Born to Run” (yes, both, the two first CDs I bought even I didn’t have a CD player then, a friend burnt it to me on a tape).
4. BJÖRK “Debut” (turning point #3, enough of looking back, time for living for today and rediscover the warm sound of synths, real instruments as Moonbeam would say).
5. CAMARÓN/GORAN BREGOVIC “La leyenda del tiempo/Underground” (two again, my brother Jesús introduced me in roots music).
6. RADIOHEAD “OK Computer” (it came like a rocket into my life of no alarms and no surprises).
7. BELLE & SEBASTIAN “If You’re Feeling Sinister” (memories of FIB, the Benicassim Festival).
8. EMINEM “The Marshall Matters LP” (the first album I bought because it ended as #1 of 2000 on some lists I did collecting lists from different magazines, lists I threw away when I found Henrik’s wonderful site).
9. WILCO/THE FLAMING LIPS “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot/Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots” (is it possible to sound classic and avant-garde? Yes, of course, avant-classic).
10. THE BEACH BOYS “Pet Sounds” (the many games and poll of Acclaimed Music often makes you think about why do you like these albums so much and enhances the experience, last year I did a Top 10 of “goose-bumps” moments on “Pet Sounds” for the Forum).

I think my favorite song might be more interesting, as it has changed more often.

I was born in 1980.

1982-1984: "Tomorrow" from the Annie soundtrack. My mom recorded me singing this apparently and gave it to a friend- it always made her cry.
1985: "Mali Gabon Cameroon": A song I wrote on the piano about 3 of my favorite African countries.
1986-1988: "Every Day" by Buddy Holly: It always made me happy when I was little.

I first got into music heavily when I was 9.

1989: Richard Marx- "Satisfied": Don't you knoooooow.
Mötley Crüe- "Kickstart My Heart": Whoa! Yeah!
Prince- "1999": No surprise here.
The Cure- "Lovesong": I was pretty well advanced in my lovelorn angst!
1990-1995? Prince- "1999": It took over again!
1995?-1998: Prince- "The Cross": A spiritual powerhouse!
1999-2002: Prince- "Crystal Ball": Epic Prince weirdness.
2002-present: Prince- "Something in the Water (Does Not Compute)": Three vastly different versions are all so amazingly powerful. I can't really explain why this song is objectively great, but it really, really gets me.

New Favorite Album- Sufjan Stevens "All Delighted People EP"

The rest of these albums have at one point in the last 20 years been my favorite album. Not In Order.

As you can see, I switch often.

Panda Bear- Person Pitch
Radiohead - Kid A
My Bloody Valentine - Loveless
Sufjan Stevens - Illiniose
Talking Heads- Remain In Light
Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation
Miles Davis- Bitches Brew
TV On The Radio - Return To Cookie Mountain
Velvet Undergound - White Light/White Heat
The Beatles - Rubber Soul
Nirvana - In Utero
Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam
Nick Drake-Pink Moon
The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
David Bryne & Brian Eno - Life In The Bush Of Ghosts
Sufjan Stevens - Michighan
David Bowie - Low
Flying Burrito Brothers - Gilded Palace Of Sin
Tom Waits - Rain Dogs
New Order - Brotherhood
Joanna Newsom - Ys Street Band EP
Pavement - Crooked Rain Crooked Rain
Dave Brubeck -Time Out
Arcade Fire - Funeral