Just like the subject says, How Wide is the Gap Between Your Number 1 Artist and Number 2 Artist of All Time?

My number 1 artist are The Beatles and my number 2 are Radiohead. When it comes to albums, the two are fairly close, The Beatles have 5 albums in my top 100 albums, while Radiohead have 4. However, when it comes to songs, there's no contest. The Beatles have a staggering 25 songs in my top 500, while Radiohead have a pretty damn respectable 6 songs in my top 500.

Just to illustrate my point. (All time rank in my top 500 albums to the left of the album name.)

1. Revolver
2. OK Computer
5. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
6. The White Album
11. Kid A
13. Abbey Road
34. Rubber Soul
46. The Bends
87. In Rainbows
187. A Hard Day's Night
~250. Amnesiac
~270. Let it Be
~290. Magical Mystery Tour
~300. Help!
~310. Please Please Me
~390. Hail to the Thief
~410. The King of Limbs
~420. With The Beatles

There's also a pretty big gap between my #1, Dylan, and my #2, The Rolling Stones. It's most easily shown by the points resulting from the calculation I use to come up with my artist ranking: Dylan has 10.55 and The Rolling Stones only 13.03. That might not say much, but Springsteen has 13.28 and The Who 13.75, much closer together. Also, Dylan has 10 albums in my top 100 (and 15 in my top 350), whereas The Rolling Stones have 4 (6). Songswise it's a little closer in the top 100 with 8 for Dylan (29 in my top 550) and 5 for The Rolling Stones (14).

Interestingly, Springsteen has more albums and more songs in my lists, but The Rolling Stones ones are just ranked a little higher for the top 6.

My number one and two artists are Radiohead and Boards of Canada. These days, both are fairly close to each other. Radiohead has more outstanding albums, but also has a bigger discography (well, at least of officially released albums) and one album that I don't really like (Pablo Honey). I love all of BoC's albums. The gap to my number three (Bob Dylan) is bigger.

By the way, this is not all calculated down in numbers. It's just what my ears and my brains communicate to me. :)

My entire top 5 is relatively close:
1. Queen
2. Jimi Hendrix
3. Led Zeppelin
4. The Beatles
5. The Rolling Stones

Of these artists, Jimi and the Stones have 4 albums in my top 100, Queen and the Beatles have 5, and Zep has 6. MY favorite album by each would go in this order:
1- Zeppelin IV
2- Abbey Road
3- Are You Experienced?
4- Sticky Fingers
5- A Night at the Opera

So, yeah, it's pretty close.

It's a pretty small gap for me. Jimi Hendrix and Bob Dylan keep alternating my #1 album.

If I took quantity into account, I guess Bobby D would win with no contest, but he could have easily died in a motorcycle crash in 1967 and Hendrix could have easily lived to be 70, so I can't really do that.

I could imagine what we'd be saying today:
"Dylan was done! He couldn't of followed up 'Highway 61' and 'Blonde on Blonde'!"
Of course, had Dylan not crashed, he probably would have overdosed and be in the 27 club himself. And had he dies in the crash, Jimi never would have recorded "All Along the Watchtower", and we'd live in a parallel universe.

I was going to do Dylan vs. The Beatles, 6 for 6, but it came across as very boring...it was exactly The same as the acclaimed rankings except The White Album was #1 and Blonde on Blonde was #2...everything from Revolver on down followed suit, so I decided to do my top 2 00s artists:

01. Radiohead- OK Computer (10.0)
02. Wilco- Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (10.0)
03. Radiohead- Kid A (10.0)
04. Wilco- Summerteeth (10.0)
05. Radiohead- The Bends (10.0)
06. Radiohead- In Rainbows (9.7)
07. Wilco- Being There (9.4)
08. Radiohead- Amnesiac (9.0)
09. Wilco- A Ghost is Born (8.8)
10. Radiohead- Hail to the Thief (8.6)
11. Billy Bragg & Wilco- Mermaid Avenue (8.4)
12. Radiohead- King of Limbs (8.0)