This '70s Classic Ranked One of the Top 5 Live Albums of All Time
- - This '70s Classic Ranked One of the Top 5 Live Albums of All Time
Jacqueline Burt CoteDecember 27, 2025 at 4:00 AM
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It's been a big year for live albums.
As Stacker reported, some of the bestselling albums of 2025 are live, from The Grateful Dead's The Warfield, San Francisco, CA Oct. 4 & 6, 1980, to Radiohead's August compilation of "Hail to the Thief" performances to Fleetwood Mac's Live 1975, which saw a whopping 19,000% increase in sales after a new vinyl pressing.
But as music lovers know, live albums have been huge hits with fans for decades...and some are a lot more popular than others, according to data compiled by Best Ever Albums (which uses data aggregated from over 60,000 greatest album charts to determine which are the "greatest" ever).
When it comes to the best ever live albums, the top 50 of all time (according to data as of Sept. 2020) include a wide variety of genres from various decades, with some beloved classic rock offerings ranking somewhat lower than fans might expect; for example, Led Zeppelin's The Song Remains the Same (1976) was listed at #45 while Peter Frampton's iconic double album from the same year, Frampton Comes Alive, was ranked #19.
But another album that's been a mainstay with classic rock fans for years showed up in the top five: At Fillmore East by The Allman Brothers Band nabbed the #3 spot with a Best Ever Albums score of 5,379. It's not a huge surprise to see this one in the top five, as the 1971 album — which features a famous (and lengthy) version of "Whipping Post" — was a major commercial success for the band.
One more album from the '70s made it into the top five: Rust Never Sleeps by Neil Young & Crazy Horse (1979) was ranked at #4 with a score of 5,025, while Johnny Cash's late '60s album At Folsom Prison (1968) was listed at #2 with a score of 6,311.
At either end of the top five, however, were two albums from the '90s: 98.12.28 Otokotachi no Wakare (1999) by Japanese dub band Fishmans was ranked #5 with a score of 4,947; and coming in at #1 — with a score of 12,341 — was Nirvana's massively successful 1994 album MTV Unplugged in New York.
Kurt Cobain's guitar from 'MTV Unplugged' is the most expensive in history
In 2020, Kurt Cobain‘s 1959 Martin D-18E acoustic guitar broke the record for most expensive guitar ever sold at auction when it was purchased by Peter Freedman of Rode Microphones bought for a staggering $6 million.
This year, as Far Out reported, Freedman donated the instrument to the Royal College of Music, where it will become part of a new touring exhibition slated to begin sometime in 2026.
Related: '70s Rock Icon Released Iconic Album That Greatly Influenced Nirvana 55 Years Ago Today
This story was originally published by Parade on Dec 27, 2025, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
