The Smiths 'The Queen is Dead' voted greatest album of all time

Britain's NME has added one more voice that is the controversy of "greatest ever" lists with their update of the 500 Greatest Albums of All-Time.

The magazine contacted a wide array of their past alumni from sixty years of publishing, "from the sixties swingers through the hip young gunslingers of the 70s right up to today's troupe of rock'n'roll toreadors", and asked them to pick their fifty greatest albums in descending order. Over eighty people responded and their lists were given points in reverse order (50 points for number 1, 1 point for number 50). That was translated into the ranking of the 500 greatest.

Topping the list is the Smiths' 1986 classic The Queen is Dead followed by the Beatles' Revolver, David Bowie's Hunky Dory, The Stroke's Is This It and The Velvet Underground and Nico.

Because the list is for a British publication and made by mainly British journalists, there is definitely a skewing of the list towards U.K. acts, leading to a few surprises such as Pulp and the Pixies making the top ten.

David Bowie has ten albums on the list while the Beatles and Bob Dylan have seven (of the solo Beatles, McCartney has one and Lennon two). Elvis Costello, Bruce Springsteen, Radiohead and the Smiths have five. Nirvana, the Clash and Neil Young have four and the Rolling Stones only have three as do Stevie Wonder, the Pixies, Leonard Cohen, Nick Cave, the Beach Boys and the Beastie Boys, among others. U2 only has one (The Joshua Tree).

The top 40:

1.The Queen is Dead - Smiths
2.Revolver - Beatles
3.Hunky Dory - David Bowie
4.Is This It - Strokes
5.The Velvet Underground and Nico - Velvet Underground and Nico
6.Different Class - Pulp
7.The Stone Roses - Stone Roses
8.Doolittle - Pixies
9.Beatles - Beatles
10.Definitely Maybe - Oasis
11.Nevermind - Nirvana
12.Horses - Patti Smith
13.Funeral - Arcade Fire
14.Low - David Bowie
15.Let England Shake - P.J. Harvey
16.Closer - Joy Division
17.It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back - Public Enemy
18.Loveless - My Bloody Valentine
19.Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not - Arctic Monkeys
20.OK Computer - Radiohead
21.My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy - Kanye West
22.Parklife - Blur
23.The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars - David Bowie
24.Exile on Main St. - Rolling Stones
25.What's Goin' On - Marvin Gaye
26.Pet Sounds - Beach Boys
27.Screamadelica - Primal Scream
28.Back to Black - Amy Winehouse
29.Marquee Moon - Television
30.Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) - Wu-Tang Clan
31.Dog Man Star - Suede
32.Paul's Boutique - Beastie Bys
33.Modern Life is Rubbish - Blur
34.Abbey Road - Beatles
35.In Utero - Nirvana
36.Blood on the Tracks - Bob Dylan
37.Forever Changes - Love
38.Never Mind the Bollocks - Here's the Sex Pistols - Sex Pistols
39.London Calling - Clash
40.Unknown Pleasure - Joy Division

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