The 20 greatest Classic Rock concept albums

17 May 2025, 15:00 | Updated: 19 May 2025, 12:00

When rock gets conceptual, can you follow the story? From Lonely Hearts Club Bands to Pinball Wizards, Spiders From Mars to Another Brick In The Wall, here are some of the most notable concept albums.

1. The Beatles - Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (release date 26th May 1967)

   • What's it about? A Salvation Army-style brass band celebrate their 20th anniversary with a concert and... well, that's about it. Guest vocalist: "Billy Shears"
   • The best track: A Day In The Life, of course.

   Yes, it's barely a concept outside of the first two songs and the title track's reprise, but as a method of distancing The Beatles from their Fab Four image, it's perfect. It's one of the biggest-selling and most critically-acclaimed albums of all time.

   

2. The Moody Blues - Days Of Future Passed (release date 10th November 1967)

   • What's it about? A day in the life of an ordinary person from dawn til dusk. Includes a lunch break.
   • The best track: Nights In White Satin (of course)

   Former Brummie R&B act were at the last chance saloon when they were given a chunk of cash by their label to make an album that would show off the then-new stereo technology. The addition of an orchestra to the band's increasingly ambitious ideas made them into prog rock pioneers and they never looked back. See also: In Search Of The Lost Chord (1968), On The Threshold Of A Dream (1969) and To Our Children's Children's Children (1969).

   

3. Bee Gees - Odessa (released February 1969)

   • What's it about? In February 1899, the British ship Veronica is lost at sea.
   • The best track: First Of May

   Years before they became kings of the disco scene, the Bee Gees moved from their early winsome, maudlin pop tunes to a more progressive sound via this ambitious double set featuring orchestral backing and instrumental interludes. The concept doesn't find its way into all the songs, mainly due to the tensions that had grown between the three Gibb brothers; disagreements over Odessa prompted Robin Gibb to leave the band, leaving Barry and Maurice to carry on as a duo for a couple of years. The album famously featured a flocked material cover which caused an allergic reaction in some workers at the Polydor pressing plant.

   

4. The Who - Tommy (release date 19th May 1969)

   • What's it about? Traumatised toddler grows up in a disassociated state but manages to become a Christ-like figure thanks to his skills on the pinball table. He tries to lead his followers in a new cult,
   • The best track: Pinball Wizard

   It wasn't the first "rock opera", but it's the greatest. This ambitious double album was later staged as a musical, a symphonic album and a star-studded film featuring Elton John and Tina Turner.

   

5. The Kinks - Arthur (Or The Decline And Fall Of The British Empire) (released 10th October 1969)

   • What's it about? In post-war Britain, a suburban carpet-fitter considers emigrating to Australia for a better life.
   • The best track: Victoria

   Originally conceived as a television musical, the story for The Kinks' seventh album expands on the nostalgic themes of their previous LP, The Village Green Preservation Society. Ray Davies was inspired by his elder sister Rose and her husband Arthur leaving the UK for Australia in the early 60s, the era of the "£10 Poms", when emigration to the Southern hemisphere was actively encouraged. The Kinks would continue to explore the concept album with later releases, but this is its purest form.

   

6. Aphrodite's Child - 666 (released June 1972)

   • What's it about? Theatrical troupe stage a show about the apocalypse, but oh no! The world actually starts to end outside the tent where they're performing and the events of the Book Of Revelations come to pass. No refunds!
   • The best track: The big beats of The Four Horsemen

   Future synth soundtrack legend Vangelis and future lounge crooner Demis Roussos started out in this Greek prog outfit, calling time on the groyp with this ambitious double album. Apparently they all hated each other when they made it!

   

7. Jethro Tull - Thick as a Brick (release date 3rd March 1972)

   • What's it about? Eight-year-old child prodigy Gerald Bostock wrote the lyrics to Tull's fifth album.
   • The best track: The album is two long pieces of music, one for each side of the vinyl, so picking one is tricky.

   Frontman Ian Anderson was annoyed when critics claimed that the band's previous album Aqualung was a "concept album", so the follow-up was intended to be a parody of the entire "progressive" scene. The album came wrapped in a 12-page newspaper detailing the exploits of "Gerald Bostock". Very conceptual.

   

8. David Bowie - The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars (release date 16th June 1972)

   • What's it about? The world's population discovers that Earth has only five years left until the apocalypse, but thank heavens here comes an alien that can be the new Messiah for the planet's final days. Except he dies on stage in front of a baying crowd. Cheers.
   • The best track: Ziggy Stardust (of course)

   Ziggy isn't a fully-formed concept album, but it's possible to project a narrative onto the songs.The album made Bowie a superstar and almost trapped him into being a teen idol like his friend Marc Bolan. In a canny move, the musician "killed off" Ziggy on stage on 3rd July 1973 and pursued other influences and characters.

   

9. Rick Wakeman - The Six Wives Of Henry VIII (release date 23rd January 1973)

   • What's it about? Six pieces of instrumental music inspired by each of the six wives.
   • The best track: Catherine Parr

   Former session musician and Strawbs member Wakeman issued his first solo album, Piano Vibrations. For the follow-up, the keyboard wizard created a suite of pieces interpreting the character of each of Henry VIII's wives in music. Members of Yes appeared on the album, as Rick had joined the prog giants in 1971... but his solo success prompted him to leave the band in May 1974. His next outing was another conceptual work: Journey To The Centre Of The Earth!

   

10. Lou Reed - Berlin (release date 5th October 1973

    • What's it about? An album-long sequel to Reed's 1972 song Berlin, this continues the tale of Jim and Caroline, two drug addicts. Things do not end well.
    • The best song: Caroline Says I

    As bleak as a concept album can possibly be, this can be a tough listen as the fictional couple's relationship degenerates. One legendary story claims that to get the sound of children crying for the track The Kids, producer Bob Ezrin told his own offspring their mother had died and set the tapes rolling to capture their reaction. Their mum was fine.

    

11. Yes - Tales From Topographic Oceans (release date 7th December 1973)

    • What's it about? Four sides of music, each inspired by a Hindu scripture featured in Autobiography Of A Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda
    • The best track: The Revealing Science of God (Dance of the Dawn)

    A hugely ambitious release from the progressive rock pioneers, it topped the UK album charts for two weeks. However, keyboard player Rick Wakeman publicly criticised the LP, later saying "We had too much for a single album but not enough for a double, so we padded it out and the padding is awful".

    

12. Electric Light Orchestra - Eldorado (released September 1974)

    • What's it about? An ordinary man finds refuge from everyday life in dreams.
    • The best track: Can't Get It Out Of My Head

    Described on the cover as "A Symphony", this was Jeff Lynne's response to his father's opinion that previous ELO tracks "had no tune". Using a full orchestra for the first time, this is genuine symphonic rock and the gorgeous sngle Can't Get It Out Of My Head shows off Lynne's penchant for Beatle-isms.

    

13. Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway (release date 22nd November 1974)

    • What's it about? Puerto Rican youth Rael is taken from modern day New York City on a surreal journey that ends with him becoming at one with the universe. Along the way he meets the weird Slippermen, which Gabriel attempted to portray on stage with a ridiculous costume that made it impossible to sing properly.
    • The best track: Carpet Crawlers

    Peter Gabriel bade farewell to Genesis with this ambitious double set.

    

14. Alice Cooper - Welcome To My Nightmare (release date 28th February 1975)

    • What's it about? A series of nightmares for a child named Steven.
    • The best track: the title track

    Horror icon Vincent Price turned up to voice "The Curator", a decade before his star turn on Michael Jackson's Thriller, making Cooper the premier exponent of shock rock.

    

15. The Alan Parsons Project - Tales Of Mystery & Imagination (release date 25th June 1976)

    • What's it about? The dark stories of Boston-born poet and writer are put to music.
    • The best track: A 15-minute, 5-part instrumental suite designed to evoke the story The Fall Of The House Of Usher.
    • The former Abbey Road producer put together a stellar cast that included vocalist Arthur Brown and John "Music" Miles to create perplexing songs based around Poe's grim stories of revenge, guilt and death former Abbey Road. If that wasn't ambitious enough, Parsons remixed the album in 1987, adding narration by none other than Orson Welles!

    

16. Pink Floyd - The Wall (release date 30th November 1979)

    • What's it about? Rock star finds himself alienated from his band members and audience and builds a metaphorical "wall" to try and block out the world.
    • The best song: Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)

    Roger Waters finds himself alienated from his band members and audience and writes a bitter but successful album that effectively ends Pink Floyd (apart from The Final Cut. Oh and the three albums the remaining members made without Waters).

    

17. The Stranglers - The Gospel According To The Meninblack (released 9th February 1981)

    • What's it about? Aliens may or may not be linked to the Second Coming of the Messiah on Earth.
    • The best song: Waltinblack (the opening instrumental)

    The psychedelic punks from Guildford had been expanding their scope over the previous couple of years, with 1979's The Raven taking in such topics as nuclear arms, the Middle East and heroin addiction. The follow up album expands the Raven track Meninblack to a full-length exploration of the mysterious titular characters that make sinister threats to UFO witnesses and tie this in with the theory that aliens have been guiding human development since ancient times. Despite scoring a Top 10 hit with the album, fans and critics were nonplussed by the record. The follow-up, La Folie, was more straightforward with the single Golden Brown being The Stranglers' biggest success.

    

18. Roger Waters - Radio K.A.O.S. (release date 15th June 1987)

    • What's it about? Disabled Welshman Billy is a genius who can "hear" radio waves. He tricks the world into thinking a nuclear attack is imminent, leaving everyone to realise the media is WRONG.
    • The best song: The Tide Is Turning (After Live Aid)

    Waters was a big fan of a concept while he was still working with Pink Floyd and his first solo album, The Pros And Cons Of Hitch-Hiking, featured a running story about a midlife crisis. The follow-up was even more theatrical, with the Radio K.A.O.S. "DJ" linking the tracks. When Waters toured the album, genuine Los Angeles DJ Jim Ladd ran a "radio show" from the stage, taking calls from audience members (they had to use a phone booth in those days).

    

19. Marillion - Clutching At Straws (release date 22nd June 1987)

    • What's it about? Unemployed singer stating 30 in the face sinks into an alcoholic haze.
    • The best song: Warm Wet Circles

    The fourth album from Aylesbury's leaders of "neo-prog" was a rather bleak conceptual affair, but they kept their pop sensibilities in play and the album spawned three Top 30 hits, with Incommunicado reaching Number 6. Frontman Fish left after the subsequent tour, but it was a fine way to go out.

    

20. Iron Maiden - Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son (release date 11th April 1988)

    • What's it about? The mystical legend of the seventh son of a seventh son appears to be true for one young man, who wrestles with the supposed gift of clairvoyance.
    • The best song: Can I Play With Madness

    Coming up with some thoughts about Maiden's seventh album, founding member Steve Harris was inspired by author Orson Scott Card's 1987 fantasy novel, Seventh Son. Frontman Bruce Dickinson later claimed that the concept peters out towards the end and the album actually has no real story. "It's about good and evil, heaven and hell," he said. "But isn't every Iron Maiden record?"