The Rolling Stones’ ‘Exile On Main St.’ Tops ‘Best Double Album List’

The Rolling Stones' legendary 1972 Exile On Main St. collection has topped a new “Top 10 Double Albums” list by the editors of Ultimate Classic Rock. Following the Stones at Number Two is the “Fab Four's” groundbreaking 1968 double set, The Beatles, universally known simply as the “White Album,” with Bob Dylan's watershed 1966 seventh album, the timeless Blonde On Blonde, rounding out the Top Three.

Mick Jagger told us that although Exile On Main St. remains among the most beloved of the band's golden era, newer fans discovering the album are at a slight disadvantage: “I mean, it's never quite the same. Y'know, when you discover something yourself. The thing is when you discover a new bar — you think you've discovered it and then you find out that everyone knows about it. So if you're 16 and you found this record, you'll say 'Oh! This is really interesting; have you ever heard of a record called Exile On Main St.?' I found this, it's like, really rare' And you say, 'Well everyone knows about that!' So, y'know, that's how you wanna discover things.”

During a chat with 60 Minutes, Bob Dylan tried to explain how his early songs were constructed: “My stuff were songs, y'know, they weren't sermons. They came out of the folk music realm, but it's also done with a rhythm and a certain type of poetic nuance that I don't know how I derived that.”

Paul McCartney doesn't buy into some fans' revisionist beliefs that the “White Album” could have made a single album on par with Revolver and other single-disc Beatles masterpieces: “Well, y'know, you can always say that. Perhaps I'll go with — but not definitely — in fact I think it's a fine little album. I think the fact that it's got so much on it is one of the things that's cool about it, 'cause they're very varied stuff, y'know 'Rocky Raccoon,' 'Piggies,' 'Happiness Is A Warm Gun' — that kind of stuff. I think it's a fine album. I'm not one for that: 'Maybe it was too many of that — what do you mean? It's great, it sold, it's the bloody Beatles' 'White Album' — shut up!”

The “Top 10 Double Albums” according to Ultimate Classic Rock:

1. Exile On Main St. – The Rolling Stones (1972)
2. Blonde On Blonde – Bob Dylan (1966)
3. The “White Album” – The Beatles (1968)
4. Electric Ladyland – The Jimi Hendrix Experience (1968)
5. Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs – Derek & The Dominos (1970)
6. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road – Elton John (1973)
7. Physical Graffiti – Led Zeppelin (1975)
8. The Wall – Pink Floyd (1979)
9. Tommy – The Who (1969)
10. Tusk – Fleetwood Mac (1979)