When you look at the classic albums that arrived in 1973, it’s hard to imagine a better year for rock fans.

Pink Floyd released its magnum opus, The Dark Side of the Moon in March 1973, which has sold over 50 million albums worldwide. The British group’s eighth studio album logged 736 weeks on Billboard’s Top 200 albums chart before finally making an exit in July 1988. But it’s continued to make intermittent returns to the chart since then, spending a total of 962 weeks in and out of the lineup as of December 2022.

It’s hardly the lone highlight as many other notable records also arrived in 1973.

The original Alice Cooper group released one of their most popular albums — and with a second release later that same year, put a surprise wrap on their time together.

Bruce Springsteen, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Queen were among those making their official album debuts in 1973. Meanwhile Elton John, Black Sabbath, Billy Joel and ZZ Top released trailblazing records that would become some of the most important career-defining power moves in each of their individual catalogs.

The below list collects 50 of the largest albums from an incredible year in music, in chronological order. As you’ll read, each record represents something different for the bands and artists, but in nearly every case, it added an interesting milestone to their career.

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