1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die is a highly readable list of the best, the most important, and most influential pop albums from the 1955 through 2003. By a carefully selected team of the International Critics, each album is a groundbreaking work seminal to the understanding and appreciation of music from the 1950s to the present. Included with each entry are production details and credits as well as reproductions of original album cover art. Perhaps most important of all, each album comes with an authoritative description of its Importance and Featured influence. Among the Critics involved in selected in the list are some of the best known music Reviewers and commentators, including Theunis Bates (music writer for Time and urban editor at worldpop), Jon Harrington (staff writer at MTV), Seth Jacobson (writer for Dazed & confused), as well as many others.

Part 1 includes 12 Albums:

1. Frank Sinatra - 1955 - In The Wee Small Hours
2. Frank Sinatra - 1956 - Songs For Swingin' Lovers
3. Louis Prima - 1956 - The Wildest!
4. Count Basie - 1957 - The Complete Atomic Basie
5. Machito - 1957 - Kenya
6. Miles Davis - 1957 - The Complete Birth Of The Cool
7. Sabu - 1957 - Palo Congo
8. Thelonious Monk - 1957 - Brilliant Corners
9. Tito Puente - 1957 - Dance Mania Vol. 1
10. Billie Holiday - 1958 - Lady In Satin
11. Buddy Holly & The Crickets - 1958 - The 'Chirping' Crickets
12. Sarah Vaughan - 1958 - Sarah Vaughan At Mister Kelly's
13. Ella Fitzgerald - 1959 - Sings The George & Ira Gershwin Song Book flac
14. Marty Robbins - 1959 - Gunfighter Ballads And Trail Songs
15. Miles Davis - 1959 - Kind Of Blue
16. Ray Charles - 1959 - The Genius Of Ray Charles
17. Jimmy Smith - 1960 - Back At The Chicken Shack
18. Joan Baez - 1960 - Joan Baez
19. Muddy Waters - 1960 - At Newport 1960
20. Ray Charles - 1962 - Modern Sounds In Country & Western Music
21. Ray Price - 1962 - Night Life
22. Stan Getz And Charlie Byrd - 1962 - Jazz Samba
23. Charles Mingus - 1963 - The Black Saint And The Sinner Lady
24. Sam Cooke - 1963 - Live At The Harlem Square Club
25. The Beatles - 1964 - Beatles For Sale [DESS MFSL-1-104]
26. Bert Jansch - 1965 - Bert Jansch
27. Bob Dylan - 1965 - Bringing It All Back Home
28. Bob Dylan - 1965 - Highway 61 Revisited
29. Buck Owens - 1965 - I've Got A Tiger By The Tail
30. Otis Redding - 1965 - Otis Blue- Otis Redding Sings Soul
31. The Sonics - 1965 - Here Are The Sonics!!!
32. The Who - 1965 - My Generation
33. Bob Dylan - 1966 - Blonde On Blonde
34. The Rolling Stones - 1966 - Aftermath
35. Astrud Gilberto - 1967 - Beach Samba
36. Captain Beefheart And His Magic Band - 1967 - Safe As Milk
37. Country Joe & The Fish - 1967 - Electric Music For Mind And Body
38. Country Joe & The Fish - 1967 - Electric Music For Mind And Body
39. The Jimi Hendrix Experience - 1967 - Axis- Bold As Love
40. The Velvet Underground - 1967 - The Velvet Underground And Nico
41. The Who - 1967 - The Who Sell Out