#12) Prince - Purple Rain (released in 1984, I bought a used vinyl copy for 50 cents at the UUAW Book Sale my senior year of high school)

The finest blockbuster album in pop history. The finest pop-metal album in history, which makes sense because its the soundtrack to a film about a young genius who learns that he's not worth a damn until he writes a power ballad (and "Purple Rain" may well be the finest in all of creation). He screams a lot, plays a lot great guitar solos, foretells the existence of web porn, instigates the PMRC, writes the best and most blatant messianic pop song of all time, writes the best and most blatant fame song of all time, and made doves cry while animals struck curious poses. What cracks me up is that this wasn't even the best album to come from Minnesota that year.