Top 10 Albums From Rolling Stone's All-Time 500 Quiz

Answer: The Beatles

The album is more commonly known by the name fans gave it, the "White Album" as there are no graphics on it other than the words "The Beatles". The album debuted at number one on the UK Album Chart during its release in late 1968. It reached number one on the Billboard Hot 200 chart in its third week of release in the USA. It has been certified platinum 19 times in the USA.
The album, and especially the song "Helter Skelter", were cited by Charles Manson as a call for a race war and the impetus for his "family" to commit murder.
Another note of trivia, Eric Clapton actually played guitar on the George Harrison song on the album "While My Guitar Gently Weeps".

Answer: Bob Dylan

"Rainy Day Women #12 & 35" is also known as the "Everybody Must Get Stoned" song. It sure sounds like a party when you listen to it! Dylan used the title because he felt radio in the 1960s would not play a song called "Everybody Must Get Stoned". Instead he got the title based on a Bible verse, Proverbs chapter 27 verse 15.
The album peaked at number nine on the Billboard 200 in the USA, and it reached number three in the UK. It was released in May,1966.

Answer: The Clash

The third album from the Clash was released in the UK in December 1979 and in the USA in January 1980. As of 2013, it has sold about five million copies worldwide. This was the album that showed the Clash's willingness to branch out from the punk sound of their first two albums and explore other styles, such as reggae, ska, and even pop like "Train in Vain". The album cover has been called one of the best of all-time by many such as Q magazine.

The lettering is an homage to Elvis Presley's debut album.

The photograph shows bassist Paul Simonon smashing his Fender bass guitar. Q magazine voted that the best rock photo of all-time in 2002.

Answer: The Rolling Stones

The album was released in May, 1972. It reached number one in the USA on the Billboard 200 chart in the USA and in the UK. A digitally remastered version was released in May 2010 with 10 bonus tracks. Most music critics, including Rolling Stone magazine, consider it the Stones greatest album.

Answer: Marvin Gaye

The album was released in May, 1971 on Tamla records, a subsidiary of Motown. The album took on socially conscious topics of that period (some still with us) such as ecology, the Vietnam War, drug abuse, and poverty. This was the first real social conscious album Motown was involved with as well as Gaye. It lead to a great quote from "Rolling Stone" critic Vince Aletti in 1971:

Ambitious, personal albums may be a glut on the market elsewhere,
but at Motown they're something new ... the album as a whole takes
precedence, absorbing its own flaws. There are very few performers
who can carry a project like this off. I've always admired Marvin
Gaye, but I didn't expect he would be one of them. Guess I seriously
underestimated him. It won't happen again.

Tragically, Marvin Gaye was shot by his own father on April 1, 1984. Sadly ironic, it was with a gun Marvin had given him as a gift.

Answer: The Beatles

The sixth studio album from the Beatles, it was released in December 1965. This album was noted by most critics as the beginning of a growing sophistication musically and lyrically for the Beatles. George Harrison even used a sitar on "Norwegian Wood". Paul McCartney conceived the title after overhearing Mick Jagger's singing style described as "plastic soul". The album title was a pun of that.
The single "Michelle", from the album, was the only Beatle's song ever to win a Grammy for "Song of the Year". That was in 1967.

Answer: Bob Dylan

The song "Like a Rolling Stone" from this album topped Rolling Stone's all-time rock songs list.
Dylan had to fight the record company for the title of the album. He named it after US Highway 61 which runs from Duluth, Minnesota to the Mississippi delta, the home of the early USA blues music scene. A popular legend is that iconic blues performer Robert Johnson sold his soul on Highway 61 where it crosses Highway 49 in Mississippi.

The album peaked at number three in the USA and number four in the UK.

Answer: The Beatles

The album was released in August 1966. Many critics raved over the album, noting it was a step up from "Rubber Soul" musically, engendering "psychedelic" styles ahead of the mainstream. In 2001, VH1 network named it the number one album of all-time.

The only single released off the album was a "double A-side". It had "Eleanor Rigby" on one side and "Yellow Submarine" on the other side.

Answer: The Beach Boys

"Pet Sounds" was released in May 1966. It has been considered by critics as the greatest American album of all-time, especially because of its influence on other artists. Paul McCartney has oft been quoted as saying this album was motivation for the Beatles "Sgt. Pepper" album. In fact the albums influence has influenced more artists than I can list, from Cream to Radiohead. Brian Wilson gets credit as the first artist to use the recording studio as an instrument.

Despite its influence, when it was initially released, it reached only number 10 on the Billboard 200, one of the Beach Boys' lowest positions compared to their preceding albums. It did reach number two on the UK Album chart.

Answer: The Beatles

The album was released in June 1967. As noted in the question above, the biggest influence for the album was the Beach Boys "Pet Sounds" album. It was a commercial, as well as a critical success, spending 27 weeks at the top of the UK Album chart and 15 weeks in the USA at the top of the Billboard 200. Some critics still feel that "Revolver" was a more important album in rock & roll history.
Ironically, no song from the album made the top 25 of Rolling Stone Magazine's all-time top 25 songs.

Last note, it was the first album to ever include the song lyrics on the album cover.