Green Day Albums

Green Day was formed in Berkeley, California, in 1987, but the most popular Green Day albums were produced in the mid 1990s. They've stuck around, amassing an impressive discography, including the soundtrack to a punk rock opera and a massive live album.

1. "39/Smooth" This first EP was released by Lookout! records in 1990. The next year, Lookout! followed it up with the release of "1039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours", a compilation of the band's first three EPs. It was followed by "Kerplunk", the album that got the attention of the major labels by selling 50,000 copies.
2. "Dookie" This is Green Day's breakthrough album. Released by Reprise Records in 1994, it contained the singles "Longview", "Basket Case" and "When I Come Around", and it got Green Day on both the radio and MTV. A new era of punk popularity had begun.
3. "Insomniac" The follow-up to "Dookie" sold two million copies, a success by most measures but something of a disappoint after the band's big major label debut splash. Still, songs like "Geek Stink Breath" got airplay, and the band raked in Grammy and AMA nominations.
4. "Nimrod" Just when it looked like Green Day might go down in history as the band that briefly brought punk to the radio before fading away, along came 1997's "Nimrod" and "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)", an angry little song that became the nation's anthem of sentimentality. The song's popularity made it clear that no matter what happened on the charts, we weren't going to forget about Green Day.
5. "American Idiot" Rock bands have a long history of making operatic concept albums when they reach musical middle age, and this 2004 album is Green Day's contribution to the genre. The project paid off, debuting at the top of Billboard's album chart, the first Green Day album to do so. It produced the Grammy Record of the Year, "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" and, believe it or not, a Broadway musical.