But 1995's Thank You, in which Duran Duran paid tribute to bands who had inspired them, has been given the dubious honour of being branded the worst album of all time.

With 12 tracks, including Lou Reed's 'Perfect Day', Bob Dylan's 'Lay Lady Lay', Elvis Costello's 'Watching the Detectives' and The Doors' 'Crystal Ship' . . . none of which suited their style of glossy pop . . . it is 54 minutes and 29 seconds of pure hell, according to Q Magazine.

The track which prompted the most derision was Public Enemy's 911 Is A Joke . . . originally an angry diatribe about the black underclass in the US, which lost its power when performed by a group of middle-class white boys from Birmingham.

Other horrors which madeQ's hall of shame included every solo Spice Girls' album ever released, which are given an equal footing at number two in the chart, and Naomi Campbell's recording debut Babywoman.

Deputy editor of Q, Gareth Grundy, said: "The list is a mixture of the unspeakable and those ridiculous acts of hubris, although we tried not to pick on the obvious soft targets.

"Duran Duran was the one that united everyone in agreement. We put it on in the office to remind ourselves how bad it was. Sometimes these things are redeemed by some sort of kitsch or novelty value, but it didn't even have that. It's not funny for even a split second and not even the sort of thing that you would put on for a laugh if you were drunk."

Even the studio engineer who worked on Thank You, Ken Scott, thought the worst album accolade was a fair assessment. "I think it turned out pretty badly, " he admitted.