What was the Beatles' best album, and why?

[Joe Shlabotnik]

I'm going with Revolver, 1966. Before the crazy pageantry that was about to follow with the summer of love, and Sgt. Pepper. More focused than the rambling pink-floyd-ish White Album as a project. Less of a failure as a cohesive project than Magical Mystery tour, and Let it be, and less contrived and crappy than the Paul McCartney-ish Abbey Rd. Though Yellow Submarine (albeit skimpy) is a bit of a sleeper and Rubber Soul is a close runner up.

[Taverner]

1. I can't disagree with you at all...

Abbey Road is my favorite, but Revolver changed the world - Abbey Road was just the absolute perfect good-bye

[HarveyDarkey]

2. I'd agree with Revolver

Rubber Soul a close second. Up until then I wasn't that impressed. My sister , however, who is two years younger than me loved then from the beginning.

[TexasTowelie]

3. Nice to know I wasn't the only one thinking this way.

My vote was also for Revolver due to the lack of gimmickry.

[Tom Ripley]

4. I'm partial to the sprawling brilliant mess of the White Album

Although Revolver is very good

[Taverner]

5. White Album is "bloody brilliant"

As is everything between Rubber Soul and Abbey Road.

[Joe Shlabotnik]

7. White album IS brilliant

like I said, it reminds me of the early flashes of brilliance of Pink Floyd (say ummagumma era). But as a packaged-deal album, its too sprawling and schizophrenic to be the best. Great for lengthy summer afternoon acid or mushroom trips though! (though haven't I committed to one of those in the last 20 years............. ok added to the bucket list to revisit)

[Taverner]

9. Mushrooms are good. Especially in small doses.

Explore small doses

You will thank me

[Iggo]

8. With The Beatles (1963)

(I've always preferred the rock band Beatles.)

Side one
1. "It Won't Be Long"
2. "All I've Got to Do"
3. "All My Loving"
4. "Don't Bother Me"
5. "Little Child"
6. "Till There Was You"
7. "Please Mister Postman"

Side two
1. "Roll Over Beethoven"
2. "Hold Me Tight"
3. "You Really Got a Hold on Me"
4. "I Wanna Be Your Man"
5. "Devil in Her Heart"
6. "Not a Second Time"
7. "Money (That's What I Want)"

[Joe Shlabotnik]

10. Despite being popular,

it still gives me chills.

As does Money,

As does their version of Dizzy Miss Lizzy (Can't remember what album that was.... Doh... on edit: Help!)

(Appeals to my love of '60s Garage band intensity, and cowbell!)

[Iggo]

11. All My Loving was my first Beatles song.

When the hard-ass two-part harmony kicks in on the second pass at the first verse, it gives me chills. If you can sing at all, try the high part as loud as you can. Quite satisfying.

EDIT: Oh and the pic on your YouTube link for Dizzy Miss Lizzy is the cover art for the Help album.

[Joe Shlabotnik]

15. 'Zactly

about the two-part harmony part. Also, I love how the furious (though not loud) strumming gives way to the cool, casual chord pluck when those said harmonies kick in.

[graham4anything]

12. This is an interesting question, and I have my own question

are you looking at this from the actual time of release, or from later on?

Because "back then" as they actually were being released live time, I was a singles (45) person. And back then, I like most of NYC listened to Dan Ingram, Cousin Brucie Ron Lundy, Chuck Leonard on WABC77 and they played singles only and mostly only the biggest hits.

So "back then" I wasn't buying or listening to lps it was buying 45s (at Korvettes, Wainwright, Woolworth,etc.

So, to answer the question,
I gotta say the Blue 1967-70 (later ones)

Nowadays, I guess I would say Magical Mystery Tour.
But when I listen nowadays its some of this, some of that.

(and almost never any McCartney solo stuff(maybe one or two songs), whereas Lennon there are about 20 songs I constantly listen to, and George about 10 of).

[Joe Shlabotnik]

13. Interesting point of view.

I say that, because once we get past the early Beatlemania stage... I don't really think of the Beatles as pop artists issuing .45s, but rather whole artistic albums. That was why they quit touring, and opened their own label.

Personally, although I'm a big fan, they were basically before my time; I had the luxury of listening to them through headphones and the best quadraphonic speakers etc. with the occasional haze of pot smoke as a kid in the 70's. So to me they were not a daily popular experience as much as an awesome interesting artifact to be studied (as a future amateur musician).

[graham4anything]

17. yeah.

Sgt. Pepper's of course had no singles, so that was probably the first lp I listened regularly to.
But even then, wasn't Strawberry Fields/Penny Lane stand alone singles that were put on the next album?

I remember having arguments back then over which of the two was better.
Strawberry Fields was deeper, Penny Lane catchier (and for the most part the two that one could easily see/hear who was the writer of each).

I have to say, the next lp that I continually listened to every single track on day in, day out was Harry Chapin's LPs (as his songs were really too long for the radio though TAXI got some airplay), and then Elton John's Captain Fantastic (which only had one US Single), though I played Goodbye Yellow Brick Road one alot, there were songs on there like the White Album that I bypassed.

Music on the radio in the 60s was so much different than today in that WABC back then was listened to in NYC by about 70% of people listening to music, and they played all styles of music one after another(so in an hour, one would get Rock/Pop/Soul r&b/country, an instrumental, an older artist (like Sinatra/Beach Boys/4 Seasons/Stones/Beatles/Herb Alpert/Aretha/Jeannie C. Riley/etc back to back.)

Normally nowadays I actually go to youtube and just sort of go from one to the next, letting my head guide me(LOL) as to what the next one will be.

and then in NYC, WNEW-FM became the station to listen, (Scott Muni especially), but
they also in a way while not playing singles, played tracks (and without an official playlist)
that spanned different styles.

So in reverse, it was only later (when CDS came out in the 1980s) that I actually started listening to the full Beatle albums so I would say Revolver would be the best full album but that is only from say listening


One thing I love about youtube is everything is there. And one can find new stuff on artists overseas that one wouldn't even know were still recording.

[zanana1]

14. Abby Road

Whenever I sit out in the sun I listen to that album. I think it has the best of everything on it.

[burnodo]

16. Abbey Road contrived and crappy?

I don't think so. I would agree that Revolver may be one of the better compilations, but you shit on everything that comes later, which I definitely don't agree with.

[Trajan]

21. Exactly ...

Abbey Road is arguably the greatest rock music album ... ever ... Yet the OP finds it is contrived

Magical Mystery Tour was not well received by some critics, due to the overall concept, but from it came:

I am the Walrus
Hello Goodbye
Penny Lane
Strawberry Fields Forever

Sgt Pepper was a landmark, breakthrough album that has redefined rock music, to this day ... Yet it is not considered good?

Lucy in the Skies with Diamonds was not good?

A Little Help from my Friends?
A Day in the Life?

A Day in the Life is a lesser work than the songs on Revolver? ... A song that was long considered to be the Beatles greatest composition ... Not good?

What a bunch of subjective malarkey ... Revolver was a groundbreaking album which I loved then and still love now, but to say it was the last 'good' Beatle album?

Ludicrous ... The later Beatle albums were considered masterpieces by most people ... I don't accept the premise that Revolver is the only worthy Beatles album ...

A ridiculous assertion ... the later albums were brilliant!

[edbermac]

34. Maxwell's Silver Hammer is certainly contrived and crappy.

Ditto for Octopus's Garden. But everything else on AR is first rate.

[Aristus]

39. 'Octopus's Garden' was my introduction to The Beatles.

Appropriately, when I was 7 or so. The kids on 'ZOOM' did a song-and-dance version of it once and I loved it. Most of the rest of their stuff I didn't really get to listen to until John Lennon was shot and killed.

[WCGreen]

41. Octopus's Garden was a song that Ringo wanted to make for his kids...

[walkerbait41]

18. For us its

Sgt. Pepper`s White Album and Rubber Soul

[pipi_k]

19. Abbey Road...

purely from a subjective point of view.

Most bands put out albums that have a couple of songs I like, but I'm hardly ever enthralled with the rest of the album.

Abbey Road is, for me, a totality. Meaning I can listen to the entire thing without picking and choosing.

[WCGreen]

42. Revolver and Rubber Soul are two fantastic albums that really showed

how much they had evolved.

Remember, George Martin was the genius who was able to tweek the old two track recording into multi layered musical genius. I guess you could call Martin the midwife...

[lunamagica]

20. Abbey Road

The Golden Slumbers/Carry that weight/The End medly still gives me chills, no matter how many times I've heard it

[Trajan]

22. Indeed ... it is magical ...

For me, I would listen to 'I Want You ( She's So Heavy ), over and over again, for hours ... I was enamored with the coda, as many young musicians of the time were ...

I have since discovered that the coda of that song is the very last music ever recorded by all 4 Beatles as The Beatles ...

Once that coda was done, the Beatles were done ...

Bittersweet, indeed ...

[Art_from_Ark]

31. So are you saying that the Beatles did not perform together

in any of the songs of the Let It Be album?

[Sugarcoated]

32. Abbey Road was recorded after Let It Be

but was released first. Let It Be was full of complications and in-fighting and its release was delayed.

[Art_from_Ark]

33. And all this time, I thought Let It Be was recorded last

I remember when my music teacher announced that the Beatles had broken up and she taught us the song "Let It Be", from "their final album".

[WCGreen]

43. Phil Spector was involved with Let It Be...

It was also a Movie. I think having PS in the mix delayed release.

[harmonicon]

47. He was brought into it later.

John insisted that Phil Spector "produce" what had already been recorded, adding string arrangements, etc. and wouldn't let a version of the album be released if that wasn't done. So, Spector didn't actually delay things himself, but got saddled with a big job finishing the record. About ten years ago they did release a version of called something like "Let it Be: Naked" of original studio recordings from the sessions, with Spector's manipulations. It's interesting. Some songs are better for, others are worse. It also came with a second CD (I assume of this crap is on youtube or something now) of outtakes from the sessions, and it's really interesting to hear them rehearsing some things that would be on later albums - I remember a few things from the first George Harrison album, and maybe some McCartney stuff.

[LWolf]

23. While I like them all

the one I reach for first, every time, is the White Album.

[nomorenomore08]

26. That actually might be their best, from a certain standpoint. Incredibly diverse,

and they completely mastered nearly every genre they attempted. Even Hendrix/Blue Cheer proto-metal (see "Helter Skelter&quot .

[WCGreen]

44. My sister and I raced home to get control of the lunch music.

She was in second grade and I was in sixth. She like the second side and I liked the first and third sides...

We agreed much later after doing bongs together for the first time that it was a win win situation.

[LWolf]

46. A win-win.

[nomorenomore08]

24. Impossible to choose between 'Revolver' and 'Abbey Road.'

I've always though the side-two suite on the latter was one of the finest moments in pop music history. Songs that mostly would be silly throwaways on their own, somehow worked into a masterful epic.

[pink-o]

25. Rubber Soul and Revovler

And Help comes third...as long as you're talking about the Brit versions! Capitol Records chopped them up, threw some song on another LP (can't remember, but I think it was Yesterday and Today)
And stuck our Muzak on the Yank version of Help. Philistines!

I love John Lennon as a songwriter, and I truly believe the Beatles will be studied by musicians in centuries to come, just as we revere Mozart and Beethoven. But for whomever thinks McCartney was a lightweight, try listening to Eleanor Rigby without tearing up. That song is a masterpiece!

[JCMach1]

29. Rubber Soul

[KamaAina]

37. That's about where I am

that perfect moment of time between the earlier pop stuff and the later '60s (drugs, Maharajah, etc.)-influenced stuff.

I tend to be partial to Rubber Soul because Mom had it and played it frequently.

[harmonicon]

48. Hate to break it to you...

but Eleanor Rigby was co-written by the two of them, and not just in name. John Lennon said in some interview that they worked on the words together. They didn't always cowrite songs like they did for the first few records, but until the end of the band, they'd suggest small lyrical changes and things like that to one another.

[Sheldon Cooper]

27. Abbey Road.

Why? Because I said so.

[nomorenomore08]

28. There's an argument to made, really, for every album from 'Rubber Soul' on.

'RS' as a near-flawless pop/rock album, 'Revolver' as a groundbreaking masterpiece, 'Sgt. Pepper' as a great concept album, the White Album with its mastery of wide-ranging genres, 'Abbey Road' with its balance of playful and mature songwriting, and even 'Let It Be' with its more raw, spontaneous, and in some ways un-Beatles-like sound.

[Sugarcoated]

30. My favorite phase was the Bob Dylan and The Byrds folk influences

so Rubber Soul for me. My absolute favorite songs by them are all from this period: Nowhere Man, Norwegian Wood and You've Got To Hide Your Love Away. A few of these may have been on Help, but there's overlap, but it was 1965.

Abbey Road is a masterpiece.

[tblue]

35. Help.

Another Girl
Ticket to Ride
You've Got to Hide You Love Away
The Night Before


I mean, seriously. Help.

[Iggo]

38. You make a strong argument.

[WCGreen]

45. Great songs.

You've Got to Hide is the first Beatle song I learned to play on the guitar.

[dawg]

36. Abbey Road.

Even the songs that don't work 100% somehow seem to *fit* on that album and enhance it somehow. Songs like Here Comes the Sun, Oh Darling, Something, and the medley on the second side are so awesome, that it actually helps to have a Maxwell's Silver Hammer and an Octopus' Garden to provide a little breather every once in a while.

I generally listen to albums in their entirety, and not just as a collection of songs. And on that basis, Abbey Road is far superior to both discs of the White Album, Sgt. Pepper, Let It Be, and Magical Mystery Tour. Revolver is a great album too, as is Rubber Soul, which is probably my second favorite.

[hay rick]

40. Rubber Soul.

I was in love. Ouch.