I think their best was Revolver. So many good songs, my faves being “Eleanor Rigby,” “Love You To,” and “Tomorrow Never Knows.” Sgt. Pepper’s is a close second, though. What are your favorite albums/songs by the Fab Four?
I’m fond of Rubber Soul (which I can’t find my copy of, oddly…), myself.
My favourite, though. I think, is Abbey Road. Maxwell’s Silver Hammer, Here Comes The Sun, and Come Together, while not my favourites (Someday, and While My Guitar Gently Weeps would be my favourites), are up there.
I also really like Let it Be…Naked, though I STILL think that’s a sucky title.
I agree with Tengu. Abbey Road is definitely my favorite Beatles album. It has a big emotional impact on me.
The White Album comes in a close second, especially with Dear Prudence and Good Night.
Sorry to be so unoriginal but “Abbey Road” is also my favorite, and I am a huge fan of all of the albums. Rubber Soul and Revolver are masterpieces and so innovative. Sgt Pepper is delightful. Hell, all of them are terrific. But there is just something about Abbey Road that caused me to fall in love with the entire thing from the first time I heard it.
I’m with the OP. Revolver is my favourite Beatles album, followed by Rubber Soul.
Rubber Soul followed by Revolver.
My thoughts as well, and then “Hey Jude” as the favorite song.
I find the White album a bit drawn-out, they could have left out a few numbers and comprised it to a one-record album and it would have been absolutely killer.
My favourite also has to be Abbey Road, because it’s a great album for listening through from start to finish. All the songs have this distinct, matured feel and seem to play into each other well (some actually do, of course). Funnily enough, none of the individual songs would be amongst my Beatle’s favourites.
I’m also a big fan of the White Album, because its so varied and easy to listen to, though I agree that there’s a bit too much filler. Rubber Soul would probably be third because it also has a clear identity. Despite really trying, Revolver has never done it for me, and I find that Sgt. Pepper’s is weak in the middle. Yellow Submarine and Let It Be are really ‘collectors only’ material. I find the first albums are completely different, and though I quite like Help, I don’t own anything earlier.
I have to give Magical Mystery Tour the award for the most (undeservingly) ignored Beatles album. It has some amazing songs, (I Am The Walrus, The Fool on the Hill, Penny Lane, Strawberry Fields Forever, Hello Goodbye, All You Need Is Love), though I feel that’s also its weakness. It feels like they stuck a bunch of killer singles together rather than making a cohesive album.
Strawberry fields/Penny Lane has got to be highest quality single ever. You know you got quality when the *b-side * pretty much knocks all competition away.
Let it Be is my fave album, but strangely, I can’t stand listening to The Long and Winding Road track. I always skip it. Every other track I think is great.
Best song for playing along to with a guitar - Back in the USSR
Revolver, hands down.
Another Rubber Soul person here. It may be that it ws the first Beatles album I heard in its entirety. My brother got it on cassette for Christmas around 1969 or so.
I’m really not familiar with any albums before that. The ones after all have their merits.
I’m going to go back earlier and saythe UK release of* A Hard Day’s Night*. Thank God those horrible US versions of Beatle albums are out of print.
Another vote for Abbey Road. “Here Comes the Sun” is my favorite Beatles song and I can listen to “side 2” all day.
Abbey Road here as well. I don’t know exactly why, it’s just always been my favorite.
11/22/1968: (a) The White Album was released; (b) Skutir was born. For that reason alone I would say it is my favorite Beatles album. Fortunatley, it’s also my favorite to listen to.
“You say it’s you birthday/It’s my birthday too yeah.” It’s like the record is talking to me man!
Another vote for Abbey Road. It was the first Beatles album I ever listened to (though I was plenty familiar with the Beatles’ individual songs), and it blew me away at what an album could be. As an album, a start-to-finish listening experience (and not just a bunch of songs), it’s hands down their best.
Of course, when I first got into the Beatles, it was the U.S. versions of their earlier albums on Capitol records that were available, so that maybe puts them at a disadvantage.
" Abbey Road" is great. But i don’t need to tell anyone that. The thing that makes it great is what makes all other albums great as opposed to just good or decent: attention to detail.
The genius of the Beatles (especially Paul) was that while they made “filler”, but it was the best damn filler ever made. If you listen closely to “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” you’ll here these nice synthesizer parts that were years ahead of what any other band was doing then. On the surface its a slight novelty number, but there’s enough substance beneath to hook you in - even as you feel the intellectual need to loathe the song.
Without the filler, all Beatles’ records might as well be greatest hits collections.
I think Paul has suffered a bit from his talent to make good filler. A lot of his solo albums are nothing but filler grade material, and while the songs are well crafted they need a little more solid particles in them.
Hard Days Night:
- A Hard Day’s Night
- I Should Have Known Better
- If I Fell
- I’m Happy Just To Dance With You
- And I Love Her
- Tell Me Why
- Can’t Buy Me Love
- Any Time At All
- I’ll Cry Instead
- Things We Said Today
- When I Get Home
- You Can’t Do That
- I’ll Be Back
(a close second …)
Rubber Soul
Most of the albums from Rubber Soul on are too great for me to possibly decide, so I’ll just say that as far as early albums are concerned, Beatles For Sale is way underrated. Sure, it’s half covers, but the vocal harmonies (including some use of artificial double-tracking, IIRC) and guitar tones are unbelievably perfect.