I voted “Blue,” based on the timeframe (and was shocked to find “Rain” and “Tomorrow Never Knows” missing … wait … no “Hey Bulldog” either? Well sod that!) but would like to change my answer to Red. (ETA, oh wait. I can do that. Changed.)
Red has a nice beat and you can dance to it.
Get a temporary membership to Spotify and play whole albums, in order, starting with Rubber Soul. When it gets to Revolution 9, you can skip that one.
I don’t like listening to greatest hits albums, especially for bands like the Beatles that had a different sounds for different albums/eras. Sure, play Elvis’s greatest hits, but not the Beatles.
Yeah, it’s got a backbeat; you can’t lose it.
A second idea I had was to put “You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)” on loop. Totally make sense - all that cocktail lounge stuff going on, replete with lounge host - your party gets a bit of a cable boost.
Ugh. Their covers of Chuck Berry are the worst.
Are you really restricted to playing just one or the other, or are we just having a fun poll?
The real answer is to pick and choose songs from each (let’s call it the Purple Album).
But anyway, I voted Red because, even though it’s older, it will seem fresher.
mmm
ETA: Oh yeah, go out and get yourself the real Beatles albums. 
If you really want people to leave just play this album…
https://supersonicrecords.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/SGTPEPP2.jpg
Yeah, Red inexplicably & criminally left off several top cuts from Revolver (in addition to TNK, it ignored Got to Get You into My Life, She Said, She Said, and Love You To (among others) in favor of the frucking Yellow Submarine. Just play a copy of that album in between the comps.
Somehow loop the Hey Jude Na na’s and see how long it takes for someone to notice.
Isn’t that how it works?
Hey, don’t knock how long Hey Jude goes. It was the final song in my eighth grade dance and considering the girl I was dancing with, I didn’t want it to end.
I voted Blue (I owned both on eight-track!) The Red album isn’t nearly, but would be OK as just background music. Or will you be offended if people stop talking to listen to A Day in the Life?
Answer: Revolver.
Red first, to get folks dancing.
As things mellow out later on, from whatever’s being ingested, Blue will be more intriguing to listen to.
I’d play both, myself! But if I had to choose, I would go with Blue.
wow I had heard the Sgt pepper soundtrack had some unique stuff but the bee gees and Alice cooper? steve martin and George burns? ? I guess the acid trips didn’t end in the 60s…
I’m going to fight the hypothetical and suggest the OP get a copy of the Mono Box Set and play that. In the pre-CD days I hosted an all-day pool party and used a reel to reel tape with all the albums back-to back for the background music.
it’s a weird album, and an even weirder movie. It’s widely felt that it was a major factor in ending Peter Frampton’s run of success in the '70s, as well.
A Beatles compilation that gets sneered at, that I really like, is Rock’n’Roll Music. It has a lot of covers on the first two sides, like Money, Boys, Roll Over Beethoven, which if you’re wondering why you want to hear a group known for writing hits do other people’s songs, it’s because those are the songs that inspired them, that they played for years in clubs, they love those songs and it shows - their versions are really revved up, especially when John cuts loose with one of his screams.
That sort of energy is infectious, and coupled with the fact that in the US there was a conspiracy to replace that raw sort of music on the radio with tamer stuff, it’s no wonder the Beatles hit it big in America when they did - hearing a hopped-up Paul doing Little Richard was like, oh no you didn’t! So Rock’n’Roll Music might not be your greatest collection of Beatle originals, but it’s a blast to listen to.
Quite frankly, 90 minutes of the Beatles, if the music dominates the scene, Red or Blue, would be plenty enough to convince me to leave early. If it is not a specfically Beatles-themed party, I would be annoyed at the way all the other awesome music of that era was being overlooked.
Maybe I’m “old school,” but I definitely go with Red on this one.