If individuals are allowed (cf. “Zappa” mention above), then Neil Young makes the list.
I didn’t know that people considered The Beatles to have “range”. Sure they (excluding Paul) evolved over time, but not that much by modern standards. Blondie put a lot more variety into their work.
I’m with Ghanima on this one. Ween. Not only have they done it all, most of the time they do it better! Just a phenominal band.
Examples like The Stones and Queen are fine, but over the course of a two- or three-decade career you expect a band to evolve over a fairly broad range of styles. Unless it’s AC/DC.
OTOH, the sheer amount of genre experimentation attempted by the Beatles in 8 years, or The Clash in five (not counting Cut The Crap), is amazing.
Leon Russell - Leon Live, Hank Wilson’s Back, Stop All That Jazz, etc.
I don’t think of the Stones as a band with a lot of range. The odd song may be a little more country- or disco-flavored than the norm, but they stick pretty close to the same blues-rock formula almost all of the time. Aside from their brief psychedelic period, what have they done that was really a departure from previous work?
I don’t say that to rag on the Stones by the way; I’m a big fan. They just strike me as almost the quintessential “do one thing and do it well” band.
All the bands mentioned above, with the exception of the Beatles, Queen, and Ween, have shown remarkable variety within their established genres. Even the Kinks–and I yield to no one in my appreciation for the Kinks, whom I saw live four or five times. The Beatles invented a lot of new stuff, but their stylistic range was still, ultimately of a certain tone and range. Queen utterly ignored the concept of genre. There’s no comparison to the outside-of-the-boxness of Queen and the Beatles; Queen wins hands down. Their only possible rival on this front is Ween. Still, going back and listening to the stunning array of genres on just their first three albums, I have to give it to Queen.
Another vote for Queen here. I can’t even describe what kind of style the song Killer Queen is in. OutKast’s The Whole World and Fiona Apple’s Tymps (Sick In The Head Song) have copied the instrumental style and beat of it more than 30 years later.
I agree with Queen, although they sucked after The Game.
If we take range to mean only in one direction, I would nominate Velvet underground. Specifically the difference from Sister Ray to Pale Blue Eyes.
The Clash album London Calling may be the album with the greatest range.
Paul Mccartney 1963 - Love Me Do
Paul Mccartney 1969 Golden Slumbers / Carry That Weight / The End
Perhaps you should go back and listen to those ol’ albums again. 
I don’t think the Beatles necessarily have the most range, but I want to back up the argument that they did have a wide range that’s more than just their development.
Take a look at Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The title song is much different from Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, and both of those are much different from When I’m Sixty-Four, and all are quite different from A Day in the Life. Not to mention Within You Without You.
The white album should be mostly self-explanatory. Sure, they didn’t succeed with all of the songs on that album, but there’s a good variety even among the ones that did turn out well.
Their final two albums, Let It Be and Abbey Road, are quite different. I know a lot of people don’t like LIB, but I like it more than Abbey Road. At least the Naked version of LIB, I haven’t heard the original.
I’ve only heard the Guitar Hero version of Killer Queen, but it reminds me of the songs from Dumbo. It’s been years since I’ve seen Dumbo and I don’t really remember any of the songs from it, but that’s what Killer Queen makes me think of.
King Crimson, Neil Young, Bob Dylan and that short little guy married to …AHHHH! Paul Simon!
To name a few. Damn Brain-fade!
Ha! In response to a critic who accused AC/DC of making “twelve albums that sound exactly alike”, Angus Young indignantly retorted, “That bloody well pisses me off! We’ve made fourteen albums that sound exactly alike!”
I’m a big Neil Young fan, but I don’t think he’s had a lot of range, or at least, a lot of success with it. I’m sure a diehard would tell you otherwise. And I liked Trans.
I nominate Paul Simon, though I do think Queen had more span than him or the Beatles.
Wow. I never, ever thought I’d hear their name here. I kiss you on the mouth for merely mentioning them! One of the most overlooked bands ever.
Ah yes. They went from pop rock to rock pop.
I was arguing against the statement that Paul McCartney didnt evolve musically over time.
We are not really arguing about the fact that the Beatles had a large range, are we?
Let’s go over this definitively, shall we?
I’m only choosing a few songs from each album because there’s so much material.
From Queen:
Keep Yourself Alive - Rock
Jesus - Christian Rock (no kidding)
Doing All Right - Folk Rock
From Queen II
Funny How Love Is - Power pop
Ogre Battle - Fantasy
Seven Seas of Rhye - Pub Rock
From Sheer Heart Attack
Killer Queen - Music Hall
Bring Back that Leroy Brown - Dance Hall Jazz
Flick of the Wrist - Heavy Metal
Brighton Rock - Guitar Rock (with obligatory long solo)
From A Night at the Opera
Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon - Gilded Age Piano
'39 - Folk (almost filk)
Love of my Life - Ballad
Bohemian Rhapsody - Who the hell knows. Opera Rock, maybe.
From A Day at the Races
Tie Your Mother Down - Hard Rock
The Millionaire Waltz - Festhaus
Somebody to Love - Gospel-oriented soul
Teo Torriate - Partially Japanese piano rock
From News of the World
We Will Rock You/We are the Champions - Anthem
Sheer Heart Attack - Punk
Sleeping on the Sidewalk - Horn-Guitar Jazz
Who Needs You - Flamenco
My Melancholy Blues - Piano Bar Jazz
From Jazz
Mustafa - Arabic-language pop
Fat Bottomed Girls - Country Rock
Dreamer’s Ball - Crooner
From The Game
Play the Game - Synth Pop
Dragon Attack - Funk
Crazy Little Thing Called Love - Rockabilly
Save Me - Power Ballad
From Hot Space (Note that this is a concept album)
Staying Power - Disco
Cool Cat - R&B
Body Language - Soul
From The Works
Machines - Primordial Techno
Is this the World We Created - Folk
Man on the Prowl - Rockabilly
I’ll stop there.
But lissener is exactly right. The concept of genre was utterly beyond Queen’s scope of work. Wherever the inclinations of the four songwriters went they went. Mostly it was Freddie experimenting. John Deacon wrote power pop and dance. Brian May wrote the more folky guitar stuff. Roger Taylor wrote the harder stuff.
And Freddie’s interests wandered like a two-year-old in a candy shop.
No one has covered more ground in the rock era. Hell, critics used to beat the hell out of them for not sticking to any genre inside single albums much less inside their whole catalog.
And don’t even GET me started on the showtunes they’d play live. I’ve got a GREAT version of ‘Hey Big Spender’ around here somewhere.
I am.
I would think that constantly coming up with (“inventing”) new, unique music, time after time and album after album, is a greater–albeit more subtle–demonstration of musical range and talent than performing with competence or even excellence in genres of music that have already been established by others.
Just my two cents, of course.
I’ve seen them in concert twice and own all their CD’s (eight or so.)
They’ve done everything from classic to rock, to the ketchak, African native songs, new age, and some just wonky stuff. They are noticibly lacking the blues.