Every Beatles Album, Ranked
To rank the Beatles is to weigh the touring band that quit the road in August 1966 against the studio band that came after. Every Beatles studio album is here however slight, and nothing else: the UK albums and the Magical Mystery Tour LP that the 1987 and 1988 CDs fixed as the core catalogue, Past Masters aside, judged on the album credit rather than track credits, which seats Yellow Submarine, orchestral side and all. That gate settles membership, while Far Out, Gold Radio, We Got This Covered, Stereogum, Cheat Sheet, classical-music.com and SPIN set the tiers (Cheat Sheet skips Magical Mystery Tour and Yellow Submarine, so those two face six). A record placed top five by at least 4 of its rankings sits in the front tier, the rest go in the back tier, and the vote orders each band. Each link opens Spotify's oldest copy, a remaster chosen by song count and names rather than printed year; where it differs from the original in songs or in mix, the item says how.
The Beatles — The Beatles (1968) is #1 on “Every Beatles Album, Ranked”.
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The Beatles — The Beatles (1968)
Thirty songs over four sides, nineteen of them written at the meditation course in Rishikesh in early 1968. Dear Prudence - Remastered 2009 is Lennon's song for Prudence Farrow, who barely came out of her room there, and McCartney plays the drums because Ringo Starr had walked out of the sessions that August. It is first at SPIN and first at classical-music.com, and 7 of 7 rankings have it somewhere in their top five.
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The Beatles — Abbey Road (1969)
George Harrison wrote Here Comes The Sun - Remastered 2009 in the garden of Eric Clapton's Surrey house on a day he skipped an Apple business meeting, and its Moog part went on 19 August, just before the final mix. Most of side two runs eight tracks together into a sixteen-minute medley the sessions called The Long One, Far Out ranks the record first, and its top-five count reads 7 of 7.
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The Beatles — Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)
None of the band plays an instrument on She's Leaving Home - Remastered 2009, Mike Leander's arrangement for strings with Sheila Bromberg on harp, and two tracks later Harrison cuts Within You Without You with Indian players recruited via the Asian Music Circle and no other Beatle on the recording. SPIN has it fourth and classical-music.com third, part of a top-five tally of 7 out of 7 rankings.
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The Beatles — Revolver (1966)
Taxman - Remastered 2009 is Harrison's protest at a top tax rate of 95 per cent under Harold Wilson's Labour government, with McCartney playing the guitar solo. Wikipedia counts over 220 hours of recording against less than 80 for Rubber Soul, and it comes second at SPIN and again at classical-music.com, with a top-five spot from 7 of 7 rankings.
Open in Spotify - 5
The Beatles — Rubber Soul (1965)
Mostly cut between 12 October and a 15 November 1965 mixdown, for a Christmas deadline, with Wait's rhythm track carried over from June's Help! sessions. In My Life - Remastered 2009 carries Martin's half-speed piano solo, which plays back like a harpsichord, and the link remasters the stereo remix he prepared for the 1987 CD, not the 1965 mix. SPIN puts it fifth, as does classical-music.com, and it holds a top-five place on 7 of 7 rankings.
Open in Spotify - 6
The Beatles — A Hard Day's Night (1964)
Lennon and McCartney wrote every song, the first Beatles album made entirely of originals. Side one is the film's songs and side two the ones written for it and left out, which is where Things We Said Today - Remastered 2009 sits. All 7 rankings file the album sixth or seventh, five of them sixth, which leaves it at 0 of 7 for top-five finishes.
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The Beatles — Let It Be (1970)
Across The Universe - Remastered 2009 is a 1968 take played back slower, which drops it from D to D flat, and Phil Spector dressed it and two other songs in orchestra and choir. McCartney, who stayed unhappy with what Spector did to the LP, started the 2003 Naked remix, while four of the 7 rankings put the 1970 record seventh, as high as it climbs, leaving its top-five count at 0 of 7.
Open in Spotify - 8
The Beatles — Please Please Me (1963)
Apart from four single sides and Martin's later piano and celesta it was taped in one day, 11 February 1963, and two of those sides, Love Me Do and P.S. I Love You, play here in mono where the 1963 stereo LP had mock stereo. Lennon sang Twist And Shout - Remastered 2009 last and said every swallow was 'like sandpaper', while Far Out, Cheat Sheet and SPIN each place it eighth and 0 of 7 go top five.
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The Beatles — Help! (1965)
McCartney dreamt part of Yesterday - Remastered 2009 and sang it to working words about scrambled eggs; Wikipedia calls its string quartet 'the band's first use of Baroque sensibilities'. Spotify's copy remasters the stereo remix Martin made in 1986 for the CD rather than the 1965 mix, and the best any of the 7 rankings does for the album is SPIN's sixth, so its top-five count is 0 of 7.
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The Beatles — Magical Mystery Tour (1967)
Britain got six songs on a double EP in December 1967; Spotify has the 11-track Capitol LP, adding both sides of that year's first two singles plus Hello, Goodbye, with several of those single sides, Penny Lane among them, in later true-stereo mixes. Lennon fed a live radio broadcast of King Lear into I Am The Walrus - Remastered 2009, and classical-music.com's sixth is as kind as any ranking gets, for a top-five total of 0 of 6.
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The Beatles — With the Beatles (1963)
Robert Freeman shot the half-shadow cover in a dark hotel corridor in Bournemouth, after Astrid Kirchherr's Hamburg pictures. Eight originals and six covers, with Don't Bother Me, the first song Harrison wrote alone to reach a record, and McCartney's All My Loving - Remastered 2009, which Mark Lewisohn rated his best and most complex songwriting to that point. We Got This Covered has it eighth, its best placing, and it collects a top five from 0 of the 7 rankings.
Open in Spotify - 12
The Beatles — Beatles for Sale (1964)
Six of the fourteen tracks are covers, and George Martin recalled a band 'war weary' after being 'battered like mad' through 1964. Eight Days A Week - Remastered fades in from silence, among the earliest pop records to start that way, and this carrier prints no remaster year on its tracks, while SPIN and Stereogum both rank it tenth, its peak, leaving it 0 of 7 on top-five finishes.
Open in Spotify - 13
The Beatles — Yellow Submarine (1969)
Side one has six Beatles tracks, four of them new, and side two is George Martin's film score, credited to him track by track on Spotify. Hey Bulldog - Remastered came out of a February 1968 session meant to film a Lady Madonna promo, Only A Northern Song is mono since nobody made a stereo mix at the time, and five of the 6 rankings that include the record put it last, so 0 of 6 reach a top five.
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