Here we go again to talk about the greatest rock band of all time, The Beatles. There are no words that would describe their greatness or how influential this band was. The Beatles were only active for a decade from 1960 to 1970 however, they are the only band or music artist to ever sold 600 million albums globally. There might be very few musicians who are not influenced or inspired by the Beatles.
In this piece, we will be ranking the Beatles’ studio albums from the worst to the best. Well, there is not exactly the worst piece however, it is just a preference we are talking about. Furthermore, what the readers must keep in mind is that this list is according to our perspective. It is really hard to list out the bad and best albums by the Beatles because not everyone has the same taste. Even the band members had their own favorite or best albums, for John Lennon it was the White Album, while Paul McCartney thought Sgt. Pepper is the best, and while George Harrison thought Rubber Soul was their best album, Ringo Starr chose Abbey Road.
The Beatles’ albums ranked in order of greatness
So as mentioned, it might not be the same for everyone however, these are the Beatles albums that we have ranked from bad to best in our accordance.
13. Yellow Submarine
Yup, there you have it if there are any of the Beatles’ albums you can call worst then this is it. And I guess many of you might have even guessed it and if you did guess, you were absolutely right. It was from their 1968 animated film Yellow Submarine. And if there is anything worse than the album, it was the film.
12. Beatles For Sale
It is the fourth studio album of the Beatles and it also has a few popular and lovely tracks, however, that did not stop this album to fall on the list of one of the Beatles’ least-loved albums. The songs from the album include Eight Days A Week, No Reply, and I’m a Loser. Although these few tracks were loved by the audiences, they did not shower the same love on the album itself.
11. Magical Mystery Tour
There are people who don’t even consider it an album because it was released as a double EP in the United Kingdom. However, whatever the case may be it still contains a few of the Beatles’ most popular tracks including I Am the Walrus, Strawberry Fields Forever, Penny Lane, and All You Need Is Love. While these tracks were a blast, the album itself could not do the magic as the single tracks because other songs from the album do not live up to the mentioned tracks.
10. Let It Be
It is the last or final studio album from the Beatles and it was released on May 8, 1970, a month after the band split up. It is also considered one of the most controversial albums of all time. Let It Be also contains a few tracks that are great including I, Me, Mine, Let It Be, and Across the Universe. However, the only reason why this album was or is famous is that it was the final album by the Beatles.
9. Help!
Help was released on August 6, 1965, and it is the Beatles’ fifth studio album. This album also contains various popular tracks from the band like Paul McCartney written song Yesterday. Furthermore, this album also features tracks including You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away, Ticket to Ride, and one of John Lennon’s favorite tracks from the band, Help. Furthermore, the track Help is Lennon really asking for someone’s help. Talking about the song Lennon said, “It was just me singing “help” and I meant it, you know. I don’t like the recording that much, the song I like. We did it too fast to try and be commercial.”
8. With The Beatles
It is the second studio album of the band that was released back in November 1963. Furthermore, the album contained a total of fourteen songs. And this album includes a few of the Beatles’ hit tracks that later helped them become one of the greatest bands around the world. Some of the hit songs from this album are Please Mr. Postman and All My Loving. Furthermore, the album also contains George Harrison’s first ever written track Don’t Bother Me.
Not only his written song but George has vocals on three of the tracks. Moreover, they also covered various songs including Roll Over BeethovenRoll Over Beethoven and You Really Got A Hold On Me. People have mixed opinions about this album, while there are people who think that this album is average and there are also those who think that the Beatles were just trying to get some money by covering a few songs.
7. Please, Please Me
This is the first or debut album of the Fab Four. This album was released back in March 1963 and as per the reports, the Fab Four recorded this album in just 13 hours. However, listening to this album does not feel like it was recorded in just thirteen hours because all the songs are really energetic.
In total there are fourteen songs on this album including the opening song I Saw Her Standing There by Paul McCartney. There are of course original songs however, they have also included various cover songs in this album including Shout and Twist. Moreover, the album also features the song Do You Want to Know a Secret which was sung by George Harrison.
The Beatles’ co-lead vocalist John Lennon talked about the time they recorded this album and said, “That record tried to capture us live, and was the nearest thing to what we might have sounded like to the audiences in Hamburg and Liverpool. You don’t get that live atmosphere of the crowd stomping on the beat with you, but it’s the nearest you can get to know what we sounded like before we became the ‘clever’ Beatles.”
6. A Hard Day’s Night
This album contains a total of thirteen tracks. It is the third studio album by the Fab Four and was released back in July 1964. Furthermore, this album was recorded as a soundtrack for their first film. Many consider this one of the best albums because this album contains songs that are extremely powerful and great. People even debate that this album was really ahead of its time.
There are several songs in this album that are really popular including Tell Me Why, Can’t Buy Me Love, And I Love Her, and more. Really, this is one of the finest albums by the Beatles.
5. Rubber Soul
This is the album Beatles recorded and they were really inspired by Bob Dylan. Rubber Soul was really one of a kind album which is why it is still considered a masterpiece. There are also people who love to call it the first masterpiece by the Fab Four. In total there are twelve tracks in this album including Think For Yourself, Run For Yourself, and more. Moreover, this album was released back in December 1965.
It was also the album that change the Beatles forever because tracks like Norwegian Wood were so hit that it was a blast. Furthermore, the mentioned track also happens to be one of George Harrison’s favorite songs from the Beatles. Not only the track but he also mentioned Rubber Soul as his favorite album from his band. Talking about this album Harrison told in an interview, “The most important thing about it was that we were suddenly hearing sounds we weren’t able to hear before. Also, we were being more influenced by other people’s music and everything was blossoming at that time—including us.”
4. The Beatles (White Album)
The Beatles which is also known as the White Album was released by the Fab Four back in November 1968. It is also the only double album released by the Beatles. Furthermore, it is the Beatles’ ninth studio album. According to Paul McCartney, it was the tension album.
In 1987, McCartney talked about this album and said, “The White Album was the tension album, Never before had we recorded with beds in the studio and people visiting for hours on end, business meetings and all that. There was a lot of friction.” Moreover, this album also includes one of Paul’s favorite Beatles songs Julia.
Julia was written by John Lennon and talking about this song Paul said, “Julia is about the mum he couldn’t live with. So I loved the poignancy of that because I’d been with him round to Julia’s house to visit her. And I knew how deeply he loved her. So Julia I would go with.”
3. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
It has already been more than five decades since this album was released however, it still is one of the greatest albums of all time, at least that is what we think. It is the eighth studio album of the Fab Four which was released on May 26, 1967. Although John Lennon was a very talented musician, Paul McCartney is credited for this album, calling it Paul’s greatest work as a musician. Furthermore, this album also happens to be Paul’s favorite Beatles album and if you are wondering why this was what McCartney had to say, “I’d pick Sgt. Pepper’s, meself, because I had a lot to do with it.”
Although people might not consider this one of the greatest albums, we can still say that Paul really did a great job on this album. There are thirteen total tracks in this album including With a Little Help from My Friends, Within You Without You, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, and more.
2. Revolver
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khoPQvqNmag
Revolver is the album that is considered one of the greatest as well as the most influential albums of all time. Back in 2016, BBC reported that the Revolver was the Beatles’ greatest album. Revolver was released back in August 1966 and it is the Beatles’ seventh studio album. There are people who claim that the Beatles were at their peak of creativity. While John and Paul were already known as great songwriters, George Harrison also showed his songwriting talent in this album as well as in the Rubber Soul and a few other albums.
I Want To Tell You, Love You To, Taxman, are the songs from this album which are written by Harrison. Furthermore, songs like Tomorrow Never Knows, Here, There and Everywhere, Eleanor Rigby, are a few of the popular songs from the Revolver album. So why is the Revolver considered the greatest album? well, it might be because the Fab Four experimented with various sounds or music in this album. Talking about the song Tomorrow Never Knows, producer George Martin said, “He wanted his voice to sound like the Dalai Lama chanting from a hilltop.”
1. Abbey Road
Chronologically looking, Abbey Road is the final album the Fab Four or the Beatles ever recorded. This album is really special because it also contains tracks by individual members. Abbey Road was released on September 26, 1969, and this is the eleventh studio album released by the Fab Four. As mentioned it is the last album recorded by the band before they broke up.
Abbey Road contains seventeen tracks in total and this album is considered and said to be one of the best records by the Beatles. John Lennon had already left the band when the album was released and the same year McCartney also left the band and started his solo music career.
Furthermore, George Harrison has also written a few tracks on this album and his written songs Here Comes the Sun and Something is said to be one of the best tracks he wrote. Not only the tracks of this album are famous but the cover of this album is also regarded as the best and most famous. Other than Harrison’s songs, Come Together written by Lennon is also one of the most popular tracks from the album. Ringo Starr’s written song Octopus’s Garden is also quite popular from the album Abbey Road.
