Your Top-5 favorite Beatles albums

[Mikey]

I grew up with this intro on HELP

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VZduwHhIac

m

[clemso]

Let it Be
Abbey Road
Revolver
Hard Days Night
Sgt.Pepper

[BendyZaius]

If we are talking British releases (the best "albums" I think)

Rubber Soul
Beatles for Sale
Hard Days Night
Revolver
Abbey Road

I really love the change in mood that came between "With the Beatles" and "Beatles for Sale". You could tell things were wearing on them during that year as the tone of the songs become much darker. Songs like "I'm a looser", "Baby's in Black" and "No Reply" really show this. Even the cover photo is very somber. Love it!

[Mikey]

For me, the American albums will always be the official albums.

To this day if you asked me what album did She Loves You appear on, i'd answer The Beatles Second Album without even thinking.

[kingdom warrior]

For me, the American albums will always be the official albums.

To this day if you asked me what album did She Loves You appear on, i'd answer The Beatles Second Album without even thinking.

Yeah I'm the same..I grew up with the American Versions not the Uk versions.

Capitol Really Milked BeatleMania by adding albums


I always though the biggest mistake the Beatles made was not adding Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane to Sgt Peppers those songs belong on that album.....

When I got My Sgt.Pepper CD the first thing I did was burn my own copy and added those two tracks into the middle of the album.......

[Mikey]

I always though the biggest mistake the Beatles made was not adding Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane to Sgt Peppers those songs belong on that album.....

I have to disagree.
Sgt Pepper is a great albums, but it doesn't have any huge hits ... which if it did they would overshadow the album as a whole.

As an example I think The Wall (part-2), Run Like Hell and Comfortably Numb overshadow the entire Floyd Wall album ... especially to casual fans.

[nvmbrsdoom5]

Though I mainly grew up with the American versions of the LPs, I've pretty much come to accept the British versions now as the "proper" ones from listening to the cds for so long now.

So going with that, here's my list--

1. Revolver (not only my fave Beatle album, but my favorite album of all time period. I consider it to be a "perfect" album.)

2. Rubber Soul

3. Help

4. Abbey Road

5. Beatles For Sale & A Hard Days Night (tie)

[david_b]

I always though the biggest mistake the Beatles made was not adding Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane to Sgt Peppers those songs belong on that album.....

I have to disagree.
Sgt Pepper is a great albums, but it doesn't have any huge hits ... which if it did they would overshadow the album as a whole.

As an example I think The Wall (part-2), Run Like Hell and Comfortably Numb overshadow the entire Floyd Wall album ... especially to casual fans.

I'd agree with you. If you added Penny and Fields.., you'd have to consider adding 'It's All Too Much', which was George's initial contribution to Pepper (or was it 'Only a Northern Song'..? I can't recall..).

Sir George Martin always lamented that one of his bigger mistakes was not advocating TWO separate single releases for both Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields.., instead of the 'double A-side' idea. Lost some good income (and chart action) for the Fabs..

I always loved the initial demos for Strawberry Fields (on the Anthology album..), just the acoustic guitar and John's voice. Not commercial, but much more poignant than the final release. As for Penny Lane, I liked the extended horns played on the version (like on the ending..) that wasn't released.

My 'With the Beatles' German import was the only import I ever had as a kid.. It wasn't until I got to college and heard the UK Revolver that I heard how the album was originally meant to be released as.. and loved the differences in song versions and mixing.

daivd_b

[Mikey]

If Martin did break Strawberry and Penny Lane up into 2 singles i'm not sure if they would have done much better than the double A-side we got.

Penny Lane would have easily sold itself, but i'm not sure about Strawberry.

Today, many people regard Strawberry as THE REAL A-side, but I think back in the day it was Penny Lane that carried the single to the buying public.

No secret back in the day it was McCartney's songs that most of the general public liked (not including early Lennon-McCartney hits like I Want To Hold Your Hand)