Top 10 Best Beatles Albums

The Top Ten
1 Abbey Road

Unlike their other albums, this one lacks flaws. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band has A Day in the Life, true, but it also has When I'm 64, which, while not bad, is rather unremarkable. Every song on Abbey Road could easily be said to be in their ten best songs. The concluding medley is a masterpiece, George Harrison has his catchiest tune and arguably the best Beatles love song, Ringo has his own fun little ditty, Because has the beautiful triple vocal harmony... Then you have the three rockers: Come Together, Maxwell's Silver Hammer, and I Want You. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but the fact this was not universally recognized as their best effort continually amazes me.

2 Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Absolutely the best Beatles album, with Abbey Road coming up second. Great hits like 'A Day In The Life', and other great hits. Although I love every Beatles album, nothing even comes close to Sgt. Peppers. My grandmother showed me this album, and we listened to it while painting the walls. Since then, I was hooked. I was 8 years old at the time, but now I'm 13 and know so much more about the Beatles. My grandmother also showed me Abbey Road and Let It Be.

1) Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
2) Abbey Road
3) Let It Be
4) White Album
5) Revolver
6) Rubber Soul
7) Magical Mystery Tour
8) A Hard Day's Night
9) Yellow Submarine
10) Please Please Me
11) Beatles For Sale
12) With The Beatles
13) Help!
14) Yesterday and Today
15) Past Masters

3 Revolver

Sgt. Pepper's may be more influential and important than Revolver, but Revolver is certainly the Beatles at their best. Each band member is fully engrossed in the project here, something that's absent in Sgt. Pepper's. There's a song here for everyone, from Yellow Submarine to Tomorrow Never Knows. The Beatles are practically creating new musical genres with each step they take on this album.

And, after all that, this isn't even my favorite Beatles album. That title goes to Abbey Road. This album is just a smidgen better than everything else, though. Ringo's drumming is imaginative as ever, Paul's bass playing is sweet and melodic, and the guitars are very heavy and distorted for 1966. The voices are stunningly beautiful, something that the Beatles nail every time. The single released in 1966, Paperback Writer b/w Rain, is the perfect companion to this record. If you can't decide which album to buy next, go for this one.

4 The White Album

While the songs are pretty good, the cover is genius. The albums prior to it, "Magical Mystery Tour" and "Sgt. Pepper's," both had crazy, psychedelic covers full of color. People were wondering what cover The Beatles would make next, and the cover was... blank. Absolutely nothing except for some faint text saying "The BEATLES." It's called the white album for a reason.

I went through a phase where Abbey Road was my favorite Beatles album. Then it was Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Then Revolver. Then Abbey Road again. Now, it's The White Album.

A lot of people look at The White Album and see what they consider awful filler like Revolution 9 and Wild Honey Pie. Then they see some mediocre songs like Why Don't We Do It in the Road?, Don't Pass Me By, Rocky Raccoon, and Good Night. Some people even dislike The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill and Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da. But I don't. Every time I listen to it, it takes me further away than Sgt. Pepper's. It's more bittersweet than Abbey Road and more experimental than Revolver. Every single song has a purpose. The next song is always so different from the last that I can't help but enjoy them all. Every song is placed so perfectly that they are all made enjoyable.

If this was shortened to a single LP, that would have been the worst decision The Beatles ever made. The Double White is not The Double White missing any of these songs.

My favorite tracks are While My Guitar Gently Weeps and Happiness Is a Warm Gun. While My Guitar Gently Weeps is my favorite song of Harrison's, his post-Beatles tracks notwithstanding. The guitar performances are just brilliant. Happiness Is a Warm Gun is pretty much the most condensed sectional piece you'll ever see. It's got three or four sections, all perfectly placed together, and it holds together in under three minutes without sounding rushed.

If you don't like The White Album, listen to it again. Listen to every track as if you love it. You can do it, I believe in you!

5 Rubber Soul

Their best album for no other reason than being released before the time they became canonized. Rubber Soul established the rise of a legendary band, seen in the depth and maturity of songs like In My Life. It is one of the only two albums by The Beatles, along with Abbey Road, where absolutely every song on the album is a pleasure to listen to.

For me, I voted for Rubber Soul as their best. I was a musician in the 60s, but more importantly, I was a teenager then. Nothing compared to this album. One can argue about the favorites on this album, but there are many great ones. Many Beatles albums have some iconic songs, but this album just flows. In My Life, I'm Looking Through You, Norwegian Wood, Michelle, Girl, You Won't See Me, Wait, Nowhere Man… When you're 15-16, you're pretty impressionable, and what an impression this album had on me.

6 Magical Mystery Tour

If I got a single penny every time somebody put this too low on a ranking, I'd be Bill Gates-level rich. It is commonly agreed that some of the songs on this album are the best Beatles songs ever. Most notably, Strawberry Fields Forever, Penny Lane, I am the Walrus, and All You Need Is Love stand out. Hello Goodbye is very underrated and should be up there as well. The Fool on the Hill and Blue Jay Way are also great, as well as the title cut being underrated.

On Sgt. Pepper's, you have the title track, Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds, and A Day in the Life (you could count With A Little Help From My Friends as well as one of their greats). However, there are many songs on that album that aren't too great, such as Within You Without You, Fixing a Hole, and Good Morning Good Morning. The tracks Getting Better, Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite, etc., are in the middle of the Beatles' catalogue. Although I like these songs, it doesn't make Sgt. Pepper's the best Beatles album.

7 A Hard Day's Night

It seems like a lot of the time, the Beatles' older albums get overlooked, which is a real shame because "A Hard Day's Night" is absolutely fantastic. I would even go as far as to say it's one of their top 5 best albums. It's got classics like "A Hard Day's Night," "If I Fell," and "Can't Buy Me Love," as well as underrated gems such as "Tell Me Why" and "Things We Said Today." I'd recommend this one to just about anybody. I'd say it's up there with "Revolver," "Abbey Road," and "Sgt. Pepper's."

I go through phases with Beatles albums. The last 20 years, I would have said their later stuff, especially Sgt. Pepper and The White Album. Recently though, I've rediscovered a passion for A Hard Day's Night. Check out You Can't Do That. I completely forgot what a brilliant song that is. I would put the album in my top 10 just now.

8 Help!

"Help!" is the soundtrack to probably the best movie the Beatles made. It has some good songs on it, like the title track and "Ticket to Ride," but "Yesterday" is by far the best song on the album, and one of the best songs made by the group.

Where they start to change and build up but still be a rock band. Paul has a song without the others called Yesterday. John Lennon shines a lot too with the title track, Ticket to Ride, and You've Got to Hide Your Love Away. George starts writing more, and this is the last album to have covers like Dizzy Miss Lizzy until Let It Be. John plays organ on it. 8/10.

9 Let It Be

Two of Us - A great opening to an underrated album.
Dig a Pony - Though its lyrics aren't good, the tune's catchy.
Across the Universe - Love everything except for John's vocals.
I Me Mine - A highlight of George Harrison's and the best on the album.
Dig It - Short but sweet.
Let It Be - One of the best songs on the album.
Maggie Mae - The Beatles are doing covers again!
I've Got a Feeling - There are so many great sections in the song.
One After 909 - The first song they ever wrote.
The Long and Winding Road - A highlight of Paul's career.
For You Blue - The last song they ever wrote.
Get Back - Amazing closer to an amazing album.

10 Please Please Me

There aren't a lot of opinions that came into my next rankings, but Please Please Me takes #6 because it has Misery, PS I Love You, and Twist and Shout that just get stuck in my head and I love it.

Please Please Me is carried by Love Me Do and Twist And Shout. But other than that, it's a pretty decent album.

To have so many originals on one album at the time was unheard of. This album set the stage for all albums after this one.

The Contenders
11 With The Beatles

I absolutely love this album and for some reason, I like it more than the rest. I love Revolver and Abbey Road, but the covers on this album are brilliant, and I have played tracks from this album more than any other. So, I have to say this is my favorite. It wasn't an easy choice. "Please Mr. Postman" and "All My Loving" are legendary!

1. With The Beatles
2. Abbey Road
3. Revolver
4. Rubber Soul
5. Let It Be
6. The White Album
7. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
8. Help!
9. Please Please Me
10. Magical Mystery Tour

(By the way, I haven't listened to all their albums, such as Beatles For Sale and Yellow Submarine, so don't judge me if you think they should be mentioned, laugh out loud.)

12 Beatles For Sale

This album is actually a bit underrated. Sure, the tone is a little uneven, with melancholy tracks such as I'm a Loser and Baby's in Black mixed in with cheerful tracks like Eight Days a Week and Every Little Thing, but that doesn't stop the songs from being AWESOME! The original songs are very catchy and meaningful, and the covers are great too. Also, the reason they included so many covers was that they played those songs back in their Liverpool days and wanted to put some of those on an album.

13 Let It Be... Naked

No, they were not naked while recording this. This album was released in 2008 by Paul McCartney as a better alternative to the original Let It Be album. While they did remove two songs (Dig It and Maggie Mae), these were pretty useless and bad songs. However, they added another song (Don't Let Me Down), which is phenomenal. One other thing they did was remove all of the background chatter that would happen before some songs, like the chatter in the beginning of Two of Us, Dig A Pony's false start, and the chatter before Get Back. The songs are also rearranged in a better order.

14 Love

A collaboration of all The Beatles' greatest hits. Number 1 in all aspects. Yes, they remix some of the songs, but I don't think it hurts the song. I actually like how the album flows. Not just my favorite Beatles album, but my favorite album, period.

The version of Strawberry Fields Forever on this album is utterly amazing, same with While My Guitar Gently Weeps.

They morphed "Within You Without You" with "Tomorrow Never Knows" in this album and it is the best psychedelic song I've ever heard.

15 Yellow Submarine

Okay, let me get something straight. I love Yellow Submarine. Hey Bulldog is cool, All Together Now is a nice little sing-along, and Ringo's vocals on Yellow Submarine are amazing. Some people may consider Yellow Submarine as a weak moment for the Beatles, and others consider it as a great sing-along for children. I don't understand why it's so hated; Yellow Submarine is one of my favorite Beatles albums!

I don't understand why most people dislike this album. It has two of the best Beatles songs showcasing their experimental side, and both of them are Harrison's songs. Additionally, the fact that we have George Martin doing "classical" music (I'd rather use the term "academic") highlights his brilliance in the band, justifying his designation as the fifth Beatle. By the way, that part of the album is amazing.

So, "Only a Northern Song," "It's All Too Much," and the "Martin's Medley" should elevate this album as a great piece.

16 The Beatles 1

1 is kind of like the Red and Blue Albums combined into one. Featuring songs from their entire career, it was actually the best-selling album in the UK in the first decade of the 21st century.

It introduced a new generation to the Beatles. It's one of their most important albums. It's also the definitive greatest hits album released by the band, in that all the songs are on one disc. This album shows just how big they were. 27 number one hits in total between the US and UK.

Though there were some great Beatles songs left out of this masterpiece collection ('Sgt. Pepper's' and 'Twist & Shout' come to mind), I love this album. I think it captures the Beatles' growth as artists and is perfect for introducing kids (like me) to the legendary Beatles!

17 Past Masters, Vol. 1

Their second-best early album, only to A Hard Day's Night. It has the original version of Love Me Do, From Me to You, She Loves You, I Want to Hold Your Hand, This Boy, Yes it Is, and so much more!

18 Past Masters, Vol. 2

This album was released in 1988 for the box set. This one and Volume 1 were created to have every song not on the original 13 albums.

So many songs that should have been on albums. Like Revolution.

19 Yesterday and Today

I think it's the best. Fantastic rockers like Day Tripper and And Your Bird Can Sing, plus thoughtful songs like Yesterday and Nowhere Man. Much better than some of the others ranked higher.

20 Meet the Beatles

This is the best Beatles album!

21 Love Songs
22 Anthology

I love the Beatles' early and alternative songs.

23 Anthology 2
24 Beatles '65
25 Beatles VI
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