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The Beatles Albums: Best to Worst

December 6th, 2006

After listening to all the Beatles’ songs in more or less chronological order and rating them in iTunes, I rated each album by adding up the number of stars and diving by the number of songs. I was then able to rank them from best to worst.

The results actually surprised me, because it pretty much lined up with my previous “uncalculated” opinion of these albums. I usually claim Revolver is my favorite Beatles album, and it showed up second on my list. I think Sgt. Pepper benefited from this song-by-song ranking system as it had one less song, and therefore shows up at the number one spot.

I must mention my opinion that all the Beatles’ albums are worth owning, or at the very least, listening to. Although I found out that Magical Mystery Tour is the second worst Beatles album in my opinion, it contains some of my favorite Beatles songs ever, namely Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane. Also note that the rank range for all these albums ended up between 4.384 and 3 stars – even my “worst” Beatles album ended up being “average.”

In conclusion, I found this exercise not unlike ranking Picasso paintings. They’re all pretty damned good. And I’m just a Beatles fan, not an expert music critic or anything. Anyways, here are my results, from best to the worst. Beneath each evaluation paragraph is a link to the earlier post in which I break down my opinion of each song.

Note: I’m not including Yellow Submarine or Past Masters 1 and 2 as the first only has four Beatles originals they considered lesser songs, and the latter two are compilations of their singles.

1. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

4.384 stars

When taken in comparison with the rest of the Beatles’ output, these songs really stand out. There’s a clarity of purpose, the psychedelic noodling is limited, and the four were still working as a group (or at least it sounds like it). The sonic experimentation here is quite awe-inspiring. A few songs like A Day In The Life practically capture the entirety of the Beatles’ legacy.

Webomatica: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

2. Revolver

4.07 stars

I’m glad this album is up here, because it was always a personal favorite. It was the first Beatles album that freaked me out as a kid – with its relatively mature subject matter – that I had to “grow into.” It showcases the diverging Beatle personalities while retaining the “middle period” Beatles beat.

Webomatica: Revolver

3. Abbey Road

3.941 stars

At this point the Beatles were toast, but it’s awesome how they went out on a relative high note. The first side celebrates the Beatles as individuals, while the second half of this album has so many neat melodies and fragments more or less strung together. And of course, the two songs that boost this album up immensely in my mind are George’s: Something and Here Comes the Sun.

Webomatica: Abbey Road

4: Rubber Soul

3.714 stars

This was a Beatles album with renewed vigor. It’s as if they realized they didn’t have to be commercial and could actually have a go at being serious musicians, shedding their cute pop group roots. It also contains one of my favorite Beatles songs ever, Nowhere Man.

Webomatica: Rubber Soul

5. With The Beatles

3.571 stars

I’m kind of surprised this album made it up so high, but I think it’s because it was a sharper version of Please Please Me.

Webomatica: With The Beatles

6. A Hard Day’s Night

3.307 stars

Only 13 songs on this one. Interesting that the early Beatles edges out the later Beatles (White Album).

Webomatica: A Hard Day’s Night

7. White Album (Disc 1)

3.352 stars

There are just too many songs on this average album (17), some truly horrid. Good tracks are Dear Prudence and While My Guitar Gently Weeps while bad ones are Wild Honey Pie and Don’t Pass Me By.

Webomatica: White Album (Disc 1)

8. Help!

3.285 stars

Average album, but featuring the stunning Help! and Yesterday.

Webomatica: Help!

9. Let It Be

3.25 stars

Average, probably without the chaos, John goofiness, and some bad George songs, it would have ranked higher.

Webomatica: Let It Be

10. White Album (Disc 2)

3.23 stars

Frustratingly varied. A really strong song like Sexy Sadie is held back by the self-indulgence of Revolution 9.

Webomatica: White Album (Disc 2)

12. Please Please Me

3.214 stars

I’m a bit shocked to see the album so low on the list, but not really. It’s chock full of covers and hardly any 5 star songs.

Webomatica: Please Please Me

13. Magical Mystery Tour

3.090 stars

I really wish this album ranked higher on my list since it contains two of my favorite songs ever: Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane – but the lesser songs are so terrible that they sunk this album down to second worst. Even with only 11 songs, I dealt out so many 1 and 2 stars this album couldn’t carry the weight.

Webomatica: Magical Mystery Tour

13. Beatles For Sale

3 stars

This album was a low point for the Beatles. Supposedly they were tired of the constant pace of touring and filled this album with some pointless covers. The only songs truly worthy of the Beatles’ name is Eight Days A Week and No Reply – That’s it. So it’s my vote for the worst Beatles album.

Webomatica: Beatles For Sale

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  • But did you rank my "Smack Album"?

    It features both Wild Honey Pie and Revolution 9.

    http://www.soundbag.com/musictest/default.asp?q...

    And Revolver was always my personal fave.
  • Smack Album... alright I'll bite and let you know. Is it something like the grey album :)
  • Mr. Benson... you are an evil genius. I chuckled at the Please Please Me rendition. You know smack fu...

    What software are you using...?
  • Stumbled across this - thought you might be interested in a project I did this spring - ranking all the Beatles songs. It's linked in as my website.

    Abbey Road is my favorite, Revolver #2, with Sgt. Pepper and Magical Mystery Tour not far behind. And I agree Beatles For Sale is probably the bottom, though still pretty good.

    Cheers.
  • Thanks Charles... I'm interested to read other people's experiences doing something similar.
  • As for me, I find it difficult to rank them objectively. I'm old enough to remember some of these albums when they were first released, so some are tied in to my memories and experiences, which makes them seem more important to me than something released before I was aware of the beatles.

    For instance, I know that "hello goodbye" isn't that great of a song, but it was playing on the radio when I gave away my pet dog and cried all the way home. So that song means something more to me than just a song.

    Anybody else old enough to remember when these albums were first released?
  • Well.... they were all released during the sixties ... between about 1963-1970 or so. Maybe I should add the dates...
  • Snapple
    The worst is that one of the very best songs -- Paperback Writer -- was never released on LP during their time. I guess it was good enough on its own.
  • Hey snapple - yeah some of their best songs were singles only and didn't make it onto the albums. "Rain" also comes to mind. I think this was largely because the music industry was still single-driven and the concept of the album of the focus of attention was a new idea. However, these days it seems the attention is back on the single songs in this day of iTunes and mix and match playlists.
  • Slammerworm
    Absolutely right, far too many songs/b-grade dross on the White Album, but try this configuration out for a totally kick-ass single-disc, lp-length version:

    'Side One':
    Back In The USSR/I'm So Tired*/Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da*/Cry Baby Cry/..Me And My Monkey/While My Guitar Gently Weeps/Happiness Is A Warm Gun
    'Side Two':
    Birthday/Yer Blues/Sexy Sadie/Blackbird/Piggies/Helter Skelter/Good Night
    * Demo versions from the 'Anthology 2' album

    The Fab Four have their best album, plenty of offcuts for b-sides, film soundtracks etc. and Manson's still gonna be inspired. Also, lose 'When I'm Sixty-Four' and 'She's Leaving Home' from 'Sgt. Pepper', substitute the originally-scheduled 'Penny Lane' and 'Strawberry Fields Forever' and you've got a truly great album instead of a merely good one. Cheers.
  • Slammerworm - I think I'll test out that configuration - luckilly iTunes makes it easy to do such things. That does sound good since that includes some of my favorite White Album Songs.

    That is a good game to play with double albums - try to see what songs you'd include on a single album to make it better - alternative history kind of game. I might have to do that with the White Album in a future post.
  • Interesting exercise but I don't really think this is how an album should be ranked. There's more to a great album than the sum of the songs. I also think you highly underrate the White Album & Magical Mystery Tour.
  • johnnymoon
    I must say that I'm dissappointed by your rankings of Help! and Let It Be. But I'm gonna have to do this with I-tunes and see where they all come out mathematically as opposed to my subjective feelings about them.
  • Johnny yeah it's really hard to do and I was surprised by the results. I'd be interested to see what you come up with if you do this exercise. I'm thankful iTunes makes is possible, I had fun even if some people disagree with my conclusions.
  • kuljeet
    interesting.

    not sure you can add up the value of each song to determine how good an album is. sgt pepper overscores, white album underscores, if you adopt this method.

    plus, you cannot rank the two white lp discs separately. however, i agree there's too much on there that should not be, tho i'd definitely include revolution 9.

    beatles for sale is under-rated - their cover of rock'n'roll music is brilliant.

    it is also worth replacing tracks off albums with singles and b-sides from the time of the album in the way that some have done with when i'm 64/she's leaving home and strawebrry/penny. eg we can wrk it out/day tripper replace what goes on/run for your life etc.

    note also, tracks like fool on the hill, walrus, your mother should know, really ought to have been on pepper - what a great album that'd have been.

    and hey bulldog, lady madonna and inner light should have been on the white album.

    in conclusion, it is simply not possible to use the word "worst" and "Beatles Album" in the same sentence. Even weaker works like the help album contain real genuis (hide your love away, yesterday, help), ditto let it be (long & winding rd, across the universe, two of us).
  • Hater505
    you're the worst beatles album
  • Hater505
    you're the worst beatles album
  • 'Let it Be' is good advice that I should have heeded. I way better like magical mystery tour to L.I.B....
  • 'Let It Be' is good advice, right on the cover. I wisht i had heeded it. MMT is much better, imho...
  • Duncan McAlister
    I've ranked most of my albums this way, still got one or two from the earlier era to do but astonishingly Magical Mystery Tour comes out on top! It benefits from a very high number of 5-star songs (all the singles and Walrus) and a smaller track list. Only 'Flying' with 2 stars really brings it down. But I would definitely not have considered this in my top 3 or 4 albums - would have said Abbey Road, Pepper, Rubber Soul and Revolver all above it.

    The sum of its parts is greater than its whole.
  • Vintage B
    I've always disagreed with the critics of the Magical Mystery Tour album. The film may have been out there, but I think the soundtrack is a solid album that has been overlooked by the perceived failure of the film*. I've always thought Sgt. Pepper's was a tad overated, but if some of the Mystery Tour songs recorded during the Pepper sessions had been included in the Sgt. Pepper album, it would have been a whale of an album.

    I like the Beatles early albums that were full of covers. Their versions Rock & Roll Music, Long Tall Sally and Words of Love are pretty solid works. Lennons vocals on R&R music make it the superior recorded version of that song. Little Richard, himself, loved what McCartney did with LT Sally (and that's a lot coming from a guy who hates most peeps who covered his work. The Beatles harmony-filled version of Words of Love make it superior to Holly's version.

    The great thing about The Beatles is that they went in so many different directions while together. I can always find a Beatles album to appeal to whatever mood I'm in at the time.

    * The video performances of the MMT songs make this film worthy of being in my collection, despite the lack of script.
  • davidmontgomery
    I enjoyed your ranking of the Beatles albums--but am disappointed that you ranked the British CDs rather than the American vinyl albums, which are now out in CD, and is the format any Beatles fan of the '60s remembers their output. I already had the British CDs but had to remaster them so they would be arranged like the American albums. With the Beatles really falls short of Meet the Beatles without having I Want to Hold Your hand--as just one example. and Beatles 65, Yesterday & Today, Beatles VI get totallly lost in the British CDs
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