Comments on: The Beatles Albums: Best to Worst

By: Mr. Hoffman

Mr. Hoffman — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 21:33:31 +0000

Attempting to compare Sgt. Peppers, and Magical Mystery Tour albums with the other Beatles generic albums is like putting a round peg into a square hole…Sgt. Peppers, and Magical Mystery Tour were concept albums, those type of albums fall out of the normal range of mass consumer music products.…Using your model it, would have been better to exclude Sgt. Peppers, and Magical Mystery Tour because it may give a false impression about the quality or lack of in those albums…If it is any consequence my favorite Beatles album is ‘Magical Mystery Tour’..Of course my like of the album goes beyond the great songs, it has more to do with the fact that John allowed Paul’s creative side to dominate the album..Also George Martin added to the album in so many ways..

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 23:58:06 +0000

Interesting exercise! Without the math, my ratings would be:
1. Revolver
2. Abbey Road
3. Sgt. Pepper’s
4. The White Album
5. Rubber Soul
6. A Hard Day’s Night
7. Magical Mystery Tour
8. Help!
9. With The Beatles
10. Please Please Me
11. Beatles For Sale
12. Let It Be
13. Yellow Submarine

Also on my youtube channel, I rated the top 25 songs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kg_K5X5PpIQ

By: jake

jake — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 02:54:16 +0000

WTF is wrong with you???? Beatles for sale is one of the best man!!!! don’t pass me by rocks!!!! please please me was a sharper version of with the beatles!!!!!!

1. Revolver
2. Sgt. Peppers
3. Rubber Soul
4. Help!
5. Abbey Road
6. With the Beatles
7. White Album
8. Please Please Me
9. A Hard Day’s Night
10. Magical Mystery Tour
11. Let It Be
12. With the Beatles

not counting yellow submarine because it had too few beatles songs. mostly george martin. but that made it totally awesommeee

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 03:59:56 +0000

I would say 1.magical mystery tour 2.abbey road 3.revolver 4.the white album 5. Sgt peppers 6.rubber soul 7.help 8.hard days night 9.let it be 10.Please please me 11.with the Beatles 12.yellow submarine 13.Beatles for sale

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 03:07:39 +0000

Magical mystery tour is a wonderful fun album,I honestly can’t remember beatles for sale very well

By: Jason Kaneshiro

Jason Kaneshiro — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 16:37:01 +0000

Great list. Definitely agree with the top entries.

By: Daniel L

Daniel L — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 23:20:52 +0000

I did this.

Abbey Road: 3.94
Revolver: 3.92
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band: 3.92
Let It Be: 3.91
Magical Mystery Tour: 3.90
White Album: 3.86
Rubber Soul: 3.85
Help: 3.78
A Hard Day’s Night: 3.76
Please Please Me: 3.71
Beatles For Sale: 3.64
With The Beatles: 3.50

By: FoodStamp

FoodStamp — Sun, 01 May 2011 05:23:14 +0000

I can't stand it when people rank Pepper as #1.. Yes, it's very 'cultural' and 'trippy', and it has a nice album cover and it had the lyrics on the sleeve, but the SONG WRITING took a back seat. Had Abbey Road or the White Album come out in 67 at the height of the misguided hippie movement (when it became less and less about taking down the establishment, and more and more about getting highm and getting high, and getting more high) in place of Pepper, then everyone would rank Abbey Road or the White Album as #1. I'm tired of no one giving Rubber Soul any respect, which is by far and away their best album from a song writing and artistic stand point, not just an artistic stand point.

By: larry

larry — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 19:30:27 +0000

how much is the album beatle mania in the usa the liverpools worth

By: Jason Kaneshiro

Jason Kaneshiro — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 03:13:25 +0000

Wow great list… definitely agree that Beatles for Sale is a least favorite. Wonder what the Beatles’ legacy would have been if they quit right then.

By: Jack Jenkins

Jack Jenkins — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 18:19:41 +0000

My non calculated score would be
1. Sgt Pepper
2. Abbey Road.
3. Revolver
4, The White Album
5. Rubber Soul
6.HDN
7.H
8. MMT
9. LET IT BE
10. WTB
11. PPM
12, BFS

By: Jack Jenkins

Jack Jenkins — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 18:16:53 +0000

1. Rubber Soul + Sgt Pepper’s.…. 5 and 5
2. Abbey Road.…. 4.97
3. Revolver.…. 4.96
4. Hard Days Night.…. 4.88
5. Help.… 4.85
6. Magical Mystery Tour… 4.81
7. The White Album… 4.8
8. Let It Be.…. 4.79
9. Please Please Me.… 4.66
10. With The Beatles… 4.64
11. Beatles For Sale.… 4.07.…. These scores were done by the average for each song, but as an album I think revolver, abbey road, the white album are all better then rubber soul. Most of my songs got 5 stars. I am a bit more generous with my scores. Rubber Soul just has every song get 5 stars which means it’s consistent but as an album it is not as flowing as some. Sgt Pepper’s is my favorite. My bottom 3 were the ones with lots of covers, the covers are usually OK as opposed to Beatle brilliance. Help would of got 5 for consistency were it not for Dizzy Miss Lizzy which i gave a 3, but should’ve given a 2 thinking about it now.

By: christy

christy — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 22:06:54 +0000

good idea i decided to do the same.… i dont entirely agree with the results but ah well. (i rounded them to 2.d.p)

1. rubber soul — 4.64
2. abbey road — 4.59
3. magical mystery tour — 4.55
4. help! — 4.50
5. a hard days night — 4.46
6. with the beatles — 4.43
7. beatles for sale — 4.36
8. revolver & the white album disc 1 — 4.29
9. the white album disc 2 — 4.23
10.Please please me — 4.21
11. sgt peppers — 4.15
12. yellow submarine — 3.00

if i were to order them without the calculations it would be accually verry different

1. the white album
2. rubber soul
3. abbey road
4. help
5. revolver
6. the magical mystery tour
7. with the beatles
8. beatles for sale
9. sgt peppers
10. let it be
11. a hard days night
12. please please me
13. yellow submarine
but i love them all

By: Dr Haver

Dr Haver — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 04:16:20 +0000

WORST albums:

1. Let it Be
Just 2 good songs — “Let It Be” and “I’ve Got A feeling.” ONLY the Beatles could still produce two classic songs on their worst album. Most bands could live off these 2 songs.
Something sad about this album. They are drained and I can feel Yoko’s presence.

2. “Beatles for Sale”. Nothing on it is good except maybe Eight Days a Week.

Nothing tops “Sqt. Pepper” and “Revolver”. That was their magic period before the disintegration — which was inevitable. “Pepper” actually makes me feel emotionally, physically and spiritually happy. I put it on at least once a week since I rediscovered it on the re-masters. Makes me glad to just be alive. I can’t explain the magic.

By: Ken Kenniff

Ken Kenniff — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 03:09:50 +0000

This list was decent… But as a long time lover of the Beatles here is mine:
1.) Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (my favorite album ever)
2.) Revolver
3.) Rubber Soul
4.) Abbey Road
5.) The White Album
6.) Meet The Beatles!
7.) Let It Be
8.) Magical Mystery Tour
9.) Please Please Me
10.) A Hard Days Night
11.) Help!
12.) Beatles For Sale

By: samuel

samuel — Fri, 14 May 2010 01:43:29 +0000

well, they couldn’t just put all the awesome song in one album, they might as well split it up
and frankly, i like when i’m sixty four.

By: davidmontgomery

davidmontgomery — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 12:55:04 +0000

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

By: Vintage B

Vintage B — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 23:18:42 +0000

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.

By: Duncan McAlister

Duncan McAlister — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 13:10:01 +0000

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.

By: Frank Delmo

Frank Delmo — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 00:31:47 +0000

‘Let It Be’ is good advice, right on the cover. I wisht i had heeded it. MMT is much better, imho…

By: Frank Delmo

Frank Delmo — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 00:29:55 +0000

‘Let it Be’ is good advice that I should have heeded. I way better like magical mystery tour to L.I.B.…

By: Hater505

Hater505 — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 05:32:53 +0000

you’re the worst beatles album

By: Hater505

Hater505 — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 05:32:35 +0000

you’re the worst beatles album

By: kuljeet

kuljeet — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 14:56:43 +0000

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).

By: webomatica

webomatica — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 05:51:05 +0000

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.

By: Jason Kaneshiro

Jason Kaneshiro — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 04:51:05 +0000

By: johnnymoon

johnnymoon — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 21:20:50 +0000

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.

By: Music By Day

Music By Day — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 23:17:12 +0000

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.

By: Music By Day

Music By Day — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 22:17:12 +0000

By: webomatica

webomatica — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 18:15:58 +0000

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.