Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I have a hard time picking a favorite Beatle album. I can tell you my least favorite are the While Album and Let It Be. Don't get me wrong, the have some great songs, but they're not collectively solid albums for my taste. As for my soon-to-be 5 year old Beatlemaniac, his favorite album currently is Sgt. Pepper. It's been played constantly for 2 weeks now in the car and he refuses to let me swap CDs. The Pepper reprise track is likely his favorite one even though it's short, so yeah, that gets played 4 times in a row

When I started listening to the Beatles at six years old, Sgt. Pepper was my favorite, too!

Please Please Me
A Hard Day's Night
Magical Mystery Tour
Beatles For Sale
With The Beatles
Rubber Soul
Revolver
Help!
Sgt. Pepper's
Yellow Submarine
Let It Be
Abby Road
White Album

But this is rough and changeable without notice. Doesn't include Oldies But Goldies, Rarities, etc. which does complicate things. I like the British version of A Hard Day's Night better than the British version of Help! The second side of Help! has fantastic songs but doesn't flow as well as an album, to me. I feel the same way about the catch all compilations needed to complete the collection.

I tried to assemble playlists of the American running order but it didn't work out as I'd hoped in iTunes. It would be cool if the American reissue cd of Yesterday and Today was offered with the Butcher block cover (maybe it is). I also like the American version of Rubber Soul, but not necessarily better than the British one. Let It Be Naked is great but I miss Dig It and the Spector production on Long and Winding Road.

It is interesting to see what some call filler, for instance, I think She's So Heavy is as least as cool as the medley on side two of Abbey Road, I can't imagine life without Wild Honey Pie, Why Don't We Do It In The Road, and Revolution #9, not to mention Got To Get You Into My Life. I suppose that wide range of material is a good part of the Beatles' appeal.

Interesting list, Nathan. Like some of the others who have responded to this thread, you're obviously a fan of the early records. Even acknowledging this, I was a little surprised to see Rubber Soul, Revolver, and Abbey Road (not to mention The White Album) ranked so low, and Magical Mystery Tour ranked so high. Surely Abbey Road is a more solid record than Yellow Submarine? At any rate, you and Brammy have got me listening to Please Please Me and the other early records again after a long hiatus. Those early records really capture the excitement of The Beatles in embryo and are full of the raw energy of their early live performances. Thank you for encouraging me to revisit those records. The Beatles' music is so rich that after almost 40 years of listening to them, I still discover new things to admire.

Folkie wrote:Interesting list, Nathan. Like some of the others who have responded to this thread, you're obviously a fan of the early records. Even acknowledging this, I was a little surprised to see Rubber Soul, Revolver, and Abbey Road (not to mention The White Album) ranked so low, and Magical Mystery Tour ranked so high. Surely Abbey Road is a more solid record than Yellow Submarine? At any rate, you and Brammy have got me listening to Please Please Me and the other early records again after a long hiatus. Those early records really capture the excitement of The Beatles in embryo and are full of the raw energy of their early live performances. Thank you for encouraging me to revisit those records. The Beatles' music is so rich that after almost 40 years of listening to them, I still discover new things to admire.

The Yellow Submarine Songtrack from 1999 is one of my favorites mainly because I love how it was remastered and contains a few songs that would never have made it to a full fledged Beatles album.

It was too difficult of a project. I was trying to figure out which ones I actually listen to the most, rather than the most solid or important. Even still, Rubber Soul and Revolver should've been higher, because I do listen to those quite a bit. Sticking to the UK running order rules out the singles and EPs, the staple of British pop in the '60s. Listening to them on Past Masters is ok but not ideal. Since Mono Masters includes the Yellow Submarine tunes there hasn't been a need to listen to the original version so much. MMT is awesome, especially from I Am the Walrus on. I do favor the albums up to Sgt. Pepper's. The others are fabulous as well and I could seriously go off on a binge with them anytime. The compilations I've been appreciating more as time goes by are the Red and Blue boxes. They cover the hits plus album tracks, making for a nice overview of the band.

It's amazing how comfortable kids of any age are with Beatles music. And Buddy Holly.

I hope I didn't come across as critical in my last post. As I've said in the past, there's no accounting for taste, and each of us will inevitably have a different ranking, and even those lists may fluctuate or evolve over time. Thanks, Nathan, for your enthusiastic contributions to this thread. I'm glad it's generated so many responses.

Critical? non mon ami, Analytical!

I was aware that George Martin had rearranged the orchestral music for the '69 album release of Yellow Submarine but hadn't given it much thought 'til this discussion began. I always figured it was ego that kept the Beatles' music on one side of the album and Martin's on the other, but unless I read otherwise, I'm going to assume that it was a mutual decision.

Here's a nice George Benson version of I Want You (She's So Heavy)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaGgob_4aNg

I said in a previous post that I prefer the British version of Rubber Soul to the American one, but there's one exception. Whenever I listen to the British release, I truly miss the McCartney song "I've Just Seen a Face." It's one of my all time favorites and it certainly fits the themes and the folk-rock sound of the album.

Folkie wrote:I said in a previous post that I prefer the British version of Rubber Soul to the American one, but there's one exception.

Better watch out! You're on a slippery slope there…

No comment on the GB cover of I Want You? I like that whole album. I know a lot of people don't like covers of Beatles' tunes, but then again, I know a guy who can't stand the Beatles doing Twist and Shout, which to me is just ludicrous.

Here's Ella on one of the real famous ones. George Martin produced, and her doing it helped establish Lennon and McCartney's legitimacy as songwriters.

Thanks, Nathan, for sharing George Benson's cover of "I Want You (She's So Heavy)." It's amazing how even relatively obscure Beatles songs are reinterpreted in very new ways.

While I'm sure George & Ella were serious ......... It just comes off as a parody. I kept waiting for someone to yell more cowbell. Then again didn't George do comedy records before the Beatles?

I know, I know…but there ya go! It was the previous generation's attempt to show they were still relevant. Ella is/was great even though it's in that showy sort of big band swing. At least the Benson cover is in a style that was happening at the time. His version of the album came out only slightly later than the original. Jeremy Jemmott is playing bass on that cut, and that's cool. Benson's version of Come Together is still a good version for a jazzy casuals band. I'd post it, but I'd have to trim the brass arrangement on Because that serves as the intro, (it's a little over the top!) but I'm supposed to be cooking the carrots and don't have time. Thanks for giving them a shot!

Badanovski wrote:While I'm sure George & Ella were serious ......... It just comes off as a parody. I kept waiting for someone to yell more cowbell. Then again didn't George do comedy records before the Beatles?

Hey, it could have been George & Gracie, instead!

George Martin kept up the swing thing and lost his bid to do the incidental music for Help! He thought it was because he won a grammy for A Hard Day's Night and since Richard Lester didn't, that Lester was jealous.