What Beatles albums should I buy?

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I already got Revolver and Abbey Road, and my dad had the White Album and Rubber Soul and Sgt. Peppers, so I know all about them, so what are the other ones I should look at?

― Helltime Producto (Pavlik), Monday, 1 September 2003 03:29 (twenty years ago) link

err... With The Beatles?

― colin s barrow (colin s barrow), Monday, 1 September 2003 03:41 (twenty years ago) link

In all seriousness you need to get all of them.

However, as you asked for guidance...
Get "Help" and "A Hard Day's Night" next if you want proper albums.
Get "Past Masters vol 2" for all of the essential mid-to-late period singles and B-sides and "Magical Mystery Tour" for Walrus, Strawberry Fields, Penny Lane, All You Need Is Love etc.

Once you have these, the end will be in sight and you'll scoop up the rest for completeness sake.

― Officer Pupp, Monday, 1 September 2003 03:47 (twenty years ago) link

dude Yellow Submarine anyone?

― hstencil, Monday, 1 September 2003 03:48 (twenty years ago) link

Fuck yes! "It's All Too Much", "Hey Bulldog"!

― Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Monday, 1 September 2003 03:50 (twenty years ago) link

Thanks. Hopefully after a couple of good listenings the songs I write will stop sounding like Ween/Living Colour ripoffs.

― Helltime Producto (Pavlik), Monday, 1 September 2003 03:50 (twenty years ago) link

hells yeah! *highfives*

― hstencil, Monday, 1 September 2003 03:51 (twenty years ago) link

Well if you've got Revolver and Abbey Road why not get an early album, like, say, Hard Days Night. Past Masters is a must as well.

― mentalist (mentalist), Monday, 1 September 2003 04:37 (twenty years ago) link

Please Please Me is the best Beatles album because it contains the Beatles' two greatest songs ("I Saw Her Standing There" and "Twist and Shout"). Who's with me??? Eh? Anybody??

― Mister Snrub (MisterSnrub), Monday, 1 September 2003 04:56 (twenty years ago) link

(insert the sound of crickets chirping)

― Mister Snrub (MisterSnrub), Monday, 1 September 2003 04:57 (twenty years ago) link

Neither living Beatles nor dead bugs need your money!

The one called Sir plays for the queen and has more money than she does. Then there's the other one who I suppose must do something, or at the very least has a lot of time on his hands to spend all of his Beatle money. Then there are the legally-designated survivors of snuffed Beatles. They get a lot of money they don't even have to work for and now they don't even have to share this lovely money with a spendthrift living Beatle (because that Beatle is now D-E-A-D).

... Except for Julian Lennon who gets nothing and whines a lot about it. If you are a benevolent soul, give Julian Lennon money but don't buy his records because they aren't very good. I bet poor Julian doesn't get any money from his own unlistenable records even - and that must make him very sad, and now he can whine about that when he isn't whining about the lack of lucre from the estate grown fat and puffy off the good records made by his DeadBeat dad.

Why buy Beatles? I ask you.

That's what soulseek and/or borrowing Beatles discs from your merry friends and shiny shiny CD-Rs and hot little lasers and sexy little MDs are for.

― beatle crusher, Monday, 1 September 2003 04:58 (twenty years ago) link

HI-TEK

― Helltime Producto (Pavlik), Monday, 1 September 2003 05:00 (twenty years ago) link

I like the way this Snrub thinks, except he forgot 'There's a Place' is on that wonderful record too.

― Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Monday, 1 September 2003 05:01 (twenty years ago) link

dude, MM Tour for the chicken sounds on Good Morning, Good Morning

― weatheringdaleson (weatheringdaleson), Monday, 1 September 2003 05:06 (twenty years ago) link

Brian Epstein's Lovely Call Boy Bed for the snogging sounds.

― Pete Best, Monday, 1 September 2003 05:09 (twenty years ago) link

Please Please Me is the best Beatles album because it contains the Beatles' two greatest songs ("I Saw Her Standing There" and "Twist and Shout"). Who's with me??? Eh? Anybody??

Yeah - There's a Place & Ask Me Why as well...plus, of course, the killer title track.

Nobody has mentioned Beatles For Sale: half filler(for the Christmas market), but also some classics (eg I'm a Loser).

― Jez (Jez), Monday, 1 September 2003 06:12 (twenty years ago) link

Personal best/ faves aside, and besides the ones you mention, I think you'd be happiest with Hey Jude and Beatles for Sale as your next two. Hey Jude is an unstoppable pleasure machine, and though Beatles for Sale might not be the most innovative and might have a little filler anda few bad covers, it's their best teen/boyband type album and has a few completely perfect songs. "I don't want to spoil the party" knocks it right out of the park, and of course as Jez sez "I'm a Loser" (I once walked into Around Again records in Toronto, accompanied by a girl I really wanted to impress, at the precise second that song came on their stereo--the big acappella first bars. I said "see? My theme song.")

― Lucas R., Monday, 1 September 2003 06:43 (twenty years ago) link

Is the Beatles 1962-66 (the 'red' alb) the only record of theirs that you need?

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Monday, 1 September 2003 07:05 (twenty years ago) link

Not a big fan of the Beatles, but I think Lucas has a point, "Beatles for Sale" is one of their most interesting albums. At the time when many people must have thought their fad was ending, they released an album that was, in some ways, a slap in the face for their fans, basically criticizing them for the behavior the Beatles themselves had celebrated in "Hard Days Night." The first three songs are among the band's best from their early career, and the cover of "Everybody's Trying to be My Baby" is particularly telling. More pop groups should go against the grain like this.

― Erick Bieritz (Imbroglio), Monday, 1 September 2003 07:16 (twenty years ago) link

"A Hard Day's Night" deserves a mention. Generally, their earlier stuff tends to be a bit underrated by several people, and this album contains no filler, in the form of cover versions, just really great and consistent tracks.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 1 September 2003 07:43 (twenty years ago) link

you can't go too wrong with any of them, except possibly Let It Be, which has some decent songs but is schizzy and unsatisfying overall: the Spector-treated tracks and the live ones don't mesh at all. while I'm very fond of the early stuff, people tend to forget how BAD a lot of it was. the early albums are often dragged down by throwaways like "Tell Me What You See" (and most of the originals on Help! aren't much better) and bad covers like "Devil In Her Heart" or "A Taste of Honey." there were some awful missteps later on ("Maxwell's Silver Hammer" is the only song of theirs I find completely unlistenable) but a lot of their "failures" were still pretty interesting.

― Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Monday, 1 September 2003 08:30 (twenty years ago) link

...and it was thr first pop album ever to consist purely of self-penned songs.

The three Anthology albums are wonderful too, imo. The version of Ob-la-di... on Anth. 3 is so much better than the released version.

― Jez (Jez), Monday, 1 September 2003 08:34 (twenty years ago) link

"Tell Me What You See" is ace!

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 1 September 2003 10:23 (twenty years ago) link

...and it was thr first pop album ever to consist purely of self-penned songs.

The definition of "pop" is always difficult though. I would say "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan" was the first album to consist purely of self-penned songs, but you could argue it was not "pop"

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 1 September 2003 10:25 (twenty years ago) link

Sorry, I meant the first album by a pop group.

I'll Be Back, Things We Said Today...bluddy wonderful!

― Jez (Jez), Monday, 1 September 2003 10:35 (twenty years ago) link

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