The Beatles saved the world from boredom.

George Harrison

Emblazoned on my tombstone will be my crowning achievement: 

She listened to all the Beatles albums. 

Thanks to this experience, when someone says stuff to me like, “I’m so tired,” I think to myself, there’s a Beatles song for that. Now, I sometimes hum a song about someone finding a Gideon Bible in their hotel room. I’ve found songs I love, and songs I never want to hear again. I found out that the Magical Mystery Tour was made into a film that was “savaged by critics” and never released in America because it was so terrible. I listened to songs that are drug fueled chaos and songs that are simply lovely. 

Why did I decide to listen to all this music, anyway? 

I can’t really pinpoint it. Part of it is that when I get into something, I go all in. Part of it was idle curiosity and wondering how many Beatles songs I actually knew. Part of it was having the time at my boring desk job. 

Growing up, we had the Beatles CD that had a red case with an orange “1” emblazoned across the front. If you don’t want to listen to all the albums, that’s a good place to start. I guarantee you know more of the songs than you think. The sheer number of hits this group produced is enough to make even someone who dislikes them be impressed. 

When it came time for me to find a list of the albums, I had some trouble. You’d think it would be a fairly straightforward process. No. There is a list of albums released in the UK and one released in North America. After some research I discovered the UK list is the “original” list. There are 13 UK albums and over 20 American albums. Many of the American albums are simply remixes. I discarded the North American list and stuck to the original UK albums. I don’t claim to be an expert, so if some of the North American albums have original music on them, I’ve simply missed it and I’m not going to go out of my way to find that out. 

There are also the “non-album singles.” I’ll link a list of those for your consideration. Some of their most well-known songs are on this list. 

Without further ado, here are my lists.

UK albums in order of release:

1 – Please Please Me — 22 March 1963

2 – With the Beatles — 22 November 1963

3 – A Hard Day’s Night — 10 July 1964

4 – Beatles for Sale — 4 December 1964

5 – Help! — 6 August 1965

6 – Rubber Soul — 3 December 1965

7 – Revolver — 5 August 1966

8 – Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band — 26 May 1967

9 – Magical Mystery Tour — 27 November 1967

10 – The Beatles (“The White Album”) — 22 November 1968

11 – Yellow Submarine — 13 January 1969

12 – Abbey Road — 26 September 1969

13 – Let It Be — 8 May 1970

Now comes the fun part, my personal rankings. I ranked the albums based on personal enjoyment. 

13 – Magical Mystery Tour – 1967 Penny Lane and Hello, Goodbye are on this album but the rest of it was such trash they couldn’t redeem it. It just wasn’t even fun to listen to.

12 – Yellow Submarine – 1969 I still don’t fully understand why this album exists. Yellow Submarine was first released on 1966’s Revolver. Half of this album is an instrumental soundtrack to an animated film they made. What?

11 – Hard Day’s Night – 1964 I don’t know why, but I really disliked this album. All the songs sounded the same to me.

10 – Abbey Road – 1969 The best part of this album is the cover and two songs: Here Comes the Sun and Something. Everything I read said this was the best Beatles album. Why?

9 – Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band – 1967 Listening to this truly feels like you’re being immersed in the world of drugs. This is not a great thing, but it’s certainly interesting.

8 – Rubber Soul – 1965 This was a somewhat boring album to listen to.

7 – Revolver – 1966 To be honest, I don’t really remember how I felt about this album, but it has some good songs on it so here is where it stays.

6 – Help! – 1965 I fully enjoyed this album and that is all I have to say.

5 – With the Beatles – 1963 I would listen to this album again. Upbeat tracks, several hits, and a cover of a song from The Music Man. How can you go wrong?

4 – The Beatles (“The White Album”) – 1968 – Here’s the thing: I only liked about the first half, I found basically the entire second half to be hot garbage. I will relisten at some point and see if it’s less annoying to me.

3 – Let It Be – 1970 This album was released after they disbanded, making it the very last Beatles album. It was good. I felt like the songs were more musical and not as drug-fueled. I enjoyed listening to this one!

2 – Beatles for Sale – 1964 This was a more low-key album with a lot of acoustic songs. I read that they wrote this music when they were worn out from their American tour and you can really tell that it’s not as upbeat as the previous stuff. It’s a nice change and I will surely turn this on again.

1 – Please Please Me – 1963 Their very first album was my favorite. The youthful exuberance comes through in spades, it was pre-drugs, and it sounds a bit 50s’ but with an edge. This album truly showcases why the Beatles took the world by storm.

Unexpected Favorite Songs: these are the songs I didn’t know before this project (with the exception of In My Life) that are now some of my favorites.  

1 – I Will – White Album 

2 – In My Life – Rubber Soul 

3 – While My Guitar Gently Weeps – White Album 

4 – When I’m Sixty-Four – Sgt Pepper

5 – Boys – Please Please Me

6 – I’ve Just Seen A Face – Help!

7 – Maxwell’s Silver Hammer – Abbey Road (I urge you to listen to this absolute madness. I don’t even think it’s a “favorite” song of mine…it’s just so bizarre that I had to include it.)

8 – Til There Was You – With the Beatles

My favorite hits: 

1 – Let it Be

When I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me…

2 – I Wanna Hold Your Hand

Oh yeah, you got that something…

3 – Paperback Writer

It’s a thousand pages, give or take a few, I’ll be writing more in a week or two…

4 – Blackbird

Take these broken wings and learn to fly…

5 – Something

I don’t know, I don’t know…

6 – Lady Madonna

Children at your feet, wonder how you manage to make ends meet…

7 – Yesterday

All my troubles seemed so far away…

To aid in your new musical addiction, I have curated a youtube playlist just for you. Here’s the link: Ultimate Beatles Experience.

I spent so much time with John, Paul, George, and Ringo that I feel like I have four wayward bruders of my own. I didn’t grow up in the 60s, I don’t know much about these men’s personal lives, and I don’t really like much of what I do know about them. But that doesn’t negate the fact that they made some really wonderful music that’s ten times better than what’s played on the radio today. Give them a listen!