Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band: a classic album for sure, no doubt about that, but frequently elevated to ridiculous status by critics and fans alike. The Kinks’ Face to Face appears to predate it, arguably, as a mid-60s psychedelic ‘concept album,’ with all the mid-60s graphics found in Sgt. Pepper. Chronologically, The Pretty Things’ SF Sorrow gives it a close call, as does The Kinks’ next album, Something Else.  

Many will argue that Sgt. Pepper’s is not the best Beatles album, let alone the best album ever. It definitely did not “invent” psychedelia. That is typically attributed to the San Francisco sound, which included Moby Grape, Big Brother & The Holding Company, The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane and the rest. The 13th Floor Elevators from Austin, TX certainly sounded unique, and they were the first to use the term ‘psychedelic’ to describe their music. As far as UK psychedelia is concerned, Pink Floyd’s Syd Barrett-driven Piper At The Gates of Dawn is a far more serious – if grossly over-produced – offering.

The brilliance of Sgt. Pepper’s is probably its broad appeal as a new and different kind of pop music for many fans; kids and parents both loved it on its release as much the hipsters. The Beatles pulled off that rare trick: they sold millions of records, yet were relentless innovators who dabbled in all musical genres and styles. They were the most important and by far the most consistently brilliant pop/rock act of the 20th century, whether you’re talking about Stravinsky, Shostakovich, Gershwin, Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, or Cole Porter…or Jagger & Richards.

Sgt. Pepper’s commercial release 50 years ago coincided with a huge expansion of US military involvement in the Vietnam War, an increase in anti-war protests on college campuses across the country, civil unrest in several major cities, the birth of the Hippies and the so-called ‘Summer of Love.’ The album became the virtual soundtrack of that amazing time. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band influenced song writing, studio recording techniques and layout and design of album covers (it was the first pop album to include lyrics on the back along with cardboard inserts, and the cover was a work of art in itself) for many years to come. Its phenomenal commercial and artistic success made it unique in ways that will likely never occur again.

REVOLVER vs. SGT. PEPPER’S

The songs on Sgt. Pepper’s should be taken as a single pill (as intended) while Revolver‘s songs worked as individual offerings, although the album as a whole had a better coherence than Sgt. Pepper’s. I prefer Revolver because most of the songs are stronger on their own, and it comes across better as an album, while Sgt. Pepper’s works best when taken in its conceptual entirety.

Many listeners dismiss Yellow Submarine as a silly novelty track, but at the time of its release, it sounded pretty radical. No Beatles song before it was so inundated with strange, wonderful sound effects. And the flip side of the single? Eleanor Rigby. No drums, guitar or bass; just a string octet mic’d VERY CLOSE; and those dark poetic lyrics about lonely people and death. And don’t forget that Tomorrow Never Knows was where the real experimentation began. The first song recorded for Revolver was also the least ‘commercial.’ With Revolver, the Beatles were breaking new ground at every turn. Sgt. Pepper’s was a far more elaborate production and it broke even more ground, but on the strength of the songs, I’ll go with Revolver. No one has ever really topped that album.

Revolver is clearly a better collection of songs: the perfect balance between Lennon’s rocking side and McCartney’s more pop side. Harrison also gets three tracks, which is unprecedented. Sgt. Pepper’s is a great set of tunes recorded with some incredibly innovative studio techniques. One of the things that makes Revolver even more unique as their best and most consistent album is that we had Lennon, McCartney and Harrison firing on all cylinders. By the time of Pepper, both Lennon and Harrison had checked out to some degree from their LSD induced lassitude, though each came up with some great songs nevertheless. That left the main thrust of the recording to McCartney, and while Paul did some excellent work, I’m just not so sure that his dominance of the record represents equal compensation. However, if Sgt. Pepper’s had included Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane it would be the greatest album of all time, hands down.

Revolver and Pepper are The Beatles’ two most groundbreaking albums, and the production quality on both is staggering. Nothing of that quality had ever emanated from a recording studio onto a pop/rock album, with extensive use of tape loops, reverb, compression, multiple overdubs, orchestrations, sitars and Artificial Double-Tracking (ADD). The songs on Revolver are slightly better: edgier and more incisive than those on Pepper. Apart from that, both albums are fairly evenly matched in terms of production and innovation although Revolver has nothing like A Day In The Life on it, which still sounds to me like the apocalypse.

THE REST

The Beatles were original and provocative right from the start with Please Please Me: an electric shock to a jaded US and UK pop scene.

A Hard Day’s Night was their first truly ‘classic’ album – the guitar work alone is absolutely flawless, as are the songs – and of course it’s the first album of wall to wall Lennon-McCartney originals. Help! is where things really start to get interesting and more thoughtful, with Yesterday, Ticket To Ride, You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away and Help! being the stand-out tracks. Rubber Soul was another giant leap forward in terms both of songwriting and the musical arrangements, i.e., Sitar on You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away.

Magical Mystery Tour was a custom-built Beatles album: a very clever and satisfying compilation devised by Capitol, who for possibly the only time in releasing the Beatles output in the States got it right. They put the 6-song UK EP on side one, and all the wonderful 1967 singles on the second side. However, Blue Jay Way, Your Mother Should Know and Flying are fairly throwaway. Mystery Tour shows the Beatles at their most psychedelic, even though it was a contrived collection brought about by commercial demands.

The Beatles (aka White Album) is a veritable hodge-podge of musical experimentation: a glorious scrapbook of eclectic styles and odds and ends, with the psychedelic productions of 1967 long gone and a stripped-down sound, cunningly delivered by four competing egos rather than a unified band…but still absolutely stunning.

Let It Be…Naked: this version of the album is vastly superior to the original Let It Be, and I will never listen to the original again. Phil Spector never should have been given free rein on the (over) production. If you don’t own the album, buy …Naked without question.

Abbey Road stands alone as a lush, warm Indian summer of a record. It sounds different from all previous Beatles albums because it was recorded on the first transistorized desk built by EMI – the TG12345 – and it includes some of the first commercial recordings using the MOOG synthesizer: Because, Here Comes The Sun and Maxwell’s Silver Hammer. The side two medley is a brilliant piece of music.

So, my TOP TEN Beatles albums go something like this:

1) Revolver, 2) The Beatles, 3) Abbey Road, 4) Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, 5) Rubber Soul, 6) Let It Be…Naked, 7) Magical Mystery Tour, 8) Help! 9) A Hard Day’s Night 10) With The Beatles.

As for Beatles for Sale and the original Yellow Submarine soundtrack? Both are fine albums, but not in my view in the top tier of Beatles records. Yellow Submarine is the only time the Beatles ever short-changed their fans. None of the songs are top rank (with two having already been previously released) although Hey Bulldog is a great, underrated Lennon rocker.

The Beatles. A great little rock & roll band. What more can you say?