The following is a list of the albums as they appear on vinyl. If you are interested in purchasing one of these albums in vinyl, simply click on the graphic. A complete list of the CD's available both for The Beatles and the solo efforts of John, Paul, George and Ringo is available at The Beatles Shoppe.
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| 1966 | |||
  Revolver The Beatles chose Revolver as this album's title from other candidates such as Abracadabra, Magic Circles, and Beatles on Safari. The cover slick was designed by Beatle acquaintance and musician Klaus Voorman. By the summer of 1966, the Beatles were changed men. Having embraced the emerging hippy ethic, taken LSD, and developed personal musical tastes that ranged from classical to Indian to the avant-garde, it was almost inevitable that Revolver would reflect these new interests, just as their debut album had reflected their youthful love of American rock and soul. Clearly a studio creation rather than just a collection of songs, this was the album on which the Beatles' songwriting skills were most perfectly enhanced by their desire to innovate. Released on August 5, Revolver topped the U.K. album charts for seven weeks starting on the 13th and, like With the Beatles, even made an appearance in the Top 20 singles. Paul McCartney: Just to show how wrong one can be, I was in Germany on tour just before Revolver came out. I started listening to the album, and I got really down because I thought the whole thing was out of tune. Everyone had to reassure me that it was OK. Although Revolver was released during the Beatles' final tour, the group played none of its songs on stage. It was the last instance where UK and US versions of a same-titled Beatle album contained a different track list. |
| 1967 | |||
 Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band History's most famous LP, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, was Paul's idea. He commented, "I was just thinking of nice words like Sergeant Pepper and Lonely Hearts Club, and they came together for no reason. They're a bit of a brass band in a way, but also a rock band because they've got that San Francisco thing." Having given up touring, the Beatles now focused their attention on fully exploring the possibilities of studio recording, and came up with the most consistently acclaimed rock album of all time. Recording started on November 24, 1966, but by now they were in such a position of strength that EMI could put no pressure on them to finish it for Christmas. Instead, the sessions continued until the following April, with the Beatles in virtually constant occupation of their favored Abbey Road studio. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was finally released on June 1, 1967, and just two days later, started a staggering 22-week run at No. 1 on the U.K. album chart. A month later,with over a million advance orders, it topped the U.S. chart for 15 weeks, going on to win no fewer than four Grammies. John Lennon: Sgt. Pepper is the one. It was a peak. Paul and I were definitely working together.... Many consider Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band a "concept" album — something conceived as a package with a common theme. George Martin commented, "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band didn't start out life as a concept album but it very soon developed a life of its own. I remember it warmly, as both a tremendous challenge and a highly rewarding experience. For me, it was the most innovative, imaginative and trend setting record of its time." Peter Blake, a prominent contemporary British artist, was hired to design the album cover. He asked each of the Beatles to list people they would like to see on the cover. The lists were compiled and became the background. At the Beatles' insistence, the gatefold LP marked the first occurrence of an identical track listing in a UK and US Beatle album. The record was officially released on June 1, 1967, although it was rush released on May 26. It was actually played on the BBC radio show Where It's At, on May 20. Within one week 250,000 copies of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band sold in the UK and the record charted for an unprecedented 148 weeks. In the US, 2.5 million copies sold within three months and the album stayed in the No. 1 spot for nineteen weeks. The LP included a paper cut-out sheet. | |||
 Magical Mystery Tour The Beatles' third movie, Magical Mystery Tour, was a self directed 50 minute film for television. Filmed between September 8 and November 3, 1967, the group and a cast of circus freaks take a "magical" coach trip through the English countryside. The album that never really was, Magical Mystery Tour was conceived as a lavish EP soundtrack to the Beatles' Christmas TV movie. Musically it was far superior to the film it accompanied, with the songs continuing in the quintessentially English psychedelic music-hall style developed on Sgt. Pepper. With an early December release, the EP was held off the U.K.'s No. 1 single slot only because that was already occupied by the Beatles' "Hello Goodbye." With the addition of an impressive clutch of recent singles, the EP was transformed into an album for U.S. release, where it earned over $8 million in its first three weeks. John Lennon: Paul made an attempt to carry on as if Brian [Epstein] hadn't died by saying, "Now, now, boys, we're going to make a record...." Magical Mystery Tour was something he [Paul] had worked out.... George Harrison: "[Magical Mystery Tour] was Paul's idea. It was basically a charabanc trip which people used to go on from Liverpool to see the Blackpool lights. And they'd get, you know, loads of crates of beer and an accordion player and all get pissed, basically, pissed in the English sense meaning drunk, and you just go to see Blackpool lights. And it was kind of like that, it was a very flimsy kind of thing..." Parlophone notified Capitol that it intended to release Magical Mystery Tour as an EP. Capitol refused to follow suit, already having produced two poor selling Beatle EPs. Instead, Capitol produced this LP, putting the EP tracks on side one and several single tracks to fill out side two. Included was a 24-page booklet glued to the inside of the gatefold sleeve. The Magical Mystery Tour film debuted on British television on December 26, 1967, and was a critical failure, giving it limited exposure in the US. The music was much more successful; the LP went to No. 1, with eight million dollars in sales the first three weeks of its release. It was the last US Beatle album available in mono. Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane were recorded during the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band sessions in late 1966. |
However, only the UK version has a short section of noise, gibberish, and a 15 kilocycle pitch (not audible to humans) in the LP's run-out groove.
| 1968 | ||||||||
 The Beatles Many of the songs on this double LP were influenced by a February 1968 trip to India where the Beatles meditated with the Indian guru, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Despite the Beatles' individual rejuvenation resulting from the trip, the album was the least joint effort to date. On a few of the songs, Paul played drums because Ringo walked out of the sessions. Many were solo efforts with none of the other Beatles contributing to the song. The recording sessions also included John's new girlfriend Yoko Ono, a disruption the others were not prepared for and did not welcome. George Martin wanted to cut the total number of songs to their best 14 or 16 but the group refused. In its plain white gatefold cover, The Beatles became instantly known as "The White Album". A one-time working title was A Dolls' House and it was the first Beatle LP released on the group's Apple label. The UK sleeve is unique in that the record disk openings are at the top instead of the side. Suitably edited, it would have made a magnificent single album, but most of what should have been thrown away was instead thrown to the fans, who, Beatle-starved for 18 months since Sgt. Pepper, were thrilled to have anything at all. In effect, each Beatle wrote and recorded his tracks separately, and for every moment of genius ("I'm So Tired," "I Will," "Julia") there's a "Martha My Dear," a "Rocky Raccoon," or a "Revolution 9." Recording began on May 30, 1968, and ended on October 15, with each track taking an average of 30 hours. Released on November 21, it hit No. 1 in the U.K. on December 7. After only five days on sale in America, Newsweek reported sales of 1.1 million copies. George Harrison: ...there [were] a lot of songs that should've just maybe been elbowed or made into B-sides. |
| 1969 | |||
 Yellow Submarine [LIMITED EDITION] The animated film Yellow Submarine is a psychedelic adventure in which cartoon Beatles are summoned to defeat the evil Blue Meanies and restore music to a place called Pepperland. Other than the soundtrack, the Beatles had almost no input into their fourth movie, which was released in London on July 17, 1968, six months before this soundtrack LP. As with most of the Beatles' movie-related albums (Help! being a notable exception), this was a compromised effort and, of all their soundtracks, easily the worst. Half of Yellow Submarine consists of orchestral background music composed by producer George Martin, with the balance made up of old songs and four hastily cobbled together items that hadn't previously seen the light of day. Deservedly, after release on January 17, 1969, it stalled at No. 2 on the U.S. album charts and No. 3 in the U.K. George Harrison: There were albums which weren't any good as far as I was concerned, like Yellow Submarine. It was the last UK Beatle LP available in mono. The newer version (1999) has a full compliment of Beatles' tracks which replaced the original movie score selections written by George Martin. | |||
 Abbey Road Recorded after Let It Be but released before it, Abbey Road is the last great Beatles album, but even here, almost half the material was cleverly crafted by McCartney to use up fragments of tunes that the band couldn't, or wouldn't, flesh out into complete songs. It's a tribute to his arranging skills that, as a listening experience, Abbey Road is so consistently enjoyable. Six months in the cobbling together, it was released on September 26, 1969, spending 11 weeks at No. 1 in both the U.S. and U.K. Paul McCartney: I was getting into a lot of musical ideas; the medley on the second side--I was really up on that. After the Get Back/Let It Be sessions, the band was breaking up and each Beatle was thinking of a solo career. Paul asked George Martin to produce a new album with the condition that the recording be done like "in the old days". The album title refers to EMI Studios on Abbey Road where the Beatles recorded most of their songs. Another title for the album was Everest, a brand of cigarettes Geoff Emerick, their engineer, smoked. In fact, a trip to photograph the album cover in the Himalayas was suggested but was dismissed due to time constraints. For the actual cover, the Beatles were photographed crossing Abbey Road in front of Abbey Road studios wearing what they came to work in. Paul, barefoot, wore sandals to work. |
| 1970 | |||
 Let It Be Recorded in January 1969 at Twickenham Film Studios just outside London, Let It Be was a miserable experience for all concerned. The Beatles were constantly filmed while making the album in the process of falling apart. They were so dispirited that, having recorded the tracks, none of them could be bothered to do the necessary post-production work, which was delegated first to producer George Martin, then to Glyn Johns, and finally to Phil Spector. Their unlucky 13th, and last, album, Let It Be was released on May 8, 1970, in the U.K., topping the chart two weeks later. In America, with 3.7 million advance orders, it achieved the highest initial sale of any album in history, and subsequently picked up an Oscar as best Soundtrack of the Year. George Martin: We'd do take after take after take--and then John would be asking whether Take 67 was better than Take 39. I'd say, "John, I honestly don't know." "You're no f***ing good then, are you?" he'd say. That was the general atmosphere. John Lennon: It was a dreadful, dreadful feeling in Twickenham Studios being filmed all the time. You couldn't make music at 10 in the morning, or whatever it was, with people filming you and colored lights. Engineer Glyn Johns edited the original session tapes into a a finished album called Get Back. The Beatles could not agree on the final product and the entire project was shelved for over a year until Allen Klein, the Beatles' new manager, dusted it off. Klein wasn't happy with the quality of the tapes Johns had edited and hired Phil Spector to produce a soundtrack album, giving him the formidable task of sifting through hundreds of hours of studio and live tapes to produce something marketable. Spector, who had never worked with the Beatles before, added orchestrations and female choruses. The resulting record was a disappointment to many Beatle fans and the Beatles themselves. Still, Let It Be was a No. 1 record. John Lennon: By the time we got to 'Let It Be', we couldn't play the game anymore; we couldn't do it anymore. It came to the point where it was no longer creating magic, and the camera, being in the room with us, sort of made us aware of that, that it was a phony situation ... "It was hell making the film Let It Be. When it came out, a lot of people complained about Yoko looking miserable in it. But even the biggest Beatle fan couldn't have sat through those six weeks of misery. It was the most miserable session on earth. Paul McCartney: In fact, what happened, when we got in there, we showed how a break-up of a group works. We didn't realize that we were sort of breaking up as it was happening. George Harrison: As everybody knows, we never had much privacy and, you know, this thing that was happening was they were filming us rehearsing. There was a bit of a row going on between Paul and I. You can see it, where he's saying, 'Well don't play this', or something and I'm saying, 'Well, you know I'll play what you want or I won't play if you don't want it, you know, just make up your mind.' That kind of stuff was going on. And they were filming us, recording us having a row, you know, it was like, terrible really. I thought, 'I'm quite capable of being relatively happy on my own and I'm not able to be happy in this situation, you know, I'm getting out of here.' Ringo Starr: I think everyone was getting a little tired of us by then because we were taking a long time and there were many discussions going on by then — many heated discussions." By the end of 1970, the Beatles had sold over 500 million records. |
| 2004 | |||||
 Let It Be . . . Naked How much better, you could be forgiven for wondering, could Let It Be be? The answer, perhaps surprisingly, is "a bit". Let It Be, while obviously better than almost everything ever recorded by anyone else, was compromised by the fact that the Beatles were disintegrating as a unit during the recording sessions, the rancour most famously illustrated by John Lennon calling in Phil Spector behind Paul McCartney's back to rework "The Long and Winding Road". Let It Be... Naked, then, is the album as the Beatles would have heard it while they were making it. |
| COMPILATIONS | ||||||||
 Beatles Red 62-66 The closest the Beatles came to a greatest hits package, this document of the early part of their career features hit singles (in chronological order) and selected album tracks, running from "Love Me Do" through the groundbreaking Rubber Soul and Revolver albums. While this may be an excellent intro for beginners, real fans will never be content with only selections, especially when you're dealing with those aforementioned albums. Capitol packages the collection on two discs, copying the original vinyl version--but, of course, CDs hold more music than records did. Still, you do get 26 bona fide classics, so there's no real need to complain. | ||||||||
 Beatles Blue 67-70 Even as the Beatles began heading toward an inevitable break-up, their prolific ways continued; this two-record look back only skims the surface of their later achievements. Excerpts from Sgt. Pepper, Magical Mystery Tour, the white album, Abbey Road, and Let It Be compete for space with classic singles that do as much or more to prove their eclecticism: the epic ballad "Hey Jude", the plaintive "Strawberry Fields Forever", straight rock & roll of all stripes from the plainspoken "Revolution" and "Get Back" to the surreal "Come Together". Decades after the split, this (and its companion set of 1962-1966 cuts) remains a favoured introduction for young listeners and a key sampler for veteran fans. | ||||||||
 Past Masters Volume 1 & 2 Although they were probably the band that most transformed rock from a singles medium to an album-oriented form, the Beatles also released many singles and EP tracks that never made it onto albums. In the U.S., Capitol turned the group's early LPs, through Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, into compilations, more or less, throwing the hit singles onto the vinyl to augment the album tracks. When the label later released the U.K. albums on CD, it posed a problem: What to do with the non-LP singles? Past Masters, Volume 1 compiles 18 of those singles, including some of their best-known tracks, running from "Love Me Do," "She Love You," "I Want to Hold Your Hand," and "This Boy" to "I Feel Fine" and Paul's homage to Little Richard, "I'm Down." Essential stuff. | ||||||||
 Anthology 1 This is the first release in a three-part series that essentially amounted to the three surviving Beatles officially sanctioning the release of tracks that had been bootlegged for years. Thus, you get some of their earliest recordings as teens; the tracks they cut in Hamburg, Germany; their Decca audition tapes (which were rejected); and, finally, alternate takes and works in progress of songs that are now part of the world's consciousness. Oh, yeah, you also get "Free As a Bird," the John Lennon track the other Beatles "finished" in 1995; it's out of context in the company of some of the group's early classics. Beatlemaniacs, of course, love exploring this stuff, but the three Anthologies are hardly a place for beginners to start their explorations. | ||||||||
 Anthology 2 If you are, like me, a long-time Beatles fan, you will love this twist on what I personally believe to be the most experimental & brave period of the Fabs glittering career. Whilst most of the tracks are good (only a few clinkers, ie. the tedious "Green Onions" clone of "12 Bar Instrumental" are present), the real gold in these tracks is that they enable the listener to follow (or try & follow) the development of a particular song. Listening to some of the songs is like seeing old and well-loved buildings only half-built (ie "a Day In The Life"). In particular, listening to the basic unadorned take of"I Am The Walrus" is like suddenly finding your eccentric Auntie Nellie pruning roses in the nude...! Musicians (pro- or amateur) will be fascinated by the alternative takes & half-developed ideas, trying to figure out the logic behind why certain ideas were dropped and others developed. And in case I've wondered off the point a little, I'll say it again, brilliant music, to be appreciated by EVERYBODY. Get this, if only for a fascinating glimpse of the inner musical workings a bunch pop geniuses, illustrated & dissected in the manner of an anatomical text book. | ||||||||
 Anthology 3 From the White Album to the end, the last days of the Beatles weren't smooth, which made the fact that they still produced some astonishing music all the more remarkable. In abbreviated form, "What's the New Mary Jane" is finally issued here, and proves underwhelming. For the rest of the set, it's largely down to outtakes and demos, but this time there isn't the same insight of the previous two volumes. Anthology 3 comes dangerously close to the sound of barrels being scraped. That said, it's the Beatles, and in whatever form, the music still shines brilliantly. | ||||||||
 Live at the BBC [LIVE] The surviving members of the Fab Four spent much of the 1990s belatedly reuniting to document, promote, and occasionally awkwardly burnish their unparalleled pop music legacy. This double-disc anthology of live-in-the-studio performances originally recorded specifically for the BBC during the most frantic years of early Beatlemania was the first chapter in that effort and the first issuance of previously unreleased Beatles recordings since the late '70s. In many ways, it remains the most artistically revealing. | ||||||||
 The Beatles 1 Proving yet again their willingness to dice 'n' slice their burgeoning legacy into new--if not exactly fresh--product, the Fab Four Minus One released this single disc compendium of their No. 1 hits. Though obviously superfluous to long-time Fabs faithful (who may also find themselves quibbling over the precise definition of "No. 1 hit" and the exclusion of seeming contenders like "Please Please Me" and "Strawberry Fields"), newly arrived visitors from the Pleiades star cluster and other neophytes will find it a concise and generous (nearly 80 minutes) single-disc introduction to the band's career-spanning, unparalleled dominance of pop music in the 1960s and beyond. But more than merely a trophy case of commercial success (and it won't be hard to find people to argue that these singles aren't even the band's best work), 1 is also a quick sketch of a remarkable seven-year musical evolution, one that stretches from the neo-skiffle of "Love Me Do" through a remarkable synthesis of R&B, rockabilly, Tin Pan Alley, gospel, country and classical that still defies efforts to effectively deconstruct it. |
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