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You’d be hard-pressed to find a band from the last 100 years with as much staying power as The Beatles. Every generation since the band’s debut in the 1960s has discovered the beauty and craftsmanship of their music.
With the release of their final song “Now and Then,” John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and George Harrison have proven that despite tragedy and time, they still have some tricks up their sleeves. From the bands’ debut in 1963 up to the release of their last official album, Let It Be, in 1970, they gave the world some of the most widely-known and celebrated music of all time.
The Beatles will outlive us all in the same way that people still listen to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Johann Sebastian Bach. In just seven years, they changed music forever with only 13 albums.
Please Please Me (March 1963)
By the time Please Please Me came out in 1963, the band already had a number-one single in the album’s title track. Most of it was recorded in a single day in February, and the iconic album cover was shot at the headquarters of EMI Limited in London’s West End by photographer Angus McBean.
The album would stay on the top of the UK album chart for thirty weeks, until another Beatles album dethroned it. While this album version wasn’t released officially in the United States until 1987, Introducing The Beatles (1964) on the Vee-Jay label and The Early Beatles (1965) contained most of the songs.
With The Beatles (November 1963)
Following the band’s breakout success in the U.K., With The Beatles came out a mere 8 months after its predecessor. It was released on November 22, a date many Americans remember as the day John F. Kennedy was assassinated.
This album also features the first composition by a young George Harrison. The album knocked its predecessor off the album charts and stayed at #1 for 21 weeks and spent an additional 30 weeks in the top twenty.
Like the previous album, Please Please Me was never officially released in the United States until 1987. However, the cover was used for the band’s Capitol Records debut Meet The Beatles, which was released in January of the following year.
A Hard Day’s Night (July 1964)
When A Hard Day’s Night was released in 1964, The Beatles were bonafide superstars all across the world. Beatlemania was everywhere and this album was released to coincide with the band’s first movie. This was the first album with songs only composed by members of the band.
After With The Beatles was released in the States the previous year, the band had all five spots in the Billboard charts by April of 1964. The US version of the album (released in late June) included some instrumental pieces from the movie’s soundtrack.
Capitol also released the album Something New in the States, which featured 8 songs from the UK version and three previously unreleased tracks in the US. The soundtrack version stayed at #1 for 14 weeks and Something New stayed at #2 for nine weeks.
Beatles For Sale (December 1964)
Continuing their breakneck pace of two albums a year, Beatles For Sale was released only 21 weeks after the previous album. Like the previous outing, the album was recorded in between jet-setting all around the world for concert engagements.
Because they only had seven days to record the album, they peppered in about six covers. The album was never officially released in the US. Instead, Americans got Beatles ’65, which had eight songs from Beatles For Sale plus “I Feel Fine” and “I’ll be Back.”
The rest of the songs on Beatles For Sale turned up on Beatles VI stateside in June of 1965, an album that hit #1 on the US charts and stayed there for six weeks.
Help! (August 1965)
Another movie accompanying album, Help! had one side dedicated to soundtrack songs and the other side with new recordings. The album also featured two George Harrison originals. Like previous releases, this came out differently in the US.
A different soundtrack album was released stateside with one side of songs from the movie and the other side being instrumentals. It stayed at #1 for nine weeks. The songs not released on the US version were parsed over three separate albums, with “Yesterday” being released as an eventual #1 single.
Rubber Soul (December 1965)
This album marked a big change for the Liverpool boys, with instruments like the sitar featured on “Norwegian Wood.” Around this time, the band also released the classics “Day Tripper” and “We Can Work It Out.”
While the US version of the album looked identical, it had a different track listing with two songs not available on the UK version. “I’ve Just Seen A Face” and “It’s Only Love” replaced songs that would be released on “Yesterday and Today.”
The US version of the album stayed at #1 on the American charts for six weeks.
Revolver (August 1966)
By the time they recorded a seventh album, The Beatles were done touring and spent a luxurious three months in the studio perfecting Revolver. For the first time, the UK and US version were almost identical, but the US version only had 11 songs because three were already on Yesterday…And Today.
It was the band’s most experimental album to date and is widely considered one of the greatest albums of all time. It spent six weeks at #1 on the US album charts.
Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (June 1967)
This was the most fruitful time in The Beatles career, and Sgt Peppers is a cherry on top of a hot fudge sundae of Beatles goodness. It was widely tied to the “summer of love” hippie movement around the world but that marginalizes what a monumental album this was at the time.
Because they didn’t have to worry about touring with the material, the band took advantage of the recording sessions by experimenting. For example, the album features a 41-piece orchestra for “A Day In The Life” and various random instrumentations in songs like “When I’m 64” and “She’s Leaving Home.”
The only difference between the US and UK versions was the removal of some garbled speech on the UK record’s run-out groove.
Magical Mystery Tour (November 1967)
Another soundtrack album, Magical Mystery Tour was created for a TV film released on Christmas of 1967. It continued the band’s experimental bent and shouldered the unenviable task of following up Sgt. Peppers.
In the UK, the album was released on two seven inch discs, a format considered not viable for an American release. Capitol Records put the EP’s six songs on one side and singles on the other. Those songs included “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “Penny Lane.” That version stayed at #1 on the US album charts for eight weeks.
The Beatles (The White Album) (November 1968)
At this point the band somehow topped themselves again with this self-titled release commonly referred to as the “White Album.” It was a tour de force featuring compositions from all band members that showcased just how much each one of them was growing musically.
This was also the band’s first on its own label: Apple. Despite being a double album it stayed at #1 on the UK chart for eight weeks and on the US charts for nine.
Yellow Submarine (January 1969)
Yet another soundtrack album! This time for an animated film which was released in the UK about six months earlier. It wasn’t really meant to be a full-fledged Beatles album, and the whole second side of the disc featured the orchestral score courtesy of George Martin.
Despite its brevity, the album made it to #3 in Britain and #2 in the US, only missing out on the top spot because the White Album still held it.
Abbey Road (September 1969)
Abbey Road is a little confusing because it was the last album recorded but not the last one released. The iconic front cover featured neither the name of the band nor the name of the album. The album was more carefully crafted following their Let It Be recordings earlier in the year.
It stayed at the #1 spot for eleven weeks on the US charts.
Let It Be (May 1970)
The true end of an era. This final album by the boys from Liverpool was released just before a movie of the same name, featuring the famous rooftop concert at the band’s headquarters in London’s Savile Row.
The band wanted to capture a “live in the studio” feel for the album but eventually Phil Spector was brought in to add to the tracks. The Spector version of “The Long And Winding Road” became the band’s final #1 single in the United States.
New music released after Let It Be includes the 1995 release “Free as a Bird” and 1996’s “Real Love”, and the recent “Now and Then”, all of which are reworked versions of John Lennon demos.