3 Essential Beatles Albums

Originating from Liverpool, England, The Beatles are arguably one of the most influential rock bands ever. This is due in part to being in the right place at the right time. When The Beatles hit the music scene, the Rock and Roll industry was still in its infancy and the market was wide open. But this is only part of the reason for the Fab Four's explosive impact on rock and popular music of the late 20th century. The other major factor was talent. It was a convergence of timing, talent and personality.

Many detractors point out that Ringo is an average drummer and Lennon and McCartney were not innovative guitarists, but this misses the point. The Beatles weren't about virtuoso showmanship.

They were a band.

John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison could have found countless other, better drummers but they chose Ringo because that was who they were; John, Paul, George and Ringo.

This identity as a band carried them through a roll coaster ride of success, fame and stardom never before seen, and rarely seen since. Throughout their 8 years of studio recordings they evolved more than some bands do in 28 years. Because of their evolution as artists and experimental approach to their craft, they have influenced countless bands over the 45 years since they released their first single, Love Me Do.

People have made careers examining everything in The Beatles catalogue and analyzing it for influential effects on modern music, but I have distilled this to the cliff notes, if you will. The 3 essential albums:

1) Rubber Soul

2) Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

3) Abbey Road

Rubber Soul:

I chose Rubber Soul mainly because it is the first real transitional album. It's a snapshot of The Beatles on the cusp of evolving from essentially a live band into a studio band. The Beatles would never tour again after this album.

Because of this, Rubber Soul still has the vibe of a live band with relatively few studio effects. Musically, The Beatles can be heard veering toward what would be called "Folk-rock". Paul McCartney's bass playing is also beginning to evolve into the more melodic style he has become known for at this time. Rubber Soul also has far more exploration of lyrical content and instrumentation than previous albums as well.

Evidence of this musical exploration can be seen in the first use of the Indian sitar by George Harrison on a Beatles record. I'm referring, of course, to "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)".

"Norwegian Wood" is also a good example of the more lyrically mature content The Beatles were writing at this stage. It's a song about love, but more complex than boy meets girl, boy and girl fall in love. This is more like Girl uses Boy, and then leaves him to wake up alone but he's OK with that. "In My Life" is another fine example of the more mature writing found in The Beatles catalogue during this time.

In a later interview, John Lennon said that Rubber Soul was the first album that The Beatles had the creative control and studio time in which to more fully develop their musical ideas. This is readily apparent when listening to the tracks on Rubber Soul in comparison to earlier works.

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band:

This is an obvious choice as it is the culmination of The Beatles vision of music as art, and is often chosen as one of the most influential albums of all time. Ever.

Pepper's is often cited as the 1st "concept" album, but it's really more of a pre-cursor to the idea of a concept album. Pepper's is a loose concept of The Beatles as different band, hence the name.

It's easy to see why Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is often listed as one of the greatest albums when listening to the album in its entirety, and compared with contemporary offerings by other recording artists active at that time.

The Beatles reworked everything from the ground up for Sgt. Pepper's. They wrote songs differently, recorded differently and approached the entire process differently. They mic'd instruments in ways that was never done before. They tweaked the vocal tracks, sometimes speeding them up and sometimes slowing them down. They used the same 4 track recorders, but their use of multi-layering was unprecedented. This gave them the apparent sound of a large concert hall, cheering fans and circus carnivals.

To fully appreciate the significance of the recording techniques applied in Sgt. Pepper's, consider the following story.

From the BBC: "As part of the 40th-anniversary celebrations, the BBC is set to air a Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band remake featuring contemporary artists such as Oasis, the Killers, Travis, and Kingston, Ont., native Bryan Adams performing their own versions of the album's songs."

The contemporary artists mentioned above are accustomed to modern digital 24-track recording studios and were completely blown away by how hard it was to re-create the tracks from Sgt. Pepper's on a 4-track recorder of the time - and that's having a blueprint to follow!

Due to the recording process used, channel separation is drastic- try changing the balance on your stereo and you'll hear how the songs were "pieced together". Because of the extensive use of over-dubbing, it can render the song almost entirely different. It's truly amazing!

The Beatles expanded their instrumentation and sonic texture as never before with the use of the mellotron, electric keyboard, clarinet, harpsichord, harmonium, and glockenspiel, to name but a few. And of course much greater use of sitar, and orchestrations than previously.

The Beatles were writing about more than just love by this stage. Songs were inspired by chance meetings with meter maids, newspaper stories about girls leaving home, and circus flyers. They found inspiration at every turn.

All of these factors combined to make a much more psychedelic album than any before it, though Magical Mystery tour is probably the height of their psychedelic effect.

In short, Sgt. Pepper's is a true landmark album not just for The Beatles, but also for the evolution of western pop and rock and roll in general.

Abbey Road:

Abbey Road is the last album The Beatles recorded, though Let It Be was released after. Let It Be was an exercise in the breakup of a band, and they all instinctively knew it. Abbey Road proves that even though Beatles were increasingly at odds and evolving in different directions musically and were effectively reconciled to splitting, they put their art above all else and still created a damn fine album - indeed one of the best albums of all times.

Abbey Road is consistently placed on top 100 albums of all times lists, and it's no wonder why. It's a great album that holds up remarkably well even after 38 years.

It has a much heavier sound than other Beatles albums, due partly to the fact that it was the only one recorded on 8-track recorders. This meant that much greater sound definition could be captured with less over-dubbing and hence less degradation of the tape. Also, McCartney was playing a much heavier bass than his trusty Hoffner.

This is also the album where Harrison is seen to fully come into his own as a songwriter. Harrison's growth as a songwriter is evidenced by "Something" and "Here Comes The Sun". "Something" was Harrison's first A-side Beatles single and "Here Comes The Sun" has become one of the most played Beatles songs ever, despite never having been a single.

Ringo also had progressed considerably by this time. His 2nd song, "Octopus's Garden" appears on the album and is largely considered his best. Abbey Road is also notable for containing Ringo's only drum solo for a Beatles album, at the end of the track "The End."

Abbey Road is also proof that The Beatles remained creative to the end. Faced with a large number of song fragments that were not working out and could not stand on their own, they took a radical (for the time) approach: they stitched them together. Much of the entire second side of the album was a collection of smaller musical ideas sewn together into a medley of vignettes.

The album closes in perhaps the most appropriate way that it could: with three extended guitar solos and Ringo's first Beatles drum solo in a track called "The End."

The guitar solos were performed in turn by John, Paul and George, and each with a distinctive style: McCartney's solo was melodic, Harrison's was soaring and Lennon's was biting.

The Beatles remain a beloved and influential band 37 years after their breakup. I believe that this is due largely to the fact that they were a great band that experienced tremendous growth and pushed many boundaries in a short period of time.

They were simply four friends with talent and ambition that changed the world when they worked together. No other band had evolved so much in so little time to encompass so many factors of modern life. No other band had been so influential on music, fashion and society either.

It is a testament to these factors that they have left behind such a tremendous catalogue of music for future generations to enjoy.