Best of the Beatles

I’ve always been a rock head. I can clearly remember my early morning car rides to school with my mom, growing up on classic rock bands such as Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, The Eagles, The Rolling Stones, and tons more. I’ve always had some form of rock at all times that it’s second nature to me. Recently, I decided to sit down and listen to all of The Beatles albums, using a new pair of planar magnetic headphones, so I could hear every single detail in each song. After my marathon, I narrowed down my favorite albums: “Rubber Soul,” “Sgt. Peppers,” “Magical Mystery Tour,” and “White Album.” “Rubber Soul” has a heavy use of guitar and is very different from The Beatles’s later stuff. The opening song, “Drive My Car” has a famous guitar riff in it, and most of the guitar is very pronounced, with a ton of solos. “Sgt. Peppers” and “Magical Mystery Tour” fall into the same line for me. Both focus less on raw guitar, and instead focus on the use of many different types of instruments. Two tracks in “Sgt. Peppers” primarily use the sitar, which is an Indian instrument The Beatles learned to play while in India. You can really see how their music style evolved from their earlier albums. It sounds more mature and experimental, which is something that works extremely well in the contexts of both these albums. Songs like “Blue Jay Way,” “Within You Without You,” “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds,” “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite,” and “Flying” are a few examples of their more strange songs. What’s great about these two albums is that even though these tracks are very different, they still fit in very well. Now, my favorite Beatles album is what I consider the culmination of their work: “White Album” (also known as their self titled album). There is not one Beatles album that I don’t like; I consider all of them perfect, or close to perfection, especially “Abbey Road,” but no album has pulled me back time and time again like “White Album.” Their mix of rock songs like “Back in the USSR,” “Birthday,” and “Revolution 1” and softer songs such as “Blackbird,” “Julia,” and “I’m So Tired,” ensure that every song you hear is different from the last in terms of style. Not to mention, my favorite Beatles song is on this album, “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” George Harrison’s vocals and the back and forth between his guitar playing and Eric Clapton’s is pure perfection. Overall, I think what makes The Beatles one of the greatest bands of all time is their ability to stay fresh and relevant with the times, but also put their own twist on it.