Poll: Best Early Beatles Album (UK)

The options are all of the UK releases.

DQ: What are your top best 3 songs from your album of choice?

My choice: A Hard Day's Night
1. If I Fell
2. I'll Be Back
3. Things We Said Today

 

Help! rules!

 

A Hard Day's Night. The only one of the five with all original Lennon-McCartney tracks.

1) A Hard Day's Night
2) If I Fell
3) Things We Said Today

Then there's: I Should Have Known Better, And I Love Her, Can't Buy Me Love, Any Time At All, You Can't Do That, I'll Be Back.. the album is packed with brilliant songs. For me, it's the most enjoyable Beatles album start to finish.

 

The hit machine factory' especially if you've been working like a dog.

 

Without a doubt, A Hard Day's Night.

It's got so many great songs, it's hard to pick the best three.

 

Listening to it now....then found this poll.

1. A Hard Days Night
a) If I Fell
b) I Should Have Known Better
c) Tell Me Why (which used to be towards the bottom, but I love it now).

2. Please Please Me [the most listened to one for me]
a) Twist and Shout
b) please please me
c) I saw her standing there

the other albums have stronger highlights, but this guys got so much charm.

3. Beatles for Sale (underrated)
a) Every Little Thing
B) EIght Days as Week
c) I'll follow the sun

4. With the Beatles (I love this in stereo, the now old 2009 remastered helped me appreciate this quite a bit more.
a) All I got to do
B) you've really got a hold on me
C) not a second time

5. Help!--it's best songs are the best but it's inconsistent:
a) ticket to ride
B)hide luv away
C) you're gonna lose that gil

 

I picked the underdog, Beatles For Sale. I dunno, it just has something. It was the first to show a different sound and had great tunes, It has 3 great songs to start it off, No Reply, I'm A Loser, and Baby's In Black. Just these three alone show a different sound, sort of what they'd eventually do on Rubber Soul.

 

1. If I Fell
2. I Should Have Known Better
3. I'll Be Back

 

I know "Beatles For Sale" is considered weak (for some unknown reason) but it's my favorite of the early Beatles. It has lots of my favorite Beatle 'hooks' (especially "What You're Doing") and "No Reply" is one of the most dynamic Beatle songs. "Mr. Moonlight" is the only real clunker on it to me.

 

Help!

1.I've Just Seen A Face
2.The Night Before
3.Yesterday

 

Beatles For Sale and Help!

These two started pointing the way towards my favorite Beatles period that was coming in '65 and '66.

 

A Hard Day's Night, definitely.

With the Beatles would have been my second choice, if we had 2 votes.

 

A HARD DAYS NIGHT
Top 3:
1. I'll Be Back
2. A Hard Days Night
3. Things We Said Today
When I consider how good some of the songs I DIDN'T put in my top 3 are (I Should Have Known Better, Can't Buy Me Love, Any Time At All, And I Love Her, If I Fell) it really makes it clear how strong this album is!

 

A Hard Day's Night

1. I'll Be Back
2. A Hard Day's Night
3. And I Love Her

 

I voted for Help! I think the songwriting was becoming more meaningful, sophisticated, and adult-sounding by this point - it was getting close to the same territory as Rubber Soul (a watershed LP by the reckoning of many) on several of the tracks. Plenty of variety and depth.

A Hard Day's Night also ranks high with me because of the memory of Beatlemania and the movie. It was the first new album after the Beatles hit it big in America and everyone was paying rapt attention in anticipation of what came next. They certainly didn't disappoint.

 

I'd have easily gone for Help! but always think of it as a mid-period Fabs album (along with Rubber Soul and the We Can Work It Out/Daytripper single being a nice link between the two)... sorry.


Anyway, we had just two Beatle LPs at home when I was a kid in the 70s and early 80s and they were the mono WTB/BFS . I'd play them once in a blue moon (when I thought I'd not get caught with other people's records...) They didn't lead me onto wanting hear much more by them and knew of singles by them I far preferred - wasn't even curious about if they'd had any good albums out. My opinion did change a little later when I got some later stuff via a cassette of Rock And Roll Music Volume 2 - if I had the money in my then early teens, I'd have looked deeper. And by I hit my 20s, I was a fan of pretty much all their albums as I was buying them on friend's recommendations and getting into sixties music and classic rock too.

But back to the point - when I got to hear PPM, soon after the CDs first came out, I was quite impressed. Of course, the other I'd not heard in full by that time was AHDN and I picked the cassette up but felt it was quite lightweight (!) I don't think like that now and 'side 2' is easily my favourite on it but PPM still impacts on me like anything and I bought the 2012 Stereo LP last week - only ever owned this in mono, previously. So Please Please Me is the best for me, out of the first four. I love them all though and even have 4 copies of WTB these days.


Label of the 2012

EDIT: Oops - meant to add my three favourites.

1. I Saw Her Standing There
2. Twist And Shout
3. Anna (Go To Him) Lennon's voice always gives me shivers on this track.


EDIT II: Oops again - the picture from the mono reissue/remaster! Still a nice label though,,,

 

Every album has its gems, but of the early albums, what I find myself listening to the most is Help. You've Got to Hide Your Love Away, You're Going to Lose That Girl, Tell Me What You See, Yesterday... I don't know. It was either this or Please Please Me. Could've gone with A Hard Day's Night simply based on the strength of If I Fell, And I Love Her, Things We Said Today and I'll Be Back, but I feel it clogs when we get to Tell Me Why, When I Get Home and Any Time at All.

So I went with Help.

 

AHDN.
No low bass, mid fi classic.
Stereo ~ vocal heaven.

 

My best 3 from Help! are:

You've Got to Hide Your Love Away
Yesterday
Help!

Looking again at the entire tracklist, I am very impressed by the increased quality of songwriting (especially lyrics) by both John and Paul.

 

A Hard Days Night

1) Title song

2) If I Fell

3) Tell Me Why

 

I love them all except With The Beatles, and I only just really like that one.

My vote went to Help! because it's a wonderful record.

1) You've Got To Hide Your Love Away
2) I've Just Seen A Face
3) Ticket To Ride

This is followed by AHDN and Beatles For Sale. BFS is particularly awesome and criminally underrated.

 

The main reason I like With The Beatles is that definitive Merseybeat style and sound - they really exemplified it totally on this album and the early singles up through I Want to Hold Your Hand.

 

A Hard Days Night is the greatest pop album ever in my humble opinion.

Please Please Me is my 2nd fave. Beatles for Sale is pretty underrated.

 

A Hard Days Night, definitely.

Add She Loves You, and I Want To Hold Your Hand, and you have the very essence of Beatlemania.