The Beatles’ Final Album Released 50 Years Ago Today

The Beatles, beyond a shadow of a doubt, remain one of the most identifiable musical groups globally – an achievement that still stands strong, some 45 years after they parted ways.

As a devoted film enthusiast, I’d say there’s hardly been a musical legacy as enigmatic as the one John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and George Harrison crafted. Over six decades, their unparalleled chaos – or “mass hysteria” if you will – on the airwaves remains almost impossible to replicate.

Through a wide range of musical genres, artists like Ed Sheeran, Oasis, The Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones, Bee Gees, and even Nirvana have been cited as sources of inspiration. Their songs have stood the test of time, continuing to captivate listeners from one generation to the next, maintaining their status as timeless classics cherished by musicians and music lovers alike.

Regardless if you lean towards pop, rock, or psychedelic genres, there’s a strong chance that their music has left an impact on you, even if you aren’t consciously aware of it.

Despite breaking up in 1970 following a decade of dominance on the music charts, they continue to hold the record for the most number-one singles in Official Charts history.

In November 2023, fans were ecstatic over the unveiling of a long-hidden, last Beatles tune titled “Now and Then.” This song, kept secret in their archives for years, continues to underscore why the Liverpudlian quartet, affectionately known as the Fab Four, remain timeless cultural icons.

Looking for a good starting point with The Beatles? We’ve got you covered! Here is a list of their groundbreaking albums arranged chronologically, along with their most popular hits. Enjoy the journey!

The Beatles albums in release date order

The full list of albums the band released as a group is:

  1. Please Please Me (1963)
  2. With The Beatles (1963)
  3. A Hard Day’s Night (1964)
  4. Beatles For Sale (1964)
  5. Help! (1965)
  6. Rubber Soul (1965)
  7. Revolver (1966)
  8. Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)
  9. The Beatles (White Album) (1968)
  10. Yellow Submarine (1969)
  11. Abbey Road (1969)
  12. Let It Be (1970)

Apart from their individual U.S. releases, their work on solo ventures, band collaborations, and compilation albums like ‘Greatest Hits’, this doesn’t cover their extensive accomplishments.

Including those records would bring our grand total to a whopping 144 albums, encompassing five additional studio albums, five live albums, 49 compilation albums, 36 EPs, and 37 box sets.

A single album, named merely as ‘1’, contains their top-charting singles, and it has achieved an impressive 13 times Platinum status on its own.

The Beatles Albums: Tracklists, Hit Singles and Successes

All but one album by The Beatles that they put out while active reached the top of the music charts. The exception was the soundtrack for Yellow Submarine, which still managed to reach an impressive third place.

Here are the notable moments and songs that came with each release and era of the band:

Please Please Me (1963)

Tracklist:

  1. I Saw Her Standing There
  2. Misery
  3. Anna (Go to Him)
  4. Chains
  5. Boys
  6. Ask Me Why
  7. Please Please Me (peaked at No. 2 on the UK Charts)
  8. Love Me Do (peaked at No. 17 on the UK Charts)
  9. P.S. I Love You
  10. Baby It’s You
  11. Do You Want to Know a Secret
  12. A Taste of Honey
  13. There’s a Place
  14. Twist and Shout

A-Side singles of note:

  • From Me To You (peaked at No. 1 on the UK Charts for 6 weeks)
  • I Want To Hold Your Hand (peaked at No. 1 on the UK Charts for 5 weeks)

Current Status: 1x Platinum in the UK

With The Beatles (1963)

Tracklist:

  1. It Won’t Be Long
  2. All I’ve Got to Do
  3. All My Loving
  4. Don’t Bother Me
  5. Little Child
  6. Till There Was You
  7. Please Mister Postman
  8. Roll Over Beethoven
  9. Hold Me Tight
  10. You Really Got a Hold on Me
  11. I Wanna Be Your Man
  12. Devil in Her Heart
  13. Not a Second Time
  14. Money (That’s What I Want)

A Hard Day’s Night (1964)

Tracklist:

  1. A Hard Day’s Night (peaked at No. 1 on the UK Charts for 3 weeks)
  2. I Should Have Known Better
  3. If I Fell
  4. I’m Happy Just to Dance with You
  5. And I Love Her
  6. Tell Me Why
  7. Can’t Buy Me Love (peaked at No. 1 on the UK Charts for 3 weeks)
  8. Any Time at All
  9. I’ll Cry Instead
  10. Things We Said Today
  11. When I Get Home
  12. You Can’t Do That
  13. I’ll Be Back

Non-Album releases of note:

  • I Feel Fine (peaked at No. 1 on the UK Charts for 5 weeks)

Beatles For Sale (1964)

Tracklist:

  1. No Reply
  2. I’m a Loser
  3. Baby’s in Black
  4. Rock and Roll Music
  5. I’ll Follow the Sun
  6. Mr. Moonlight
  7. Kansas City/Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey!
  8. Eight Days a Week
  9. Words of Love
  10. Honey Don’t
  11. Every Little Thing
  12. I Don’t Want to Spoil the Party
  13. What You’re Doing
  14. Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby

Help! (1965)

Tracklist:

  1. Help! (peaked at No. 1 on the UK Charts for 3 weeks)
  2. The Night Before
  3. You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away
  4. I Need You
  5. Another Girl
  6. You’re Going to Lose That Girl
  7. Ticket to Ride (peaked at No. 1 on the UK Charts for 3 weeks)
  8. Act Naturally
  9. It’s Only Love
  10. You Like Me Too Much
  11. Tell Me What You See
  12. I’ve Just Seen a Face
  13. Yesterday (peaked at No. 8 on the UK Charts)
  14. Dizzy Miss Lizzy

Rubber Soul (1965)

Tracklist:

  1. Drive My Car
  2. Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
  3. You Won’t See Me
  4. Nowhere Man
  5. Think for Yourself
  6. The Word
  7. Michelle
  8. What Goes On
  9. Girl
  10. I’m Looking Through You
  11. In My Life
  12. Wait
  13. If I Needed Someone
  14. Run for Your Life

Non-Album releases of note:

  • Day Tripper/We Can Work It Out (peaked at No. 1 on the UK Charts for 5 weeks)

Current Status: 2x Platinum in the UK

Revolver (1966)

Tracklist:

  1. Taxman
  2. Eleanor Rigby (peaked at No. 1 on the UK Charts for 2 weeks)
  3. I’m Only Sleeping
  4. Love You To
  5. Here, There and Everywhere
  6. Yellow Submarine (peaked at No. 1 on the UK Charts for 2 weeks)
  7. She Said She Said
  8. Good Day Sunshine
  9. And Your Bird Can Sing
  10. For No One
  11. Doctor Robert
  12. I Want to Tell You
  13. Got to Get You into My Life
  14. Tomorrow Never Knows

Non-Album releases of note:

  • Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields Forever (peaked at No. 2 on the UK Charts)

Current Status: 2x Platinum in the UK

Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)

Tracklist:

  1. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
  2. With a Little Help from My Friends
  3. Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
  4. Getting Better
  5. Fixing a Hole
  6. She’s Leaving Home
  7. Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!
  8. Within You Without You
  9. When I’m Sixty-Four
  10. Lovely Rita
  11. Good Morning Good Morning
  12. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)
  13. A Day in the Life

Non-Album releases of note:

  • All You Need Is Love (peaked at No. 1 on the UK Charts for three weeks)
  • Hello Goodbye (peaked at No. 1 on the UK Charts for seven weeks)

Current Status: 18x Platinum in the UK

The Beatles (White Album) (1968)

Tracklist:

  1. Back in the U.S.S.R.
  2. Dear Prudence
  3. Glass Onion
  4. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
  5. Wild Honey Pie
  6. The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill (Ft. Yoko Ono)
  7. While My Guitar Gently Weeps
  8. Happiness is a Warm Gun
  9. Martha My Dear
  10. I’m So Tired
  11. Blackbird
  12. Piggies
  13. Rocky Raccoon
  14. Don’t Pass Me By
  15. Why Don’t We Do It in the Road?
  16. I Will
  17. Julia
  18. Birthday
  19. Yer Blues
  20. Mother Nature’s Son
  21. Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey
  22. Sexy Sadie
  23. Helter Skelter
  24. Long, Long, Long
  25. Revolution 1
  26. Honey Pie
  27. Savoy Truffle
  28. Cry Baby Cry
  29. Revolution 9
  30. Good Night

Non-Album releases of note:

  • Lady Madonna (peaked at No. 1 on the UK Charts for two weeks)
  • Hey Jude (peaked at No. 1 on the UK Charts for two weeks)

Yellow Submarine (1969)

Tracklist:

  1. Yellow Submarine
  2. Only a Northern Song
  3. All Together Now
  4. Hey Bulldog
  5. It’s All Too Much
  6. All You Need Is Love
    Plus following orchestrated instrumentals by George Martin:
  7. Pepperland
  8. Sea of Time
  9. Sea of Holes
  10. Sea of Monsters
  11. March of the Meanies
  12. Pepperland Laid Waste
  13. Yellow Submarine In Pepperland

Abbey Road (1969)

Tracklist:

  1. Come Together (peaked at No. 4 on the UK Charts)
  2. Something (peaked at No. 4 on the UK Charts)
  3. Maxwell’s Silver Hammer
  4. Oh! Darling
  5. Octopus’s Garden
  6. I Want You (She’s So Heavy)
  7. Here Comes the Sun
  8. Because
  9. You Never Give Me Your Money
  10. Sun King
  11. Mean Mr. Mustard
  12. Polythene Pam
  13. She Came in Through the Bathroom Window
  14. Golden Slumbers
  15. Carry That Weight
  16. The End
  17. Her Majesty

Non-Album releases of note:

  • The Ballad of John and Yoko (peaked at No. 1 on the UK Charts for three weeks)

Current Status: 8x Platinum in the UK

Let It Be (1970)

Tracklist:

  1. Two of Us
  2. Dig a Pony
  3. Across the Universe
  4. I Me Mine
  5. Dig It
  6. Let It Be (peaked at No. 2 on the UK Charts)
  7. Maggie Mae
  8. I’ve Got a Feeling
  9. One After 909
  10. The Long and Winding Road
  11. For You Blue
  12. Get Back (peaked at No. 1 on the UK Charts for six weeks)

In May of 1970, they unveiled “Let It Be,” a move made one month subsequent to the band confirming their dissolution. Simultaneously, a documentary chronicling the launch of their last album, bearing the same title, hit the screens.

Working on the album proved challenging since George Harrison took a break from the band during rehearsals and recording sessions, and John Lennon eventually decided to leave the group before they could finish the project altogether.

They staged a single, rooftop concert at Apple Studios in January 1970 as part of their album promotion. John, during this performance, expressed his gratitude to the fans by saying: “I speak for the band and us all, and I hope we’ve earned your approval.

In 2023, their last song titled “Now & Then” was released and reached the top spot on the charts; however, by then, half of the band had already passed away. Tragically, John Lennon was shot outside his residence in New York City in December 1980, while George Harrison succumbed to lung cancer at the age of 58 in November 2001.

Sir Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr both continue to perform around the world.

Read More

2025-03-21 20:07