{"id":319653,"date":"2025-12-16T20:20:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T20:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/319653\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T20:20:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T20:20:11","slug":"the-one-album-all-the-beatles-agreed-is-the-greatest-ever-made","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/319653\/","title":{"rendered":"The one album all The Beatles agreed is the greatest ever made"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/p>\n

(Credits: Far Out \/ Apple Corps Ltd)<\/p>\n

Tue 16 December 2025 18:45, UK <\/p>\n

Two pertinent quotes spring to mind when defining the whirlwind era of the 1960s<\/a>. The first comes from Hunter S Thompson.<\/p>\n

\u201c[It was] the kind of peak that never comes again,\u201d he wrote. \u201cMaybe it meant something. Maybe not, in the long run . . . but no explanation, no mix of words or music or memories can touch that sense of knowing that you were there and alive in that corner of time and the world. Whatever it meant.\u201d<\/p>\n

This was an atmosphere that John Lennon expanded on when he commented, \u201cWe were all on this ship in the sixties, our generation, a ship going to discover the New World. And the Beatles were in the crow\u2019s nest of that ship.\u201d<\/p>\n

The confluence of those two sentiments \u2013 the \u201860s representing a seismic peak, and The Beatles being the pinnacle of that protrusion \u2013 perfectly indicates the unmatchable impact that the Fab Four had on culture. If there is any justifiable pop culture obsession, then Beatlemania is it. The movement that they spearheaded is the most meaningful in art since the Renaissance.<\/p>\n

But the band knew that they were standing on the shoulders of giants, evidencing this on the hero-clad cover of Sgt Pepper\u2019s. In fact, they pretty much embodied the phrase that great artists steal. Bob Dylan\u2019s poetry gave them greater depth<\/a>. Pet Sounds fed into their expansive studio experimentation. The Who and The Stones gave them a heavy edge. Jimi Hendrix got them thinking about greater musicianship. And so on.<\/p>\n

It is often said that the Fab Four were greater than the sum of their parts, but that goes beyond the complementing constitution of the actual band and encapsulates the notion that they were a derivative alloy, containing the alchemical conflux of an entire welter of emerging art. So, it comes as little surprise that when it comes to the song that defined the era, the band look beyond themselves.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>The Beatles looking beyond themselves. (Credits: Far Out \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n

\u201cI figure no one is educated musically \u2019til they\u2019ve heard Pet Sounds,\u201d Paul McCartney once decreed. <\/p>\n

He added, \u201cI love the orchestra, the arrangements \u2013 it may be going overboard to say it\u2019s the classic of the century \u2013 but to me, it certainly is a total, classic record that is unbeatable in many ways. I\u2019ve often played Pet Sounds and cried.\u201d<\/p>\n

That ability to emotionally move and technically inspire was something that they always wanted to be at the core of their own output. So, as George Martin, the fifth Beatle and their trusty producer, put it, they similarly tried to use the studio as an instrument to see what emotive heights such a move could unlock. <\/p>\n

\u201cWithout Pet Sounds, Sgt. Pepper wouldn\u2019t have happened,\u201d he said. \u201cPepper was an attempt to equal Pet Sounds.\u201d<\/p>\n

He even went a step further, and after working more closely with The Beatles than anyone, he boldly stated, \u201dIf there is one person that I have to select as a living genius of pop music, I would choose Brian Wilson.\u201d Pet Sounds was at the crux of that comment.<\/p>\n

Lennon equally admired the masterpiece, with the late Brian Wilson explaining that the bespectacled Beatle rang him shortly after its release to say \u2018it was the greatest album ever made\u2019. He was moved by the magic of Wilson\u2019s innovative approach.<\/p>\n

\"Brian<\/a>Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys in 1971. (Credits: Far Out \/ Public Domain)<\/p>\n

And he was just as effusive publicly. \u201cIt\u2019s the greatest record I\u2019ve heard for weeks,\u201d Lennon said of \u2018The Little Girl I Once Knew\u2019. \u201cIt\u2019s fantastic. I hope it will be a hit. It\u2019s all Brian Wilson. He just uses the voices as instruments. You keep waiting for the fabulous breaks. Great arrangement.\u201d And invariably they were hits, because just like The Beatles<\/a>, Wilson had the canny knack of ensuring his avant-gardism had commercial appeal.<\/p>\n

With that outlook, both groups progressed society at large. They offered the mainstream a genuine feeling of hope and revolution that was hitherto unknown and remains unmatched. But every band that followed carried the torch that they set ablaze. As John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin explains, \u201cAlbum-oriented artists hardly even existed five years before we made our first record.\u201d <\/p>\n

He continued, \u201cThere was the Beatles and the Beach Boys, and Dylan of course. I wasn\u2019t even listening to much pop or rock music, at the time. I had one Beatles album, Revolver, and Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys.\u201d You barely need any more than that, and the latter remains the high-water mark for the album movement.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s music before Pet Sounds, and then there\u2019s music after Pet Sounds. The Beatles recognised this, and when the waters got choppy for Wilson and co, they simply continued to steer the ship in the right direction from their lofty crow\u2019s nest, never veering too far from the compass of \u201dthe classic of the century.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Related Topics<\/p>\n

The Far Out Beatles Newsletter<\/p>\n

All the latest stories about The Beatles from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credits: Far Out \/ Apple Corps Ltd) Tue 16 December 2025 18:45, UK Two pertinent quotes spring to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":319654,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[96,65449,128,15745,10447,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-319653","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-george-martin","10":"tag-music","11":"tag-the-beach-boys","12":"tag-the-beatles","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319653\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}