![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/The-Beatles-Abbey-Road-1969-Apple-Records-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855.jpg\")
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Credit: Far Out \/ Album Cover<\/p>\n
Sat 6 June 2026 16:15, UK <\/p>\n
We can\u2019t help but indulge in partisanship, can we? <\/p>\n
Even in music, a famously subjective art form, we have to find a way to satiate our human spirit and turn it tribal. It\u2019s why we can\u2019t just enjoy the greatest band to have ever existed and instead, constantly ask, \u2018Which Beatle do you prefer, John Lennon<\/a> or Paul McCartney?\u2019<\/p>\n But maybe we are asking the wrong question. Perhaps the great division between Beatles fans<\/a> isn\u2019t that of their preferred songwriter but the album instead. Across their 13 studio albums, there are plenty of distinct sonic identities to choose from. There is the boy-next-door innocence of Please Please Me, the empathy of Help!, the intrigue of Revolver and the pure expanse of The White Album. And of course, those all exist without mentioning the two most obvious picks.<\/p>\n Sgt Pepper\u2019s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Abbey Road stand as the two epitomic Beatles albums<\/a>. Both showcase the band at their absolute peak, with the former being their premier experimental concept piece, acting as the moment they broke out of their commercial shell and became the groundbreaking band that would define centuries to come.\u00a0<\/p>\n The latter was the culmination of that trend. The outcome of the Sgt Pepper explosion, where esoterica was aligned with masterful musicianship. More than that, it welcomes in the single writing of their early years, with the A-side being a non-stop whistle tour of endless hits and the B-side being a symphonic second-half medley that conceptualises fragments into one cohesive epic statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n So, which album sold more, Sgt Pepper or Abbey Road?<\/p>\n Well, it was only Sgt Pepper\u2019s Lonely Hearts Club Band,\u00a0which outsold Abbey Road in the 1960s. <\/p>\n The \u201869 epic sold a total of 16.9 million copies upon its release, while Sgt Pepper outshone it with a total of 18.3m copies. It\u2019s an objective victory for the \u201867 album and gives weight to those in the Sgt Pepper\u00a0camp, that their preferred album is, in fact, the greatest.<\/p>\n Further reading: From The Vault<\/p>\n Moreover, if you were inclined to hitch this argument to the more gritty one of Lennon vs McCartney, then Sgt Pepper\u2019s victory will also add to that. It was well known that the \u201867 album was his baby<\/a>, and he fearlessly, and at times brutally, led the band into music immortality.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe wanted to see what we could do, see how far we could stretch pop music. Realise our visions of how far out a record could be,\u201d McCartney said of the record. <\/p>\n Lennon would later say that he preferred The White Album to Macca\u2019s masterpiece, proving just how unaligned their creative viewpoints were becoming. As a record, Abbey Road actually showcased that, for Lennon willingly admitted to liking the A-side but then called McCartney\u2019s medley on the second half \u201cjunk\u201d and \u201cbits of songs thrown together\u201d.<\/p>\n But that\u2019s ultimately what makes Abbey Road such a perfect album. It\u2019s the sound of imperfection, a band fracturing<\/a> at the seams yet somehow finding a way to forge the tension into sonic greatness. It\u2019s a record that tells a million personal stories, while still celebrating the one consistent story of their shared musical genius.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/faroutmagazine.co.uk\/wp-content\/themes\/far-out-magazine\/img\/google-discover.svg\")
<\/a> The Far Out Beatles Newsletter<\/p>\n