Trying to decide which Beatles album is the best one would be a long discussion. Everybody has their favorites, including the Fab Four themselves, but choosing the best is much more difficult. There were several points in The Beatles’ surprisingly short career that changed music history, but for Paul McCartney, there is one album that sticks out. McCartney loves every Beatles album, of course, but for him, this album marked the moment the band went from being a popular rock band to an era-defining group.
Why Paul McCartney Says This Is the Greatest Album He’s Ever Been Part of
The Beatles‘ meteoric rise to fame changed the music world, but while they had become incredibly popular with their first album, it was a few years into their history that they really changed their sound, and consequently, changed the meaning of rock and roll forever. In 1965, they put out two highly successful albums, Help! and Rubber Soul. Looking back on those records, while they are still considered to be part of the most conventional era of the band, listeners can tell that there are hints in Rubber Soul of something new and yet unknown.
Then, the next year, everything changed. 1996 saw the release of Revolver, an incredibly disruptive album that saw a new dynamic among the band, with new melodies that surprised and excited fans. The album opens with the song “Taxman,” making it the first and only Beatles’ album to open with a George Harrison track. Harrison was blossoming as a songwriter, and Lennon-McCartney weren’t the only ones coming up with songs anymore.
McCartney’s “Eleanor Rigby” was a high point. Featuring McCartney’s vocals over an orchestral arrangement put together by producer George Martin, it challenged what was expected of a popular rock band. The lyrics were also surprisingly somber and mature, a stark difference from the four kids with long hair singing about young love. Finally, the last track, “Tomorrow Never Knows,” which features backward guitar solos and bird squawks and reflects on hallucinogenic trips, makes it clear that The Beatles had left the conventional rock sound behind.
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Paul McCartney was very aware at the time that Revolver came out that it would change things, and he wasn’t afraid to say it. All the popular groups at the time had a sense of healthy competition with each other, but after Revolver was released, McCartney had the distinct feeling that The Beatles had reached a new level. One that their peers wouldn’t ever be able to reach.
“This time, we had all our own numbers, including three of George’s, and so we had to work them all out,” Paul McCartney said at the time.
“We haven’t had a basis to work on, just one guitar melody and a few chords, and so we’ve really had to work on them. I think it’ll be our best album yet. They’ll never be able to copy this!”
The Healthy Competition Between the Beatles and Contemporary Bands
McCartney had every right to be proud of The Beatles‘ unbelievable prowess, and he was probably right in his statement that no group quite managed to surpass them (at least not yet), but he wasn’t putting down his peers when he said he felt they were at another level. The Beatles enjoyed good friendships with many of the groups from the same period, even with those bands that were supposed to be their rivals. People like to pit The Beatles and The Rolling Stones against each other, but in real life, they admired each other and were good friends.
John Lennon and Paul McCartney actually wrote the first Rolling Stones hit, “I Wanna Be Your Man,” and when they heard that the Stones were looking for a commercial hit to put out, they gracefully allowed them to take it. “We were friends with [the Stones], and I just thought ‘I Wanna Be Your Man’ would be good for them,” McCartney explained in 2016. “I knew they did Bo Diddley stuff. And they made a good job of it. And I like to show off, say we gave them their first hit. And we did.” They were also good friends and looked up to The Beach Boys. McCartney had nothing but amazing things to say about the late Brian Wilson, as a person and as a musician, and he even cited him as an inspiration for a Beatles hit, “Here, There, and Everywhere.”
“Brian Wilson proved himself to be a really amazing composer, and I was into chords and harmonies at that time, and we ended up kind of in a rivalry,” he told Ronnie Wood in an interview. “We’d put a song out, then Brian would hear it then do one, which is nice. It’s kind of like me and John, you’d try and top each other all the time.”The Beatles were inspired by the music scene that was happening around them, and used that healthy competition to push them to break boundaries. Sixty years later, they’re still the biggest rock band to have ever existed, and continue to influence modern artists all over the world.