I needed a break from working the other day, so I decided to make a comprehensive Beatles playlist… all of their songs, in the order which best reflects the evolution of their work over time. It’s harder than it sounds.

The easy part is the full-length albums… but there’s still a little complexity there with “Let It Be” and “Abbey Road”. The former was recoded in Jan 1969, but not released until 1970. The latter was recorded in August 1969, and released later that same year. So… if you go by release date, then “Let It Be” is the last album, but if you go by recording date, then “Abbey Road” is. But, there’s a deeper story.

“Let It Be” was recorded under extremely trying circumstances. They were filming the process for a concept movie, which meant that instead of working in their cozy studio, they were on a film set. It was cold, drafty, and noisy. There were people all around all the time. They knew they were being filmed all the time. Plus, they were all starting to feel pretty worn out on The Beatles as a whole. So, they bickered their way through the entire production. Personally, I think you can feel it in the music.

“Abbey Road” was different. There’s a few stories about it, but the common thread is that it was understood that it was going to be “the one last album”. As such, you can tell that they guys pulled everything they had together to make one final statement. Everyone contributed a song or two (even Ringo, which is pretty unusual), and they are univerally held to be among their very best songs. Plus, the album captures the full breadth of their work from the pop songs of their start, to the orchestral overtones of their middle years, to the wild disonence and heavily distorted guitars of their later years. It feels like “the last album”, and the perfect summary of their work.

So. Recording order it is. But… what about everything else? Many of their best songs didn’t make it onto one of the canonical full-length albums!

Fortunately, long after The Beatles had broken up (and, indeed, long after John died), a collection called “The Past Masters” was released in 1988. This collection was specifically created to collect together all those songs which were released on singles and EPs. Now… where do they go?

One might be tempted to slot them in between the albums by their release dates, but this creates a lot of problems. To start, most of these songs were released multiple times in different formats and in different countries. Many of them, too, were released long after they were recorded. For example, “Across the Universe” was recorded roughly in the same time-frame as “The Beatles (The White Album)”, but wasn’t released until 1970… after “Let It Be”! So, sticking with the recording date comes to the rescue, and solves both problems.

Finally, there’s a few loose ends to tie up. First, “The Past Masters” does include a few songs which did actually make it onto a studio album (alhough almost always a slightly different recording). I decided to remove these in preference of those which appeared on an album. And, second, I just don’t need to listen to “Revolution 9” on a routine basis. So, that makes my final, complete, and “perfect” playlist:

song	Love Me Do	1962-10-05
album	Please Please Me	1963-02-20
song	From Me to You	1963-04-11
song	Thank You Girl	1963-04-11
song	She Loves You	1963-08-23
song	I’ll Get You	1963-08-23
album	With the Beatles	1963-10-23
song	I Want to Hold Your Hand	1963-11-29
song	This Boy	1963-11-29
song	Komm, Gib Mer Deine Hand	1964-02-04
song	Sie Liebt Dich	1964-02-04
song	Long Tall Sally	1964-03-01
song	I Call Your Name	1964-03-01
song	Slow Down	1964-06-01
song	Matchbox	1964-06-01
album	A Hard Day’s Night	1964-06-02
song	She’s a Woman	1964-10-08
song	I Feel Fine	1964-10-18
album	Beatles for Sale	1964-10-26
song	Yes It Is	1965-02-16
song	Rain	1965-04-16
song	Bad Boy	1965-05-10
song	I’m Down	1965-06-14
album	Help!	1965-06-17
song	Day Tripper	1965-10-16
song	We Can Work it Out	1965-10-29
album	Rubber Soul	1965-11-11
song	Paperback Writer	1966-04-14
album	Revolver	1966-06-21
album	Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band	1967-04-21
album	Magical Mystery Tour	1967-11-07
song	Lady Madonna	1968-02-06
song	The Inner Light	1968-02-08
song	Across the Universe	1968-02-08
song	Revolution	1968-07-13
song	Hey Jude	1968-08-26
album	The White Album	1968-10-14
album	Yellow Submarine	1968-10-23
song	Don’t Let Me Down	1969-01-28
album	Let It Be	1969-01-31
song	The Ballad of John and Yoko	1969-04-14
song	Old Brown Shoe	1969-04-18
song	You Know My Name	1969-04-30
album	Abbey Road	1969-08-20