Choosing a favourite Beatles album is an almost impossible task, given that man fans’ preferences can change daily. The Fab Four crafted a timeless body of work that serves as the perfect soundtrack for every conceivable emotion or moment. As a result, picking just one record often falls short of capturing the breadth of their brilliance.
Despite being an active group for less than a decade, The Beatles made themselves one of the most prolific and potent bands ever. They released 13 full-length records for their fans and delivered a relentlessly profitable stream of pure pop gold.
The group would grow and evolve from their boyband roots into something more unique, transcending genres, music, and fandom to become the most revered band of all time. For any new listener, this comprehensive career can feel incredibly daunting to try and unpack. Still, once they start, it’s an alluring endeavour that can often be addictive.
Due to The Beatles enjoying such a pioneering stint in music, it’s natural for it to be challenging to highlight a particular moment in their career trajectory or era, let alone a singular album. However, one individual who did raise his head above the water to reveal his favourite record by the Fab Four is George Harrison, who knew more about the matter than most.
As he was often and affectionately known as the ‘Quiet Beatle’, Harrison could be more accurately described as the ‘too-often-overlooked’ Beatle, as there’s a case to be made that there’s no better guitarist and singer combination in the history of rock music. Except, of course, for perhaps John Lennon. One of the finest songwriters of his generation, Harrison’s tracks such as ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’ and ‘Here Comes The Sun’ cement him in the pop music pantheon.
However, Harrison grew frustrated towards the end of The Beatles’ tenure as his songwriting contributions were often ignored despite being of a higher standard than many efforts provided by Lennon and Paul McCartney. Nevertheless, his status within the group was elevated as the years went on, even though Harrison could have been brought closer to the forefront. Therefore, for his favourite Beatles album, you may have thought Harrison would have picked The White Album. After all, it does include four of his own compositions.
The guitarist was, quite famously, not a fan of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band as he felt the concept album had turned them into a set of puppet worker bees rather than genuine artists. “It became an assembly process—just little parts and then overdubbing,” he once said, believing as though the band had lost the edge that came with live performances.
It was part of what resulted in The Beatles’ infamous split, as, in the end, Harrison and Lennon were keen to move back to being an actual band rather than just a recording outfit. This drive permeated much of Harrison’s career, with and without the Fab Four.
With his views on artistic integrity in place, it feels right that George Harrison’s favourite LP would reflect a time of creative unknowns and artistic challenges. It was also the album critics defined as a marked turning point: “Rubber Soul was my favourite album,” Harrison once revealed. “Even at that time, I think that it was the best one we made,” he added when reflecting on the iconic record in the 1990s.
On the one hand, it could be easy to see this as the first moment Harrison broke out in his own right and view this as why he held Rubber Soul above the rest of their back catalogue. However, Harrison didn’t have a selfish bone in his body; in reality, he loved the album for a different reason.
The late guitarist once explained: “The most important thing about it was that we were suddenly hearing sounds we weren’t able to hear before. Also, we were being more influenced by other people’s music and everything was blossoming at that time—including us.”
Rubber Soul is one of the most experimental of The Beatles’ albums. It reflects a moment of unbridled creativity within the band, sparking a feeling that would ignite the rest of the Fab Four’s subsequent output. Arguably, this was when they transcended from pop sensations into musical icons.
The record was built on a heavy dose of avant-garde rock ‘n’ roll. Yet, unlike the previous efforts, this album was not a hit machine. According to John Lennon, it was all a rather simple process. “We were just getting better, technically and musically, that’s all,” he once said.
He continued: “Finally, we took over the studio. In the early days, we had to take what we were given—we didn’t know how you can get more bass. We were learning the technique on Rubber Soul. We were more precise about making the album, that’s all. And we took over the cover and everything”.
More than any other album in their canon up to that point, Rubber Soul was about challenging themselves as musicians and pushing their audience, too. Furthermore, Harrison always pushed this aspect forward with his work at every step of his career and refused to rest on his laurels. While Rubber Soul may not be The Beatles’ best album objectively, it provided them with a taste for experimentation, which allowed the Fab Four to continue evolving with each album.
