Every Beatles Album Cover, Ranked By Fans Of The Fab Four

Year Of Release: 1969 The Cover: Easily one of the most recognizable album covers of time, Abbey Road sees the Beatles snapped by photographer Iain Macmillan as they walk across a zebra crossing on Abbey Road. Apparently, Macmillan only had 15 minutes to successfully get the shot. And it wasn’t just any zebra crossing: EMI Studios (later renamed Abbey Road Studios), where the band had spent much of their career recording music, was located nearby. The resulting image is simple but powerful, with each Beatle holding his own within the band’s collective fame and persona. Standout Tracks: "Come Together," "Something," "Here Comes the Sun," “Oh! Darling”

Year Of Release: 1967 The Cover: This groundbreaking artwork was “Flower Power coming into its fullest,” Ringo Starr remembered. The Beatles appear front and center, dressed in technicolor military uniforms, gathered around a garden adorned with red flowers and marijuana plants. Then there’s the star-studded collage of more than 60 friends and celebrities, including Marilyn Monroe, Albert Einstein, Karl Marx, and Sonny Liston. Those are actual, life-size cardboard cutouts the Beatles are standing with (as well as wax dummies of themselves, borrowed from Mme. Tussaud's). Peter Blake and Jann Haworth created the maximalist design: a special artwork for a special album, Starr described. It was a defining moment for the band and for the decade, successfully raising a banner for the counterculture movement of love and peace. “It was a fabulous period, for me and the world,” Starr recalled. Musically, it was also an early example of what’s now known as a concept album, setting a new tone for all artists to come. Standout Tracks: "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," "With a Little Help from My Friends," "A Day in the Life"

Year Of Release: 1966 The Cover: A surreal masterpiece illustrated by Klaus Voormann, this album cover features a swirling collage of the band’s faces. It’s a wide range of moods: each Beatle shows up big and small, silly and serious, photographed and sketched. Even in black and white, the imagery is vibrant and psychedelic. Of the artwork, Voorman told Mojo, Because they were being so avant-garde, I thought the cover has to do the same thing. I wanted to push the design further than normal. Standout Tracks: "Eleanor Rigby," “Taxman,” “Tomorrow Never Knows”

Year Of Release: 1965 The Cover: As the Beatles’ music got more experimental, so did their album art. Rubber Soul – the last of the Robert Freeman covers – reflects this change with a handful of details that would become hallmarks of the psychedelic aesthetic: funky orange typography, high contrast colors, and a warped effect on the photograph. According to McCartney, Freeman had projected the sample images onto album-sized pieces of card for the band to review. This specific photo was displayed at an awkward angle that produced the distortion, but the band liked it so much that they requested it be printed that way. Standout Tracks: "Nowhere Man," "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)," “Drive My Car”

Year Of Release: 1963 The Cover: The first of several album covers photographed by Robert Freeman, With The Beatles sees the band appear unsmiling in partial shadow. Only half of each face is visible against a dark background, and the resulting effect is moody and mysterious. According to George Harrison, the concept was the start of the band’s active involvement in their artwork: “the first one where we thought, ‘Hey, let’s get artistic.’” Standout Tracks: "All My Loving," “It Won't Be Long,” “All I've Got to Do”

Year Of Release: 1964 The Cover: This album accompanied the band’s first movie, and it features 20 playful portraits arranged in rows like a reel of film or contact sheet. It’s also reminiscent of Andy Warhol’s repetitive pop art prints. Again shot by Robert Freeman, the images are full of personality as the artists clearly get more comfortable in front of the camera. There’s even one of the back of Harrison’s head. Standout Tracks: "A Hard Day's Night," "Can't Buy Me Love," "And I Love Her"

Year Of Release: 1965 The Cover: This album cover uses a bright white backdrop as the bandmates spell out a word in flag semaphore: a communications system that uses visual signals to convey messages. According to Robert Freeman, he intended for the semaphore letters to spell out “HELP,” but changed the Beatles' arms around because “the arrangement of the arms with those letters didn't look good.” They improvised with an eye to the best graphic effect; the final result, in semaphore, is closer to “NUJV.” Freeman photographed the artists in matching blue snowsuits, which they wore in the accompanying feature film of the same name, as well as quirky individual accessories like a top hat, beret, and neck scarf. It’s altogether quirky and playful, while you can see each Beatle continue to carve out their own distinct personality within the band’s reputation as a whole. Standout Tracks: "Help!," "Ticket to Ride," “Yesterday”

Year Of Release: 1970 The Cover: Ethan Russell captured each Beatle individually for the cover of their final studio album, with each photograph arranged in quadrants on a black background. The Beatles were a unit no more, it announced, and it was time for their fans to bid farewell. Standout Tracks: "Let It Be," "The Long and Winding Road," "Get Back," “Across The Universe”

Year Of Release: 1968 The Cover: The design for The Beatles served a stark contrast to the maximalist color explosions of the band’s previous albums. Instead, it featured a simple white background with a blind embossing of the band’s name. The first two million of the copies were also stamped and numbered: “to create the ironic situation of a numbered edition of something like five million copies,” the artist, Richard Hamilton, once said, according to Sotheby’s. In relation to colorful predecessors like Sgt. Pepper, the idea, said Hamilton, was to “look for the opposite.” Standout Tracks: "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," "Blackbird," "Dear Prudence"

Year Of Release: 1963 The Cover: The Fab Four appear simple and smiling in their debut album cover, clad in matching brown suits and candidly peering down from the staircase of EMI House in London. Taken by Angus McBean, the photograph has a youthful, boyish energy. It perfectly reflects the band’s excitement to take on the world by storm - if only they knew! Standout Tracks: "Please Please Me," "Love Me Do," “I Saw Her Standing There”

Year Of Release: 1967 The Cover: Elaborate and over the top, the artwork for Magical Mystery Tour combines stars, rainbows, and neon clouds into an otherworldly landscape. It was designed by John Van Hamersveld, who described working in the rock'n'roll business as “like an unbelievable psychic nightmare in a way.” The band members are dressed up in fantastical animal costumes like a walrus and a hippo; their open arms are outstretched towards the viewer, beckoning you to join them in this surreal, psychedelic world. Featuring six songs from the TV movie of the same name and five more that were released as singles, the music was equally eccentric and drenched in LSD. Standout Tracks: "All You Need Is Love,” “Hello, Goodbye," "Strawberry Fields Forever," "Penny Lane"

Year Of Release: 1973 The Cover: The Beatles returned to the EMI Records stairwell with photographer Angus McBean to recreate the cover art from their debut album, Please Please Me. The resulting image, shot in 1969, shows the artists having grown into their own signature styles: pinstriped suits, shaggy hair, and, in John Lennon’s case, his famous circular “granny glasses.” Designed by Allan Steckler, the album’s cover – in tandem with its companion “Red Album” – was the perfect way to symbolize the band’s growth and maturation over the years. Hits From The Record: "Strawberry Fields Forever," "Revolution," "Let It Be"

Year Of Release: 1964 The Cover: A stoical portrait taken in Hyde Park, London, this Robert Freeman photo represents the more somber mood of the album’s soundscape. The artists are bundled up in matching black coats and scarves, layered against plants that create a voyeuristic ambiance. They have weary expressions, noticing you as you peek at them from between the leaves; in retrospect it seems a commentary on what an exhausting year 1964 was, as the Beatles experienced peak Beatlemania, broke through in the US, toured the world, and released two albums and a film. Even the album's title indicates a certain weary cynicism. In an interview, Paul McCartney remembered: The photographer would always be able to say to us, ‘Just show up,’ because we all wore the same kind of gear all the time. Black stuff; white shirts and big black scarves. Standout Tracks: "Eight Days a Week," "I'll Follow the Sun," “No Reply”

Year Of Release: 1969 The Cover: The Beatles went back to psychedelia for this album cover, whose music served as the soundtrack for a quirky animated film of the same name. Its centerpiece is the iconic yellow submarine from the movie, surrounded by colorful figures with larger-than-life proportions. While some of the songs on the project were re-releases, including the eponymous “Yellow Submarine” as well as “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds,” it also included four new songs and a B-side of orchestral works by Sir George Martin. Standout Tracks: “Hey Bulldog,” ”It's All Too Much,” “All Together Now”

Year Of Release: 1973 The Cover: The cover of 1962-1966 (the first of two successful compilation albums) features an outtake from Angus McBean’s cover shoot with the Beatles for Please Please Me. It’s a nostalgic throwback to the band’s early days and early sound, before their meteoric rise to worldwide fame. “The idea was to show The Beatles’ evolution, from the beginning to the end,” said Allan Steckler, who compiled the album. Standout Tracks: "She Loves You," "I Want to Hold Your Hand," "Can't Buy Me Love"

Year Of Release: 2000 The Cover: This album cover, designed by Rick Ward, is simple but loud, with a yellow number "1" set against a bright red background. The message is loud and clear: The Beatles released enough chart-topping hits to compile an entire album's worth; history remembers them as the Fab Four for a reason. Hits From The Record: "Hey Jude," "I Want to Hold Your Hand," "Yesterday"