The Best Beatles-Solo Albums Ranked

hey it's mazzy here and uh this is a video of the top 13 solo beatle albums this is a video that's going to piss a lot of people off because people take this stuff so personally i don't do a lot of ranking videos i usually might show favorite prague or punk or jazz or soul or whatever the genre is and very rarely do i rank them this is so subjective ranking order of records and of course our feelings and our tastes evolve and change so uh you know it is what it is this is uh the year 2021 and these are my top 13 solo beatle records why 13 why not because it's a lucky number i'm going to go from backwards from 13 on up and this is my list it's not your list it's not anyone else's list whoever's watching whoever you're watching list your own list your favorites uh and i'm gonna go through them and and just talk a little bit about them why i like them you know why i included these in the list so let's start with number 13 recorded at fair park studios henley on thames england is george harrison's cloud9 now this copy i never opened uh this is an original copy this was the period of compact disk i did get as you can see at tower record 6.99 this copy i do have the reissue and i played the reissue of the vinyl this was george harrison's comeback this was um co-produced by george harrison and jeff flynn uh george brings jeff flynn in jeff lynn e allows george a little bit but it led to the wonderful traveling wilburys which is not a record i'm including here because that's sort of an offshoot project so i didn't want to go into that with these but you know he had a breakout single that was all over mtv right when uh this came out and it's a cover song actually got my mind set on you which is great of course it has the fun uh beetle parody called when we was fab which is a real fun uh video that ringo is on and in the video as well it's got uh opening track cloud nine with eric clapton's guitar bit is is really sweet as well fish in the sand this is love very catchy record devil's radio very well produced of course by uh jeff lynn and very accessible so it's a great pop record doesn't meander like some a middle period george harrison records do um you know i think all his solo records had some gems on it but he he he kind of went out there a little bit and uh not out there in a in a revolutionary way but i'm this is number 13 george harrison cloud nine coming in number 12 the great 1974 album walls and bridges by john lennon this is the record that like brought him back to the top of the charts you know elton john collaborated with john on whatever gets you the night and became number one hit he brought john lennon uh to show up and play with uh elton john at madison square garden and they're reuniting with yoko ono at the time these are great drawings of childhood drawings of john lennon used on the cover package this was a time when he was uh hanging out with mae pang during his last weekend period but this is a wonderful record the songs are really great going down on love i think the production of this record is really great and i wish he had kind of gone on in this direction for a little while of course after this and the rock and roll record he took his uh more or less five-year hiatus for music and took a break this is a uk copy i'd say a lot of these i have original uk copies of which the pressings are really good i'm not getting too much into pressings on this video i really just want to talk about more about the music whatever gets you the night i already mentioned older wrote a beautiful song bless you it's just a i mean again some of his most beautiful music is on this record too it was a really good time a number nine dream leads off too which you know harks into the whole ao bao kawa postset post which is a little like my sweet lord maybe george should have sued him for that but really a great great single um love that record of course steel and glass beef jerky is a bit of a um rock and roll instrumental throw away to a point and nobody loves you when you're down and out um just really a a fine record ending up with yaya but um number 12 this is john lennon's walls and bridges from 1974. okay number 11 going back with george harris again his warner brothers dark horse debut he he left capitol records he started dark horse dark horse was first distributed uh on a m records but he hadn't put a record out yet it was a lot of other artists but then he switched went to warner brothers uh did this wonderful album 33 and a third of course he does his song this song which is about his lawsuit with the song my sweet lord versus the chiffons uh song he's so fine but a beautiful beautiful record uh there's a dear one you know when george really sings about religion uh and uh spirituality it's really can be really gorgeous some say he's preachy but he's not selling you on his beliefs but he loves to express them and you know i admire him for that and it's got true love on here true love is the cole porter song cover song he did several uh old standards like baltimore oreo he did on one of his albums as well so he really likes that period that's a um a wonderful song as well but uh on here also his cracker box pallets which is the which is great hit great humorous funny song sort of about cracker box palace fair park his estate on henley on town so love this record this is um number 11 george harrison's 33 and a third recorded when he was 33 and a third so what timing what a coincidence and the record spins at 33 and a third again this is a uk copy import from 1976. coming in number 10 now we're into the top 10 here number 10 is this album double fantasy the comeback album of john and yoko collaboration now when this album first came out just before it came out i got a promo 12-inch single of the lead off track lead off single just like starting over back with kiss kiss kiss and where my my head was in 1980 there was you know we were into the punk scene the post-punk scene new wave scene to me when that happened when i got that 12-inch single 45 rpm it sounded fantastic and i loved hearing john lennon's voice kind of a retro doo-wop-ish oldies type of sound of a song but i tell you when i put on kiss kiss kiss that sealed the deal for me i i actually liked it better initially than the john lennon song and to this day i feel like just like starting over might be my least favorite lennon song on this album i think there are better songs which i'll get into in a minute but kiss kiss kiss was was danceable it was vibrant it was sexy it was intense it just threw everything at you and i still love it to this day the drums on that the recording on that jack douglas came in was brought in to produce this record who had worked on the first several uh cheap trick albums right alongside of the dakota uh central park west and west 72nd street what a beautiful word play back and forth song selection of john and yoko i really like it i am a fan of yokos i know certain people like to skip that stuff but i think it's really great music on this record every man has a woman who loves him of course there's a version that came out later of john doing the vocal on it of that but this is the yoko song clean up time really great funky version of that song i'm losing he was one of my favorite songs on the album it's a rockin song it's great it's got great guitar great vocals john uh you know they worked really wonderfully double track on his vocals on some of this album of course beautiful boys and watching the wheels watching the wheels is so beatless that great piano intro is just killer on that song and woman woman is the other like beatles song great harmonies i mean that would have been a wonderful beatles song but then of course kiss kiss kiss i'm your angel i'm moving on moving on the way um i'm losing you fades and morphs into i'm moving on is really great so love this record this is number 10 my number 10 favorite beatles solo album now coming at number nine now i know a lot of people put this at the very top of their list but not me i did at the time but to me some of it not all of it some of it hasn't held up as well as i'd hoped and that's paul mccartney banned on the run of course this is when uh you know two of the members of wings just quit the day before they were going to record this record and it was led to paul mccartney danny lane and linda mccartney paul plays drums on most of it for all of it great opening cut band on the run is just really great now i'm showing two copies because this is the uk copy which is an amazing sounding record here's the american copy the only difference is on the american you get an extra track on site two which is helen wheels helen wheels this is the american they weigh the same this is the american version i think hell on wheels adds to it and makes it a better record that was the lead off single paul mccartney didn't originally have that on the album of course capital stuck it on in america to make it you know and this album became a huge this was like a career-defining record for mccartney and wings banned on the run it is a great record it is a wonderful record and of course he would go on to do venus and mars and other records after that the pro i have a problem i mean jet's a great song bluebird is a sweet song i think mrs vanderbilt it's hard for me to listen to these days and i think mamunya is a crap song i just can't stand that song anymore so it hasn't aged well for me no words is okay i love picasso's uh last words and the great ending song of 1985. so there's like three tracks three to four tracks on here that i could lose that just to me haven't held up after you know almost 50 years 48 years whatever it is 1973 i believe um but anyway so number nine paul mccartney and wings banned on the run now you're wondering where we're going to go from there that record's not better than wings than paul mccartney's wings coming in at number eight um ringo yeah all the beatles are on this record only three out of the four are already are on any one track this is the first real rock and roll pop record that ringo made after the split up and ironically in the first few years ringo had more top singles than lennon or mccartney or errison for that matter this is a fabulous record and the guests make it the songwriters make it of course it opens up with i am the greatest by john lennon seek out on some of the bootleg uh and some of the outtake records the version of i am the greatest with john lennon's guide vocal it's almost a song that he wrote but he couldn't sing himself so ringo's the perfect person to open that up hold on a great great randy newman song on there uh photograph now photograph the song co-written by ringo and george harrison i think is one of the best songs on any beatle solo record photograph is a perfect 45 perfect single makes this record lifts it a level just makes it really it's it's a wonderful wonderful record i love that record and of course all the guests on on that song alone jim keltner george harris and nikki hopkins klaus vorman lon and derek of uneaten bobby keys and the orchestration and is arranged by the great um jack nietzsche who had worked quite a bit uh with um neil young he did in the 60s the album the lonely surfer then it goes into sunshine life for me with uh most of the band uh rick dango levon helm robbie robertson garth hudson on it klaus verman's also on and the great guitar playing of david bromberg uh really really great great song of course the oldies you're 16 you're beautiful and you're mine side two opens up with oh my my written by ringo and vinnie poncier and that was a hit that was a really upbeat great pop song wonderful song step lightly is a ringo uh self-written song which is okay nice little uh a ditty and then it goes into uh six o'clock which is written by uh paul and linda that's how it's credited at least paul and linda are sing on it mccartney plays some synthesizer on it of course klaus voorman is on it so again and the strings were arranged by paul mccartney so that's the collaboration that paul adds to this great great record it goes in a devil woman which is kind of a good rocker good fun pop rocker and ends with you and me babe uh the george harrison malevo and song it kind of like just goes on and on and on um which is really wonderful if you ever find a cassette version original consent version of this it has a long version of six o'clock i don't know i can't remember it's two three minutes longer that kind of goes on and on it's clipped here but it's it's still a it's a great album it came with a beautiful book inside uh really wonderfully done and uh from my record store days i have this wonderful promo poster this did not come in the record this is what we used it's basically a three sheeter that we use to promote the record from capitol records again this ringo album is the is a great album uh a wonderful album a hit album it's actually this is the only ring that will have mic included in my top 13 although i think ringo has some other good albums just didn't quite make the cut uh on this list so that's number number eight now number seven george harrison's wonderwall yes it's a soundtrack yes it's a world music indian based album people are yelling at their tvs and their phones right now this isn't better than band on the run well to me it is i bought this record right when it came out in 1968 this album came out literally three weeks before the white album the beatles white album came out and this is the album that pretty much single-handedly turned me on to world music i was getting into obviously indian music because of george harrison from norwegian wood to within you without you this is a record he recorded uh in london and in bombay ring goes on a little bit of it eric clapton plays an amazing amazing guitar on a tune called skiing it's primarily an instrumental record there are some indian vocals there it's again mostly indian uh musicians but it really crosses genres from uh in fact one of the first crossed genre records combining uh indian classical music and indian music with western pop music there's even cowboy music western music in that form on here gorgeous record i just played this last night in preparation for this this is actually a uk pressing which is the best sounding pressing i ever found and it is quiet uh the recording is great uh interesting enough and i'm not quite sure how i got well this is the insert that comes with the record wonderful record on apple records 1968. somehow i have a german insert not quite sure where i got this but i stuck it inside this record so it's talks about george harrison's music and this is from horzoo you might know about the horozoo with magical mystery tour and other albums so i might have to have my friend in germany translate all this and what this is about and i can't remember didn't come in this record because somehow over the years i got this german insert and stuck it in here but i will fight to my dying day to promote this record and share how wonderful it is it's got a great feel again it's a world music record uh with western uh flourishes really good some psychedelia some great ambiance it's a wonderful listen um it i i can't tell you how much i love this record so this is coming in at at number seven on my uh top 13 solo beetle records now number six i think this next one is one of the best paul mccartney records of the last 25 years and um this is the firemen electric arguments this is the third of a trilogy so far we'll see if he ever does anymore of a special offshoot project he did call the fireman he collaborated with youth a youth is uh was in the band's um killing joke the post punk band and he works on all three records the first two records of um firemen are ambient electronic records drone ongoing really no vocals per se aside from the you know every once in a while there's some harmony there's some mood vocals but no lyric bass songs this is a song based record the premise of this paul mccartney and youth got in the studio and every day over a period of a year or so they did one song and it completed a song start to finish a day so paul mccartney jammed and wrote the songs you know for the most part on the spot i'm sure you had some prepped um this is really rare on vinyl if you ever see it on vinyl grab it there's a tin box set with cds and vinyl that i also have it's a very limited edition there's some great great songs on this record there's a song called magpie which is a kind of a bluesy sort of acoustic number there is lovers in a dream don't stop running but the one song that did get actually a lot of a lot of uh not a lot of play but some play at the time and i think he actually did it on the david letterman show and that is sing the changes a very anthem like song that's really a gorgeous song traveling light nothing too much out of sight that opens a record is a bombastic punkish assault that just really rocked it almost will turn some people off they're looking for the light melodic mccartney but it's a great great friggin song so i love this record this came out in 2008 again it's my number seven top record paul mccartney with youth electric arguments uh this version came with a wonderful book containing his artwork as paul mccartney did the artwork for the cover and the paintings within [Music] firemen coming in at number seven on my list of top 13 solo beetle records of all time coming at number six this is a solo record that people like it or love to hate it didn't get a lot of love when it came out i loved it right when it came out and that's wings wildlife this is the first record under the name wink this is a really good sounding record it's a minimal record it seems to be very organic very off the cuff not over the top and multi-track like a lot of other mccartney thing what i love about this record first of all it opens up with this kind of assault again mumbo which is really great and he's he sings take it tony or yells out take a tony at the beginning who was the engineer tony clark working on this with alan parsons um also right at the get go this is from 1971 it goes into bit bop bipbop is a song i like it a little bluesy ditty a lot of people like to make fun of it because of the lyrics but it's it's not any weirder than um why don't we do it in a road or something but it's just a great little song love is strange is a great song that i originally heard by ian and sylvia of course the everly brothers covered it and it's a great reggae-ish kind of uh version of it it's it goes on for about a minute or two with just this instrumental dub type of intro but i love paul's singing on it it's incredible two songs that really stand out that end side one and inside two are wildlife and dear friend and their song excuse me slow long piano type ballads one is about you know probably about johnlen that's dear friend it's just a beautiful song a beautiful orchestration goes on for what five six minutes or something and i just think it's a stunning stunning uh song by paul mccartney another thing i love about this record when i said earlier about paul mccartney's band on the run i think some of the songs don't date well i think mccartney when he started getting over ambitious and doing these quirky songs and stories and you know adding a little prague and art rock and you know trying to be a little conceptual was a little too cute for his own but i think what's great about this it's stripped down and i think it it has aged in my opinion better than a lot other uh mccartney albums like it again band of the wrong is great venus is mara is great but come on rock show the concert gabo fun song in 1975-76 but right now you know mr mrs vanderbilt you know this stuff is organic i am your singer some people never know tomorrow is one of the most beautiful songs paul ever written it's almost too short the acoustic links um that join some of these things are kind of fun too this is an import a uk copy that sounds amazing that is beautiful that is again amongst my favorite paul mccartney records of all time and i have debated to my wits end about the quality and the wonderfulness of this record so number five the number five greatest beetle solar record of all time wings wildlife number four number four john lennon wrote an anthem imagine it's become an anthem for so many reasons it was at the time obviously since we lost john it added even more significance you probably heard it over and over and over again but it's still a great great song one of those songs maybe you don't need to hear for a while but then especially in the times we are in now it's still a beautiful song this is a uk copy again it sounds sounds tremendous beautifully recorded co-produced by john lennon and phil spector with the flux fiddlers billed as a madden john lennon plastic on a band crippled inside is a fun country diddy which is a great song but jealous guy another one of those beautiful love songs some of john lennon's best love songs are on this record i love how he's on the label on side one and the apple is on side two jealous guy beautiful song it's so hard another intense emotional song you know when this first came out i think the first song i heard is aside from imagine if i remember hearing on a radio on fm radio i don't want to be a soldier and i didn't quite get that when i got the record i blasted that song over the years that song i don't want to be a soldier has grown in stature for me the drumming on it the qatar on it the the saxophone is it king curtis i believe the sax on that song with the bobby keys is just wonderful i mean i should have looked that up but um love how that just that's just is an amazing piece of music piece of record um give me some truth it's a great intense song about what was happening in in john's life at this point and then all my love another of john one is just great great such a beautiful love songs how do you sleep at night um you know going at paul still a great song and how another great love song so probably the best some of the best love songs i mean and and john lennon has written a lot of great love songs on his how and of course the fun ending the joyous feeling the piano playing on oyoko how that closes the record what an incredible record so coming in at number four is this great record imagine and of course the original copy my original uk copy comes with that beautiful poster that everyone had hung up in the room in the day look at that okay we're in the top three now top three of the solo greatest lambs of all time coming in at number three and my highest charting paul mccartney record is ram now i did not feel this at the time if i was to do this record in the 70s probably band on the run would be number one for me of a paul mccartney record possibly maybe even mccartney i don't even have mccartney on this list mccartney is a great record his first solo album some of it holds up better than others some great songs obviously made them amazed and junk but this record has grown in stature this record has become this epic piece again another beautifully recorded record of course the um opening up of too many people ha that song how it opens up with that singing and that guitar riff it's just gorgeous three legs is another great thing three legs would be sort of reflected on later with the song i mentioned magpie electronic arguments it has that feel like three legs ram on is beautiful dear boy and of course uncle albert admiral halsey as much as i say i don't like some of paul's gimmick ongoing songs that works that's probably his best song like that as a solo artist from my opinion it sounds great and it was great at the time in 1971 and of course smile away i mean it's silly funny wanking lyrics but it's just really great and ends up um side one heart of the country great acoustic based song really uh you know what he was feeling at the time up at his farm in scotland monk berry moon delight another silly ditty but just kind of rocks i mean his vocal on that is tight and ragged and rock and really great rock and song eat at home maybe my least favorite song you hear a long-haired lady i initially didn't enjoy but now i think it's a beautiful song same with backseat of my car i've grown to love that song more and more and of course just before that ram on which is a really beautiful two versions of ram on this record um there is kind of an la indy uh record that it's actually a download about 10 15 years ago maybe more that came out of all these indie bands in los angeles covering this record so a lot of the indie artists the americana artists have rediscovered this record and i think this is another paul mccartney record that has aged well and has become more known and more loved as the decades have passed on so actually i'm recording this 50 years after this record so this is my number one of mccartney's record but number three in my overall countdown top two number two jawline and plastic oh no band john lennon was going coming out of the beetle breakup with yoko uh you know heroin junkie to a point him and yoko were doing that john lennon went through primal therapy the arthur genov sessions of this primal therapy where you're just screaming and and letting out all the stuff that's inside you and you can hear it on this friggin record um now this record is 50 years old also um this well it was in 1970 and in 2020 this record had a companion record plastic oh no banned yoko ono where they reversed on the cover basically the same band ornette coleman the jazz musician plays on yoko's album not on this record as i recall what a beautiful record this is of course it starts out with the beautiful that that bell ringing into mother his loss of his mother you know is just amazing hold on the guitar playing of his on hold on is really great the double tracking voice on this record for john it to me was something that i just remember hearing and loving right away he was always good using double tracking devices at abbey road an early beatles song so he wasn't really a fan of his voice i mean come on we love his voice i found out is really great now working class hero what a song so influenced obviously by bob dylan but i wish john lennon had done a whole album at some point early on at this period of acoustic folk songs protest songs personal songs songs about what was going on i wish in a way when it later in 1972 when he did his probably biggest protest album that doesn't get a lot of love sometime in new york city a lot of those songs would have been great stripped down with just him an acoustic guitar i mean maybe we'll hear some of that someday an isolation that's the one where when this double tracking voice comes in it just really rocks look at this minimal minimalistic double apple we got the front and back of the apple almost like a silhouette of an apple really beautiful of course side two opens up with remember the other really great piano bass song that ends uh with remember remember the fifth of november about guy fawkes day when guy fox was planning and tried to blow up parliament uh great song love another one of john lennon's great love songs well well well great guitar really uh a ravaged uh singing voice and song but really good look at me very intimate a lot of people don't think of that song don't mention that song they talk about john lennon god is a concept by which we measure our pain i remember hearing that in the radio and just oh my god is it the piano based um uh is that nikki hopkins or billy preston i should know this but um one of you are going to remind me or i can i can look it up after this but um that soulful gospel piano playing makes that song i've heard you know versions of him and demos of him doing that song before it became this big wonderful sort of gospel religious or non-religious uh piano based version of that song god is so great of course i don't believe in zimmerman i don't believe in elvis i don't believe in beatles just me yoko and me and ending with that little acoustic almost through a old gramophone my mummy's dead very personal record very uh he's pouring his guts out on this record and this is my number two favorite beatles solo album again from 1970 the great john lennon plastic ono band again uk copy uk pressing original of course those of you who follow and know the beatles know it now what my number one's going to be um and i ain't flaming pie and i ate beaucoup is a blues let's see should i tell you what it ain't first what it's not it's not well of course you know george harrison's all things pass oh my god talk about pent-up art pent-up music pent-up songs just this exploded when i heard my sweet lord come out and i'm not a religious person but i love gospel music i love the joy of that song the hari krishna works in in that song and context and it's just a wonderful acoustic guitar multi-track acoustic guitar intro and i'll tell you i like phil spector's production on this i know there's sort of this revisionist thing now going everybody wants like you this is just celebrated 50 years last year as well and we're going to have an anniversary edition probably uh this year maybe and people want them to strip off all that spectralization if they can all that extra reverb i think this sounds fabulous i played this again twice over the last couple weeks again original copy this is a us pressing on my stereo in my rig this sounds fabulous the recordings sound fabulous yeah there's songs that are intense and you know waiting on you all which is a thick song a thick song but it works in context what a beautiful package this was in box set format i think the only box i had had up until this point in terms of a pop record well this year uh jesus christ super star had come out 1970 as a box set but this was first but i think was a garden by uh donovan that was the probably the first from a garden but look at these beautiful records the sleeves with the colors with the lyrics it opens up with this grace great dylan harrison co-competition composition i'd have you every time beautiful kind of slow moving intimate wonderful wonderful song and then bam you get my sweet lord and wawa back to back and then ending up with one of the two versions of his in a pity again the bombastic loud spectralization version of what is life opens up side two and then a great great bob dylan song if not for you i can't remember which version i heard dylan also did it on new morning did new morning come out in 70 or 71 but his version is great but i tell you george harrison's is no slouch either it's a really great version of that behind that locked door is another country song too and run-of-the-mill is very acoustic again harrison's another uh beetle i wish had done a in fact all the beatles could have done a great kind of acoustic bass folky country record mccartney does it throughout his career harrison does it throughout his career lennon a little bit and ringo course did uh buku's a blues beware of darkness beautiful song that also uh was a you know semi-radio friendly hit by leon russell apple scruffs great harmonica great acoustic guitars on that song waiting on you all i love that song and the pope owns 51 percent of general motors the stock exchange is the only thing is qualified to quote us great song great song about the church great great song so as much as he writes about religion he almost writes about the non-religion non he writes about sort of little stab at organized religion not about spirituality and of course all things must pass ends the main part of the record what a gorgeous gorgeous song and a song that you know he had been working on with the beatles that just never really made it on the beatles out even the extra disc of apple jam with billy presner clapton klaus foreman ginger baker um jim gordon cardin karl rattle dave mason is a fun fun thing a lot of people say they don't need this record it's an extra it's a bonus it's wonderful so many great artists on this gary brooker from pro co-harem karl rattle and klaus verman on base jim gordon ringo starr allen white on drums billy preston gary wright bobby whitlock and gary brooker on keyboards the great pete drake on petal steel dave mason and eric clapton on guitars you got bad finger on rhythm you got bobby keys and jim price on horns i love this record it holds up i love the production it's it's it's a magnificent production it's a it's a big production but it's a beautiful production so my number one beetle solo album of all time george harrison all things must pass from 1970 cover photograph by barry feinstein taken at freyr park just outside of london what can i say mazzy loves you you

Channel: Norman Maslov

Views: 39,673

Keywords: the beatles, john lennon, paul mccartney, george harrison, ringo starr, solo records, wings, vinyl community, record collection, vinyl records

Id: MMo5YbE3t5Q

Length: 41min 43sec (2503 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 05 2021