The whole album was recorded in one day — about ten hours. John had a bad cold, which is why the last song sounds so rough. They did it that way because it was cheaper.

Released the same year as their first. Bands were expected to put out two albums a year back then, plus singles that weren't on the albums at all.

The only album where every song was written by the band themselves. The famous opening chord has been argued about by musicians for sixty years — nobody fully agrees on what notes are in it.

Made in gaps between touring, so they filled it out with old rock and roll songs they had played in Hamburg clubs.

This is the album with "Yesterday" on it — the first Beatles recording with a string quartet and no other Beatles playing at all.

The first pop record with a sitar on it, in "Norwegian Wood." George had picked one up on a film set and taught himself the part.

Full of studio experiments: backwards guitar, tape loops, a vocal sung through a spinning speaker. Some of it they could never play live.

They had stopped touring, so they spent about 700 hours in the studio — their first album had taken ten. The idea was to pretend to be a different band entirely.

Thirty songs across two records, most of them written while the band was in India. The plain white cover was the opposite of Sgt. Pepper on purpose.

A soundtrack to the cartoon film. Only four new Beatles songs on it — the rest is orchestra music written by their producer, George Martin.

The last one they recorded together. Side two runs eight short songs into each other without stopping, which almost nobody was doing then.

Recorded before Abbey Road but released after the band had already broken up. It was meant to be the album where they played everything live with no studio tricks.