1. Abbey Road
2. Revolver
3. White Album

Personally Rubber Soul is one of my least favorite albums by them.

I think that You Won't See Me is one of the strongest tracks on the album actually. It shows that McCartney has obtained a more mature view on relationships than shown in previous albums. I agree with you that Revolver is better, though.

In My Life and Girl are other strong once, as well as We Can Work It Out, which was recorded during the Rubber Soul sessions, but left out of the album. The dreadful Run For Your Life brings down the grade of the whole album, though.

I really like The White Album. The only song I really don't like is Don't Pass Me By.

On a semi-related note, am I the only one who likes Wild Honey Pie and Revolution 9?

I like Wild Honey Pie a lot. Revolution 9, not so much. Why? Because it's an avant garde jam but 2 years after everybody else did the same thing, and aside from that (i.e. being a ripoff) it's not a very good take on the jam. It's unimpressive. It reminds me of Tool's bad ambient filler tracks that they needlessly put on albums.

On the topic of Rubber Soul and Revolver, it's hard to compare them really because they are basically different genres. Rubber Soul was folk rock, while Revolver pretty much abandoned rock'n'roll to get closer to pop - more specifically, the kind of pop inspired by the Brill Building. Revolver's considered the best of the best within that particular pop genre, and I'd go along with that. Rubber Soul on the other hand is interesting in that the strongest tracks are not the rock'n'roll ones (which the Beatles were trying to seek success in) but rather the more melodic ones like Michelle, which is in the style of 50s vocal groups, and Girl. I think this point serves to highlight where the Beatles' strengths really were. On Revolver they utilize those strengths to the absolute max, delivering the best record of straight-out beautiful pop music that they could muster.

there's a difference between honey pie and wild honey pie.

Yes, my bad. I meant Wild Honey Pie. "Honey Pie" kinda sucks. It's a silly vaudeville dittie.

Hehe i like Wild Honey Pie, it's quite sweet, though if you're going to rate it along with their other songs of course you're going to be disappointed.
Pixies did a great cover of it too.

Hmmm... I'm beginning to enjoy Rubber Soul and Revolver more and more. I still can't seem to grasp the importance of their first 4-5 albums, but at least they achieved fame from them. Without that, who knows if they would have ever made the music that immortalized them?

Wrong. They achieved fame from the singles.

People never seem to remember the point that the LP was NOT the important or dominant format in the early 60s. Albums simply were not how pop bands gained reputation back then. It was a purely singles-driven music world.

The first 5 albums aren't even supposed to be stand-alone masterpieces or great achievements in music. They are full of filler tracks for one. Between 4 of the albums there are 20 cover songs, with Hard Day's Night being the only one with 100% originals. Furthermore, Help and Hard Days Night are actually film soundtracks. If those albums' importance is hard to fathom, then it's because they are simply not important.

So yeah, the Beatles' popularity was built on the success of their massive Beatlemania-era singles. And it's easy to see why - those songs were just simply great catchy pop, and they were able to make a lot more of it than anybody else.

Uh, no?