The Beatles

13 albums with 158 original songs. 32 original singles. 190 songs. 162 songs are credited to Lennon and McCartney (including 77 songs actually written by John Lennon, 67 by Paul McCartney and only 18 written by both). George Harrison has written 22 songs. Ringo Starr has written 6 songs (including 1 with John and Paul, and 3 with John, Paul and George).

1963 Please Please Me (8 original songs)

Which is the best song on this album? Probably John Lennon's title tune, but "Love Me Do" and "I Saw Her Standing There" (both by Paul McCartney) are definitely close runner-ups. "Do You Want To Know A Secret?" and "There's A Place" (both by John Lennon) are also excellent.  Three songs are very weak: "Ask Me Why" (Lennon), "P.S. I Love You" (McCartney) and "Misery" (both). Six other songs are also on the album, but they weren't written by The Beatles: "Twist And Shout" (one of their best interpretations of someone else's work), "Anna Go to Him" (an average ballad), "Chains" (a particularly forgettable song), "Boys" (Ringo Starr's impressive debut as a singer), "Baby It's You" (another unexceptional ballad) and "A Taste Of Honey" (one of Paul McCartney's most embarrassing vocal performances).

1963 With The Beatles (8)

There are five good original Beatles' songs on this album. George Harrison has one: "Don't Bother Me", his first song. Paul McCartney has three: "All My Loving" (definitely the best among them), "Hold Me Tight" and "I Wanna Be Your Man". And John Lennon has one, "Not A Second Time". Three others, "It Won't Be Long", "All I've Got To Do" (both by John Lennon) and "Little Child" (co-written by Lennon and McCartney), are highly forgettable. And the remaining six songs weren't written by The Beatles: "Roll Over Beethoven" (Harrison's best vocal performance on this album), "Please Mr. Postman" (an excellent interpretation by Lennon), "You Really Got A Hold On Me" (a terrific Lennon-Harrison duet), "Devil In Her Heart" (far from a triumph for George Harrison as a singer), "Till There Was You" (a rare instance of Paul McCartney singing a non-Beatles tune) and "Money That's What I Want" (probably Lennon' best interpretation of someone else's song).

1964 A Hard Day's Night (13)

Only 2 weak songs (out of a total of 13): "Any Time At All" and "When I Get Home" (both by John Lennon). The rest is perfection.  John Lennon's title tune is probably the best. He also contributes six other great songs: "Tell Me Why", "I Should Have Known Better", "If I Fell", "I'll Cry Instead", "You Can't Do That" and "I'll Be Back". Paul McCartney contributes three: "Can't Buy Me Love", "And I Love Her" and "Things We Said Today". And they both wrote "Happy Just To Dance With You".

1964 Beatles For Sale (8 original songs)

Four good songs. Four weak songs. And six songs that weren't written by The Beatles: excellent "Rock And Roll Music", mediocre "Mr. Moonlight", average "Kansas City / Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey!", terrific "Words Of Love", pedestrian "Honey Don't" and unexceptional "Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby". "Eight Days A Weak" (co-written by Paul McCartney and John Lennon) is definitely the best, followed by "No Reply" and "I'M A Loser" (both by John Lennon) and "I'll Follow The Sun" by Paul McCartney. "Every Little Thing", "What You're Doing" (both by McCartney), "I Don't Want To Spoil The Party" (Lennon) and "Baby's In Black" (both), are very forgettable. 

1965 Help (12 original songs)

Ten great Beatles' songs and two forgettable ones. Paul McCartney's "Yesterday" is the greatest tune on this album. He also contributes "The Night Before" and "I've Just Seen A Face", both excellent. George Harrison has two good songs on this album, "I Need You" and "You Like Me Too Much". The remaining five great songs are all from John Lennon: "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away", "You're Going to Lose That Girl", "It's Only Love", "Ticket To Ride" and the title tune. And then, unfortunately, there are also "Another Girl" and "Tell Me What You See" (both by McCartney). Two songs on the album were not written by the Beatles: "Act Naturally" (one of Ringo Starr's best vocal performances) and "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" (one of John Lennon's worst vocal performances). 

1965 Rubber Soul (14)

A perfect album from The Beatles, without any weak songs. The best one is probably "In My Life" by John Lennon. There are four more great tunes from John Lennon ("Girl", "Run For Your Life", "Nowhere Man" and "Norwegian Wood"), five from Paul McCartney ("Drive My Car", "You Won't See Me", "I'M Looking Through You", "Wait" and "Michelle"), two from George Harrison ("Think For Yourself" and "If I Needed Someone") and one from Ringo Starr ("What Goes On"). Paul McCartney and John Lennon both wrote "The Word". 

1966 Revolver (14)

An almost perfect album, with 13 classic tunes... and "Doctor Robert". "Here There and Everywhere" by Paul McCartney is probably the best. There are also four more great tunes from McCartney: "Eleanor Rigby", "Good Day Sunshine", "For No One" and "Got To Get You Into My Life". George Harrison has three excellent songs: "Taxman", "Love You To" and "I Want To Tell You". And John Lennon has five: "I'M Only Sleeping", "Yellow Submarine", "And Your Bird Can Sing", "She Said She Said" and "Tomorrow Never Knows". "Doctor Robert", the weakest song on the album, was co-written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney.

1967 Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (13)

One of The Beatles' greatest albums. "A Day In The Life" is arguably The Beatles' greatest tune ever. Paul McCartney contributes the brilliantly sarcastic "Getting Better", the quirky "Lovely Rita", the enchantingly nostalgic "When I'M Sixty-Four", the unusual "Fixing A Hole" and the eccentric title song (in two different versions, as an opening and a closing number). John Lennon contributes the psychedelic classic "Lucy In The Sky", the weird oddity "Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite" and the truly bizarre piece of atonal quirkiness, "Good Morning Good Morning". They both contribute the memorable "With A Little Help From My Friends" and the whimsical ballad "She's Leaving Home". And George Harrison contributes "Within You Without You", a unique piece of experimental Indian music using sitar, tambura, dilruba and tabla.

1967 Magical Mystery Tour (6 original songs)

Released as an album in the US, it has 6 original songs from the "Magical Mystery Tour" TV movie soundtrack on the A side, and 5 songs previously released as singles in 1967 on the B side. The A side soundtrack includes George Harrison's weirdly eccentric "Blue Jay Way", John Lennon's "I Am The Walrus", and three fine songs by Paul McCartney: the title tune, "The Fool On The Hill" (probably the best original song on the album) and "Your Mother Should Know". Very unusual "Flying" (written by all four Beatles) is also on the album.

1968 The White Album (30)

Tigers, piggies, blackbirds, raccoons and monkeys, oh my! The Beatles' strangest album. The more you listen to it, the more you like it. A fascinating cultural artifact. There is an early, very different version of "Revolution" (a single released in August 1968, three months before "The White Album"), as well as 29 uniquely bizarre, brilliant and extraordinarily original songs (including McCartney's "Wild Honey Pie", a true oddity even by this album's twisted standards, and "Good Night", Lennon's weird lullaby to put his son, and his fans, to sleep). The greatest song is definitely George Harrison's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps". He also contributes "Long Long Long" (one of his best ballads), "Piggies" (a quirky piece of whimsy) and "Savoy Truffle" (a truly original piece of tuneful delight). Ringo Starr has one song, "Don't Pass Me By". Besides "Wild Honey Pie", Paul McCartney contributes 10 more solo songs: three whimsical oddities ("Rocky Raccoon", "Martha My Dear" and "Honey Pie"), two uneven musical experiments ("Mother Nature's Son" and "Why Don't We Do It In The Road?"), a pure rock n' roll number ("Back In The USSR"), a Jamaican ska pastiche ("Obladi Oblada"), two fine ballads ("Blackbird" and "I Will") and an early Heavy Metal song ("Helter Skelter"). Besides "Good Night", John Lennon has 11 more solo efforts: three songs dissing people he met in India ("The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill", "Sexy Sadie" and "Dear Prudence"), a blues parody ("Yer Blues"), a satire about his fans ("Glass Onion"), a soulful ballad about his mother ("Julia"), a purely abstract piece of atonal madness ("Revolution 9"), and four brilliant tunes that defy easy classification ("Happiness Is A Warm Gun", "I'M So Tired", "Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey" and "Cry Baby Cry").  And both Lennon and McCartney wrote one of this album's best songs, "Birthday".

1968 Yellow Submarine (4)

The album has 6 songs from the "Yellow Submarine" movie on the A side, and the film's musical score on the B side. There are 4 original songs on this album. Paul McCartney's "All Together Now" is probably, if not the best, then at least the most famous among them (especially among children under 4). John Lennon's "Hey Bulldog" is also excellent. George Harrison has two very unusual songs: "Only A Northern Song" (a brave, but challenging atonal experiment) and "It's All Too Much" (a musical equivalent of an acid trip).

It also includes 2 songs that were previously released on another album ("Yellow Submarine" from "Revolver") or as a single ("All You Need Is Love"). 

1969 Abbey Road (17)

The Beatles' most perfect album, without any weak songs. 16 classic tunes... no, wait, 17 classic tunes... no, 10 classic tunes... depending on whether you count "Abbey Road Medley" as one or as eight separate songs, and whether you include the hidden track of "Her Majesty" at the end (actually, after "The End"... no, after "Abbey Road Medley"). Confused? Let's try to sort it out. There are actually 16 songs listed on the album cover. The first 8 are all fabulous. So far, so good. The next 8 tunes are also fabulous: "You Never Give Me Your Money", "Sun King", "Mean Mr. Mustard", "Polythene Pam", "She Came In Through the Bathroom Window", "Golden Slumbers", "Carry That Weight" and "The End". Except they are really one, single 16-minute song, "Abbey Road Medley", one of The Beatles' most original creations, which shouldn't be listen to separately, or even in a different order. So that makes either 9 or 16 songs. The 10th (or 17th) one is a hidden track, not listed on the cover of the album. It's an excellent, 23-second "homage" to Queen Elizabeth by Paul McCartney, the shortest song in The Beatles' entire oeuvre. "Something" by George Harrison is definitely the best song on the album. He also contributes the second best tune, "Here Comes The Sun". Ringo Starr has his best Beatles' song, "Octopus's Garden". Paul McCartney, besides contributing five songs to the "Medley" (and "Her Majesty"), also has "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" (a truly eccentric oddity of a tune) and "Oh Darling". John Lennon, besides contributing three songs to the "Medley", also has "Come Together", "Because" and "I Want You She's So Heavy".

1970 Let It Be (11)

Four classic songs by Paul McCartney: "Let it Be" (probably the best on this album), "The Long And Winding Road", "Get Back" and "Two Of Us". Two great tunes by George Harrison, "I Me Mine" and "For You Blue". Three excellent songs by John Lennon: "Across The Universe", "Dig A Pony" and "One After 909". There are also two other tunes on this album: a catchy little number called "I've Got A Feeling" (co-written by McCartney and Lennon) and a weird oddity named "Dig It" (co-written by all four Beatles). One song, short and forgettable "Maggie Mae", wasn't written by The Beatles.

Singles (32)

The Beatles released 6 singles in 1963. Four are excellent: "From Me To You", "She Loves You", "I Want To Hold Your Hand" (all co-written by Paul McCartney and John Lennon) and "This Boy" (by John Lennon). And two are quite forgettable: "Thank You Girl" and "I'll Get You" (both co-written by Paul McCartney and John Lennon).

The Beatles released 3 original singles in 1964. Only one is excellent: Lennon's "I Feel Fine". The other two are highly forgettable: McCartney's "She's A Woman" and Lennon's "I Call Your Name". 

The Beatles released 4 original singles in 1965. "Day Tripper" (Lennon) and "We Can Work It Out" (Paul McCartney and John Lennon) were both excellent. But unfortunately, McCartney's "I’M Down" and Lennon's "Yes It Is" were also released that year.

The Beatles released 2 singles in 1966, both excellent. "Paperback Writer" (McCartney) and "Rain" (Lennon).

In 1967, The Beatles released 5 terrific singles. They can also all be found on the B side of the "Magical Mystery Tour" album in the US. "Strawberry Fields Forever", "All You Need Is Love" and "Baby You're A Rich Man" (all by John Lennon), as well as "Penny Lane" and "Hello Goodbye" (both by Paul McCartney). They also released "Christmas Time (Is Here Again)".

The Beatles released 4 memorable singles in 1968. Two by Paul McCartney: "Hey Jude" and "Lady Madonna". One by John Lennon: "Revolution". And one by George Harrison: "The Inner Light" (arguably his weakest song for The Beatles, but still quite interesting).

In 1969, The Beatles released 3 fine singles: "The Ballad Of John And Yoko", "Don't Let Me Down" (both by Lennon) and "Old Brown Shoe" (by Harrison).

In 1970, they released 1 single, unique "You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)" by John Lennon.    

The last Beatles' songs, hauntingly beautiful "Free (As A Bird)", excellent "Real Love" and great "Now and Then" (all by John Lennon), were released in 1995, 1996 and 2023, respectively.