THE 500 GREATEST ALBUMS OF ALL TIME INTRODUCTION BY STEVEN VAN ZANDTFOREWORD v's stant wir NomberOne~my Number One. Meet the Beatles—the first rock & rollatbum I ever bought;to meand most of my generation, the first great rock & rol album ever; and the essentia reason why you're holding this book and reading these words ~is ‘Number 53 0n this list. That canbe right. Everything on that recordis the birth of neatly everything else here. « We know now that Mer she Beales was the Arserican version of the Beatles’ second British album, With the Beales~ most oft, anyway. In those days, Engi albums had thirteen or fourteen tacks and usually did not incu the hit singles, It wouldnt be cricket eo expect fans to pay ‘ice forthe same song, would it? Well guess what” We don't play cricket here, so American companies chopped up those U.K. LPsinto ten or-eleven-track platters, adding the singles and gettingan extra albumor thre fr every two English releases.» But the level of sophisticationon ‘MeettheBratlesisamazing, The Beatles didalotof things, and they did them all well, But more than anything, they raised our standards, right fom the stat, The songwriting was completely original, coming fom American shythm & blues, but combined with those Everly Brothers harmonies and unique chord changes, This was also a band with fou singers. You could have a relationship with any or allof them. If you didn’t ike John Lennon, you liked Paul MeCartney. Ifyou were quiet, you went for George Harrison. If you were a ceal outcast, you loved Ringo! And if somebody can explain to me how George Martin went from making comedy records to being the most brillant rock & roll producer in the ‘world in exactly five minutes, please do so. ‘Suddenly, we wene from this narrow relationship with music and the stars who made it, moving from single to single, to this extraordinary concentration of genius. Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly had made exciting, important albums before that: Ehis Presley [No. 56] The "Cheping” Crickets [No. is]. This was different. The Beatles made Albums. dont thinkthe Beatles were tryingto make great albums then, Im sure chey were focused on writinghit singles, But their not-quite-hit single material was til high-quality st, Even theit covers ~ which ‘made up half of ther first British album, Please Pease Me [No.29]~ -were terificreinterpretationsofour own rockabilly and REB. ‘The Rolling Stones hit that same peak right away. My second favorit album of al time is their second Anserican album, 12X3, ‘which also didn exis in England, So it’s dificul for me to get too upset atthe AFR guys who created the US, versions of those early, reat British LPs because they accidentally had great taste! ‘And willforeverarge that"I've Just Seena Face” belongs onthe Beatles Rubber Soul{No.s} rather than Help! [No. 328] -where you found it in England —because a the atimportant opening songon 4 © ROLLING STONES 500 GREATEST ALBUMS OF ALL TIME ‘our Rubber Soi, it heralded the Beatles embrace of Bo Dylan and the Byrds folk ok. efls beter hee damit Thope you'rehappy now You've gor mealliledup. But lists will do that 0 you. They are absolutely subjective, watery frustrating, always incomplete ~ and they cause more aeguments than eign and pois In other words, they're alot of fun Andlwere not justtakingon rockalbums here. That would beteo cay. We're throwing fol, jas, blues and gospel. But beforewe go any further. we should ask ‘What isanalbun? Inthebeginning, ou got music two songsatatine, on these hard, ‘envinch shellac discs that turned at 78 revolutions per minute. The ~wordalbu comesfiomthephoto-albunv-ike books whereyoustored 78s. An album was literally a series of snapshot, musical pictures, ‘ound in one place. The invention ofthe twelve inch, long-playing record, spinning at 38-15, bythe engneses at Columbia Records meant that you gota dozen of those images ona single isc. But the remstuck Albums were an adult thing too, in ost content and attention span. Teenagers had thee own technology the seven-inch 4, the perfect foratworand-a-halminuterock®rollsong. Evenin 1964 and 65, was still buying most singles, I woulda go into a store that way you do now coming out with en CDs ata time. An album ‘was agerious investment (3.79) ‘The Beatles ~ and Dylan ~ changed that. Dyas second album, 19635 The Freewhecin' Bob Dylan [No 98] was the frst example of analbumbeingmoreimporantthanasingle, of great albumhaving no ingles. By the mid Sixties, l was buying The al Burerfeld Bluesiy STEREO BEATLES! The First Album by England's Phenomenal Pop Cambo