The Beatles were already bar-band veterans when they released their 1963 debut Please Please Me. It's a blueprint of everything the Beatles would ever do, mixing doo-wop, country, R&B, girl groups, and Tin Pan Alley into their own exuberant sound. 

 On With the Beatles, the mop-tops stepped out with a bunch of great Motown tributes: “Please Mister Postman,” “You Really Got a Hold on Me,” and the window-rattler “Money (That’s What I Want).” They also shone with the originals “It Won’t Be Long” and “All My Loving,” Geor... 

 A Hard Day's Night, the soundtrack from the Beatles' superb debut film, was also the first album comprised entirely of Lennon-McCartney originals. Although they were now the four most famous people in the world, they were holding nothing back emotionally or musically.  

 The strain of Beatlemania shows in Beatles for Sale, as the lads unload some of the less-celebrated covers from their bar-band days. Still the band’s meteoric growth is evident on songs like "Baby's in Black" and "Eight Days A Week," making the missteps easy to forgive.  

 Help! was a big step forward, exploring doubt, loneliness, alienation, electric piano, bongos, castanets, and the finest George songs known to man. It's often underrated - Help! is the first chapter of  the Beatles' astounding creative takeoff. 

 On Rubber Soul, the Beatles grew up with an album of bittersweet romance, singing love ballads that feel worldly but not jaded. John and Paul both took off as singers, and the disc includes one of the last songs the pair wrote together, "In My Life." 

 For Revolver, the Fabs tuned in to Dylan, the Stones, the Beach Boys, the Byrds, and decided to top them all. At the peak of their powers, the Beatles breeze through acid rock, chamber music, raga and everything in between with superhuman confidence. 

 Yellow Submarine was a flat soundtrack rather than a real album, with only four previously unreleased Beatles tracks. Here's a question: Why is George's "It's All Too Much" not heralded as one of the top five psychedelic freakouts in rock history? 

 The Beatles wrote most of the White Album on acoustic guitars while on retreat in Rishikesh, India, a place where they had no drug connections, which probably explains why they came up with their sturdiest tunes since Revolver. 

 Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, the psychedelic soundtrack of the Summer of Love, was a revelation of how far artists could go in a recording studio with only four tracks, plenty of imagination, and a drug or two. A masterwork of sonics. 

 Magical Mystery Tour was a lot goopier than Sgt. Pepper, though it was lifted by the cheerful "All You Need Is Love" and the ghostly "Strawberry Fields Forever." The Queen had the best comment: "The Beatles are turning awfully funny."  

 The band reconvened to make the farewell Abbey Road. Slick and polished to the point of easy listening, Abbey Road devotes side two to a Paul-dominated "pop symphony." Side one is a bit spottier, but sports George’s finest song "Something.” 

 Let It Be, an ill-fated documentary soundtrack, wasn't even released until 1970, shortly following the announcement of The Beatles break-up. The singing, playing, and writing are weak, despite White Album-style gems "Dig A Pony" and "Two of Us." 

 The Beatles 1962-1966, or the "Red" album as it's commonly known, was the first half of what became canonical sets in the Seventies. Alongside its "Blue" counterpart, it was the first Beatles compilation to be released following the band's break-up. 

 The Beatles 1962-1966 - the "Blue" partner to the 1962-1966 "Red" set - was the second of two releases chronicling the Fab Four's biggest hits. Like the earlier-focused "Red," 1967-1970 stretches a single album's worth of great music over two discs. 

 Live at the Star Club is a dull live set from the tail end of the group's early Hamburg days, recorded right about the time the Beatles were making it at home and going through the motions in Hamburg.   

 Hollywood Bowl is a loving tribute to the screaming girl fans who drown out the band in these 1964-65 shows; those girls were heroes on the rock & roll frontier, and they deserve to be the lead instrument on a Beatles album of their own. 

 Past Masters collects Beatles singles and essential non-album cuts into a two volume collection. The first contains versions of "Love Me Do" and "I'll Get You," as well as German language recordings of "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "She Loves You." 

 Past Masters collects Beatles singles and essential non-album cuts into a two volume collection. The second volume features Paul's "Get Back," John's "The Ballad of John and Yoko," and George's "Old Brown Shoe," among others. 

 Earle has released numerous live albums and anthologies. The Shut Up and Die Like an Aviator performance marked the end of his MCA tenure, but Live at the BBC is a better document from the same period.  

 The three all-outtakes Anthology sets are too much of a good thing, good for only a couple of listens apiece. Volume One features "Free as a Bird," a tune that was heralded as the first new Beatles song to be released in twenty-five years.   

 The all-outtakes Anthology sets are too much of a good thing, good for only a couple of listens apiece. Volume Two features rarities including studio-floor selections gathered during 1965's Help! sessions  and previously unreleased "Real Love." 

 The all-outtakes Anthology sets are too much of a good thing, good for only a couple of listens apiece. Anthology 3 features the collection's bright spot in "Junk," a sweet acoustic White Album ballad Paul revived on his solo debut.   

 1 is a budget-priced collection of #1 hits that shocked the music business by selling zillions of copies, even though everybody on earth already had all the songs.  

 Let It Be...Naked, a McCartney-supervised remastering of The Beatles' 1970 release, strips much of the Phil Spector sound from the Fab Four. The remix wasn't worth Paul's trouble, or yours. 

 The first of two volumes containing The Beatles' Capitol releases - which didn't hit the U.S. in full-length form until 1987 - The Capitol Albums, Vol. 1 features four albums, of which only Meet the Beatles has any nostalgic value.  

 Love is a set of George Martin-supervised, sped-up remixes and mash-ups, designed as the soundtrack to the Cirque Du Soleil show of the same name. 

 The second volume encapsulating The Beatles' Capitol releases - which didn't hit America in full-length form until 1987 - The Capitol Albums, Vol. 2 features hacked-up U.S. versions that hold little nostalgic value. 

 The 1987 Beatles releases were so expertly done they remained definitive for two decades. The 2009 remasters were revelatory, though, especially in their mixing of Ringo's drums. The Mono set looks to capture the band's original intentions. 

 The 1987 Beatles releases were so expertly done they remained definitive for two decades. The 2009 remasters were revelatory, especially in their mixing of Ringo's drums. This box includes the Fab Four's first four albums in stereo for the first time.