Publisher's Synopsis
The beauty of what John, Paul, George and Ringo accomplished is more in the quality than the quantity, though quantity there certainly is (28 #1 hits? How many artists could get even close to that?). And it wasn't just a question of craftsmanship (with George Martin, they raised that bar almost to the ceiling), or even variety (no other band or artist comes anywhere close to their stylistic range).
No, the brain food is found in their tendency - their need - to innovate. The Beatles couldn't sit still, creatively; every time they walked into the studio, they tried something new, and didn't much care whether that something new would end up being trendy, or break any rules, or rub somebody the wrong way. If it hadn't been done before, it went from maybe to must - or as Paul often said, "Gotta have it!" And that's the point: these twenty-eight masterworks, already inherently self-justifying, each present us with something new, something special, something the Beatles (and, usually, no one else) had never done before. Whether in the lyrics, the composition, the performance, the studio technique, or the accomplishment within the music industry, every single single on this list gives us something unique, something for our brains to chew on.
