This is also why I voted Best Ever. The Beatles did things that no one else had thought of before. They basically invented the idea of an album, made studio bands a viable thing, ushered in the usage of "world music" and spearheaded the journey out of Elvis-land into the explosion that followed in rock. They didn't invent everything, but they inspired most of it. They, along with Dylan and some others, also made popular music a genre that critics had to take seriously.

Even if you don't like their music, you have to recognize their enormous contribution to popular music.

Personally, though, I think their early stuff, while very good in a technical sense, was really just more of what came before. It wasn't until Revolver/Rubber Soul that they began to mature and invent their own styles.

Bingle

I hate them... fucking yellow submarine.

Best rock band ever... my mom got me interested in them when I was about 7 or 8 years old. I consider them rock n roll, the only way to categorise them into pop would be the solo careers, but that's just my opinion. :)

I didn't really think much of the Beatles till the last year. I just started finding out that all these songs that I'd heard but didn't know who did...was the Beatles. They have a LOT of good songs...and there's a lot of variety.

They were great songwriters, decent technical musicians, but their musical importance is overblown, IMO. They are almost unquestionably the greatest pop band ever, but I don't see them as a rock band. Pretty much until their later music they were a glorified boy band. But their evolution and musical development is unquestionable.

Abbey Road is the second greatest album ever, behind DOSTM.

Right on. The Beatles biggest influence was PRODUCTION. Yes, John and Paul wrote some damn catchy songs, and George may have helped to popularize Ravi Shankar and the whole sitar/enlightenment thing, but they were far from the best artists of their time. (Ringo sucked.)

Even in rock music, similar things were going on all around them. They sold the most records. Listen to The Mothers of Invention (Zappa) albums Freak Out and We're Only In It For The Money, and you will see that the Beatles were not really pushing the envelope as far as Rolling Stone may want you to believe. WOIIFTM, in particular, acts as the perfect foil to Sgt. Pepper and really shows the other side of the "psychadelic rock" movement.

There was a time where they slid from best rock band ever into the decent rock band category and I think that started with a trip to India.

But how could there have been a "We're Only In it for the Money" if there hadn't been a "Sgt. Pepper" first?

As far as being a tight road band, I agree completely here. My God, "Twist and Shout" is unbelievably tight, and how in the hell does Lennon manage to not lose his voice entirely on that one?

8-9 hour sets in Hamburg will do it for you everytime.

i dont't like the beatles very much,i think they are overrated.

Being as popular as they were, and still are, it's nice to know that the "they are overrated" crowd are the minority.
I'm sure the naysayers haven't really listened to the band, maybe one or two songs, but not enough to appreciate their outstanding musical ability.

I would say they're the most prolific band. Just think about all the hits they had. They get played so much still to this day that most people forget that they were only together for about 7 years or so. For a band to churn out that many great songs over such a short period is incredible.

John Lennon, behind Bob Dylan, is/was the most influential person in rock music...period.

I'd probably have them second on my list with only the mighty Led Zeppelin ahead of them. I don't really care for much of the bubblegum crap early in their career, but pretty much everything after "Revolver"/"Rubber Soul" is simply amazing. "Abbey Road" is my all-time favorite album.

The Beatles started out as a great pop band with their signature vocal harmonies that most bands of the day admitted they could not equal. They then grew to be a band which was greater than the sum of their parts. Their constant search for new & fresh sounds and originality in lyrics while keeping that great vocal sound brought them to a status very few bands have reached. The careers they had after breaking up are a stark reminder of the magic they had togethor, which they could not equal apart. Some bands had parts of the magic, such as The Beach Boys had the harmonies, Pink Floyd and others wrote great songs but I don't believe anybody has put it all togethor as well as the Beatles. While they would be considered a "pop" band, they did much which definitely is in the rock genre. That is what is amazing to me. They tackled many genres and ideas and were spectacular in all. For those of us who were alive at the time, we all knew how groundbreaking, original and audacious they were. Such music had never been heard before. I think perhaps those who are younger can't appreciate this as so much of today's music has been shaped by them. I think there are other bands who have equalled the Beatles in some respects, but taken as a whole I can't think of any other band that shaped a whole mountain.