After a massive run of hits and leading the way for the British Invasion, The Beatles turned popular music on it's ear with the release of "Revolver"!
Their seventh album followed the success of "Rubber Soul," which pushed their pop sound to its limits, as songs like "Nowhere Man" & "Norwegian Wood" became a final evolution of their mop top years. Revolver, however turned into their first step into creating radical changes in music, with longer studio time to flesh out the songs that changed the face of rock music. The album was with the double A-side single "Eleanor Rigby" / "Yellow Submarine" which did away with the basic pop arrangements of their previous work. Their lyricism and composition became far more advanced than what was being made by pop act at the time. The album and the John Lennon controversy would open the door to the band going away from the road and touring to focus on music in the studio, using and pushing more of studio technology they built on Rubber Soul.
Revolver is the start of the Beatles' psychedelic era, as their songs reflected their use of LSD paired with the Eastern philosophy introduced to the group through George Harrison. The avant-garde composition of the music would lead to the band making music that they knew they would not be able to reproduce in concert. "Tomorrow Never Knows", is a song literally created by samples, made by the band themselves and recorded in one take using only studio equipment by the band and the engineers in the studio. "Eleanor Rigby", is a lament on loneliness that exclusively uses a string octet which exemplified Paul McCartney's writing.
All 14 tracks were released to radio stations in the UK, but in the U.S. only 11 songs were on the Capitol Records release. The album was backed by the Beatles' final concert tour after the controversy of John Lennon's remark that the band had become "more popular than Jesus," which was radically exaggerated by middle America. Despite the effects of the comment it topped the US Billboard charts for six weeks, and is considered one of the greatest albums of all time.
Revolver blew up the box mentatlity of pop music, revolutionised recording in the studio, advanced 1960s counterculture, and inspired psychedelic rock, and in the future electronica, progressive rock and world music. The album has been certified 5× platinum and can be found on virtually every list of greatest album in just about every publication. The Beatles pushed the boundaries of music and redefined popular music as we still know it today, as Revolver was the first step into the broader evolution of the greatest band of all time.