Thirty or so minutes of sugar rushing perfection. No flab. No filler.

Out of the mono box I found A Hard Day's Night faultless. All killer, no filler, the only all Lennon-McCartney Beatles album: what a roll they were on.

Actually my favourite Beatles album of any era.

Help - my favourite pre-RS HJHM LP

I keep forgetting how much I love nearly every song on this album.

but in terms of raw excitement, you can't beat the original UK mono pressings of "Please Please Me" and the "Long Tall Sally" EP for thrills aplenty.

I hate to bug the purists, but I also love the duophonic sound of the US-only "The Beatles Second Album".

I would never advocate that you do anything illegal, naturally, but if you google the letters "pb" joined together with the letters "thal", you may find an interesting Blogger site where the merits of these recordings are discussed in greater detail.

"If I Fell", "I Should Have Known Better", "I'll Be Back", "When I Get Home", "And I Love Her". Seriously, what's not to love?

Easily my favourite album by the boys.

Help!, You've got to hide your love away, You're gonna lose that girl, Ticket to Ride, Its only love, I've just seen a face, Yesterday... so that's 50% of the album made up of pure classics (about 10% more than AHDN)...

...and I'm almost too embarassed to ask at this stage but what does HJHM stand for??

http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/content/word-jargon-and-jokes-a-guide

(I try and fit in, use camouflage, always get it wrong... :P )

But if I had to put them in some sort of order, I'd say...

Hard Day's Night
Help!
Please Please Me
With The Beatles
Beatles For Sale

But they all have their moments and would never treat them as less 'serious' or important as their later albums, which all have their moments of self-indulgence.

The one thing you could never accuse the early albums of is self-indulgence!

HELP - because the first half is pure, uninterrupted brilliance, AHDN because its great and all L & M.

I am now going off to don the headphones to listen again while the FPO fawns over Larkrise to Cranford or whatever it's called.

The only one my parents had, so like a baby chick following whatever creature it first sets eyes on, it's been imprinted on my brain. Even at the age of 4, I knew that John singing "You Can't Do That" made me feel all sort of funny...

... Night. But I never quite got With the Beatles or Beatles for Sale. They have the odd moment (It Won’t Be Long, All My Loving, Eight Days A Week, What You’re Doing) but there’s far too much filler and the covers are largely uninspired (save the great Money)… Although Please Please Me follows a similar template it has the thrill of being their first proper foray into the studio and a raw innocent charm..

And I still need someone to explain why No Reply is so good (maybe I’m not picking up those “aeolian cadences”)

But the late period is still the best – I would argue that it is the presence of “Strawberry Fields”, “Penny Lane” and “Day in the Life” in their catalogue which elevates them to godlike status

... 1982 - own room at last at 18 years old - as a long promised indulgence with the money I had earned that summer shelf stacking - bought myself MY OWN hi-fi from the various peculiar shops up and down the Tottenham Court Road (they were AWFUL places to buy something but you could dig out some bargains) - first record I bought to play on it was AHDN, a record I had known since childhood. That first chord - all so impossibly happy and exciting and excuse me I have something in both eyes and the eyes of several random passers-by.... I remember MOJO describing it as the sound of four disgracefully talented young men on rum, coke and amphetamines which is sort of true but that misses the joy of it.

The remasters have the rhythm section oomph that the CDs and stereo mixes lost - by god what a band

... bought 'AHDN' Thanks for your comments. : >