Revolver (1966)
Buy Revolver on CD, on stereo vinyl, or on mono vinyl
Listen to Revolver on Apple Music or on Spotify
As Rubber Soul was a major turning point in the Beatles writing and recording styles, Revolver (working titles “Abracadabra”, “Magical Circles”, and “Beatles On Safari”) took that attitude of exploration even further. The Beatles were even deeper into the underground art and drug scenes which were influencing their music in entirely new ways. Tomorrow Never Knows featured the unprecedented use of tape loops and sound effects and was a breakthrough in pop music. None of the songs on Revolver were played on tour, even though the album was released during what turned out to be their last tour ever. Winner of the 1966 Grammy for Best Album Cover/Package (designed by Klaus Voorman who later created the Anthology covers) and Album of the Year. Also named the greatest rock and roll album of all time by VH1 in 2001 in their “100 Greatest Rock And Roll Albums Of All Time” series.
The unused cover concept
The first cover design for Revolver was by artist Robert Freeman and was designed to be spun rapidly so that the faces on the cover created an optical illusion.
Quotes
“John, Paul, and I devoted an evening to sifting through an enormous pile of newspapers and magazines for pictures of the Beatles after which we cut out the faces and glued them all together. Our handiwork was later superimposed onto (the) line drawing by Klaus Voormann.” – Pete Shotton
“I went to the EMI house, up to George Martin’s office and I stood the artwork up on a filing cabinet. There was Brian Epstein, George Martin, his secretary and the four lads. I was scared, because nobody said anything. They were just looking at it. I thought, ****, they hate it. Then Paul looked closer and said, ‘Hey that’s me sitting on a toilet!’ George Martin took a look and said, ‘You can’t show that!’ Paul said, ‘No, it’s great!’ But then he gave it some thought and said, ‘Well, maybe we should take that one off.’ So that broke the ice. Then they started talking about it. Everybody loved it, George loved it, John loved it, Ringo loved it. I looked at Brian, who was standing in the corner and he was crying… I thought, Oh no… what is he doing? He came up to me and said, ‘Klaus, this is exactly what we needed. I was worried that this whole thing might not work, but I know now that this the cover. This LP, will work – thank you.'” – Klaus Voormann
Rare Remix 11 of Tomorrow Never Knows
The standard release of Tomorrow Never Knows is from Remix 8. However, on the first day of manufacturing for Revolver a number of copies were pressed using Remix 11 which is different in several ways; the vocal is louder and clearer over the effects, the fade is slightly longer and has more piano, and the effects are faded up differently. Copies of Revolver featuring this rare version are labeled with matrix XEX 606-1 on side B, whereas the more common mix shows XEX 606-2 or XEX 606-3. Remix 11 is also featured on 2022’s Revolver Special Editions.
Track list
Side A
- Taxman
- Eleanor Rigby
- I’m Only Sleeping
- Love You To
- Here, There, And Everywhere
- Yellow Submarine
- She Said, She Said
Side B
- Good Day Sunshine
- And Your Bird Can Sing
- For No One
- Doctor Robert
- I Want To Tell You
- Got To Get You Into My Life
- Tomorrow Never Knows
Release history
- Parlophone PMC 7009 (mono), released August 5, 1966
- Parlophone PCS 7009 (stereo), released August 5, 1966
- Parlophone CDP 7 46441 2 (stereo CD), released April 30, 1987
- Apple 0946 3 82417 2 0 (remastered stereo CD), released September 9, 2009
- Parlophone PMC 7009 (remastered mono CD), released September 9, 2009 in The Beatles In Mono box set
