The Beatles‘ 1996 record „Revolver“ has been voted the greatest rock album in a survey of musicians and critics. „Revolver,“ which crystallised the Beatles‘ transformation from a live pop act into a trend-setting studio band, capped a list of the 100 best rock albums in a poll conducted by the cable music channel VH1. The list devised from a VH1 poll of 500 rock journalists and musicians, include Britney Spears, Jackson Browne, Elvis Costello, Roberta Flack, Art Garfunkel, Wyclef Jean and Carole King. The Beatles, who are topping the charts again, 30 years after their break-up, with „1,“ a collection of all their No. 1 hits, dominated the VH1 survey with a total of five albums. In addition to „Revolver“ at No. 1, the Beatles made the list with „Rubber Soul“ (No. 6); „Abbey Road“ (No. 8); „Sgt. Pepper‘s Lonely Hearts Club Band“ (No. 10); and „The Beatles,“ better known as the White Album (No. 11). „Revolver,“ released the same month as the Beatles‘ last live U.S. performance at San Francisco‘s Candlestick Park in August, 1966, with songs such as „Eleanor Rigby,“ „Taxman,“ „I‘m Only Sleeping,“ „Here, There and Everywhere,“ „She Said, She Said“ and „Got to Get You into My Life,“ blended sophisticated lyrics with influences of pop, Motown, chamber music, Hindu instruments and hallucinogenic drugs. „Revolver“ also showed influences of two other leading rock acts of that era — Bob Dylan and the Beach Boys, who figure prominently in the VH1 poll as well. Dylan and the Beatles‘ biggest contemporary rivals on the British rock scene, the Rolling Stones, each had four LPs on the VH1 top 100, and seven other acts claimed three albums on the list, including Led Zeppelin, The Who, Aretha Franklin and Jimi Hendrix. Ranked second on the list was „Nevermind“ by grunge rock band Nirvana, followed by the Beach Boys‘ classic „Pet Sounds“ at No. 3. Marvin Gaye‘s „What‘s Going On“ No. 4 and Hendrix‘s „Are You Experienced?“ at No. 5. The earliest recording on the list is Elvis Presley‘s „The Sun Sessions,“ which was recorded in 1954-55 but not released as an album until 1976, and the most recent release is Lauryn Hill‘s Grammy-winning „The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill“ (1998). Music and documentary footage of artists on the list will be shown in a five-hour special, „100 Greatest Albums of Rock & Roll.“

REUTERS