Howard Stern named his favourite album by The Beatles
Serving as one of the foremost purveyors of taste for decades, Howard Stern has a very fixed sense of what he deems culturally significant. While he might have ruffled some feathers with his outspoken and distinctly New York approach to musical critiques, no one can doubt that the DJ provides a personal look at contemporary music.
From trashing cult prog-metal outfit Tool by calling them “assholes” to kicking off a spat with actor Russell Crowe by calling him a “fatso” and questioning his weight, Stern has made a career out of controversial takes. This uncomfortable aspect is vital to his shtick and has produced many headlines over the years. It makes you wonder how many rush hour accidents he has started by surprising listeners with his barbs.
However, he’s not always negative about people. Regarding music, when Stern likes it, he really does. Furthermore, the DJ is a particular aficionado of all things classic rock, as this momentous cultural period was when he spent his formative years and took his first steps into becoming the widely influential voice on the radiowaves he is today.
As with many of his generation, Stern is a lifelong fan of the eclectic sounds of The Beatles. After all, they were the group that opened the floodgates to the future with their aversion to tradition and dedication to creative innovation. Accordingly, in early 2022, when Stern launched into one of his most significant conversations about the best album of all time, he named his favourite record by the Liverpudlian lads, which was his choice.
After rightly slamming a caller for naming Meat Loaf’s 1977 debut Bat Out of Hell as one of the greatest records ever, Stern maintained, “The hits were great—not the entire album,” before revisiting the measures of what makes a body of work better than others. “You’re saying, what are the … best albums where every song is fucking killer.”
Then, Stern offered his three picks for the greatest album ever, with his shout being The Beatles’s 1967 psychedelic masterpiece, Sgt. Pepper’s. “If you were going to pick number one, it would have to be a Beatles album. I’d probably say it’s ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,'” he said. “The other album that comes to mind, the second Led Zeppelin album [Led Zeppelin II], you know, with ‘Heartbreaker’ into ‘Living Loving Maid’… if I put that whole album on, it’s mesmerising.”
To conclude, Stern also mentioned The Jimi Hendrix Experience’s 1967 debut album, Are You Experienced, and cited its mind-blowing sonics as the reason why. He also noted that a lot of people would put forward The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds but called the claim “bullshit”.
Listen to the discussion below.
