The Beatles album that never was...

Please excuse me while I become a complete Beatles nerd for a minute.

I've been a big fan of The Beatles for a few years, but until recently I wasn't familiar with any of the individual members' post-breakup music. I decided a few months ago to start listening to their solo albums and to my delight there's a lot of great music there for people who love The Beatles' music. I've listened to almost all their 1970s stuff now and I can tell you that if you're a fan of The Beatles and never heard their solo stuff, here's the stuff you should get.

JOHN LENNON - The best album is 1971's "Imagine," without a doubt. Lennon's a bit too political for me generally, but if you like his stuff you might also seek out 1970's "John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band" and 1972's "Some Time in New York City." That last one is a double album and is credited to John Lennon AND Yoko Ono, so there's some weird stuff in it, but I feel like Yoko gets more shit than she deserves sometimes. "Sisters, O Sisters" and "We're All Water" are pretty good even though Yoko's singing.

PAUL McCARTNEY - After The Beatles broke up, McCartney released one pretty good solo album, called "McCartney," then released an amazing album co-credited to his wife Linda called "Ram," then the two of them formed a band called Wings with whom he released several albums in the 1970s. 1971's "Ram" is definitely worth getting, as is 1970's "McCartney," but as far as Wings albums go, I'd recommend 1973's "Band on the Run" and 1975's "Venus and Mars." The others are good too, but those are the best.

GEORGE HARRISON - A huge surprise, George Harrison's music wound up being my favorite of the Beatles' solo releases. If you are at all a fan of The Beatles, run out and get 1970's "All Things Must Pass." An AMAZING album. 1973's "Living in the Material World" is also fantastic, but I can't stress enough how great "All Things Must Pass" is.

RINGO - Don't bother. Most of his stuff is blah, and his best stuff is written by Lennon or Harrison. Get 1973's "Ringo!" if you must, don't bother with anything else.

Okay, now the real purpose of this journal is to talk about my new project, which I got the idea for a few weeks ago. My idea was to create an album of post-breakup Beatles songs, as a way of seeing what the next album after "Let it Be" might have been like if they stayed together. I had a few rules for selecting my songs, for instance the songs had to be released in either 1970 or 1971, since that's when the next album probably would have come out. Two Harrison songs, one per side, since that had been the pattern for several albums. I wanted one Ringo song, but nothing that came out in 1970-1971 fit the tone of a Beatles album. In 1970 he released two albums, one was an album of old standards, and the other was a country album. The closest song was "It Don't Come Easy," released as a single in 1971, but it doesn't sound exactly like a Beatles song, despite being co-written by Ringo and George Harrison. Similarly, I didn't put "My Sweet Lord" on there because despite being Harrison's biggest hit from "All Things Must Pass," it's not very Beatles-like.

I tried to choose songs that were released as singles, and songs that sounded like Beatles songs to me. I chose a time limit of 50 minutes. Then I put them together in an order that sounded good to me. Linda McCartney's backing vocals are featured on a couple tracks, but that's okay. Yoko's voice is on the White Album.

I'm calling it "Another Day," after the first song on the album. I've included the track listing below and the albums you can find these songs if you want to try this out for yourself. Listen to it and tell me this doesn't sound like a "Let it Be"/"Abbey Road"-era Beatles album.

ANOTHER DAY - 47:24
Side A
1. "Another Day" (1970 Paul McCartney single, bonus track on the "Ram" CD)
2. "Hold On" (John Lennon, "John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band")
3. "Teddy Boy" (Paul McCartney, "McCartney")
4. "Oh My Love" (John Lennon, "Imagine")
5. "Wah-Wah" (George Harrison, "All Things Must Pass")
6. "Oh Yoko!" (John Lennon, "Imagine")

Side B
1. "Maybe I'm Amazed" (Paul McCarney, "McCartney")
2. "Imagine" (John Lennon, "Imagine")
3. "Too Many People" (Paul and Linda McCartney, "Ram")
4. "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey" (Paul and Linda McCartney, "Ram")
5. "What is Life" (George Harrison, "All Things Must Pass")
6. "Heart of the Country" (Paul and Linda McCartney, "Ram")
7. "Crippled Inside" (John Lennon, "Imagine")