Beatles head best album list

JOHN McKIE

If the last month's batch of television programmes, releases and hype hadn't already proved it, a magazine poll has confirmed the Beatles as makers of music fans' all-time favourite albums.

The rock music magazineMojo polled 1,200 of its readers for their favourite pop album and the Fab Four occupy four of the top six places, with their 1966 classic Revolver topping the top 100. Only the Californian sounds of the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds at No 2 and Van Morrison's Astral Weeks at No 5 interrupt the run of classic Beatles albums - Revolver, Abbey Road, The Beatles and Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Three albums from Bob Dylan and one from the Rolling Stones complete the Top 10. But the Top 100 represents bad news for fans of British bands such as Blur and Oasis. No British album from the 1990s makes the Top 100.

The poll is believed to be one of the most extensive ever conducted of music fans. Mojo's editor, Mat Snow, said: "Even though there's a lot of excitement about the current Britpop renaissance, the jury of our fans are mainly in the late twenties and upwards, and voted for records built to last."

Other pop fans were less impressed with the results. "I remember reading the NME 1976 Book of Rock," said Paul Lester, features editor of Melody Maker, "and all the same albums in that book's poll are in this one. It's like the last 20 years of music never happened."

Paul McCartney said: "I'm surprised it [Revolver] would be someone's absolute top favourite because it's a strange album."