Revolver (Beatles album) as the Beatles'. While also highlighting the importance of the production, David Howard writes that "Revolver" was a "genre-transforming album", on which Martin and the Beatles had "obliterated recording studio conventions". Combined with the similarly "visionary" work of American producer Phil Spector, Howard continues, through "Revolver", the recording studio had become "its own instrument; record production had been elevated into art." Whereas "Sgt. Pepper" had long been identified as the Beatles' greatest album, since the 2000s "Revolver" has often surpassed it in lists of the group's best work. Sheffield cites the album's 1987 CD release, with the full complement of
The Beatles' 1966 tour of Germany, Japan and the Philippines their longtime manager, Brian Epstein, and make the decision to end their career as live performers that year. By contrast, the stay in Tokyo established an enduring bond between the Beatles and Japan, where each of the band members visited or performed in the decades following the group's break-up. Brian Epstein, the Beatles' manager, had intended that 1966 would follow the format of the previous two years, in which the Beatles had made a feature film with an accompanying soundtrack album, toured in North America and select countries during the summer months, and then recorded a second album for a