I recently finished reading John Lennon: The Life, an 800-page biography written by Philip Norman, who was also the author of Shout!, one of the earliest of the many, many books that have been written about the Beatles (you can read my review of the Lennon book here [you may have to scroll down a bit]). So naturally, I’ve been listening to a lot of Beatles music lately. I figured I’d pick out my Top 40 Beatles songs and list them here, throw in some links to videos and stuff, and just see what happens.
I’ll have more to say at the end, if you’re still with me by then. But first, here’s the list, organized by album (U.K.) in the order they were released:
Please Please Me
Please Please Me – Maybe the perfect early-‘60s pop song. One of Ringo’s best. And it’s impossible to resist those whoa-yeahs. I’m not using “historical context” as a criterion in my selection of these songs—in other words, these are great songs regardless of how “pioneering” or “influential” they were—but this was their first single, the song that launched the Beatles. But it almost wasn’t.
I Saw Her Standing There – “She was just seventeen; you know what I mean…” Ahem. Yeah, there were some Beatles lyrics through the years that you might not want to put on a record today. (“You better run for your life if you can, little girl,” anyone?) Paul actually credits this song, perhaps that line in particular, as the beginning of their songwriting partnership. I love the exuberance of this song (and “exuberance” is a word you’ll probably see a few times in this listing), and even though it’s nearly 60 years old at this writing, it’s still as fresh as it was when the Beatles performed it on the Ed Sullivan Show.
A Hard Day’s Night
A Hard Day’s Night – I’m not sure I ever saw the movie that this song was created for. I’ve heard it’s not all that memorable, anyway, and in fact the title track is the only one that makes my Beatles Top 40 (although Can’t Buy Me Love would be close).
Help!
Help! – Now that’s an odd video. Ringo plays a nice umbrella.
The Night Before – More early Beatles exuberance. An interesting note from Wikipedia; Paul performed this in 2011 at Yankee Stadium, and said from the stage that it was the first time he’d played it in concert. (If you just can’t get enough of this song, YouTube comes to the rescue.)
Ticket To Ride – Here’s a video of four bored-looking Beatles trying to drain all the fun from the song.
I’ve Just Seen A Face – A hidden gem, as far as I’m concerned. I love the pace of this song. (“It was a strange uptempo thing,” Paul said.) Supposedly it was recorded on the same day as Yesterday, and was the first Beatles song to not have a bass guitar (three acoustic guitars instead). Oh, you wanted a Brandi Carlisle cover? Sure!
Yesterday – Of course. One of the very best Beatles songs. The song is all Paul, with no other Beatles backing him up. And although the lyrics were apparently written as an afterthought to the music, it remains one of the best lyrics—and songs—Paul ever wrote.
Non-LP Single
I Feel Fine – The opening of this song is supposedly the first use of feedback on a major rock record, and it happened by accident, when Paul played a note on his bass while John’s acoustic-electric guitar was leaning against the amp. The band liked the sound, and with producer George Martin, they worked it into the song. Falling between Help! and Rubber Soul, it wasn’t on a British album release, but was a single, with She’s a Woman on the B-side (which is itself a great song; check out Jeff Beck’s version).
Rubber Soul
Norwegian Wood – I love a song with a surprise ending. According to Paul, the song basically wrote itself after John had come up with the opener: “I once had a girl, or should I say, she once had me.”
Girl – This is the kind of melody you can wake up singing. The verse part, I mean, not the “Girl, Girl, ssssssss … ” chorus. John said later that it was, at least in part, about Christianity, which I don’t really see, but OK.
I’m Looking Through You – Of all the songs on this list, this maybe the one that I feel like didn’t reach its full potential on the record. Great little song, but they could have pumped it up a little more with some of that “Please Please Me” exuberance. Here’s a much later version from Paul.
Revolver
Eleanor Rigby – Actually one of the few Beatles songs I remember noticing when it came out; I was a pretty naive kid and didn’t really catch on to the Beatles until it was too late. There’s some controversy about the inspiration for this song. According to this story, the name Eleanor Rigby appears on a gravestone in a church yard where John and Paul first met. Paul, however, claimed that he made up the name. Meanwhile, the notes for the video, above, which is from Yellow Submarine, credit it with inspiring the animations of Monty Python’s Terry Gilliam.
Taxman – George Harrison finally makes it onto the list, but unfortunately he won’t reappear for a while. This page says that Paul played the lead guitar on Taxman, while George played bass.
For No One – A simple little song from Paul, no guitars, absolutely infectious melody.
Sgt. Pepper
Lovely Rita – The first 10 seconds of this song may be the best beginning of any Beatles song. Great piano intro, followed by an “Aaaaaahhhhh” vocal that both recalls Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds from Side A and foreshadows A Day In The Life, which closes out the album. And then Ringo’s drums bring us into this effervescent little ditty about a meter maid. Hey, it’s even fun without the instruments. Honestly, every song on Sgt. Pepper could be a contender for this Beatles Top 40 list, but this one, for me, is sort of a centerpiece of one of the best albums ever made.
Getting Better – Paul’s relentless optimism, with a bit of John’s realism thrown in (“couldn’t get much worse.”) And here’s a lovely anecdote about John taking the wrong drug during the recording session.
Fixing A Hole – Other than the 62-65 and 66-70 collections (the “Red Album” and the “Blue Album”), Sgt. Pepper was probably the first Beatles record I ever bought for myself. (This was long after they’d broken up and I was in college.) And on that new-to-me record, this song was the first one that really grabbed me. Which is maybe a little strange, because it’s not really a “grabby” song, but maybe it was just divine inspiration.
When I’m 64 – Another fairly simple-but-beautiful McCartney song; I always wanted to learn to play this on the piano (even though I, um, don’t actually play the piano), but I’m now so close to the actual age in the song that it will become a past-tense thing by the time I learn it. Great karaoke song, though.
A Day In The Life – The masterpiece among masterpieces. This one clearly deserved the “Lennon-McCartney” songwriting credit. It was obvious which parts were written by Lennon, and which by McCartney. But like everything from that era, it’s possible that George Martin deserved as much credit for this song as the composers; the story goes that for the two crescendoes that begin at about 1:45 and 3:50, Martin brought in an entire symphony orchestra and had each player play the full range of their instrument, from the lowest note to the highest note, over the course of 24 bars. They did it a couple of times and Martin mixed them all together to make what you hear on the record. And then at the end, of course, there is the note that goes on forever.
I don’t know the extent of the “officialness” of this crazy video, but it is on the Beatles’ YouTube page and much or all of it was obviously shot during the recording of A Day In The Life; I know the Rolling Stones were visiting in the studio at that time, and the noses were part of the party as well.
Magical Mystery Tour
I Am The Walrus – This is one of the strangest Beatles songs up to this point. And one of my all-time favorites, although I like the album version better than the mix in the video above. On this page, music critic Ian MacDonald is credited with an excellent description of the song: “… an obsessive musical structure built round a perpetually ascending/descending MC Escher staircase of all the natural major chords.”
Your Mother Should Know – In his book “Can’t Buy Me Love: The Beatles, Britain and America,” author Jonathan Gould referred to this song by Paul as “a campy, music-hall-style number … that clung to the apron strings of ‘When I’m Sixty-Four.’ ” Still, it’s an undeniably catchy song and sort of a guilty pleasure for me. Oh, and here’s a rock and roll video for ya.
Penny Lane – Another completely sticky—meaning once it gets into your head, it’s hard to shake it off—song from Paul. It’s in your ears and in your eyes. It’s about an actual street in Liverpool where Paul and John used to catch a bus.
Hello Goodbye – For a video, why not hula dancers?
White Album
Revolution – The Beatles recorded two versions of Revolution: a slower, more acoustic version that was on the White Album, and a much more electric version for the single, recreated for the video above. Me, I think I prefer the electric one. (Actually, there are three versions of Revolution if you count Revolution 9, which I don’t).
There’s always been some confusion about John’s lyrics, stemming from the line “But when you talk about destruction, don’t you know that you can count me out.” But after singing “out,” he adds “in,” which completely changes the meaning of the song. There’s a lengthy discussion of John’s views on the song here.
Great lyric: “If you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao, you ain’t gonna make with anyone anyhow.”
Glass Onion – In which we learn the Walrus was Paul, but I don’t believe that and you shouldn’t either. There’s a very cool video I’d never seen before I started compiling links for this list.
While My Guitar Gently Weeps – George was frustrated that he didn’t get a whole lot of his songs recorded by The Beatles, but the ones they did do were some of their best. This one featured his friend (and man who would later steal his wife) Eric Clapton on guitar, and was one of the highlights of the White Album.
And here’s a video that’s even cooler than the last one. Obviously some of these videos are much more contemporary than when the Beatles were together (or even alive, in some cases). … Oh, OK, reading the notes with that video, I see it was created in 2016 for the 10th anniversary of the Cirque du Soleil show “Love.” Here’s a video about the video. (And yeah, I know that if you watch every video in this post you will be considerably older by the time you get to the end. But it will be time well spent.)
Non-LP Single
Hey Jude – Ed Sheeran thinks they may have missed an opportunity with the song title.
Let It Be
I still haven’t seen Peter Jackson’s Get Back (nice little 15-minute promo film above), nor the newly released rooftop concert movie. Not yet, but I will. (Nor have I seen the original Let It Be film, but I’m not sure that will ever happen now.) From the clips I’ve seen of the rooftop concert, though, I’m struck by how bored everyone in the background seems to be, apparently completely unaware of the historical significance of what they’re witnessing. Anyway, to the songs:
Let It Be – Every song on this list is a classic for the ages, but there are a handful that stand out from even that heady crowd, and this is definitely one of them. Unfortunately, there are a couple of versions the song floating around; the original album version is my favorite, with George’s amazing, soulful guitar solo starting at 1:58. For some incomprehensible reason, the powers that be (or were at that time, whoever they were), decided to insert an organ solo in place of the guitar solo for the single version. My advice: stick with the album version.
I’ve Got A Feeling – maybe not the most technically perfect song, but can’t deny the exuberance. (Let me know when video in that link, inevitably, gets deleted.)
Two Of Us – Let It Be was always the Beatles rough-around-the edges album, a far cry from the brilliant production they had on Sgt. Pepper, say, or later on Abbey Road. And apparently the roughness was on the inside, too, in the relationships within the band. Still, they managed to salvage a great album out of it.
One After 909 – Supposedly one of the first songs written by John and Paul (mostly John), in 1960 or earlier. They had a go at recording it in 1963 but weren’t happy with the result, not touching the song again until the unbuttoned sessions that resulted in the Let It Be album.
Abbey Road
If I had to pick a favorite Beatles album, it would be Abbey Road, with Sgt. Pepper coming in a close second. It’s hard to believe that this was the last record they made (even though it was released before Let It Be), but they definitely went out on a high note. Rolling Stone magazine has it as the fifth greatest album of all time, but I would consider their list suspect (Who’s Next at No. 77? C’mon) and would definitely rank it a bit higher.
Come Together – I love that trippy video above. The song was originally written by Lennon for Timothy Leary to be the campaign song in Leary’s campaign for California governor against Ronald Reagan. Leary had to drop the campaign when he was arrested for possession of marijuana; we can only imagine how different America would be had Leary won that election and then followed the political career path that Reagan instead did.
Something – George Harrison comes on strong at the end of the Beatles’ career, writing two of the best songs on Abbey Road, one on each side. Although this one is just about perfect, the other one is even perfecter, in my opinion.
Here Comes The Sun – This one, I mean.
Oh Darling – I like this one for Paul’s tortured vocal, but John contended that he should have been the one to sing it, as it’s more in John’s style. Which is certainly true, but their modus operandi was always that whoever wrote the song was the one to sing it. As for a video, well this singer gets it; I’d definitely turn my chair.
I Want You (She’s So Heavy) – This is the longest Beatles song (unless you count Revolution 9—which, as you know, I don’t). It’s an “experimental blues song” with only about a dozen words in it. I suppose it’s a song you either love or dislike. Count me in the former camp.
You Never Give Me Your Money – This is the song that leads off the brilliant medley on side 2 of Abbey Road (and I pity those who are too young to have lived the concept of album sides). According to All The Songs: The Story Behind Every Beatles Release, George Martin suggested that the Beatles think “symphonically” for the new record. The idea stuck, and John and Paul started putting together bits and pieces of unfinished songs that had been hanging around. The legendary medley that essentially marks the end of the Beatles’ career was thus born and man, way to go out on a high note. Honestly, I could have put most of the songs in that medley (You Never Give Me Your Money, Sun King, Mean Mr. Mustard, Polythene Pam, She Came In Through the Bathroom Window, Golden Slumbers, Carry That Weight and The End) into this Top 40 List. I also could have put the whole medley in as one song, but that just wouldn’t be right.
One cool thing we’ve seen in recent years is “deconstructions” of classic songs, in which each instrumental and vocal track can be listened to in isolation. I don’t know how they do it, but it can be fascinating. Here’s a deconstruction of You Never Give Me Your Money.
She Came In Through the Bathroom Window – What does this song mean? I don’t have a clue. But I love it. I also always liked Joe Cocker’s cover.
The End – The last song of the medley and of the Beatles. All The Songs says this song is unique in several respects; it’s the only Beatles song with a drum solo—Ringo supposedly hated drum solos, as did the rest of the band—and it’s also the only time that John, Paul and George, all three of them, played dueling guitar solos.
And In The End …
Making this list was harder than I expected it to be. I thought I might have to fish for songs to fill out my Top 40, but as it turned out I had to discard some favorites to get down to that rather arbitrary number.
It was also something of a learning experience. I’ve always pretty much liked George and John the most. (“Who are your favorite Beatles?” “The dead ones!”) Maybe that’s due to their post-Beatles musical careers; John did several great songs (Imagine, Mind Games, Instant Karma, etc.), as did George. But McCartney’s post-Beatles songs have never measured up in my opinion (true, I’ve really only heard the singles), and he’s also responsible for the single worst Christmas song ever created.
But looking at this list, I realize that the songs that really resonate with me are the McCartney songs. By my count, 23 of these 40 songs were primarily written by Paul, 13 by John and 4 by George. (Sorry, Ringo.) My opinions of Paul—and Ringo—have risen in the last couple of years. But of course, without any of them, the Beatles simply wouldn’t have been the Beatles.
To be honest, everything on the list above appeals to me more than any of the non-Beatles tracks any of them have written. John and Paul were perfect complements in their songwriting, and even when they weren’t getting along, it seemed like each still added something to the others’ songs to create that Lennon-McCartney magic. And their musicianship in performing the songs—and the attention paid to producing the final records—bordered on perfection, resulting in these songs sounding as fresh today as they did 50 years ago.
So, how did I do? Did I capture all of your favorites? Or did I miss some obvious numbers that should have been on this list? Let me know in the comments below.
