Putting Together a List of Favorite Beatles Songs? Consider Some Rules
First of all, this photo. John, put your mask up. George, that’s not funny.
Every so often you’ll see an online discussion of people’s favorite Beatles songs. You can pretty much tell from people’s lists what kind of fans they are. There are those who place emphasis on the “solo” years of the White Album (“solo” because not one song from the collection is a group creation). Then there are those who like songs drawn from the psychedelic era of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (George Martin never forgave himself for leaving “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “Penny Lane” off that album) and Magical Mystery Tour. And let’s not forget the folk rock songs from Help! and Rubber Soul. But here are two songs that you will never see on any short list of favorite Beatles songs: “She Loves You” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” This is where the first of my two rules comes into play: If you’re going to put together a short list of your favorite Beatles songs and if your intent is to capture the full scope of the band from beginning to end, it follows that you have to include at least one song from the Beatlemania days of ’63 and ’64.
I bring this up because a discussion of people’s five favorite Beatles songs appeared recently in a post at Jerry Coyne’s website. Coyne cited a list made by a friend: “Hey Jude,” “Blackbird,” “In My Life,” “Got to Get You into My Life,” and “For No One.” That’s a good list but it wouldn’t be mine. I’ve never cared much for “Got to Get You Into My Life,” and while the other four songs wouldn’t make my Top Five list, I will say that one of them would probably make my Top Ten list: “For No One.”
My second rule for compilers of favorite Beatles songs is also straightforward: You must have a George Harrison song on your list. Sorry, Ringo, there’s only room for the principal songwriters (recall that Harrison had three songs on Revolver).
So here’s my list of my Top Five favorite Beatles songs:
- She Loves You
- Rain
- Penny Lane
- Here Comes the Sun
- A Day in the Life
I almost went with “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” which is one of the most thrilling songs by the early Beatles but decided to go with “She Loves You.” The song is an explosive burst of sheer joy: The guy at the center of the story is thrilled to find out from a friend that she still loves him! From Ringo’s opening roll on his tom-toms to Harrison’s guitar riff to McCartney’s soaring harmony (and his bass, which is surprisingly high in the mix) to Lennon’s urgency and, finally, to those exhilarating “wooo’s,” “She Loves You” might just be the quintessential song that best captures those crazy days of Beatlemania. (Update, 2024: For those of you who insist that the early songs aren’t that sophisticated — well, some aren’t — give a listen to Rick Beato’s tremendous analysis of “If I Fell.”)
“Rain” expresses, to quote Ian MacDonald from his magisterial Revolution in the Head), “the vibrant lucidity of a benign LSD experiment” and John Lennon’s “mystic indifference to the phenomenal world.” MacDonald also marvels at the weight of the song (though it is interesting that Lennon once said that “Ticket to Ride” was the first heavy metal song). The Beatles didn’t write that many drug-influenced songs, but of the handful, I prefer “Rain” to the most famous of this genre, “I Am the Walrus” (though you’ve got to hear Jim Carrey’s brilliant version of “Walrus”; Lennon would have loved the demented sensibility that Carrey brings to it).
“Penny Lane.” Paul McCartney has always been a staggeringly gifted songwriter, with a chameleon-like ability to write in almost any mood and style, and adopt any genre and get away with it: folk (“I’ve Just See a Face”), hard rock (“Birthday”), acoustic-driven ballads (“Blackbird”), and music hall (“Honey Pie”). There’s also his melancholy side (think “She’s Leaving Home” and — you guessed it — “For No One”) as well as songs of sunny optimism (“blue suburban skies”) of which “Penny Lane” is an excellent example. “Good Day Sunshine” is another.
“Here Comes the Sun.” While side two of Abbey Road is my favorite vinyl side of all the original LPs — as released in England; I’m ignoring the butchered LPs released by Capitol (of which Abbey Road was never a victim anyway) — the two best songs on Abbey Road are by George Harrison. While “Something” is one of the most powerful love songs by anybody in the known universe, “Here Comes the Sun” does for Harrison what “Penny Lane” does for McCartney.
“A Day in the Life.” Is this song the band’s masterpiece? Many people think so. Discounting the eight-song medley of song fragments on side two of Abbey Road, “A Day in the Life” is the only “epic” song in the band’s catalog, and it was one that inspired their producer, George Martin, who had a background in classical music, to believe that the Beatles had ventured into new and adventurous territory thus signaling great things to come. Alas, it was not to be.
That’s it. Let’s see your Top Five list.
Barry Lyons is a freelance writer in New York City. He also has Five Questions for Paul McCartney and expects he will never hear a peep from Sir Paul.
