Which version? John liked the White Album version better than the single, I prefer the single.
As for my vote, it would be far easier to go with the ones that aren’t good. I like the Abbey Road medley, about the last thing they did together, and the end of Sgt. Peppers, starting with Lovely Rita. But Birthday is also good, and Helter Skelter, just to mention two songs that haven’t shown up yet.
One for each of the Fab Four
Paul - Paperback Writer
John - Across The Universe
George - While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Ringo - Octopus Garden
best cover - Twist and Shout
You know, it’s too bad the Fab Four couldn’t have held it together for just one more album. Then we’d have songs like “Maybe I’m Amazed” and “All Things Must Pass” to choose from!
That said, if I was forced to choose a single Beatles tune to sum up their entire career, I think it would have be one of these three: “Strawberry Fields Forever,” “Penny Lane” or “A Day in the Life,” with the latter just taking first place by a nose. (Even though, according to some accounts, George Harrison didn’t even play on the song!)
Can I post twice? Because I just remembered another favorite that I don’t believe anyone has mentioned yet.
Pure joy.
THERE AREN’T ANY! BWAHAHAHA!
runs into obscurity to avoid stoning
Nah, seriously…Not a fan really, but if I had to choose, I’d go with Strawberry Fields Forever, though I couldn’t say why…
Some of my favorites are “Something”, “Hey Bulldog”, “Everybody’s Got Something to Hide …”, "“I Want You”, and “Sexy Sadie”…but the best Beatles tune is “A Day in the Life” followed closely by “Strawberry Fields Forever”. Absolute masterpieces.
I love this song, but I can’t imagine anyone actually picking it as the Beatles’ “best” - it’s not really anything new or inspired. And considering everything else of theirs to pick from.
My vote’s going to “Tomorrow Never Knows”. (Which narrowly edged out “She Came In Through the Bathroom Window”, “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” and “Day in the Life”)
Spector himself argued that McCartney was being hypocritical in his criticism: “Paul had no problem picking up the Academy Award for the Let It Be movie soundtrack, nor did he have any problem in using my arrangement of the string and horn and choir parts when he performed it during 25 years of touring on his own.”
Tomorrow Never Knows is getting a bit of love. Way cool. I like the song more and more over the years. Not sure I’d pick is as the best, but then I can’t make up my mind which song is #1.
It’s interesting to hear the version of “The Long and Winding Road” that Paul did for Give My Regards To Broad Street, which I think works pretty well. As one Amazon reviewer said,
I can’t narrow it down to just one.
Daytripper
Happiness is a Warm Gun
A Day in the Life
I never knew there was so much Beatles footage on YouTube. The people that go to the trouble of uploading those old concerts and TV shows are to be commended.
Have you ever met a Beatles fanatic? Oy!! Totally obsessed, they are. I mean, we have folks like **fishbicycle **and Biffy the Elephant Shrew, who are on the very normal end of the spectrum, but sometimes I run into the OCD types - the ones who obsess about the supposed errors they find in Lewisohn’s day-by-day recording diary of the Beatles at Abbey Road (The Compleat Abbey Road Recordings) or the other book that documents every piece of gear they ever used.
It boggles the mind. So, yes, they are to be commended - but it is not surprising!
This is too hard. How about the best dozen?
In My Life
Till There was You
You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away
Here Comes The Sun
Across The Universe
It’s Only Love
Yesterday
Let It Be
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Do You want To Know A Secret?
I Need You
Fixing A Hole
Most glaring omission so far: “Drive My Car”. Revolutionary opening riff and those catchy "Beep-beep, beep-beep, yeah!"s… I’m shocked.
My vote: “Penny Lane”.
Wow, too many to choose from for this Beatle nut–so I’ll have to break it down into categories:
LEAD SINGER:
John: Dear Prudence
Paul: Blackbird/For No One
George: I Need You/For You Blue
Ringo: Don’t Pass Me By
BEST COVER: Roll Over Beethoven
EARLY (pre-Revolver): Help!/I Wanna Be Your Man
MIDDLE (Revolver-Sgt Pepper): And Your Bird Can Sing
LATE (White Album-Let It Be): Abbey Road medley
MY FAVORITE TO “ROCK OUT” TO: She Loves You/I Wanna Be Your Man
NON-SINGLE: The Night Before (I absolutely love this song, so I had to make up a category just to get it on the list)
And, since even the greatest are entitled to a clunker:
WORST BEATLE SONG: Mister Moonlight
Oh, wow. Impossible to answer. For the early stuff, I would nominate the oft-overlooked “There’s a Place,” and “Things We Said Today.” (Which I see have been mentioned in this thread. Yay for the love!) “All My Loving,” too, gets props.
For later-ear, down-tempo songs, “Something” and “In My Life” are probably my favorites. Oh, wait, can’t forget “Dear Prudence.” “Here Comes the Sun” is pure shiny pop perfection, and I love the rhythmical changes in it. “Eleanor Rigby” is another personal favorite, and I love the modal quality to it.
But if I had to pick one and only one, it might have to be “A Day in the Life.”
Another vote for “Day Tripper.” That opening guitar riff is an instant hook.
It says a lot about the variety in their repertoire that your best dozen and my best dozen have only one song in common:
She’s leaving home
A day in the life
Blackbird
Strawberry fields forever
The ballad of John and Yoko
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Eleanor Rigby
Penny Lane
Yesterday
For no-one
I am the walrus
Here, there and everywhere
Another vote for A Day In The Life. Moody and magnificent.
Well, I could easily make a place for Blackbird, Lucy, Strawberry Fields, and a Day in The Life. It really is amazing for a band to have SO many truly great songs. But I don’t think the sequence “Y-o-k-o” should appear in any Beatle thread other than "“Top Ten anti-Beatle elements”.