Satisfaction
Champions
Baba
Sgt. Pepper
The Rolling Stones - Can’t You Hear Me Knocking
Queen - Don’t Stop Me Now
The Who - Pinball Wizard
The Beatles - Eleanor Rigby
Predictably, it was an easy choice for The Who and The Rolling Stones (the songs I picked are pretty much the only ones I like), a more difficult one for Queen (I considered half a dozen possibilities), and a nearly impossible one for The Beatles.
The Rolling Stones - Sympathy for the Devil
Queen - A Kind of Magic
The Who - Baba O’Riley
The Beatles - Penny Lane
Paint It, Black
Somebody To Love
Won’t Get Fooled Again
A Day in the Life
Gimme Shelter
Tie Your Mother Down
Go to the Mirror
Strawberry Fields
(I can’t get no) Satisfaction
Bohemian Rhapsody
Who are you
Yesterday
Skipping over all other posts to give an uninfluenced answer.
The Rolling Stones - Heartbreaker
Queen - Don’t Stop Me Now
The Who - Bargain
The Beatles - While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Honky Tonk Women
Seven Seas of Rhye
Won’t Get Fooled Again
Eleanor Rigby
First impulse answers:
The Rolling Stones - (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction
Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody
The Who - My Generation
The Beatles - I Want To Hold Your Hand
mmm
Satisfaction
Bohemian Rhapsody
Won’t Get Fooled Again
I Feel Fine
The first three popped into my head instantly. The Beatles not so much. Hard to choose just one.
The Rolling Stones - Live with Me
Queen - Fat Bottomed Girls
The Who - Anyone, Anyhow, Anywhere
The Beatles - Rain
(Also, for the Stones, check out the little-known “Miss Amanda Jones,” off the Jan.1967 album Between the Buttons. It’s the first song to have that trademark Stones style that they still have even today.)
Stones - Shattered
Queen - Don’t Stop Me Now
Who - Substitute
Beatles - I Feel Fine
Some of you must be interpreting this differently from me. I’m thinking “best represents them over all” would mean that if you played that song for someone who had never heard anything by the group, it would give them a reasonably good idea of what the group sounds like, what their music is in general.
And, with the possible exception of The Stones, these are groups with a specific lineup, whose members all make important contributions, so I would want to pick a song that all members made significant contributions to.
Off the top of my head,
Satisfaction
Bohemian Rhapsody
Won’t Get Fooled Again
A Day In the Life
seem like reasonable choices, but if I thought longer I might change my mind.
The Rolling Stones - Sympathy for the Devil
Queen - Fat Bottom Girls
The Who - Won’t Be Fooled Again
The Beatles - Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
The Rolling Stones: Sympathy For The Devil
Queen: Bohemian Rapsody (Easiest one)
The Who: Baba O’Reilly (Pretty easy choice)
The Beatles: Impossible to pick just one. Sorry. Hell that might be the whole genius of the Beatles.
Stones - Can’t You Hear Me Knocking
Queen - The Prophet’s Song
The Who - Won’t Get Fooled Again
Beatles - Get Back
The Rolling Stones: Gimme Shelter
Queen: Killer Queen
The Who: Baba O’Reilly (“Teenage Wasteland”)
The Beatles: A Day in the Life
Rolling Stones - (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction This song has all the “attitude” that you expect in a Stones song
Queen - We are the Champions Highlights Freddie Mercury’s vocals as well as any song, plus the guitar of Brain May
Who - Behind Blue Eyes - The emotion and pathos of the voice and the virtuosity of the guitar and drum parts
Beatles - Strawberry Fields - I can’t really articulate why I chose this, but it just seems the most Beatle-like song.
Scanning through the thread, I see songs like Yesterday, Hey Jude, and Eleanor Rigby. Perhaps I’m reading the OP wrong but I don’t get how songs that are almost 100% the work of Paul McCartney can be the best “representation” of the Beatles. This isn’t a “best” or “favorite” song poll, is it?
@zimaane ’s post above this is the kind of analysis I thought the OP was looking for.
I was thinking the same. So, let me start with the Rolling Stones. I’m looking for a song that has…
- some blues progression
- Nicky Hopkins on his iconic piano
- greasy slide guitar
- Mick Jagger yelling, plus suggestive lyrics
- Keith Richards with a one, four, five chord progression somewhere in the song
- the band slurring behind the beat somewhere
I mean, there are a million Stones songs that don’t match that philosophy, but that’s what I’m going with as representative, and the song that I think contains all of that is Monkey Man from “Let It Bleed.” But I admit I was also tempted by Midnight Rambler.