My top 15 Beatles songs

Admittedly they’re ‘simple’, but for historical reasons if nothing else, how can you leave out ‘She Loves You’ and ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’? Those were the game-changers!

I remain hopeful, though - a few people have mentioned ‘All My Loving’. :wink:

They aren’t simple, and yeah, I completely agree. Hence the fact that I haven’t submitted a list of 15 - I can’t do it.

Mine:

Cry Baby Cry
A Day in the Life
Every Little Thing
Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except For Me and My Monkey
For No One
Hard Day’s Night
Here, There and Everywhere
Hey Bulldog
I Should Have Known Better
I Want to Tell You
I’ll Cry Instead
I’ve Just Seen a Face
The Night Before
Things We Said Today
Ticket To Ride

So many people have mentioned “For No One” … and I’m drawing a complete blank. Even the title is unfamiliar to me. I’m going to have to go find that one. How often does one come across a totally unknown (to them) Beatles song? I’m ridiculously excited about it.

It’s on Revolver - it’s the other song on that album besides Eleanor Rigby to have classical instruments - wonderful horn work. It’s, I believe, about Paul splitting up with Jane Asher…

ETA: a MOBILE YouTube link to it: The Beatles - For No one - YouTube

Well, I liked the song already, but this song really struck a chord with me when my first wife told me she wanted out.

It’s about the period when the dumpee still hasn’t quite gotten the message that it’s over, when you keep telling yourself, “But… but we love each other. I KNOW you loved me. That CAN’T have just disappeared! We can still make it work.”

But it HAS disappeared. And the woman who once adored you now just looks at you like she can’t decide whether she feels sorry for you or if you just make her sick.

Cabaret singer Andrea Marcovicci often performs “For No One,” and calls it the most brutal song ever written. I can’t argue with her.

That makes a lot of sense, knowing it’s off Revolver–my mother owned all the albums up through Rubber Soul, and then when I went off to college I discovered Sgt. Pepper and went from there. Revolver seems to fall in the middle of those two. Hey, there’s probably a bunch of songs on there I’ve never heard. This is a very exciting day for me.

Edit: Nope. I know most of the songs on Revolver … just not that one. Either way, woohoo, new Beatles song! :slight_smile:

If there are songs considered less commonly known, I’d point to Rain, at least in the U.S. it was released as a single, prior to Revolver right when More Popular Than Jesus was being whipped into a froth. Great video, too. Oh, and first use by them of backwards guitar composed intentionally to be heard that way.

ETA: it was the B-side to Paperback Writer…

I’m quite surprised at the lack of love for “Come Together”, “Revolution” and “Helter Skelter”. Oh, and “Savoy Truffle”.

I’m not. I hate those songs.

I like the first two well enough, don’t particularly care for the latter two, and none of them would be in my Top 15.

I forgot about “Savoy Truffle”…that’s a good one. I’m not as much a fan of those other ones, though it may be the overplayed factor Elendil’s Heir mentioned. That is really sad, when great songs get worn out in your brain.

That’s a really good song. However, though I don’t like much of what Paul wrote in the '80s or afterward, I do actually love a lot of the '70s Wings songs. I also kinda like his brand new single “New”. Obviously it’s not on a Beatles level, but it’s good enough to get into my shuffle rotation.

And “I Feel Fine”, another really good one from that early era.

Thanks!

Are there any software wizards reading this who can make a script to compile all the submissions so far and rank them by number of votes?

So after I spent that 20 bucks, my wife said “don’t we already have a lot of those songs on CD?” I replied that “not that I knew of” and that I don’t even remember seeing any music CDs around the house for years now. She went off to some self, and five minutes later came back with the following albums:

The White Album, Revolver, Rubber Soul, and With the Beatles, all from my old collection; and the compilation 1, that my wife brought into the marriage.

Oops.

Oh well, at least I’m supporting…Yoko Ono? Heh. Helping the Beatles iTunes ranking, there we go.

Listening to the White Album now and remembering other contenders I overlooked. “Ob La Di, Ob La Da”; “Bungalow Bill”; “Glass Onion”…and I’m only getting started!

She’s Leaving Home
For No One
I’m Only Sleeping
Two of Us

These are incredibly underrated songs and would make my best-of list easily. The problem is the Beatles have so many big songs that loom large over our culture. To say For No One is better than Hey Jude would be ridiculous… So I won’t. But we all have our songs that speak to us in special ways.

I was about to post that, if no one nominated *She’s Leaving Home *, this would be a worthless thread.

I will.

(And I Will, too.)

…and Julia, too. How could I have forgotten those two. On reflection, my list is bullshit. 15 is impossible!

In My Life
Norwegian Wood
Eleanor Rigby
Love You To
Tomorrow Never Knows
Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite
Strawberry Fields Forever
Penny Lane
Julia
Rocky Racoon
Why Don’t We Do It On The Road?
It’s All Too Much
Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End medley
Let It Be
Get Back

Another vote for the raccoon! :slight_smile:

After listening to these tracks for a few days, I have to say that my number one with a bullet at this point is “I’ll Follow the Sun”. But how much of that is bound up in some of the others having been overplayed over the years is impossible to disentangle.