# Rank The Beatles’ melancholy songs **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 21, 2010, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rank-the-beatles-melancholy-songs/533262 "2010-03-21T19:56:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Pray\_for\_peace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Pray\_for\_peace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pray_for_peace)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rank-the-beatles-melancholy-songs/533262/1 "2010-03-21T19:56:12Z")
Public poll, multiple answers are allowed. This is a follow-up to Mean Mr. Mustard’s poll, [thread=556591]The Beatles’ Worst Song[/thread]. I expect disagreement and discussion about which songs were included and excluded as poll choices (what is a “melancholy song,” after all?). ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Credible](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a8b319/32.png) [@Justin\_Credible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Credible)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rank-the-beatles-melancholy-songs/533262/2 "2010-03-21T20:15:32Z")
Do we just vote for all the ones we like or what? ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rank-the-beatles-melancholy-songs/533262/3 "2010-03-21T20:18:30Z")
You forgot _For No One_. ---
**Author:** ![choie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/choie/32/7829_2.png) [@choie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/choie)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rank-the-beatles-melancholy-songs/533262/4 "2010-03-21T21:24:41Z")
I picked everything. I adore them all. And I must ditto, HARD, _For No One_. Just a lovely, lovely piece of work. Actually, if _Let It Be_ is there, how about _Hey, Jude_? Or _Here, There and Everywhere_? And _Blackbird_? (All Paul choices, I realize. He writes such beautiful, sensitive songs and sings them with such soulfulness! But I love John’s _Nowhere Man_ and _In My Life_ and _You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away_ too.) ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rank-the-beatles-melancholy-songs/533262/5 "2010-03-21T21:28:10Z")
She’s Leaving Home is the most poignant to me. The others are a toss up but they’re all really good. I think they did melancholy well. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rank-the-beatles-melancholy-songs/533262/6 "2010-03-21T21:36:37Z")
Norwegian Wood is melancholy? It’s one of their funniest songs. The singer is invited up to a woman’s apartment, refuses to sleep with her. After she leaves in the morning, he burns it down. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rank-the-beatles-melancholy-songs/533262/7 "2010-03-21T21:38:28Z")
Other: _For No One_ (Revolver). ---
**Author:** ![Pray\_for\_peace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Pray\_for\_peace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pray_for_peace)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rank-the-beatles-melancholy-songs/533262/8 "2010-03-21T23:10:24Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Norwegian Wood is melancholy? It’s one of their funniest songs. The singer is invited up to a woman’s apartment, refuses to sleep with her. After she leaves in the morning, he burns it down. I know. The tone of the song is haunting and melancholy; the story behind the song isn’t. On its face, the lyric, “so I lit a fire,” is open to interpretation, but I have read about what the lyric means. ---
**Author:** ![Pray\_for\_peace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Pray\_for\_peace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pray_for_peace)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rank-the-beatles-melancholy-songs/533262/9 "2010-03-21T23:17:55Z")
> [@choie](#): > > I picked everything. I adore them all. > > And I must ditto, HARD, _For No One_. Just a lovely, lovely piece of work. > > Actually, if _Let It Be_ is there, how about _Hey, Jude_? Or _Here, There and Everywhere_? And _Blackbird_? (All Paul choices, I realize. He writes such beautiful, sensitive songs and sings them with such soulfulness! But I love John’s _Nowhere Man_ and _In My Life_ and _You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away_ too.) I thought the ending of _Hey Jude_ was too uplifting for it to qualify as melancholy on the whole. I thought about including _Blackbird_, but to me the message is intended to be uplifting (same as _Here, There and Everywhere_ and _And I Love Her_). ---
**Author:** ![Pray\_for\_peace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Pray\_for\_peace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pray_for_peace)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rank-the-beatles-melancholy-songs/533262/10 "2010-03-21T23:20:06Z")
> [@Justin\_Credible](#): > > Do we just vote for all the ones we like or what? Yes. Vote for as many as you want. It’s not meant to be scientific. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Pray\_for\_peace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Pray\_for\_peace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pray_for_peace)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rank-the-beatles-melancholy-songs/533262/11 "2010-03-21T23:22:37Z")
> [@koeeoaddi](#): > > You forgot _For No One_. Yes, that should have been in there. ---
**Author:** ![choie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/choie/32/7829_2.png) [@choie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/choie)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rank-the-beatles-melancholy-songs/533262/12 "2010-03-21T23:27:36Z")
> [@Sidney Evgeni Jordan](#): > > I thought the ending of _Hey Jude_ was too uplifting for it to qualify as melancholy on the whole. I thought about including _Blackbird_, but to me the message is intended to be uplifting (same as _Here, There and Everywhere_ and _And I Love Her_). Then I protest _Across the Universe_’s inclusion! It’s a peaceful, contemplative song, not melancholy. I call shenanigans! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rank-the-beatles-melancholy-songs/533262/13 "2010-03-21T23:36:33Z")
Crosby Malkin Michael - Dontcha just love catching so much grief merely by posting a list of possibilities? 😃 Anyway…are we to vote for our favorite melancholy Beatles song(s)? Or, are we to vote for the most melancholy of the melancholy Beatles song(s)? ---
**Author:** ![Pray\_for\_peace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Pray\_for\_peace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pray_for_peace)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rank-the-beatles-melancholy-songs/533262/14 "2010-03-21T23:38:43Z")
> [@choie](#): > > Then I protest _Across the Universe_’s inclusion! It’s a peaceful, contemplative song, not melancholy. I call shenanigans! 😛 Ha ha, I was expecting that response. 😛 I know what you mean. My take on _Across the Universe_ is that it’s open to multiple interpretations. To me, the line “nothing’s gonna change my world” takes on different meanings depending on your current state of mind. If you’re dealing with something really hard, say grief, that line is sad, even though the song is about accepting the world as it is. ---
**Author:** ![MikeG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikeg/32/4329_2.png) [@MikeG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeG)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rank-the-beatles-melancholy-songs/533262/15 "2010-03-21T23:41:25Z")
For No One is the best imho. ---
**Author:** ![Pray\_for\_peace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Pray\_for\_peace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pray_for_peace)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rank-the-beatles-melancholy-songs/533262/16 "2010-03-21T23:47:52Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > Crosby Malkin Michael - Dontcha just love catching so much grief merely by posting a list of possibilities? 😃 > > Anyway…are we to vote for our favorite melancholy Beatles song(s)? > > Or, are we to vote for the most melancholy of the melancholy Beatles song(s)? It’s Crosby Malkin Staal, but somehow I think you knew that. 😛 Actually, I was thinking of it as a vote for your favorite melancholy Beatles song(s). But, if you would like to try to rank them in order of melancholiness, that’s cool too. For me, _In My Life_ would be most melancholy. It gets me pretty much every time. I had it played at my wedding reception during a time for family remembrance. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2010, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rank-the-beatles-melancholy-songs/533262/17 "2010-03-22T01:48:15Z")
I think their best melancholy song is “For No One,” which Andrea Marcovicci once called “The Most Brutal Song I’ve Ever Had to Sing.” ---
**Author:** ![Baal\_Houtham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baal_houtham/32/13604_2.png) [@Baal\_Houtham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baal_Houtham)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2010, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rank-the-beatles-melancholy-songs/533262/18 "2010-03-22T02:08:03Z")
More wistful than melancholy, but _Julia_. ---
**Author:** ![Pray\_for\_peace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Pray\_for\_peace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pray_for_peace)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2010, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rank-the-beatles-melancholy-songs/533262/19 "2010-03-22T02:25:50Z")
So far, there have been five write-in votes for _For No One_. Sorry I forgot that one in the poll. ---
**Author:** ![kelly5078](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/6f9a4e/32.png) [@kelly5078](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kelly5078)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2010, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rank-the-beatles-melancholy-songs/533262/20 "2010-03-22T03:28:47Z")
Another vote for “For No One” as the saddest of their songs. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rank-the-beatles-melancholy-songs/533262.md?page=2)