Has to be** I Feel Fine**. It’s just based on a riff, but what a riff. I also have a soft spot for This Boy and Yes It Is. All three are favourite guitar-noodling songs for me. I like to think I play a half-decent I Feel Fine
“I Feel Fine” is terrifically catchy, and I have great affection for “From Me to You,” “Thank You Girl,” “I’ll Get You” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” They all make me so darn happy!
But for my vote, I decided to throw some love over to “This Boy,” because the harmonies and John’s vocals are outta this world. So much heartfelt, emotional fun to sing along with!
My alternate choice would’ve been “She’s a Woman,” for Paul’s vocals and the chord progressions.
And you know what? Simple it may have been, but I freakin’ love “She Loves You.” The advice-giving lyrics are pretty unusual, and the tune is just delicious confection. Great drumming, too! (Edited 'cause I got this confused with “Love Me Do.” It’s definitely Ringo, right?)
Although insofar as historic/cultural impact or influence I Want to Hold Your Hand is a runaway lead with * From Me To You* IMO following, for me in the poll it was between *She Loves You * and I Feel Fine. Went with the latter as the more polished piece that still retains the spirit of the early period.
ETA: Tanbarkie - right: John in later interviews sounded quite proud of the inclusion of feedback in the piece.
This one was hard. I chose *I’m Down. * This song rocks. I had heard it once on the radio (in the 80’s) – this was before Past Masters came out – and I couldn’t find this song anywhere. I was absolutely thrilled to find a 45 at a record convention. I felt like I’d won the lottery.
IIRC, it was the first intentional use of feedback in a recording, which means that we can pretty much thank “I Feel Fine” for all subsequent rock music.
Missed this the first time around. I almost went with Bad Boy, which is a totally under-appreciated cover of a really fun song, but went with She’s A Woman instead because it rattles around my head at least once a week for no good reason.
I decided to go with “This Boy.” A lot of other songs describe these feelings of loss, envy, regret and promise, but this song does it simply and eloquently.
That’s because for a long time, it was only a B-side.
It remember buying the 45 of “Help!” the day it came out (yeah, get off my lawn), and being blown away by this bluesy little song on the back. Well, played it for all my friends, and they both learned it by heart and we’d walk around singing “I’m down/I’m really down/I’m down/Down on the ground…”.
“WHAT is that?” the girls would ask.* **
“New Beatles song.”**
“Newer than HELP”? "Ohhh, yeaaah…"
“How can that be? You guys are too cool for us, you must leave.”*
{boys exit stage right, singing loudly} "How can you laugh/When you know I’m down?!?"