Skip To The Beat
The A.V. Club has a weird list: "The least-skippable Beatles songs" from A to Y--no Q, U, V, X or Z available. Here, in alphabetical order, are the finalists (without quotation marks because they're exhausting):
Back In The U.S.S.R.
The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill
A Day In The Life (runner up: Dear Prudence)
Eleanor Rigby
For No One
Get Back
Hey Jude
In My Life (runner up: I'm So Tired)
Julia
Komm Gib Mir Deine Hand (German version of I Want To Hold Your Hand)
Love Me Do
Maxwell's Silver Hammer
Nowhere Man
Oh! Darling
Paperback Writer
Rocky Raccoon
Something (runner up: She Came In Through The Bathroom Window)
Tomorrow Never Knows
We Can Work It Out
Yesterday
I have many disagreements. It had to be somewhat arbitrary in representing general quality since some letters ("I" being the top) have so many more great choices than others, but, for example, there are considerably more Paul songs than John songs, and that can't be right. Also, Abbey Road is overrepresented, as is the White Album, while their earliest years deserve more respect.
What would I pick? Only using original songs from their 60s studio albums, here's my list (with a whole lot of runner ups in parentheses):
Back In The U.S.S.R. (The Ballad Of John And Yoko)
Can't Buy Me Love (Come Together)
Day Tripper (Do You Want To Know A Secret, Don't Let Me Down, Drive My Car)
Eight Days A Week
For No One (Fixing A Hole)
Get Back (Getting Better, Good Day Sunshine)
Here Comes The Sun (note: George's only win) (A Hard Day's Night, Here There And Everywhere, Hey Jude)
I Feel Fine (I Saw Her Standing There, I Should Have Known Better, I Want To Hold Your Hand, I Want To Tell You, I Will, If I Fell, I'll Be Back, I'll Follow The Sun, I'm Down, I'm Happy Just To Dance With You, I'm Only Sleeping, I've Just Seen A Face)
Julia
Komm Gib Mir Deine Hand
Lady Madonna (Lovely Rita, Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds)
Magical Mystery Tour (Michelle, Misery)
Nowhere Man (The Night Before, Norwegian Wood)
Octopus's Garden (To give Ringo a shout) (Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da)
Please Please Me (Paperback Writer, Penny Lane, Polythene Pam, P.S. I Love You)
Rain
She Loves You (Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (both versions), Strawberry Field Forever)
Tie: There's A Place and Ticket To Ride (Taxman, Tell Me Why, Things We Said Today, This Boy, Tomorrow Never Knows, Two Of Us)
With A Little Help From My Friends (Wait, We Can Work It Out, What You're Doing, When I Get Home, When I'm Sixty-Four, The Word)
You're Going To Lose That Girl (Yesterday, Yellow Submarine, You Can't Do That)
posted by LAGuy @ 12:03 AM
3 Comments:
The Magical Mystery Tour is woefully under-represented
I mean, my parents bought that album for me when I was 6 or 7-- in the supermarket. My earliest memory of the Beatles which led to my uncles giving me all their 45s from 1964-66
MMT is okay, but you have to understand it was a hybrid. Americans think of it as a full album, but it was never intended as such. In Britain, it was a TV project the band attempted that was poorly reviewed, and what we consider side one of the album was released as a not-especially beloved double EP taken from the TV movie. In America, where they don't have EPs, it was released as an album with side two being a collection of recent, unreleased Beatles singles (the British often left hit singles of albums). So when we talk about MMT, we're talking about a bunch of songs from the movie and a mini-collection of hits.
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