Top 5 songs by The Beatles

[MartinC]

1. I am the Walrus
2. A Day in the Life
3. While my Guitar Gently Weeps (Eric Clapton on the lead on this!)
4. Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds (which had NOTHING to do with LSD)
5. Strawberry Fields.

There are just loads of other songs that could make a top 5 list though ....

[Gibbs Hog Heaven]

How do you pick a top 5 from the Beatles back catalogue?

I'll throw up, but in all honesty there could be numerous other groups of 5 that are MORE than worthy.

1. Let it Be- So simplistic in it's words, yet it always heartens me that peace is not just a dream if we really strived for it.

2. Strwberry Fields Forever/ Penny Lane- Amazing how two sides of a 7 inch vinal can evoke both such nostalgia about my home town, and such poetry and mundanity of English suburban life, that still rings true in a lot of cases today as it did back in '67.

3. She Loves You- This is how you structure a song. Brilliant, manic opening, that doesn't reappear until after the second verse. Keeping you waiting in anticipation to jump back into it. And just because I'm a proud Liverpudlian, I'ma combine two things we've lead the World at, soccer and music; and take you back to one of the best periods and happening City's in history to hear local pride in all it's glory back in 1964 (around the first minute through third) :



4. Paperback Writer- I'm an avid reader. No song has ever inspired me to read or write like this catchy classic.

5. Elanor Rigby- Timeless, touching classic. The innovative use of a string quartet back in 1966 on a pop record just adds to the local pride in 4 lads that changed the face of music for ever.

But again, honestly, I could of thrown up a multitude of 'top 5's' and been more than happy with every one.

Hail.

[USS Redskins]

I go through Beatles phases, early stuff, mid-stuff and later... i am in the midst of an early phase:

I Feel Fine
Day Tripper
You're Going to Lose that Girl
Taxman
Paperback Writer

Very tough just to pick 5.

[pjfootballer]

In no particular order

Hey Jude
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Elenor Rigby
Strawberry Fields
A Day in the Life

Hon Mention- Come Together, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, Got to get you into my life, Here Comes the Sun and I saw her standing there.

[Bliz]

Top 5 so difficult. And very much subject to change. In no particular order:

Glass Onion
I Want You (She's So Heavy)
Eleanor Rigby
A Day in the Life
Get Back

[Predicto]

The Beatles are not my "favorite" rock band (my personal favorite is Talking Heads) but trying to look at them objectively, they were so far above any other band in the modern era in quality, creativity and influence that it is almost comical to try to compare them to anyone else. Eight years of sustained brilliance and never resting on their laurels. Every single one of their albums is 5 stars (except maybe Let it Be) and there is almost no filler. I love the Stones, but they made album after album with 20 percent good songs and 80 percent meh. The Beatles absolutely refused to do that. Their few songs that fall flat do so because the Beatles were trying to push the musical envelope, which is something that they did better than anyone.

My 5:

Ticket to Ride - the archetype of the happy early Beatles sound.
Strawberry Fields Forever/Penny Lane - a songwriting contest between Lennon and McCartney where both won.
A Day In the Life - experimental and groundbreaking, yet an awesome enjoyable song at the same time
Back in the USSR - Beatles proving they could do the Beach Boys sound better than the Beach Boys themselves, and funnier too.
Something - one of the most beautiful love songs ever written

These 5 were chosen because they were representative of the range of quality music that the Beatles could do. At the same time, leaving out quality songs like Revolution, Hey Jude, I Saw Her Standing There, the Abbey Road Melody, Let it Be, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Norwegian Wood, Girl, Come Together, Paperback Writer, Yesterday, I Want You (She's So Heavy), A Hard Days Night, Help, Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds, Please Please Me, GlassOnion, Eleanor Rigby, Day Tripper, With a Little Help from My Friends, Here Comes the Sun, We Can Work It Out, I am the Walrus, Girl, Taxman, Hey Bulldog, Drive My Car, Everybody's Got Something to Hide (except for me and my Monkey), Eight Days a Week.... Jeez, it's almost ridiculous how much quality there is and how varied it is.

Get Back ... how did Get Back not make the list? It's an awesome song. On almost any other band it would make the top 5, for the Beatles it's basically an afterthought. Got to Get You Into My Life - forget it. Nowhere Man, Birthday, She's Leaving Home, Hey Bulldog, Lady Madonna, Long and Winding Road... all of them strong songs, all of them different, none of them even come close to making the top 50 Beatles songs.

Rolling Stone did a top 100 Beatles songs list, and number 100, dead last on the list, was Hello, Goodbye. That simple catchy pop song may not be your favorite, but for it to be dead last on the list of 100 songs in only eight years... that's just nuts.

[rictus58]

I know I cannot list a top 5. Too difficult. Really depends on my mood at the moment. But i think #1 will always be "Here Comes the Sun". If this song can't make you smile or feel happy, I think you're dead inside.

I was talking about the Beatles a few weeks ago with some buddies. They are widely considered the best band ever. If not the best, top 3. However, individually, none of them would be considered a top 10 talent (out side of lyricists anyway). But together they were magical.

[Lombardi's_kid_brother]

The Beatles are the most over-exposed band in history, though deservedly so. So, it's kind of hard to have real emotional connections with their songs at this point. I mean, the 50th most popular Beatles song has probably been heard more often on the radio than every Kinks song combined. And the Kinks were really popular for a really long time. And I'm going to forget stuff.

Off the top of my head:

1. Penny Lane - just an unbelievable gorgeous, happy, nostaligic, sad, weird song that pretty exemplifies everything the Beatles did. I particularly love how McCartney uses the cheapest songwriters tactic in the world towards the end and suddenly changes key to pull out even more emotion from the song. God only knows how long it took to put this song together, but the most powerful moment is something that a guy sitting around a camp fire in Tudor England could have done.

2. Here Comes the Sun - I love this song, because it still makes me happy and still surprises me when I hear it. It's the one Beatles song I don't think I could ever get sick of hearing. I have no idea why.

3. A Day in the Life - Christ, this song is amazing.

4. Help! - There has been this late period desire to divide the Beatles into four distinct bands, depending on who wrote the song. We divide songs into McCartney songs or Lennon songs and then into Harrison songs. And then there are the Ringo songs. This turns the Beatles into three distinct bands and a Karaoke machine. They weren't. They were a band that just happened to have two transcendent songwriters, a good songwriter, and a quirky, weird drummer. I like Help! because it feels like a song where you don't have to go out of your way to find everyone's contributions and why it was important that these four people formed a band.

5. Helter Skelter - Not overplayed and I love the fact that the Beatles of all people more or less invented heavy metal.

[Predicto]

I was talking about the Beatles a few weeks ago with some buddies. They are widely considered the best band ever. If not the best, top 3. However, individually, none of them would be considered a top 10 talent (out side of lyricists anyway). But together they were magical.

You mean as songwriters, not just as lyricists, right? Because McCartney and Lennon wrote more great musical hooks and coherent songs than pretty much anyone else ever.

Also, I would posit that George Harrison was one of the top ten guitarists of all time. If your definition is who can pick the fastest solo or play the heaviest blues riff or show off solo for 7 minutes straight, then he isn't on your list. But if you look at all the Beatles songs, you will find a tremendous amount of perfect guitar playing, exactly what the song needed and no more. That's was one of the great things about the Beatles - they never let the individuals overshadow the song. I'm going to quote myself from about half a year ago (I'm shameless like that....)

George Harrison might be the most underrated musician in rock history. In song after song after song, he added one perfect riff or one ten second piece of playing, using multiple styles, in ways that fit the song perfectly. Listen to Day Tripper, or Something, or Her Comes the Sun, or Norwegian Wood, or Birthday, or Let It Be, or Paperback Writer, or I Saw Her Standing There, or I Want You (She's so Heavy), or A Hard Day's Night, or Octopus' Garden, or Come Together, etc. All very different songs, all very different guitar pieces but all perfect for the song they were in.

Paul McCartney was also an amazing bass player, but he pretty much could play anything.

[rictus58]

Don't get me wrong. Harrison is a fantastic guitar player. I don't dispute that. But he's not IMO in the top 10 range. top 20 possibly. top 25 for certain.

[MartinC]

Paul McCartney was also an amazing bass player, but he pretty much could play anything.

McCartney is a tremendously talented musician quite apart from his amazing talent as a lyricist and a composer. By some way he was the most talented of the Beatles from a musical perspective. I prefer Lennon for having a bit more edge about his songs but McCartney was the guy who held the Beatles together musically IMO.

There's the famous quote about the question to John I think it was about "Was Ringo the best drummer in the world" - Johns reply, "He's not even the best drummer in he Beatles". McCartney was.

---------- Post added February-21st-2013 at 03:13 PM ----------

3. A Day in the Life - Christ, this song is amazing..

Love this song - it made my top 5 as well. Did you know it's actually two unfinished songs put together? Lennon and McCartney both had unfinished songs they decided to make into a single song with a bridge in the middle.

[Lombardi's_kid_brother]

I was talking about the Beatles a few weeks ago with some buddies. They are widely considered the best band ever. If not the best, top 3. However, individually, none of them would be considered a top 10 talent (out side of lyricists anyway). But together they were magical.

Paul McCartney is probably the single greatest melody writer in rock history.

His stuff with Wings can be incredibly bloated and is brought down by the fact that he is playing with, well, Wings. But if you strip that output down to the 20 best songs, it's as good as anything anyone has ever done.

Lennon's solo work can be problematic because he was often more interested in preaching than in writing hit songs. I think one of the many tragedies of Lennon's death is that I suspect his solo output in the 90s and 2000s would have been incredible. Springsteen is pretty much the only rocker who has dealt with middle age properly. Dylan didn't deal with middle-age terribly well, but is dealing with old age magnificently. I think Lennon could have done both beautifully because he never seemed obsessed with re-living his youth.

I mean, Paul will play Let It Be at the opening ceremonies of the Albany, New York Special Olympics. I don't think John would be doing that. I think he would be like Leonard Cohen or Dylan - playing music that speaks to him now, not 40 years ago.

---------- Post added February-21st-2013 at 04:17 PM ----------

Paul McCartney was also an amazing bass player, but he pretty much could play anything.

Paul was probably a better guitar player than George and a better drummer than Ringo. I think part of the reason he formed Wings was because he often mistreated talented musicians and wanted to make amends by elevating middling musicians. Or something. Wings is weird. Paul is weird.

Paul is also one of 7 imitations I do well - and only one of three celebrities. Like all my imitations, I sound nothing like him, but it is perfect. The entry point for it is the line "Now John was shot, ya'know. Yea. Not cool at all."

Actually the entire imitation is pretty much "Now John was shot, ya'know. Yea. Not cool at all."

I sometimes add the line, "A lot of people survive gunshot wounds. John did not."

It's funny. You would laugh.

I'll show myself out.

[Predicto]

Don't get me wrong. Harrison is a fantastic guitar player. I don't dispute that. But he's not IMO in the top 10 range. top 20 possibly. top 25 for certain.

It all depends on what you think makes a great guitar player. A guy like Steve Vai or Yngwie Malmstein can play up and down scales at the speed of light, but to many its not compelling music. A guy like Stevie Ray Vaughn could play bluesy riffs with the best of them, but that was the only style he played. Harrison did what fit the song.

It's all subjective.

[Sticksboi05]

Paul McCartney was also an amazing bass player, but he pretty much could play anything.

This is an underrated part of Paul's ability. His bass playing on Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is brilliant. I love listening to the instrumental of Lovely Rita and WALHFMF for that reason.

[Dan T.]

1. Hey Judo
2. Foxy Lady Madonna
3. All Along the Walrus
4. Yellow Submarine Haze
5. Lucy in the Star Spangled Banner




Which thread am I in?