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All 213 Beatles Somgs Ranked


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Worst to best:

 

CLONK

 

Of course I disagree with their ranking, as I'm sure everybody will....no matter how they were ranked, because we all have our own opinions. But these lists can still sometimes be fun.

Dan

 

Acoustic/Electric stringed instruments ranging from 4 to 230 strings, hammered, picked, fingered, slapped, and plucked. Analog and Digital Electronic instruments, reeds, and throat/mouth.

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. :facepalm: :facepalm: :laugh:

Dan

 

Acoustic/Electric stringed instruments ranging from 4 to 230 strings, hammered, picked, fingered, slapped, and plucked. Analog and Digital Electronic instruments, reeds, and throat/mouth.

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Everyone knows that Brown Sugar is easily their best.

Nope, it's Whole Lotta Love!!!!

"I'm so crazy, I don't know this is impossible! Hoo hoo!" - Daffy Duck

 

"The good news is that once you start piano you never have to worry about getting laid again. More time to practice!" - MOI

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Seriously?!?!?

 

Another scorching riff married to a good-humored assortment of one-liners and other nonsense. By this time, the bands early postures of being relationship arbitrators (Youre Gonna Lose That Girl) had matured into songs like this; entire relationship worlds created around this or that character, all drawn with a knowing authority. (She was a daytripper!). I love how the thing stops every once in a while, as if to digest the riff, or perhaps just draw breath; then the backing track slams into place, shaking its head at its own invention. Note the doubled vocals, and the novel break out of the guitar solo.

 

Dude...it's pop music.

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The oddest rankings to my mind:

 

Good Day Sunshine the very worst of all?? Surely it's at least rhythmically interesting - people sing along and tap their feet...no way it's the worst, c'mon. Has to be a pet peeve.

 

She's Leaving Home #204?? Ok, the lyrics are middling, so just listen to the very unusual, lovely melody.

 

Real Love and Free As A Bird are dissed as "grave-robbing" and "dishonest". Sheesh - in this day and age??

 

No Reply #173? It's one of the two powerful songs on a weak album (I'm A Loser being the other.)

 

Because gets knocked way down to #140 because it's a "fragment"? And Maggie May scores 40 notches higher???

 

Money is way up there at #14 while Twist and Shout sits at #43?? And both of them scoring better than Julia at #50 just one notch better than There's A Place???

 

 

I won't bore everyone with my own rankings...but She's A Woman would get a really big promotion out of the bottom feeders.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I'm not an enormous Beatles fan, and my favorite stuff is their psychedelic stuff, so I was happy to see "Rain" make the Top 10, and "Tomorrow Never Knows" not far behind. I don't know what are the best, but I'm not really that into their really big giant pop songs so much, i.e., "I Wanna Hold Your Hand". They don't speak to me like some of their more ambitious songs do, but again, this is just a matter of personal taste.
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Hey Ken - this is actually me, nat whilk. My Musicplayer id Nowarezman I had almost totally forgotten 'till Craig moved back over here.

 

I was 9 in Jan 1964 when the radio played She Loves You and I Want To Hold Your Hand. Life was never the same....I grew up while they grew musically. I've probably got a separate section in my brain for each song, chord, line, tone. Not like it's all great stuff - not at all - it's more like cheering for your team through the good and the bad, and all the players are my cousins.

 

nat

 

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Hey, how's it going?

 

I didn't really get into some of the Beatles' music until I was an adult, so my tastes would be markedly different than if I had, say, heard them on the Ed Sullivan show or heard them as a kid on the radio, like you did.

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Hey, how's it going?

 

I didn't really get into some of the Beatles' music until I was an adult, so my tastes would be markedly different than if I had, say, heard them on the Ed Sullivan show or heard them as a kid on the radio, like you did.

 

Much of the Beatles is about the context in which the music lives. When the Beatles came on the scene, things were dreary. Kennedy had been assassinated. Schools were doing "duck and cover" drills because of the horror of the atomic bomb. The music scene was mostly vapid, inoffensive pop music.

 

"I Want to Hold Your Hand" was like a shot of adrenalin to society, and although it may seem tame now, it was rebellion the likes of which hadn't been seen since the early days of Elvis Presley swiveling his hips, and having the audacity to merge "race" music with country. As the baby boomers evolved, the US sank deeper into a war no one understood, and society was transformed by drugs and conflict, the Beatles provided the soundtrack.

 

Music accesses the three-dimensional database called "memory." When anyone of that era thinks of Beatles songs, the context always comes along for the ride.

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I was one of the first people in the US to hear Sgt. Pepper's. Mandrake was playing at a club in Allentown, PA, when someone came up to us after our set and asked if we wanted to hear the new Beatles album. His father had smuggled a copy of the album out of the Capitol Records pressing plant.

 

We had no idea what to expect, but went over to his house, smoked some weed, and...

 

When that last piano chord on "Day in the Life" faded out, my musical life was transformed. It's hard to imagine the impact that album had, because it was so different from anything that had come before. It was daring the music world to take pop music further than it ever had been pushed before.

 

So some pundit can say all he wants about what he thinks of individual songs...it was never just about the songs.

 

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Seems weird to me to event try to rank their songs within the same category because of not only the diversity, but at least in my mind, it seems like there were different eras of the Beatles. I would probably have to first break their catalog into a few seperate groups, then rank within each group.

 

I do have to say that some of my favorites come from the Revolver/Rubber Soul time frame.

Dan

 

Acoustic/Electric stringed instruments ranging from 4 to 230 strings, hammered, picked, fingered, slapped, and plucked. Analog and Digital Electronic instruments, reeds, and throat/mouth.

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My favorites have changed through time. Nice how you can almost "rediscover" an album you got tired of at some point. I could come up with a list. It wouldnt be this list; or the same list I would have made 10 or 20 years ago.

Regardless, I dont get Good Day Sunshine as being ranked their worst song.

 

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I grew up with the Beatles around me (my sister is 12 years older and had some of the albums), but unlike those who were there, I didn't grow up with them providing the soundtrack. In fact, The Monkees were my favorite band for a while when I was a kid. :D

 

But I love the Beatles and I can't pick one over the other. There's almost always something to be discovered as far as I'm concerned. It seems like no matter what album I put on of theirs, I dig it.

 

That being said, when my wife asked me which would be my desert island pick, Beatles or Stones, Stones all the way. I'd miss the Beatles, but the Stones are at my core.

"I'm so crazy, I don't know this is impossible! Hoo hoo!" - Daffy Duck

 

"The good news is that once you start piano you never have to worry about getting laid again. More time to practice!" - MOI

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Much of the Beatles is about the context in which the music lives. When the Beatles came on the scene, things were dreary. Kennedy had been assassinated. Schools were doing "duck and cover" drills because of the horror of the atomic bomb. The music scene was mostly vapid, inoffensive pop music.

 

"I Want to Hold Your Hand" was like a shot of adrenalin to society, and although it may seem tame now, it was rebellion the likes of which hadn't been seen since the early days of Elvis Presley swiveling his hips, and having the audacity to merge "race" music with country. As the baby boomers evolved, the US sank deeper into a war no one understood, and society was transformed by drugs and conflict, the Beatles provided the soundtrack.

 

Music accesses the three-dimensional database called "memory." When anyone of that era thinks of Beatles songs, the context always comes along for the ride.

Well put, Craig! I have plenty of vivid memories associated with Beatles music (proving, I guess, that although I lived through the sixties, I wasnt really there ;) ).

 

I want to second this, and add that the album context also played an important role. I cant think of any cut from Sgt. Pepper without thinking of how it flowed from the song that proceeded it and how it led into the next song. To think of them as individual songs to be shuffled into a ranking system just seems strange to me. Its a little like ranking breakfast, lunch, and dinner entrees without the context of the meals.

 

Best,

 

Geoff

My Blue Someday appears on Apple Music | Spotify | YouTube | Amazon

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To think of them as individual songs to be shuffled into a ranking system just seems strange to me. Its a little like ranking breakfast, lunch, and dinner entrees without the context of the meals.

 

Rankings always get a lot of discussion going, because people will disagree with the list. It's something web sites and publications do when things get quiet...like how if a radio show starts to falter, all they have to do is start a topic of abortion or gun control.

 

Music is so incredibly subjective, and so much involved with associations, that the idea of an objective list seems absurd. The song that was playing when a girl French-kissed me for the first time will always be one of the best songs on the planet, as far as I'm concerned...although it probably wouldn't have the same significance to someone else :)

 

 

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It just occurred to me that ranking doesn't take mood into account. The "best" song when you're driving down the highway might not be the "best" song if you're sitting at home.

 

So what is the basis of "best," anyway? Most melodically complex? Sales? Other people think it's cool?

 

Well...I think that maybe the title should have been "My Favorite Beatles Songs." It's just one dude's favorite songs. I am missing something, or is that pretty much meaningless?

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I think that maybe the title should have been "My Favorite Beatles Songs." It's just one dude's favorite songs. I am missing something, or is that pretty much meaningless?

My Favorite Beatles Songs by Someone with Too Much Time to Waste

"I'm so crazy, I don't know this is impossible! Hoo hoo!" - Daffy Duck

 

"The good news is that once you start piano you never have to worry about getting laid again. More time to practice!" - MOI

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.....Well...I think that maybe the title should have been "My Favorite Beatles Songs." It's just one dude's favorite songs. I am missing something, or is that pretty much meaningless?

 

I think it is *possible* for someone to compile,assemble, or edit a list of the best songs of any major group, or a book of the best rock/pop albums of all time, and have its rankings be useful and informative to its readers, if the leader of the project actively seeks input from people who like music the leader themself does not understand or appreciate. This takes a certain amount of humility.

 

Without this, one could end up publishing a book which they describe as the definitive guide to rock music, but which gave 3 stars out of 5 (in its 1st Edition) to Steely Dan Aja, and which gave Chicago's "Hotstreets" album a higher rating than any of their first 4 studio albums.

 

I find it especially odd that a member of a group who was considered a "competitor" of the Beatles during the 1960s would attempt to rank their songs. I don't think anyone would expect an impartial view from him.

 

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I find it especially odd that a member of a group who was considered a "competitor" of the Beatles during the 1960s would attempt to rank their songs. I don't think anyone would expect an impartial view from him.

 

Are you sure it's that Bill Wyman? I highly doubt it, or the magazine would have made a big deal about "Hey! We got the famous Bill Wyman to write this!!"

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I find it especially odd that a member of a group who was considered a "competitor" of the Beatles during the 1960s would attempt to rank their songs. I don't think anyone would expect an impartial view from him.

 

Are you sure it's that Bill Wyman? I highly doubt it, or the magazine would have made a big deal about "Hey! We got the famous Bill Wyman to write this!!"

 

Good point. I have no idea.

 

Another possibility is that it's someone who has a better sense of humor than I do!

 

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Thanks for the link! That clears things up.

 

I guess that the Stones' Bill Wyman would not have written "The Rolling Stones' recorded legacy is unfortunately similar to that of many other rock stars of the 1960s -- a great burst of creativity that tapers off into a stretch (eventually decades long) of unremarkable (and sometimes downright awful) recorded work."

 

However, this whole thing did inspire me to find out whether Bill Wyman is dead or not ("Bill Wyman? Is he still alive?"). He is, in fact, alive.

 

 

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Bill Wyman (the critic) isn't the only one that has the same name as a musician. There was also a Robert Palmer who was a famous rock critic, and I think there might be one or two others but if there are/were their names are escaping me ATM.

"I'm so crazy, I don't know this is impossible! Hoo hoo!" - Daffy Duck

 

"The good news is that once you start piano you never have to worry about getting laid again. More time to practice!" - MOI

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