Dave's Top Fifteen Beatles Songs

Kittens is a big fan of the Beatles. I suppose I should have known a lot more about the Beatles, but as a music fan, I knew that the second I started buying albums, I'd have to buy them all. And that wasn't an investment I was prepared to make, since the only albums I was familiar with were Abbey Road (and when I heard it, years ago, I hated it... I was a dumb teen, apparently) and A Hard Day's Night (which I'm still not sold on).

However, she gave me a DVD with all of the songs on there, and I've been devouring them since then. I just got back from a good run along the waterway, listening to Let it Be and the White Album. At several points, I'd stop, just to listen to the tunes - not to give me a chance to wheeze pitifully and get oxygen back into my lungs. No matter what that chuckling couple on the balcony pointing at me thought. And I ask them - why laugh at me, when you're up there doing nothing at all? At least, I would have asked them that... were I not so busy, you know, wheezing.

Anyways, Kittens told me about a list that she made, of her favourite fifteen Beatles songs. And she got a few of her friends to make lists of their own. I told her that I had to really digest the material before I even attempted a list of my own. Partly this was because I knew that if I made a super-fast list, I'd say something super embarrassing, and I'd miss a wonderful song and look like a jackass. But mostly it's because making this list is a very hard thing to do - what are your fifteen favourite Beatles' songs? Out of a catalogue of around three hundred?

I haven't really listened to every Beatles album fully yet, but I feel confident enough now to at least make a half-informed list. So, here it is - my fifteen current favourites, and the album they are from.

Dave's Fifteen Favourite Beatles' Songs

1. You Never Give Me Your Money (Abbey Road): Yeah. This is my favourite. I love how it starts off the medley on the second half of Abbey Road, which I am beginning to think is the best side two of any album ever made. What I really love of this song is how many phases it goes through in a few short minutes. And the blues-style guitar riff at 2:28 ("One sweet dream/pick up the bags, get in the limousine....") is just awesome.
2. Dear Prudence (White Album): My only complaint with this song is that it comes too early in the album - it shouldn't be a track 2, but a track 7 or so. It's a wonderful ballad. I love songs that keep the same main riff, and just keep adding and adding throughout. There's a chorus, but it's more of a refrain that repeats over the same guitar line. It's a bloody beautiful song, and whenever I hear it, I want to pick up my own guitar.
3. Come Together (Abbey Road): For the longest time, my favourite Beatles' song. Still love it, because of the great bluesy guitar line, the muffled vocal lines, and a chorus that is burned into the mainstream consciousness.
4. Rocky Raccoon (White Album): This is actually the song that's playing as I write this. And I'm finding myself thinking it should be #1. I have no idea why I like this song... for some reason, it just catches me. It reminds me of Johnny Cash's Don't Take Your Guns to Town, but with much better instrumentals. Plus, I like Paul McCartney's voice better than Johnny Cash's. Sorry, Johnny
5. Yellow Submarine (Revolver): This is one of those songs that I like simply because of the drum beat. An acoustic song with a simple bass drum kick always gets my head nodding. Which is also why I like songs like Led Zeppelin's Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp or Black Country Woman. Funny story - when I told Kittens this was on my list, she made a sound of disgust. I take it this song isn't on her list.
6. Magical Mystery Tour (Magical Mystery Tour): I don't know. I like this song. It gets stuck in my head. A lot. I love the ad-libbed vocals on top of a choir - "got everything you need", "Satisfaction guaranteed", and all that jazz.
7. Why Don't We Do It in the Road? (White Album): God, there's a lot of White Album songs on my list. Ditto for Abbey Road. Kittens calls this song repetitive. I think it's great - sure, the vocals are pretty simple (for those that don't know, the title is also pretty much the only lyric in the song... repeated over and over again, on a repeating piano line). I like it mostly because of the soul in McCartney's voice. And I fall for that sort of thing.
8. Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End (Abbey Road): Technically, it's three songs, but they meld together so well that they stand together in my mind. You have the slow start in Golden Slumbers, which turns into a great album piece in Carry That Weight (and if you listen, you can hear a horn section that repeats a few lines from You Never Give Me Your Money... I love it when albums do that). And then you get the crazy guitar solos in The End, where Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison each have short guitar bursts. And then you get the best closing album line ever - "and in the end/ the love you take/ is equal to the love/ you make". I love that ending. Love it.
9. Getting Better (Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band): Any song that has the lyric "I've got to believe it's getting better - can't get much worse" is an A+ in my book.
10. I Am The Walrus (Magical Mystery Tour): John Lennon was inspired to write this song because his old school teacher wrote him a letter. In that letter, the teacher talked about getting his class to interpret Beatles' songs. John wrote this song to be as nonsensical as possible, and when he finished, reportedly said to a friend of his "There. That ought to confuse the fuckers". I love stories like this.
11. Got To Get You Into My Life (Revolver): This is another one of those songs I don't know why I like. But I do. It gets stuck in my head pretty often. I also really like how the vocals were recorded.
12. I Want You/She's So Heavy (Abbey Road): This is the last song the Beatles recorded together. And they recorded it on my birthday, which makes it more awesome. I love the bluesy elements, the way the vocals work, and the outro - it's so heavy. I hear guitar solos playing over that outro, or noise, or screams... I hear stuff that could be there, but isn't. It's just so tense that my mind wants to put something in there... which would be a mistake. It is perfect the way it is... and then it just stops suddenly, without warning. Amazing.
13. You Can't Do That (A Hard Day's Night): This reminds me of the Animals - that sort of sixties swinging vibe, with a heavy piano playing. And the vocals over top. It just makes me think of classic rock and roll. I prefer later Beatles to early, but I like this one.
14. Let it Be (Let it Be): Another one that I've loved for a long time. It's a ballad, and it builds up with more and more pieces added. Not much more to say.
15. Twist and Shout (Please Please Me): Okay. This song is one that I like for many reasons. It's classic rock and roll, for starters. And it makes me think of one of the best scenes in movie history. And, well, how can you not like this song?

Now, there could be a lot more songs on this list. I'm thinking Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da (White Album), Eleanor Rigby (Revolver), She Came In Through the Bathroom Window (Abbey Road), Your Mother Should Know (Magical Mystery Tour), A Little Help From My Friends (Sgt. Pepper's), Across the Universe (Let it Be), and Baby You're a Rich Man (Magical Mystery Tour) could all be on this list.

But, I have to pick fifteen. So, those are my fifteen.

Anyone else wanna post theirs, feel free. But it's a hard topic. Think carefully.