Top 10 Beatles Songs
Say what you will, but The Beatles was one of the most seminal acts in pop history. Their look, their music, and their brand inspired future generations of pop musicians and producers to make both melodic and experimental music for the average person. They pioneered pop music as an art form through albums such as Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and pioneered music genres such as psychedelia with albums such as Revolver.
Although the boomers with all their money and influence nowadays have diluted younger generations’ ability to fully appreciate The Beatles’ musical achievements with documentaries and museums venerating the band to boredom, it’s crystal clear that they were one of the most consistent bands of their generation - a generation of musicians whom many musical experts deem to be the most accomplished, talented, and apt artists in pop history.
The fab four consisting of the iconic songwriting partnership of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, with lead guitarist George Harrison and drummer Ringo Starr holding the songs down with their respective musical talents, produced some of the best songs I’ve ever heard.
Constructing this top 10 list was very difficult: in their early years the band produced amazing singles and when they matured into the influential brand we know them as today they produced brilliant albums with great deep cuts. So, this list is very much one of personal taste. Nonetheless, here’s the 10 best Beatles songs.
10: ‘In My Life’ - Rubber Soul (1965)
Rubber Soul was a real leap forward for the band. Their take on the folk genre on the LP is very successful, and one of the LP’s biggest successes is ‘In My Life’. Lennon takes charge on this one, and it’s a beautiful nostalgic ballad. Producer George Martin’s sped up piano solo at the bridge works a treat too: there’s a real campfire feel to the song that’s perfect for the vibe of the album as a whole.
9: ‘Something’ - Abbey Road (1969)
A George Harrison song comes in number nine. By the end of the band’s tenure, Harrison really established himself as a reliable songwriter. ‘Something’ of off the very professional, finely produced Abbey Road is an example of his songwriting talents. It’s a beautiful love song that encapsulates the je ne sais quoi of a girl you’re in love with. The strings and the guitar licks really sell the sensual quality of the song.
8: ‘I Want You (She’s So Heavy)’ - Abbey Road (1969)
This track only has 14 different words in its lyrics. Well, it’s more than enough: this song is structured to perfection. The verses, the chorus, the wall of sound outro are all wonderful. If there’s any evidence that The Beatles were masters of songwriting by the end of their career, this song will be it.
7: ‘Yesterday’ - Help! (1965)
Next on the list is the famous ballad ‘Yesterday’. Although it’s credited as a Lennon-McCartney composition, this is Paul McCartney through and through. No fear of being vulnerable that typifies Lennon’s songs (which we’ll get to later on the list for sure), this single has a memorable melody, a beautiful string arrangement, and a real mastery over pop sensibility. It’s a Beatles staple.
6: ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ - Magical Mystery Tour (1967)
Now, it does say that ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ is part of the Magical Mystery Tour LP, but realistically it’s known as one of the most significant psychedelic pop singles of the 20th century. Although in the last entry I alluded to how Lennon struggled with being vulnerable in his music, ‘Strawberry Fields’ is his most successful attempt at doing so. The single that reached number two in the charts has Lennon evoking images of loneliness and sentiments of insecurity, cleverly shrouded in a love song that turns demented and psychedelic by the latter half, using a place (the garden of Strawberry Field, a Salvation Army children's home in Liverpool) that characterised his childhood as a basis. George Martin deserves special credit for his ability stitch two versions of the song seamlessly too. It was my favourite Beatles song for the longest time, and for good reason.
5: ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’ - The Beatles (White Album) (1968)
From a songwriter that perhaps would’ve benefited from being more vulnerable in their music, to one who perhaps failed to achieve lift off because they were too sincere. Harrison’s songwriting potential was only beginning to be realised by the end of The Beatles’ tenure and ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’ is perhaps his best song for the band: he figured out a way to be genuine without coming off as mawkishly sentimental. Eric Clapton’s involvement on the song is inspired, and overall it’s just a beautiful depiction of the deprave and loveless nature of the world that’s not too corny compared to his foray in hindu-inspired music demonstrated in songs such as ‘Love You To’ or ‘Within You Without You’. It’s understandably one of the White Album’s most celebrated tracks.
4: ‘I’m Only Sleeping’ - Revolver (1966)
The third track from the band’s best LP (Revolver is their best album - fight me!) is my personal favourite from the band. It’s number four because I think there are three more songs that are objectively more powerful, iconic, and ambitious, but ‘I’m Only Sleeping’ is wonderful, wonderful song. A folk song utterly transformed into a psychedelic pop dream, ‘I’m Only Sleeping’ has Lennon serenading over the joys of sleeping to tremendous effect. Harrison’s backwards guitar solo, Lennon high pitched vocals, and McCartney’s yawning ad-libs epitomises the fun, the talent, and the competence that the five (six including engineer Geoff Emerick) people involved had when making the seminal project.
3: ‘I Am the Walrus’ - Magical Mystery Tour (1967)
One of the most iconic B-sides in pop history, along side B-sides such as The Smiths’ ‘How Soon Is Now’ (WOW, I’m really setting up a Smiths article). ‘I Am the Walrus’ was Lennon’s response to school teachers analysing his song lyrics: he decided to pen a track with lyrics with an approach more akin to Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear than Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth in ‘Strawberry Fields’. It’s demented, it’s ridiculous, it’s just John Lennon being his acerbic, witty, self-effacing self, with the help of Martin in the violent string arrangements and audio splices. It’s delightful chaos, despite the other band members loathing this song when it was recorded.
2: ‘A Day in the Life’ - Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band may be an overrated album, but the closer, ‘A Day in the Life’, may well be one of the most emphatic closers in their canon (note: one of the most emphatic closers - the last entry will make this distinction more clear). Sgt. Pepper’s is a significant pop album: it’s a real artistic statement and its legacy cannot be disputed. ‘A Day in the Life’ caps of an LP rich with fine production, melodic, kaleidescopic soundscapes, and professional songwriting in stunning fashion. A track chronicalling one’s day has Lennon and McCartney singing from the same hymn sheet, beautifully depicting the melancholic mundanity that exemplies the average person’s - you guessed it - day in their life. It’s haunting, it’s brilliant, it’s vintage Beatles.
1: ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ - Revolver (1966)
From one closer to another, ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ - a title inspired by Ringo Starr’s malopropism of the common term “tomorrow never comes” - is the very best of all stages of The Beatles. The song has the innocent gaiety that epitomised the band’s early stage, it has the experimentation that made the band into the psychedelic powerhouses they were, and it foreshadowed the edge and professionalism that would define the end of their tenure. The melodicism, their mastery of pop songwriting, shines through in this too. The drum loop, the otherworldly sound made by various tapes including a sped-up tape of McCartney’s laughter, and Lennon’s revolving, fluctuating vocal sound come together (ahh, get the reference?) to make a real masterpiece: a psychedelic closer that rocks more than most of the psychedelic music released today.