-
Best Beatles Song
What do you think is the best Beatles song in terms of influence on music and it’s artistry if you were forced to name one?
I did a faithful google search, and a majority of the polls listing the top Beatles songs, including Rolling Stones Magazine and USA Today, nominated “A Day In the Life” as the #1 all time Beatles song. Number 2 however varied quite a bit. I would have thought one of “Hey Jude”, “Yesterday”, or “Let It Be” would be #1, but it is “A Day In the Life”. Interestingly “In My Life” was consistently very highly regarded as one of their best.
“A Day In the Life” is a powerful song that has a big emotional impact on you I think, and it’s mood lingers on long after it is over for me, so I can see why it is so highly regarded. It seems to be one of their most complex pieces. For me MLT “Nothing Is In Vain” has a similarly powerful effect with it’s mood lingering on long after it finishes. Captivating!
-
39 Replies
-
Interesting Jung. I can understand why “A Day In the Life” rates so high with so many people. However, once again, like with MLT songs, my opinion can change from day to day, depending on my mood and whatever is going on in the world at any particular time. Something as simple as “A Hard Day’s Night” can rate highly for me simply because I can still remember where I first heard it and can still picture the newspaper advertising in the street with the name headlined, way back in 1964.
However, since my retirement and now that I am enjoying a more carefree lifestyle, the theme of this song isn’t as relevant anymore. For some reason “No Reply” has always been a favourite. Maybe because of fond recollections of when I first heard it and of when I first shared the joy of Beatles’ music with others.
As for the MLT, as I have stated above re the Beatles, my opinion can change from day to day, but two consistent raters are “Still A Friend Of Mine” and “Count On Me”. Too many favourites to choose from really!
-
Hi Jung;
A Day In The Life would rank high as the song with the most impact. But, for me, and I am in the minority on this one, I have to go with She Loves You. I was 10 1/2 in February 1964 and I remember RnR before that time and after it….and the song She Loves You was like nothing ever heard before in popular music. The Beatles used maj7 and maj6 chords when most others would have used straight major chords…..also the three guys singing together were making chords vocally with their parts which is also rare……..the song was written in the 3rd person which I cannot remember ever done before. Popular music in the US was basically the Beach Boys singing about cars and surfing, girls groups, and assorted solo acts. About the only innovator at that time was Roy Orbison and maybe the Everly Bros. Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis were going through legal and other problems……so we didn’t get much from them. Even the Everly Bros. had cooled off a little by the time 1964 rolled around. The Beatles, though, showed a major shift in the way pop music was constructed and She Loves You is as good an example of that as any of their early songs. It was like the Beatles tossed out the rule book and did what they wanted.
-
Hi Mike. Thanks for that insight. I agree, when the Beatles came on the scene in the USA in 1964, their music was just so new and different like no one has ever heard before. In a span of 6 to 7 years they changed music forever and elevated pop/rock genre to the stature of other genres in music like classical, jazz, country, folk etc. Before the Beatles, rock/pop was not taken seriously by the older generations, thought of more as a fad or “devils” music by some, but today defines what music is by many.
I see some parallels there with Beethoven. Music was always considered a form of entertainment, and as an art form not at the same stature as the other arts like painting and literature, but after Beethoven, music was considered on par with the other arts. Bach Concerto for keyboards, Mozart Flute concerto, or Beethoven’s 9th Symphony (Ode to Joy), Beatles Hey Jude, are masterpieces as great as Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, Shakespeares Hamlet, or Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling.
-
Great points Howard. I find No Reply is a great song that I discovered since you pointed it out previously. My favorite Beatles song varies too, but since I was little, “Let It Be” always stood out the most among the Beatles many great songs. It’s melody and lyrics just sounded like something passed down from the centuries.
-
When I hear this one I cant help but think this one song very well may have been a launchpad for a whole sub-genre of music style for bands like Chicago, Boston, Little River Band, ELO, Doobie Brothers, Steve Miller, Eagles…etc A testament to how innovative the Beatles were.
-
I agree, Jung. The powerful instrumentation of “Got To Get You Into My Life” really started a musical movement. I can’t think of a similar song that pre-dates it. You could probably include Blood, Sweat and Tears in your list of bands that tapped into this vein.
McCartney performed this song the first time I saw him in concert in 1990. As it began, the house lights went up and everyone spontaneously stood up and started dancing in place. The sound of the trumpets live gave it an amazing energy that far surpasses what you get from the recording.
-
-
Hi David. I remember hearing Paul McCartney doing this song in the 70’s as McCartney and Wings and always thought it was a McCartney solo song from the 70’s until I got Revolver and discovered it was done much earlier in the 60’s as a Beatles song. Here is a performance of this song by Paul in 2011 at the White House for President Obama that I hope captures some of that amazing energy you experienced at that show in the 90’s.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uA4sh9lcZE
-
Thanks, Jung. I just came across this audience recording of the song from an earlier date in the same tour. This probably gives you the best sense of the suddenly electric atmosphere.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDiusWO9aCo
-
Wow David, I can feel that electric atmosphere in the way the audience sings along with Paul “GOT TO GET YOU INTO MY LIFE!!!!”
-
-
That’s a great White House performance Jung. Sir Paul had an awesome band too. The drummer is just perfect! I guess the dude on the keyboard is using a synthesizer for the brass sounds.
Some interesting facts about the song from the web:
“It’s actually an ode to pot,” McCartney explained. A cover version by Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers peaked at number six in 1966 in the UK. The song was issued in the United States as a single from the Rock ‘n’ Roll Music compilation album in 1976, six years after the Beatles disbanded. It reached number seven on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, the Beatles’ last top ten US hit until their 1995 release “Free as a Bird”.
The brass was close-miked in the bells of the instruments, then put through a limiter. This session, on 18 May, marked the first time that the Beatles had used a horn section. The percussion instrument most predominant is the overdubbed tambourine.
In Barry Miles’ 1997 book Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now, McCartney disclosed that the song was about marijuana. “‘Got to Get You into My Life’ was one I wrote when I had first been introduced to pot … So [it’s] really a song about that, it’s not to a person.” Many lyrics from the song suggest this: “I took a ride, I didn’t know what I would find there / Another road where maybe I could see some other kind of mind there.”,'”What can I do? What can I be? When I’m with you, I want to stay there / If I am true, I will never leave and if I do, I’ll know the way there.” “It’s actually an ode to pot,” McCartney explained, “like someone else might write an ode to chocolate or a good claret.
Author Devin McKinney similarly views the early take as “radiat[ing] peace in a hippie vein”, and he recognises the arrangement as a forerunner to the sound adopted by the Beach Boys over 1967–68 on their albums Smiley Smile and Wild Honey.”
-
Howard, that’s a great insight into the song. It’s like John Lennon’s “Norwegian Wood” that was about his frustration of not getting his way with a girl one evening, and he is singing about burning down her house at the end. I think you mentioned that on another post previously. It seems some of the Beatles songs have a very unexpected and somewhat simple and rudimentary inspiration behind it, but has turned into something so much greater for so many people. As trivial or inconsequential the origin of the songs may be, the Beatles were masters at taking the listener into the state of their mind through their music. Whether it is Paul’s “Got To Get You Into My Life” or John’s “Norwegian Wood”, there appears to be great passion I think behind it, and they expressed it so masterfully in their song. Taking the listener into the “mental state” of the song writer. That is why their music is so powerful.
-
Here is a fun video about reaction to Beatkes Sargent Peppers to a random sampling of elders today. Universal appeal of Beatles melody is amazing.
-
Here is how kids today react to Beatles music. You would be surprised with some of the answers when asked at the end if they like Beatles music better than pop music today.
-
“It’s your head; you get to think.” That little kid is wise beyond his years.
-
-
Indeed David. Sometimes the wisest words come from kids. It must be their innocent and honest undistorted view of the world.
-
In the Elders react to the Beatles video, loved some of the reaction comments:
Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds: “I get goose bumps man!”
It’s Getting Better: “Boy! How did they know?..What genius got inside their mind, and hooked them up?”
A Day In the Life: “This is the one!!! This recording could be a hit any time”. “It’s not negative things coming out of their mouths. It’s just good music!”
On Sargent Peppers Album: “…I liked the fact they made me think, and experience something new.”
-
When I was a kid the favorite was “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” Then in my early teens it was “Here Comes the Sun.” We would listen to the 8-track on the way up skiing. It was going to be the first song on the ski film I was making (until I lost my brother’s camera in an avalanche). Then the movie would have transitioned to “No Time” by the Guess Who.
The Beatles were short lived for me as I was a 70’s teen, but grew up with an older sister. If I only knew what I did now, I would have begged her to buy more Beatles albums. She liked her parties and the one or two albums she had were stolen.
My teens were 70’s bands. When “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” came out “Twist and Shout” took over the top spot.
I’m embarrassed among all the Beatles fans here to admit I didn’t know “If I Fell” or “I’ll Follow the Sun” until I heard Mona and Lisa’s version. I’d have to say those two tie for first for me now.
-
Hi John. I think like yourself my exposure to Beatles was rather limited to their well know hits and songs off their Blue and Red albums and Sargent Pepper. MLT opened up a whole new Beatles world I never knew existed from lesser known gems from the many Beatles albums.
Ferris Buellers Day Off conjures up so many of those early 80s movies of my late teens and early twenties. Do you remember St Elmos Fire, Breakfast Club, Risky Business, Pretty In Pink, Weird Science….All those actors from my generation: Matthew Broderick, Tom Cruise, Emilio Esteves, Rob Lowe, Molly Ringwald, Andrew McCarthy, Judd Nelson….Great memories.
-
Oh yes, everything but St. Elmos Fire. I guess that has to move up my list. Breakfast Club was a classic. A lessor known, but I think excellent Judd Nelson film was “From the Hip.”
Log in to reply.
