Quite a few of these songs appear in the article, so be sure to check it out.
1. I Saw Her Standing There - Please, Please Me This was one my earliest favourites and one of the band's earliest singles. The Beatles are so ubiquitous in popular culture that any story of the Beatles cannot help but be a personal one. So why not start at the beginning? Lennon and McCartney built on the rock chassis established in the 1950s and made it a lean three-minute miracle.
2. All My Loving - With The Beatles Beatlemania was as much about young girls screaming for pop idols as it was anything else. Songs like "All My Loving" were novel in that they positioned the listener inside the song as an active participant. You really felt like they were singing to you.
3. A Hard Day's Night - A Hard Day's Night The Beatles learnt their lessons well, and by the time their first feature film rolled around, the bonafide pop icons were capable of writing complex little pop songs. The identity of the opening note to "A Hard Day's Night" baffled fans, musicians, and physicists for decades. Only recently has modern technology been able to reveal that the singular note heard, is actually a composite of five different instruments each playing a single, different note simultaneously, courtesy of George Martin. It's a sign a things to come.
4. I'll Follow The Sun - Beatles For Sale Day follows night. The Beatles didn't always write love songs and mid-period, pre-psychedlic Beatles finds them struggling to maintain their identity in the wake of their overwhelming success.
5. Yesterday - Help! Introducing the sad Beatles and perhaps the most covered song in the Beatles songbook.
6. In My Life - Rubber Soul The psychedelic era begins with the Beatles looking forwards and back. The theme to a thousand high school graduations, mine was no exception.
7. Good Day Sunshine - Revolver The 1960s were such a diverse and wildly experimental time, that it's hard to distill to one moment, image, or song. For the Beatles though, few songs capture the optimism and innocence of the era.
8. With A Little Help From My Friends - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band Take an old vinyl recording of this album, if only to enjoy the full effect of the album cover that positions the Beatles with their contemporary pop "friends", and drop the needle at any point on either side and just enjoy what you here. I picked this track really only because the Beatles saw themselves as a part of a movement, but I could have easily picked half a dozen others. Or, simply pointed out that the drum breaks launched a thousand hip hop acts. Or that it was the first concept album. Or that it routinely lands No.1 on Greatest Albums of All Time lists. It's also the bands height and everything else is a downward spiral.
9. Happiness Is Warm Gun - The Beatles (The White Album) My favourite.
10. All You Need Is Love - Yellow Submarine My daughter's favourite.
11. Come Together - Abbey Road After 1968 the psychedelic era was over and all the innocence and optimism was gone. The Beatles try to shed their pop image for something that re-emphases their rock roots and largely succeed with "Come Together". John still manages to make insert some crafty pop sloganeering.
12. The Long And Winding Road - Let It Be Spectrum was pretty split on whether to go with "Let It Be" (which they did) or "The Long And Winding Road". To me, you have to save a special place for the last one. "Let It Be" is a song that many listeners developed intensely personal relationship with. I'm no exception, but the Beatles ended with "The Long And Winding Road" and in any story of the Beatles, that has to count for something. The album was initially conceived as a hard rock back-to-basics follow-up to Abbey Road, but the individual Beatles were just being pulled in too many directions. Phil Spector was brought in as a replacement producer (the band had already parted ways with George Martin some time ago) and Spector ran roughshod over many of McCartney's tracks. At this point, McCartney was the only one left thinking there was something still viable in the group, but his anger with Spector led him to file papers to legally dissolve the band. It's a love song, and a sad one at that, but as a final coda to perhaps the greatest and most influential rock 'n' roll band of the 20th century, it brings a tear to my eye every time I hear it.
1. I Saw Her Standing There - Please, Please Me This was one my earliest favourites and one of the band's earliest singles. The Beatles are so ubiquitous in popular culture that any story of the Beatles cannot help but be a personal one. So why not start at the beginning? Lennon and McCartney built on the rock chassis established in the 1950s and made it a lean three-minute miracle.
2. All My Loving - With The Beatles Beatlemania was as much about young girls screaming for pop idols as it was anything else. Songs like "All My Loving" were novel in that they positioned the listener inside the song as an active participant. You really felt like they were singing to you.
3. A Hard Day's Night - A Hard Day's Night The Beatles learnt their lessons well, and by the time their first feature film rolled around, the bonafide pop icons were capable of writing complex little pop songs. The identity of the opening note to "A Hard Day's Night" baffled fans, musicians, and physicists for decades. Only recently has modern technology been able to reveal that the singular note heard, is actually a composite of five different instruments each playing a single, different note simultaneously, courtesy of George Martin. It's a sign a things to come.
4. I'll Follow The Sun - Beatles For Sale Day follows night. The Beatles didn't always write love songs and mid-period, pre-psychedlic Beatles finds them struggling to maintain their identity in the wake of their overwhelming success.
5. Yesterday - Help! Introducing the sad Beatles and perhaps the most covered song in the Beatles songbook.
6. In My Life - Rubber Soul The psychedelic era begins with the Beatles looking forwards and back. The theme to a thousand high school graduations, mine was no exception.
7. Good Day Sunshine - Revolver The 1960s were such a diverse and wildly experimental time, that it's hard to distill to one moment, image, or song. For the Beatles though, few songs capture the optimism and innocence of the era.
8. With A Little Help From My Friends - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band Take an old vinyl recording of this album, if only to enjoy the full effect of the album cover that positions the Beatles with their contemporary pop "friends", and drop the needle at any point on either side and just enjoy what you here. I picked this track really only because the Beatles saw themselves as a part of a movement, but I could have easily picked half a dozen others. Or, simply pointed out that the drum breaks launched a thousand hip hop acts. Or that it was the first concept album. Or that it routinely lands No.1 on Greatest Albums of All Time lists. It's also the bands height and everything else is a downward spiral.
9. Happiness Is Warm Gun - The Beatles (The White Album) My favourite.
10. All You Need Is Love - Yellow Submarine My daughter's favourite.
11. Come Together - Abbey Road After 1968 the psychedelic era was over and all the innocence and optimism was gone. The Beatles try to shed their pop image for something that re-emphases their rock roots and largely succeed with "Come Together". John still manages to make insert some crafty pop sloganeering.
12. The Long And Winding Road - Let It Be Spectrum was pretty split on whether to go with "Let It Be" (which they did) or "The Long And Winding Road". To me, you have to save a special place for the last one. "Let It Be" is a song that many listeners developed intensely personal relationship with. I'm no exception, but the Beatles ended with "The Long And Winding Road" and in any story of the Beatles, that has to count for something. The album was initially conceived as a hard rock back-to-basics follow-up to Abbey Road, but the individual Beatles were just being pulled in too many directions. Phil Spector was brought in as a replacement producer (the band had already parted ways with George Martin some time ago) and Spector ran roughshod over many of McCartney's tracks. At this point, McCartney was the only one left thinking there was something still viable in the group, but his anger with Spector led him to file papers to legally dissolve the band. It's a love song, and a sad one at that, but as a final coda to perhaps the greatest and most influential rock 'n' roll band of the 20th century, it brings a tear to my eye every time I hear it.
