Beatles Best

On a lark, I recently played The Beatles station on Spotify and I was surprised how many of the songs that were prioritized held little interest for me. I don’t mind hearing “Come Together” or “Yesterday,” but I won’t choose to play them.

I previously posted a top Frank Sinatra playlist but The Beatles are in a whole other category of personal meaning to a contemporary audience. So yeah, this is my subjective take.

A ranked Beatles best song list:

1. I Am the Walrus

2. She said, She Said

3. Lovely Rita

4. You Won't See Me

5. Tomorrow Never Knows

6.  We Can Work It Out

7.  And Your Bird Can Sing (Take 1 & 2)

8. Got To Get You into My Life

9.  With a Little Help from My Friends

10. Helter Skelter

11.  Paperback Writer

12.  Rain

13.  While My Guitar Gently Weeps

14.  Ticket To Ride

15.  Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)

16.  Twist and Shout

17.  Happiness is a Warm Gun

18.  Can't Buy Me Love

19.  Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey

20.  Lady Madonna

21.  Here Comes the Sun

22.  You're Going to Lose That Girl

23.  I Will

24.  A Hard Day’s Night

25.  Eight Days a Week

26.  I Dig a Pony

Honorable Mention: Abbey Road Medley (It’s not a single song, but it can’t be broken up easily either).

Image: In the mid-eighties, before I was a full-time photographer, I ran a small cassette-only music company called Materials + Processes. Our third compilation release was all covers, and since one of them was Polythene Pam by Volcano Suns I appropriated an outtake from the Abbey Road cover session for our packaging (balloons were an ongoing theme of the music label art). The original photograph is by Iain Macmillan.