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2022 FBG, 172 to 1 Beatles Countdown 1-25 lists... And 173 to 1 Countdown from 1-64 lists! (1 Viewer)

One of these is the next song to be posted in two hours. Will anyone get it right?  Keep guessing!!

Predict the order of which of these will appear first, second, third and fourth on the count down....

a) Bobby Layne has his first song posted
b) Krista4 has her first song posted
c) Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da is posted.
d) Eight Days A Week is posted.


 
Oh! Darling
2022 Ranking: 59
2022 Lists: 10
2022 Points: 129
Ranked Highest by: @Wrighteous Ray (6) @FairWarning @ManOfSteelhead (7) @Dr. Octopus (9) @turnjose7 (14) @pecorino (14) @Westerberg (16) @PIK95 (19) @shuke (19) @zamboni (20)
2019 Ranking/Lists/Pts: 73/3/32

Getz comments:  Last song with 10 voters. Two more with 12, and then it’s 13+. Shuke with a 3-peat!


Krista4
My 2019 ranking:  77


2019 write-up:

Oh! Darling (Abbey Road, 1969)

Paul was so determined to do this in a throwback style that he had Geoff Emerick record this with 50s-style tape echo and tracked his vocal directly from the speakers (rather than through headphones) to get a "live audience" quality.  The story behind the recording is equal parts sweet and sad.  Paul would come into the studio every day before the other Beatles arrived in order to record this vocal.  Day after day (alone on a hill?), he'd record a shredding version, and, according to Emerick, George Martin "would frequently announce triumphantly, 'That's it; that's the one,' but Paul would overrule him, saying 'No, it's not there yet; let's try again tomorrow."  Paul just couldn't quite get it to match what he had in his head that he wanted to hear.  But unlike prior songs, he would never sing it in front of the others, nor did he play any recordings of it to seek their input, perhaps because at that point he didn't want to hear their negative remarks.  It tells us how bad the vibe was among the band at that point, and I hate picturing Paul on his own trying over and over to get this perfect, though I admire how dedicated he was to getting it just right.  Such a contrast to the sessions for "This Boy," where you can hear Paul encouraging John that he can get that solo right.

Despite the sorta sad circumstances, he delivered, though.  Maybe he wasn't used to these blistering vocals by this time - it was a long time after his "Kansas City" or "Long Tall Sally" days - but he pulled it off.  Even John complimented this song, though he let it be known he wished he could have done that vocal instead and that he would have done it better as it was more in his style.

Mr. krista:  "It’s very very good.  Very heavy.  Good heavy blues doo-*** stuff.  The breakdown…[sings the doodoodoo]…is in a lot of rock songs.  Fats Domino type song.  The vocals are great.  It’s the best you ever hear Paul, really beltinit out a bit."

Suggested cover:  Florence + the Machine

2022 Supplement:  In the marathon solo sessions in which Paul worked on this song, he tried every conceivable setup – standup mic, hand mic, etc. – except that one thing he did not try was using headphones.  Instead he sang along with the backing track being played over speakers, as he wanted to imagine he was singing it to a live audience.  It’s a bit ironic, then, that he has never played this song at any of his shows.  I understand it’s outside of his range now, but I’m surprised he didn’t attempt it when his vocal cords were younger.

We were treated to an early rendition of this song in the Get Back documentary, with Paul at the piano on their last day at Twickenham while the crew is packing up the rest of the gear (song starts ~1:28):  

Guido Merkins

By 1969 Paul’s perfectionism in the studio was getting on the other Beatles nerves.  Songs like Obla-Di Obla-Da and Maxwell’s Silver Hammer had tested their patience as they went through lots of takes to get something that only Paul could hear.

So it’s not very surprising that when Paul was struggling to get a vocal sound on a new song Oh Darling, that he started coming into the studio early every morning to sing it.  Paul was looking for a certain sound and thought that he could only get it by coming in several days in a row.  Several days in a row, he’d come in, do a vocal and say “nope, that’s not it. I’ll try again tomorrow.”  Needless to say, he finally got it.

Oh Darling harkens back to Paul’s bluesier efforts on She’s A Woman and I’ve Got a Feeling.  It is an absolutely brilliant vocal performance.  Using all the tricks he had learned, the Little Richard whail, the growl, parts that are sweet and soulful.  John said in interviews that he thought Paul didn’t sing it very well and that he could have done it better.  Not sure what drug John was on when he said that because it might be Paul’s best vocal ever, at least until Maybe I’m Amazed a year later.  

My Dad once said that he loved that song, but who did the original.  I told him it was written by McCartney but I see what he meant.  It sounds very much like a New Orleans R&B song or something we call “swamp pop.”  Great Fats Domino style piano, great guitar and great drumming by Ringo, and George on bass.  What a great, soulful song.
My favorite song to (unfortunately quite poorly) sing along to.

 
One of these is the next song to be posted in two hours. Will anyone get it right?  Keep guessing!!

Predict the order of which of these will appear first, second, third and fourth on the count down....

a) Bobby Layne has his first song posted
b) Krista4 has her first song posted
c) Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da is posted.
d) Eight Days A Week is posted.
d,c,b,a

 
One of these is the next song to be posted in two hours. Will anyone get it right?  Keep guessing!!

Predict the order of which of these will appear first, second, third and fourth on the count down....

a) Bobby Layne has his first song posted
b) Krista4 has her first song posted
c) Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da is posted.
d) Eight Days A Week is posted.
B C A D

 
I can see k4's friends ranking Ob-la, as well Shaftkid, and sing-a-long lovers like JML, fatguy, etc. It's a happy sounding tune.
It wasn't overt, but one thing I tried to do in both these rankings and Led Zeppelin were hit on my favorites among different categories. And now that you mention it sing-a-long absolutely fits Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da...and no others on my list. So the bastardized version The Offspring later 'created' must not be why it stuck out in my mind. It's just my sing-a-long add.

 
Oh! Darling was one of the pleasant surprises when I went through all the albums and listened to them in prep for this thread. Quite the remarkable song, and the comments here are on point, so I have little to add other than my enjoyment of the track. 

I've been in and out for the past few days, so I'll get to songs that were on my list that I've been "atted" about.

"She Said, She Said" and "I'm Only Sleeping" were two new ones in my Beatles top twenty-five from having heard them on the aforementioned listening.

"She Said, She Said" sounds so romantic. I love the distorted and twangy sounds of the guitars and string instruments. It predated psychedelia by about a year and a half, really. I love the tempo change during the repeated segment (Is it a repeated bridge? Is it the chorus? You tell me...) that begins with "When I was a boy..." The abrupt change makes listening challenging, but worth it. 

Unfortunately, I looked up what "She Said, She Said" was about and found out it was a bad acid trip exacerbated by Peter Fonda and not a romantic abstraction. 

Insert *gas face* here.

Mr. K's comment (and I hope I'm attributing this one correctly) about Peter Fonda and bringing people on acid trips down everywhere with Easy Rider made me laugh. Anyway, I still like the song. 

"I'm Only Sleeping" is a song I can completely relate to, much as our thread stalwart k4 can. I love the sounds on this record. The backwards guitars that underly the verse about halfway in sound out of this world, and lovely. That's an amazing tidbit about George and how that came to be. What an accompaniment. Very experimental while keeping within the context of a pop song.

The harmonies are A+ on this track. 

 
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I have Revolver on the turntable as I speak and "Yellow Submarine" is on. Another delightful song by these guys. Revolver is such a great, wildly experimental pop record. I was always willing to dismiss it without having really sat with it. We're better for it. So many innovations. Music is better for it. 

 
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Ok, I did this really quick and I could be missing one song. that I'm not going to try an d figure out...

Here's the songs that didn't get a vote:

 

A Taste Of Honey

Act Naturally

Ask Me Why

Baby It's You

Chains

Devil In Her Heart

Dig It

Doctor Robert

Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby

Good Night

Her Majesty

Hold Me Tight

Honey Don't

Honey Pie

I Wanna Be Your Man

I'll Get You

It's Only Love

Little Child

Maggie Mae

Matchbox

Misery

One After 909

Only A Northern Song

Piggies

Please Mister Postman

Sexy Sadie

Slow Down

The Inner Light

There's A Place

When I Get Home

Wild Honey Pie

Words Of Love

Yes It Is


Here's a random.org generated list of the final 60 songs on the countdown in this tread.

It is NOT the final order of the countdown of the lists sent in by 71 voters.

It is posted ONLY as an aid to help you select your choices is the "Guess the Final Order of The top 15 Contest" Good Luck!


 

List Randomizer

There were 60 items in your list. Here they are in random order:

Eight Days A Week

You've Got To Hide Your Love Away

All You Need Is Love

Across The Universe

Strawberry Fields Forever

Dear Prudence

Oh Darling

Blackbird

I Feel Fine

And Your Bird Can Sing

Get Back

Rain

Something

Nowhere Man

The Long and Winding Road

Abbey Road Medley

Tomorrow Never Knows

Revolution

I am The Walrus

Day Tripper

Eleanor Rigby

In My Life

Can't Buy Me Love

All My Loving

Penny Lane

A Day in the Life

Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da

Hello, Goodbye

I Want To Hold Your Hand

Help!

Come Together

I've Got a Feeling

Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds

I've Just Seen a Face

Taxman

A Hard Days Night

Twist and Shout

Norwegian Wood

For No One

Back in the USSR

Hey Bulldog

With A Little Help From My Friends

Hey Jude

Two Of Us

I Want You (She's so Heavy)

Don't Let Me Down

Things We Said Today

Paperback Writer

Here Comes The Sun

While My Guitar Gently Weeps

Yesterday

Got To Get You Into My Life

Let It Be

And I Love Her

Helter Skelter

Ticket To Ride

We Can Work it Out

Happiness Is A Warm Gun

She Loves You

I Saw Her Standing There

IP: 160.2.167.14
Timestamp: 2022-03-09 04:43:26 UTC


Welcome to the 2022 Beatles, 172 to 1 Countdown!

I want to thank each and everyone of you that participated this time as we celebrate the three-year anniversary of @krista4's 204 to 1 thread.

As you left your lists, I appreciate and thank you for all the nice comments that you left with your lists. And many, many thanks to almost all of you that numbered your lists. So much easier to process.  71 lists were submitted!

Very special thanks to @krista4 for starting all of this and creating many, many hours of joy and listening pleasure for all of us. I know for many of us, last time scratched the surface of experiencing the Beatles and now three years later, that experience is so much better from all of this.

I'd like to introduce you to the other member of our "Fab Three." Our FFA Mystery Writer is @Guido Merkins.  I've only read a few of his write ups so that I can experience them as you guys will, but the ones I read I found quite enjoyable and I hope you do also.

Krista has included her write ups from the original thread with some added thoughts to those for this go around. I hope someone reads them this time.

I'm the numbers guy and will be throwing out to you my usual obscure, number facts. The intro to each song will be linked to a youtube of that song, with a live version being the priority for that.

After we get a few songs in, I will start posting the "Chalk Update" (hope we find a better name for that).   When you have a song from your 1-25 list that is posted, I will assign a score to that song and keep a running total on who is "most" and "least" chalky.  Song ranked #172 will get one point. Song ranked #1 will get 172 points.  The funny thing about this is the early "chalk" leaders will likely have the best chance at being the "least" chalky at the end.  It will also be fun to see who the last remaining person is to have a song from their list posted. All of this is for fun and means nothing, and I really hope we can find another name for this as there were really no chalky lists sent in. The average list had 7.56 songs on it that finished up ranked lower than 50th!

There are many, many surprises and changes to the list from 2019. I'll be back shortly with the #172 song. 



171T - You Know My Name
171T - Flying
170 - Money (That's What I Want)
169 - This Boy
167T - Not A Second Time
167T - Free As A Bird
166 - I Need You
165 - Rocky Raccoon
164 - I Call Your Name
163 - Long Tall Sally
161T - Thank You Girl
161T - Love You To
160 - Lovely Rita
157T - I'll Cry Instead
157T - Dizzy Miss Lizzy
157T - Don't Bother Me
156 - Baby You're A Rich Man
155 - From Me To You
153T - Tell Me Why
153T - Anna (Go To Him)
151T - For You Blue
151T - All Together Now
150 - Roll Over Beethoven
148T - What Goes On
148T - Don't Pass Me By
147 - Old Brown Shoe
145T - The Word
145T - Another Girl
144 - I Don't Want To Spoil The Party
143 - Why Don't We Do It In The Road
142 - Boys
141 - Julia
140 - You Like Me Too Much
139 - Baby's In Black
137T - Long, Long, Long
137T - Blue Jay Way
136 - Good Day Sunshine
134T - Real Love
134T - Bad Boy
132T - Till There Was You
132T - Martha Dear
130T - Getting Better
130T - Kansas City Kansas City (Hey, Hey, Hey)
129 - Cry Baby Cry
128 - I Want To Tell You
127 - Rock and Roll Music
125T - Your Mother Should Know
125T - You Really Got A Hold of Me
123T - What You're Doing
123T - Revolution 9
122 - Run For Your Life
121 - P.S. I Love You
120 - Love Me Do
119 - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)
118 - It's All Too Much
117 - Wait
116 - The Continuing Story Of Bungalo Bill
115 - Every Little Thing
114 - All I've Got To Do
113 - Good Morning Good Morning
112 - I'm Happy Just to Dance With You
111 - Tell Me What You See
110 - I WIll
109 - Maxwell Silver Hammer
107T - She's A Woman
107T - Because
106 - Think For Yourself
105 - Birthday
104 - Mother Nature's Son
103 - Within You Without You
102 - Mr. Moonlight
101 - Being of the Benefit of Mr Kite
100 - Do You Want To Know A Secret
99 - It Won't Be Long
98 - Fixing A Hole
97 - I'm Down
96 - Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey
95 - I'm a Loser
94 - Magical Mystery Tour
93 - I Should Have Known Better
92 - I Me Mine
91 - Please Please Me
90 - Anytime At All
89 - I'll Follow The Sun
88 - Dig A Pony
87 - I'll Be Back
86 - Glass Onion
85 - Yellow Submarine
84 - You Can't Do That
82T - Yer Blues
82T - Michelle
81 - The Night Before
80 - Savoy Truffle
79 - Octopus's Garden
78 - The Fool On The Hill
77 - Lady Madonna
76 - If I Needed Someone
75- She Said She Said
74 - You're Going To Lose That Girl
73 - When I'm Sixty-Four
72- I'm So Tired
71 - You Won't See Me
70 - No Reply
69 - Girl
68 - Here, There and Everywhere
67 - If I Fell
66 - I'm Looking Through You
65 - I'm Only Sleeping
64 - Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band
63 - She's Leaving Home
62 - Drive My Car
61 - The Ballad Of John and Yoko
60 - I Want You (She's So Heavy)
59 - Oh! Darling
Revolution 9 was picked 123T
Revolution (single) is yet to be revealed

Revolution 1 from The Beatles (White Album) is the missing song

 
Eight Days A Week
2022 Ranking: 58
2022 Lists: 13
2022 Points: 133
Ranked Highest by: Shaft41(Son1) (5) @landrys hat (5) @PIK95 (9) @fatguyinalittlecoat (14) @Dennis Castro (17) @whoknew (17) @Alex P Keaton (18) @Encyclopedia Brown (20) @ConstruxBoy (22) @AAABatteries (25)
2019 Ranking/Lists/Pts: 55T/6/60


Getz comments:  YT is all Shea Stadium film. I had this at #25 in 2019. 

Krista4
My 2019 ranking:  74

2019 write-up:

Eight Days a Week (Beatles for Sale, 1964)

The title to this song has been varyingly attributed by Paul to being either a Ringo-ism (as in "hard day's night") or coming from a chauffeur driving Paul out to John's place who, when asked how he was, said he was working hard, eight days a week.  The song was first intended to be a potential title song for the movie that eventually became Help!, but it was relegated to this album instead once John came up with the title song, "Help!"  My favorite part of the song is also the portion that was groundbreaking at the time:  that fade-in.  It was one of the first times (or possibly the very first time) a fade-in had been used in a pop song, and I love the way it builds the excitement around the song.  Oooooo, what's happening here?  What's going to happen next?  The way the song kicks in the vocal so dynamically after the fade-in is exhilarating, and the harmonies on the bridge and the unison singing elsewhere are infectiously happy.  Love the chiming guitars at the end!  I might usually lean toward downer songs and rock songs, but I can also love a perfectly charming pop song like this.

Mr. krista:  "Eight days a week is another great phrase.  I like all of it.  I like that it fades in.  Nothing sounds like that.  That’s neat up and down."

Suggested cover:  The Dandy Warhols

2022 Supplement:  This was a truly shared work between Paul and John, with Paul coming up with the title, working together on most of the lyrics, but John taking the lead vocal.  Paul has used this song as an example of how he and John worked together so well because if one of them were stuck for a line, the other would magically be able to finish it:  “We could suggest the way out of the maze to each other, which was a very handy thing to have.  We inspired each other.”  So when Paul showed up with nothing more than the title, John was inspired to have that starting point.  Unlike in later years when they would “audition” their songs more individually, Paul and John together brought this one to the others, and within 20 minutes had taught it to them.

Love this song, and my favorite part continues to be the cool and revolutionary fade-in.  To hear it as a merely very good song, without that fade-in and lacking some of the energy of the final version, check out this earlier take that was released on the Anthology series:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aS0GMbqhNU

Guido Merkins

Sometimes the years can play tricks on the mind.  Paul at one time attributed Eight Days A Week to one of Ringo’s malapropisms (like Tomorrow Never Knows or A Hard Day’s Night.)  Later Paul attributed it to a chauffeur and that seems to be the correct story.

So Paul is being dropped off somewhere by a chauffeur and says something like “you working hard.”  The chauffeur says “feels like I’m working eight days a week.”  Paul loves that line and writes a song around it.  Later on, the Byrds were looking for a number for a song and liked the Beatles use of the number eight, so they called their song Eight Miles High.

Eight Days a Week is notable in that it seems to be the first time a song was faded in.  It started life with the Beatles singing “Ooooo” at the beginning (you can hear this on Anthology 1), but ended up with the guitar riff intro that they fade in which was George on the 12 string Rickenbacker (the outro is the same.)  

John was known to not like the song.  Not sure what Paul’s opinion is of it, but it is interesting that the Beatles didn’t play the song live, and that’s despite it being a #1 hit in the US.  

 
Predict the order of which of these will appear first, second, third and fourth on the count down....

a) Bobby Layne has his first song posted
b) Krista4 has her first song posted
c) Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da is posted.
d) Eight Days A Week is posted.


c)

b)

a)

d)


Serious answer: C, A, B, D


c, b, a, d












Two got the first song right.  "D"

 
Oh! Darling was one of the pleasant surprises when I went through all the albums and listened to them in prep for this thread. Quite the remarkable song, and the comments here are on point, so I have little to add other than my enjoyment of the track. 

I've been in and out for the past few days, so I'll get to songs that were on my list that I've been "atted" about.

"She Said, She Said" and "I'm Only Sleeping" were two new ones in my Beatles top twenty-five from having heard them on the aforementioned listening.

"She Said, She Said" sounds so romantic. I love the distorted and twangy sounds of the guitars and string instruments. It predated psychedelia by about a year and a half, really. I love the tempo change during the repeated segment (Is it a repeated bridge? Is it the chorus? You tell me...) that begins with "When I was a boy..." The abrupt change makes listening challenging, but worth it. 

Unfortunately, I looked up what "She Said, She Said" was about and found out it was a bad acid trip exacerbated by Peter Fonda and not a romantic abstraction. 

Insert *gas face* here.

Mr. K's comment (and I hope I'm attributing this one correctly) about Peter Fonda and bringing people on acid trips down everywhere with Easy Rider made me laugh. Anyway, I still like the song. 

"I'm Only Sleeping" is a song I can completely relate to, much as our thread stalwart k4 can. I love the sounds on this record. The backwards guitars that underly the verse about halfway in sound out of this world, and lovely. That's an amazing tidbit about George and how that came to be. What an accompaniment. Very experimental while keeping within the context of a pop song.

The harmonies are A+ on this track. 
Love the write up. Makes me wish I selected “She Said, She Said” for my list.

 
I have Revolver on the turntable as I speak and "Yellow Submarine" is on. Another delightful song by these guys. Revolver is such a great, wildly experimental pop record. I was always willing to dismiss it without having really sat with it. We're better for it. So many innovations. Music is better for it. 


This makes me unreasonably happy.

Revolution 9 was picked 123T
Revolution (single) is yet to be revealed

Revolution 1 from The Beatles (White Album) is the missing song


:thanks:   Mystery solved!

 
Top 10 Least Chalk - Sponsored by Crayola Crayons

62 --Getzlaf15---149

63 --Lardonastick---113

64 --WorrierKing---98

65 --Tom Hagen---97

66 --yankee23fan---70

67 --Dinsy Ejotuz---42.5

68 --Krista (TJ/Slug)---8

69 --Just Win Baby---8

70 --Krista4---0

71 --Bobby Layne---0

 
Twist & Shout - Performed Live On The Ed Sullivan Show 2/23/64
2022 Ranking: 57
2022 Lists: 12
2022 Points: 135
Ranked Highest by: Krista(TJ/Holly) (2) @John Maddens Lunchbox(4) @MAC_32 (5) @lardonastick(6) Krista(rob) 8 @Alex P Keaton (15) @Dwayne Hoover (22) @ManOfSteelhead (24) @wikkidpissah (24) @Dennis Castro (25)
2019 Ranking/Lists/Pts: 59T/5/51

Getz:  Just about the same rank as 2019. First song to have three Top 5 votes and five Top 10 votes.


Krista4
My 2019 ranking:  78


2019 write-up:

Twist and Shout (Please Please Me, 1963)

It's our last cover song!  I've probably unfairly given the covers short shrift in comparison to the other songs; I love a lot of them, but it's hard to say I love them more than Beatles originals.  Though the Beatles version of this one is based on the Isley Brothers record, the original recording of the song was actually by a band called the Top Notes.  

John's vocal on this has become legendary not just because of the quality on the record, but due to the fact that it was the last of ten songs recorded in a marathon 12+-hour in the same day!  It's nearly impossible to imagine that at this point, but the entire Please Please Me record, minus the four songs that had come out as singles, was put to tape on the same day in February 1963.  "Twist and Shout" was left as the last song to be recorded, because, according to George Martin, he knew that the larynx-shredding vocals would torture John's voice such that he'd be destroyed for anything else.  By the time they came to the song, John was sick and his vocal cords were a mess.  He sucked on some lozenges and gargled warm milk, stripped off his shirt, and hoped that the performance would be acceptable, because doing it a second time seemed impossible (in fact a second take was made, but the first one is what is on the record).  What we hear is exactly how the Beatles recorded it, with no overdubs or other editing.  It's essentially a live performance, and it's ####### extraordinary.  John's delivery is full of raucous energy and passion and sex, and the other Beatles clearly find it exhilarating as they continually raise their energy to match John's, culminating in Paul's "Hey!' and John's howling and Ringo's.

Mr. krista: "They took a rave-up and raved it the #### up. Til Lennon’s eyeballs were bleeding. Yeah, monster rock song.  One of the great rock vocal performances on record. And one of those moments where you can tell he loses himself and sings with abandon.  Mostly that kind of combustion is what I think rock bands try to achieve.  Oh, yeah, that’s worth a 700-mile drive with no sleep with no one listening except your sound guy, but that’s why you do that.  They burned the way rock bands do."

2022 Supplement:  This is a song I suspect would do even better if we did a top 64 or whatever, as I think many of us might have considered it but couldn’t spare a top 25 for a cover.  Like “Long Tall Sally,” this song was a favorite for years at the Beatles’ live performances, having first started to perform it in Hamburg in 1962 and continuing to include it in their shows through their August 1965 concert in San Francisco.  At first, they used it as a raucous closer, including during their (in)famous performance at the Royal Family’s annual variety show in 1963, when John introduced the song:  "For our last number, I'd like to ask your help. The people in the cheaper seats, clap your hands. And the rest of you, if you’d just rattle your jewelry.”  Apparently the Queen enjoyed the joke! https://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/arts-and-culture/a10284914/beatles-royal-variety-performance/  Later the song was shortened and made their opener, giving John’s voice a little break, but it continued to be a crowd favorite anywhere they went.  There are approximately eleventy squillion live versions of this available, so I hope Getz chooses the best one.  No pressure, buddy!

Guido Merkins

The Beatles are mostly known for songwriting.  Lennon/McCartney being the most successful songwriting team in the rock and roll era.  Harrison also grew into a top notch talent as well in that area.

So it is surprising that the Beatles are known for several of the best covers of all time.  Perhaps the best (I say perhaps to be kind, it’s the best) is an Isley Brothers song called Twist and Shout.  Twist and Shout was the Beatles show stopper for years sung by John Lennon in their Hamburg days.  But the true legend of the song starts and ends in 1963 during the one day recording of their debut album Please Please Me.

It was the end of the day and they needed another song.  Twist and Shout was suggested.  John had a cold so he struggled with his voice all day taking cough drops.  They knew they had one shot at it because the way John sang that song, plus the cold, meant his voice would probably be gone after.  So, John had a gargle with milk and off he went to sing.

The sound that remains on that record is nothing less than one of the most dazzling vocal performances of the rock and roll era.   John absolutely lets it rip and delivers a performance that feels like the earth moves.  John isn’t alone in that the other Beatles deliver a performance that barely manages to match the energy of John’s frantic vocal.  

I love the scream that Paul does out of the first vocal buildup.  I also love the audible exhale from John at the end of the song as it fades away.  

This is a top 5 vocal performance in the history of rock and roll.  For sheer power, guts, and soul it has few peers.

 
The Making of the Beatles First US Visit (Documentary)

This incredible.  Has anyone seen this before?

Many behind the scenes shots of their first visit.
I watched it the other night.  Very engaging.  Just seeing what life was like back in the 60’s was cool.  The cars, clothing, hairdo’s…. Amazing to think they let anyone into an airport viewing area out on the tarmac.  And of course seeing the Beatles during that trip was cool as hell.

 
Twist & Shout - Performed Live On The Ed Sullivan Show 2/23/64
2022 Ranking: 57
2022 Lists: 12
2022 Points: 135
Ranked Highest by: Krista(TJ/Holly) (2) @John Maddens Lunchbox(4) @MAC_32 (5) @lardonastick(6) Krista(rob) 8 @Alex P Keaton (15) @Dwayne Hoover (22) @ManOfSteelhead (24) @wikkidpissah (24) @Dennis Castro (25)
2019 Ranking/Lists/Pts: 59T/5/51

Getz:  Just about the same rank as 2019. First song to have three Top 5 votes and five Top 10 votes.


Krista4
My 2019 ranking:  78


2019 write-up:

Twist and Shout (Please Please Me, 1963)

It's our last cover song!  I've probably unfairly given the covers short shrift in comparison to the other songs; I love a lot of them, but it's hard to say I love them more than Beatles originals.  Though the Beatles version of this one is based on the Isley Brothers record, the original recording of the song was actually by a band called the Top Notes.  

John's vocal on this has become legendary not just because of the quality on the record, but due to the fact that it was the last of ten songs recorded in a marathon 12+-hour in the same day!  It's nearly impossible to imagine that at this point, but the entire Please Please Me record, minus the four songs that had come out as singles, was put to tape on the same day in February 1963.  "Twist and Shout" was left as the last song to be recorded, because, according to George Martin, he knew that the larynx-shredding vocals would torture John's voice such that he'd be destroyed for anything else.  By the time they came to the song, John was sick and his vocal cords were a mess.  He sucked on some lozenges and gargled warm milk, stripped off his shirt, and hoped that the performance would be acceptable, because doing it a second time seemed impossible (in fact a second take was made, but the first one is what is on the record).  What we hear is exactly how the Beatles recorded it, with no overdubs or other editing.  It's essentially a live performance, and it's ####### extraordinary.  John's delivery is full of raucous energy and passion and sex, and the other Beatles clearly find it exhilarating as they continually raise their energy to match John's, culminating in Paul's "Hey!' and John's howling and Ringo's.

Mr. krista: "They took a rave-up and raved it the #### up. Til Lennon’s eyeballs were bleeding. Yeah, monster rock song.  One of the great rock vocal performances on record. And one of those moments where you can tell he loses himself and sings with abandon.  Mostly that kind of combustion is what I think rock bands try to achieve.  Oh, yeah, that’s worth a 700-mile drive with no sleep with no one listening except your sound guy, but that’s why you do that.  They burned the way rock bands do."

2022 Supplement:  This is a song I suspect would do even better if we did a top 64 or whatever, as I think many of us might have considered it but couldn’t spare a top 25 for a cover.  Like “Long Tall Sally,” this song was a favorite for years at the Beatles’ live performances, having first started to perform it in Hamburg in 1962 and continuing to include it in their shows through their August 1965 concert in San Francisco.  At first, they used it as a raucous closer, including during their (in)famous performance at the Royal Family’s annual variety show in 1963, when John introduced the song:  "For our last number, I'd like to ask your help. The people in the cheaper seats, clap your hands. And the rest of you, if you’d just rattle your jewelry.”  Apparently the Queen enjoyed the joke! https://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/arts-and-culture/a10284914/beatles-royal-variety-performance/  Later the song was shortened and made their opener, giving John’s voice a little break, but it continued to be a crowd favorite anywhere they went.  There are approximately eleventy squillion live versions of this available, so I hope Getz chooses the best one.  No pressure, buddy!

Guido Merkins

The Beatles are mostly known for songwriting.  Lennon/McCartney being the most successful songwriting team in the rock and roll era.  Harrison also grew into a top notch talent as well in that area.

So it is surprising that the Beatles are known for several of the best covers of all time.  Perhaps the best (I say perhaps to be kind, it’s the best) is an Isley Brothers song called Twist and Shout.  Twist and Shout was the Beatles show stopper for years sung by John Lennon in their Hamburg days.  But the true legend of the song starts and ends in 1963 during the one day recording of their debut album Please Please Me.

It was the end of the day and they needed another song.  Twist and Shout was suggested.  John had a cold so he struggled with his voice all day taking cough drops.  They knew they had one shot at it because the way John sang that song, plus the cold, meant his voice would probably be gone after.  So, John had a gargle with milk and off he went to sing.

The sound that remains on that record is nothing less than one of the most dazzling vocal performances of the rock and roll era.   John absolutely lets it rip and delivers a performance that feels like the earth moves.  John isn’t alone in that the other Beatles deliver a performance that barely manages to match the energy of John’s frantic vocal.  

I love the scream that Paul does out of the first vocal buildup.  I also love the audible exhale from John at the end of the song as it fades away.  

This is a top 5 vocal performance in the history of rock and roll.  For sheer power, guts, and soul it has few peers.
I had this #28 overall, and it’s the only cover I seriously considered for the Top 25.

Of the 25 covers The Beatles originally recorded & released, I love a bunch of their early rockers (rn Id say Dizzy Miss Lizzy is my fav but it changes all the time.)

But Twist & Shout is consistently my favorite live song in their set lists.

also this

♥️

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Predict the order of which of these will appear first, second, third and fourth on the count down....

a) Bobby Layne has his first song posted
b) Krista4 has her first song posted
c) Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da is posted.
d) I Feel Fine

 

 
Predict the order of which of these will appear first, second, third and fourth on the count down....

a) Bobby Layne has his first song posted
b) Krista4 has her first song posted
c) Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da is posted.
d) I Feel Fine

 
C #56

D #48

B #40

A #39

 
On today's date in 1963, the Beatles began their second national tour, this time with Americans Tommy Roe and Chris Montez switching off as the headliners, one closing the first show of the night and the other closing the second.  By the second night of the tour, they had been replaced as closing acts by the Beatles.  :lol:  

 
Hello, Goodbye
2022 Ranking: 56
2022 Lists: 12
2022 Points: 136
Ranked Highest by: Shaft41(Son2) (2) @Dinsy Ejotuz (10) @AAABatteries (13) @prosopis (13) @Dwayne Hoover (14) @Anarchy99 (15) @Dennis Castro (18) @Yankee23Fan (19) @Just Win Baby (24)
2019 Ranking/Lists/Pts: 62/4/48

Getz comments:  So four of the bottom ten chalkers picked this one. For me, if fell from #8 to #19, this time. 


Krista4
My 2019 ranking:  141


2019 write-up:

Hello, Goodbye (single, 1967)

Paul's song about duality, and he said, unsurprisingly, that it was meant to advocate for the positive side of duality.  Sunny, cheery Paul.  He even used "ebony ivory" as one of the dualities in an interview about the song.  Hmmmm...ebony and ivory...where have I heard that?  

My favorite parts of this song are the violas and the coda, which was nicknamed the "Maori Finale."  Overall the song all feels too slight for my taste, and despite Paul trying to make a substantive statement with the lyrics they fall flat for me.  I don't have much to say about this one - nice melody and an interesting ending, but not enough to get ranked higher.

Mr. krista:  "It’s a good song that seems totally trivial. I mean, so cheesy."

Suggested cover:  The Cure

2022 Supplement:  According to Alistair Taylor (who worked with Brian Epstein and was called “Mr. Fixit” by the Beatles), Paul composed this on a harmonium, instructing Taylor to sit at the other end and hit a note while Paul did the same, and then when Paul shouted a word he was to shout the opposite.  I treat some of Taylor’s stories with suspicion, but this one seems about right for Paul.

Even with the duality being front and center in the lyrics, for some reason this song was called “Hello Hello” through its first 16 takes, including this one, which was later released in the Anthology series:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ud3TMKw7A-c

The Beatles put together a series of promo videos for this one that were…interesting.  Such as the one with hula dancers at the end:  https://vimeo.com/436562046

Or the one in their Sgt. Pepper’s uniforms – wtf is John doing :lol:  https://vimeo.com/269302327

Those videos make me enjoy the song more.  Pretty fun.  Still wouldn’t rank it any higher, though.

Guido Merkins

Songs don’t always have to be meaningful and deep.  Sometimes they can just sound good.  Someone asked Paul about how he writes songs and Paul, as an example said, say the opposite of what I say.  So, high became low.  Yes became no.  Stop became go.  And hello became goodbye.

Hence was born another #1 single.  Hello Goodbye is a great sounding track.  Love the guitar and the bass and, of course Ringo.  Great vocal.  The best part is the ending with the “Heba…heba hello.”  It reminds me of Ticket to Ride where they go off into another universe at the end.  Paul tells the story of the ending as they did it and it wasn’t quite right, then he had the engineer put full echo on Ringo’s tom toms and it came alive.

As far as the video, it’s also one of my favorite of their promotional videos.  They pulled out the Spt Pepper costumes and mime the song.  It shows them at different times in regular clothes, the Sgt Pepper clothes and even dressed in the old colarless jackets waving like the young Beatles.  There are hula dancers and at the end we see the Beatles dancing with the hula girls, John especially mugging for the camera and doing and exaggerated twist.  The funniest part, IMO, is Ringo’s comically small drum kit.  Great video.  Always entertaining.

 
Chalk Rankings Top 10. #56 = 117 pts. each Sponsored by: Travis Etienne's Chinese Proctologist

1 --ManOfSteelhead---1390.5

2 --anarchy99---1225

3 --Krista (Sharon)---1216.5

4 --Shaft41---1095

5 --Krista (TJ/Michael)---1085

6 --fatguyinalttlecoat---999

7 --BinkyTheDoormat---964.5

8 --Man Of Constant Sorrow---942.5

9 --Dwayne Hoover---890.5

10 --FairWarning---833

 
This is a top 5 vocal performance in the history of rock and roll.  For sheer power, guts, and soul it has few peers.
I am much more a Paul guy than a John guy, but this performance is extraordinaryily good. 

No mention of Its use in Ferris Bueller. One of the great feel good coming of age movies and this song is used to such good effect and a great feel good moment, 

 
As a huge fan of Progressive music (especially from the 1970s), the Beatles "I Want You (She's so Heavy)" is really the only song from their catalog that scratches that itch. I suppose Revolution 9 could also be classified as progressive but its lack of musicality keeps it off any list I'm going to make. I Want You is such a unicorn in the Beatles catalog that there was no way it wouldn't make my top 25 list. It just sounds different. The riff is just so good. The ending is just so original.

Here is a version from neo-prog / jam band Umphrey's McGee. Enjoy. Listen to Umphrey's

 
# of Songs to Have Appeared on The Countdown to Date

1 --anarchy99---18

2 --Krista (Sharon)---17

3 --ManOfSteelhead---16

4 --Krista (TJ/Michael)---14

5 --Shaft41---13

6 --Man Of Constant Sorrow---13

7 --Wrighteous Ray(Hub)---12

8 --BinkyTheDoormat---12

9 --OTB_Lifer---12

10 --Krista (Worth)---11

11 --fatguyinalttlecoat---11

12 --Encyclopedia Brown---11

13 --Krista (Craig)---10

14 --Wrighteous Ray---10

15 --Krista (Rob)---10

16 --rockaction---9

17 --murph---9

18 --Mac32---9

19 --zamboni---9

20 --FairWarning---9

21 --PIK 95---9

22 --Dwayne Hoover---9

23 --DaVinci---8

24 --Guido Merkins---7

25 --Oliver Humanzee---7

26 --John Maddens Lunchbox---7

27 --Shaft41(Daughter)---7

28 --Uruk-Hai---6

29 --ProsteticRKG---6

30 --Pip's Invitation---6

31 --landryshat---6

32 --Shaft41(Son2)---6

33 --Dennis Castro---6

34 --Eephus---5

35 --Krista (TJ/Alex)---5

36 --Neal Cassady---5

37 --jwb---5

38 --Shaft41(Son1)---5

39 --jamny---5

40 --turnjose7---5

41 --Krista (TJ/Holly)---5

42 --wikkidpissah---5

43 --shuke---5

44 --ekbeats---4

45 --Gr00vus---4

46 --Krista (Doug)---4

47 --prosopis---4

48 --Alex P Keaton---4

49 --AAABatteries---4

50 --ConstruxBoy---4

51 --Dr. Octopus---4

52 --pecorino---4

53 --Simey---3

54 --Ted Lange as your Bartender---3

55 --Heckmann---3

56 --Getzlaf15---3

57 --Lardonastick---3

58 --WhoKnew---3

59 --Westerberg---3

60 --falguy---2

61 --DocHoliday---2

62 --Oliver Humanzee(Dad)---2

63 --Just Win Baby---2

64 --Dinsy Ejotuz---2

65 --yankee23fan---2

66 --Iluv80s---2

67 --Krista (TJ/Slug)---1

68 --Tom Hagen---1

69 --WorrierKing---1

70 --Krista4---0

71 --Bobby Layne---0

 

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