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

[krista4]

Remember how we replaced "girl" with "Squirrel" in the lyrics to honor my cat, The Squirrel?  I was driving last night with my mom in the seat behind me (there were two other people in the car; we weren't just Driving Miss Daisy'ing it), and "My Girl" came on the Soul Town station.  When they got to the first chorus, I heard my mom quietly singing along in the back, "My Squirrel...talking 'bout my Squirrel...my Squirrel my Squirrel!"  We all  and then joined in the singing of our new Squirrel anthem.

 

[krista4]

Two more personal Beatles updates:

1.  Got my Ringo tix this morning for October 11.     It's gonna be A RINGO SHOWCASE!

2.  We were at a brewery yesterday and after being there for a while realized we were sitting right in front of these.   

 

[Pip's Invitation]

Driving to MA to visit family. Told Siri to play the Beatles.

 

[AAABatteries]

Two more personal Beatles updates:

1.  Got my Ringo tix this morning for October 11.     It's gonna be A RINGO SHOWCASE!

2.  We were at a brewery yesterday and after being there for a while realized we were sitting right in front of these.   

The barrels are awesome.  Was there a 5th one you could write Billy on it?

 

[krista4]

The barrels are awesome.  Was there a 5th one you could write Billy on it?

  Will have to check next time, or lodge a formal complaint.

 

[Pip's Invitation]

Driving to MA to visit family. Told Siri to play the Beatles.

My son took off his headphones when Come Together came on so he could listen to it!

 

[Pip's Invitation]

The first White Album song that came up was Dear Prudence. It’s like she knows me.

 

[Zegras11]

My son took off his headphones when Come Together came on so he could listen to it!

this is good parenting.  How old is he?

 

[Pip's Invitation]

this is good parenting.  How old is he?

10.

I played Abbey Road for him last year and he liked CT immediately.

 

[Tom Hagen]

Last night's countdown songs massacred OH's and my mom's lists. 

At one point OH had four in a row go off the board!  He lost his #9 (Dig a Pony), #37 (Cry Baby Cry), #44 (Any Time At All), #59 (Good Morning Good Morning), and #63 (Good Day Sunshine, which I was shocked made his list).

My mom got it even worse, losing eight of her songs!  They were her #11 (Love Me Do), #26 (Tell Me Why), #35 (Mother Nature's Son), #36 (Wait), #45 (Girl), #55 (Good Day Sunshine), #56 (You're Going to Lose That Girl), and #59 (Cry Baby Cry).

I lost three, my #29 (Dig A Pony), #60 (Mother Nature's Son), and #62 (Any Time At All).  Look at me, being all chalky again.

Dig a Pony has really grown on me since we started this thread.  It wouldn't even have made my 64 a few months ago and now I already think I ranked it too low (high)

 

[Zegras11]

Tell Me What You See
2022 Ranking: 111
2022 Lists: 3
2022 Points: 30
Ranked Highest by: Krista(Sharon) (2) @falguy (21) @landrys hat (25)
2019 Ranking/Lists/Pts: NR

Getz comments:  Finally! We get two first timers. Sharon has her 3rd and 2nd go back-to-back.

Krista4
My 2019 ranking:  99

2019 write-up:

Tell Me What You See (Help!, 1965)

This seems to be considered by many, including the Beatles, as "filler" and was deemed by Richard Lester to be too weak to include in the movie.  Jerks.  I love this song.  Love that funky piano part that ends with a driving bass drum and snare bringing it back together.  Love Paul and John seamlessly switching between harmonies and unison, and the big jump between the first two words of the verses ("If you") followed by a pleasing downward progression.  Love the little claves sounds and whatever the hell it is that George is doing.*  In the harmonies, you can hear that they are not quite singing on the same beat - I'm not sure if it was intended, but while they're both singing kinda on the downbeat, John comes in a microsecond earlier than Paul.  Whether intended or not, it forms a nice complement to the strong 4/4 time being kept by the percussion.

*Turns out that George was playing a güiro.  

Mr. krista:  "This is a’right.   Yeah, that’s a fantastic song.  The first part of the chorus part that’s so flat, so someone singing lower end and then it’s all intense and kind of insane.  I don’t even understand the instrumentation that’s going on.  I guess there are guitars there, but Paul’s electric piano sounds great, which usually depresses me, but in those breaks it’s coupled with Ringo’s backward ### fills."

Suggested cover:  Teenage Fanclub

2022 Supplement:  This is probably a bit bland compared to some songs below it on my initial ranking and should have been moved down.  I still enjoy everything I mentioned, but this isn’t a song I seek out.  Not much more to say!

Guido Merkins

Tell Me What You See is a “work” song as McCartney put it, meaning they saw it as nothing more than an album track for the Help album.  Paul claimed John helped (60-40), John claimed it was totally McCartney.

The song is not spectacular, but it has some interesting things.  First, the verse “Big and black the clouds may be, time will pass away.  If you put your trust in me, I’ll make bright your day” is a really good verse and, apparently, it was inspired by something hanging in Aunt Mimi’s house.  Second, instruments.  The Hohner Pianet electric piano which they used on several songs on the Help album.  Claves played by Ringo and the guiro played by George (a wooden stick scraping against notches to produce a percussive sound.) 

Even though the song is not terribly impressive or one of their more well-known songs, it is a decent album track and shows the continuing growth of the Beatles as song writers and recording artists.

Tell Me What You See

64 List Rank: 91

64 List Voters/Points: 4/148

64 List Top 5: 0

64 List Top 10: 0

64 List 1-25 votes: 2 (20,25)

64 List 26-64 votes: 2

 

[Zegras11]

Boys
2022 Ranking: 142
2022 Lists: 2
2022 Points: 14
Ranked Highest by: @Uruk-Hai (13) @ManOfSteelhead (25)
2019 Ranking/Lists/Pts: 127T/1/7

Getz comments:  We have a Ringo BingoTN with a Bullseye on Krista’s 2019 rank! Love the Green Day link below.

Krista4
My 2019 ranking:  142

2019 write-up:

Boys (Please Please Me, 1963)

Pure joy.  I'm not going to do a big write-up here.  Enjoy this live performance with me, and you'll see why I love this one.  Ringo's head shakes...the toss to George at ~1:00 and George's glee...and don't miss John's little kick at ~1:50 that drives the girls wild.

There's a snippet of an interview with Paul that I've heard on the Beatles channel a few times where he describes a conversation with one of the Rolling Stones - Mick or Keith, I can't remember - and whoever it was commented how lucky the Beatles had been to have four front men, whereas the Stones had only one.  That live clip above shows that, I think. Original Shirelles version

Mr. krista:  "I like it, and I like the Shirelles, too. And Ringo is a great singer for a song like that.  It’s a jam."

2022 Supplement:  Flat-out great rocker.  Though largely forgotten by anyone who doesn’t listen to a lot of the Beatles Channel, this song was a favorite to perform live dating back to the Pete Best days, when he took the lead vocal, and continues to be performed by Ringo in live shows to this day.  It was one of the many “filler” cover songs the Beatles put on Please Please Me and was recorded with eight other songs all on the same day!

Although it was originally by the girl group The Shirelles, the Beatles didn’t really care about the gender flip in the lyrics:  Paul has said, “If you think about it, here's us doing a song and it was really a girls' song... Or it was a gay song. But we never even listened. It's just a great song. I think that's one of the things about youth - you just don't give a ####. I love the innocence of those days."

At the 2015 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, Ringo teamed with Green Day (both he and the band having been inducted into this class) to perform this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mx48CPaQFo

Guido Merkins

The Beatles were big fans of the girl groups.  Their first couple of albums they covered songs by the Donays, the Marvalettes, the Cookies and…..Boys, by the Shirelles.  Boys had long been the Beatles drummer vocal song with Pete Best singing it during their Hamburg days, so when they were looking for a Ringo song for the Please Please Me album, it was natural to give him Boys, which he also sung with Rory Storm and the Hurricanes.

It is common that men singing songs done by women would change the words and vice versa, but the Beatles never thought about changing the song to “Girls.”  The only thing they did was change the first line to “My girl said when I kiss her lips…”  I guess back in those days, they didn’t think about stuff like that much.

The recording was pretty simple since it was part of their stage repertoire.  Apparently it was done in one take.  This may be my favorite song sung by Ringo.  I think it rocks and it suits his voice well.  I love the way he calls out George before the solo “all right George…”  The drumming is great, naturally and I love the background vocals.

Boys

64 List Rank: 90

64 List Voters/Points: 6/150

64 List Top 5: 0

64 List Top 10: 0

64 List 1-25 votes: 2 (13, 25)

64 List 26-64 votes: 4

I had this at #48. Big move up in the 64!

 

[Zegras11]

Do You Want To Know A Secret
2022 Ranking: 100
2022 Lists: 5
2022 Points: 38
Ranked Highest by: @ManOfSteelhead (10) @Uruk-Hai(19) @FairWarning (19) Shaft41(Daughter) (22) @fatguyinalittlecoat(22)
2019 Ranking/Lists/Pts: 111T/1/11

Getz:  We now return you to the less drug induced portion of our show...

Krista4
My 2019 ranking:  88

2019 write-up:

Do You Want to Know a Secret (Please Please Me, 1963)

I've accused two songs in this list of sounding too Disney-fied, yet here's one actually inspired by a Disney song, and I love it.  John wrote this based on a song his mother sang to him as an infant, a version of the introduction to "I'm Wishing" from the wishing well scene in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.  John gave the song to George because at the time George's vocal ability had developed much (at least according to John, who actually stated this more bluntly) and the song "only had three notes."  George himself wasn't happy with his vocal on the song, saying, "I didn't know how to sing; nobody told me how to."

I happen to adore George's vocal on this; not only does he smoothly hit his "three notes" but more importantly he brings a quiet, wispy tenderness to the song.  It's actually one of my favorite George vocals, and when he says, "Do you want to know a secret," I always respond "yes" and feel myself actually scooching in closer to hear the secret whispered in my ear.  I'm similarly compliant when he sings, "closer," which is my favorite part of the song, just edging out that dramatic Spanish-influenced opening, the solid backing vocals, an interesting bridge, and George's terrific guitar work.  This is one of those songs that seems slight but is irresistibly lovely.  While I don't recommend it for vacuuming, it would be good background for general boop-a-dooping around the house, perhaps while cleaning windows or looking for your keys.

Fun fact:  John recorded a demo of this in the loo at one of the Hamburg nightclubs, because he said it was the only place quiet enough to do it.  That demo, unfortunately lost at this point, was said to end on the sound of pulling of the toilet's chain.    

Mr. krista:  "Kind of hiding the fact that this song doesn’t really change.  The chords… After 'hear,' that little half-time part…that rocks.  Otherwise it would be sugary pop music.  It’s like they couldn’t help but rock.  Given every opportunity not to rock, they still rocked.  Like here’s a Bacharach song written for a girl group…still rocks."

Suggested covers:  Oddly (for me), my favorite covers are all from female singers.  Fairground Attraction  Mary Wells  Sharon Clark

2022 Supplement:  George’s first lead vocal!  I still love this one more than most people do, and I adore George’s gentle sound on it so much that I only recently realized that the lyrics to every verse are exactly the same.  Trivia question:  what is the other Beatles song that has identical lyrics in each verse? 

In addition to the Snow White inspiration, years later John indicated he wrote this at a flat in Liverpool that Brian Epstein had gifted the use of to John and Cynthia after their wedding, and that the “secret” in question that he was writing about what that he was truly in love, since Epstein had not wanted anyone to know that John was “unavailable.”

Guido Merkins

John Lennon’s mother Julia had a lot to do with John’s early musical development.  Along with encouraging him, which is something his Aunt Mimi didn’t do with music, Julia taught John the rudiments of banjo.  She used to also sing to him.  She liked to sing a song called I’m Wishing from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and the line in that song “want to know a secret?  Promise not to tell?” because two lines in a song John wrote called Do You Want To Know A Secret?

John realized after writing it that it suited George because it wasn’t real rangey. In the UK, it was a song on the Beatles debut album, but it was released as a single in the US on Vee Jay getting to #2.  This is another song that I was surprised wasn’t on the Red Album when I first heard it.  In my mind, it was one of the Beatles well-known songs.  Billy J Kramer also recorded a version of it.

I’ve always heard the song as very doo ***.  I love the background vocals by Paul and John.  I also love the intro which kind of builds a little drama.  John and George are apparently playing acoustic guitars on the song.  It’s one of the few early ones, also where you can hear Paul playing bass clearly.  George was down on his vocal performance on this one, but I quite like it.  It has a gentleness which fits the song well.  

Do You Want to Know a Secret

64 List Rank: 89

64 List Voters/Points: 6/155

64 List Top 5: 0

64 List Top 10: 1 (10)

64 List 1-25 votes: 2 (19)

64 List 26-64 votes: 4

 

[Zegras11]

The Fool On The Hill
2022 Ranking: 78
2022 Lists: 6
2022 Points: 77
Ranked Highest by: @Oliver Humanzee(dad) (5) @Binky The Doormat (7) Shaft41(Son1) (11) @Wrighteous Ray(hub) (11) @FairWarning (21) @zamboni (24)
2019 Ranking/Lists/Pts: 91/2/19

Getz: I had this at #25 until I used Binky’s mulligan and put in Two Of Us. @shuke and I were the only ones to rank it in 2019, and neither of us did in 2022. I had it at #12 in 2019.  OH’s Dad is on the board. 8 left now….   Annie Lennox cover is awesome. Sergio cover is more upbeat and a great listen.  Oh and  at this being OH's dad's first song after his son's write up below.
Getz Covers: 
Sergio Mendes & Brasil 66 - The Fool On The Hill (1968)
Annie Lennox sings Fool On The Hill

Krista4
My 2019 ranking:  164

2019 write-up:

The Fool on the Hill (Magical Mystery Tour, 1967)

Is it as bad as Mr. krista alleges?  Is it indeed a sandwich composed of excrement?  Check page 6 to find out!!!

So anyway, obviously I like this one more than Mr. krista does.  It's one of those "imagined worlds" from Paul, and for whatever reason I always associate it with "Rocky Raccoon."  I guess it's the fact that both are Paul-created worlds relating to a solitary (by choice or by circumstance) man who is perhaps misunderstood.  As I've previously mentioned, I have mixed feelings about these fictitious Paul worlds; I prefer the personal style of John, but the creativity with which Paul can paint these pictures is amazing to me.  I always feel like I can literally picture the people he describes.

I think this song is gorgeous, love the tempo change at the end, and enjoy the flautists.  Really I just wanted to be able to type "flautists."  What a pleasing word. And I gotta say it's my favorite song with Paul on recorder.  But the song suffers for me from some self-importance or...wait...let me have Mr. krista explain.

Mr. krista:  "I do not really care for that song very much. When the best part of the song is the flute, your song is pretty well ####ed.  Unless you’re a Beethoven sonata…  Yeah, I didn’t care for that song.  It’s a standard trope of the fool outcast as the visionary.  There are a million douchebags on the internet that think they’re that guy now; they’re on libertarian websites in their mom’s basements, wearing a fedora."

Suggested covers:  Aretha Franklin holy ####.  WTF version from The Four Tops.  If Yoko had sung it - Bjork.

2022 Supplement:  I cede my time to the gentleman from the great State of Idaho. 
hahaha... Don't get why people dislike this and give Strawberry Fields so much love.  Kinda of similar songs to me.

Guido Merkins

The Magical Mystery Tour movie was absolutely panned by critics, but the response to the music in the film was much more positive.

Case in point, The Fool on the Hill.  Paul wanted to write a song about people who are misunderstood, yet they are very wise.  Paul described it as “gurus who live in a cave.”  John thought the lyrics were really good and gave McCartney rare praise for the lyrical content.

In many ways, it’s the typical Paul piano ballad, but with some psychedelic touches, in the form of a tape loop that sounds like a seagull, kind of like Tomorrow Never Knows.  Also a recorder is featured on the album, played by Paul.  Once again, the Beatles loved to switch between major and minor keys, in this case, verses in major and chorus in minor.

There is a really good version of this song on Anthology 2, a little heavier with the guitars more prominent.  The other good version of the song that I heard was from Paul’s 1990 tour where he samples a piece of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.  

The Fool on the Hill

64 List Rank: 88

64 List Voters/Points: 5/156

64 List Top 5: 0

64 List Top 10: 1 (10) @Binky The Doormat

64 List 1-25 votes: 1

64 List 26-64 votes: 4 (not Binky)

I had this at #30.  Shuke #37.  We both ranked in top 25 in 1999, but not in 2022.

 

[krista4]

Boys

64 List Rank: 90

64 List Voters/Points: 6/150

64 List Top 5: 0

64 List Top 10: 0

64 List 1-25 votes: 2 (13, 25)

64 List 26-64 votes: 4

I had this at #48. Big move up in the 64!

Thanks for putting the song title at the top now.  I was reading some of the comments this morning where people hadn't mentioned or quoted the title, and I was too lazy to go back and figure out what song they were talking about. 

Three good ones so far tonight, but this is the only hit on any of my family lists, with my mom having it at #41.

ETA:  When I said "three good ones," Fool hadn't been posted yet.  Didn't make any of our lists.   

 

[falguy]

Tell Me What You See

64 List Rank: 91

64 List Voters/Points: 4/148

64 List Top 5: 0

64 List Top 10: 0

64 List 1-25 votes: 2 (20,25)

64 List 26-64 votes: 2

A song so good it's worth posting twice. 

 

[krista4]

A song so good it's worth posting twice. 

  I thought it had been posted but figured I was wrong and didn't go back to look.  It is a great song, though.

 

[Zegras11]

I Want to Tell You
2022 Ranking: 128
2022 Lists: 3
2022 Points: 21
Ranked Highest by: @Man of Constant Sorrow (11) @Shaft41 (23) @FairWarning (23)
2019 Ranking/Lists/Pts: 95/2/18

Getz:  FairWarning with his first entry. 33 left...

Krista4
My 2019 ranking:  65

2019 write-up:

I Want To Tell You (Revolver, 1966)

The second of three George Revolver songs that will be on this list - go George!  I figure the dissonance in this song might not be for everyone, but...wait for it...I love it!  The off-key vocals and especially those harshly discordant piano parts.  The song starts with a fade-in of George's guitar on some staggered triplets and weird syncopation, and you know immediately this isn't going to sound like anything else the Beatles have put out.  After the guitar fades in, it continues this riff two more times, first adding some piano jabs and snare, then a hissing tambourine, and finally Paul's bass, before finally launching into the vocal.  It's all rather disorienting, as are the unusual 11-meter verses that lead to the awkward but pleasing sound of the last line of each verse.  And of course, each time you think you're getting the groove, that some of the dissonance has been resolved, then BAM! come those jarring discordant piano parts. After a couple of verses of this, you find yourself in the lovely bridge, which sounds a bit more usual with George on a sweet vocal, and even the piano at the end is melodic in leading you back into the verse.  Oh no!  Another verse means...more off-key piano blasts!  A repeat of the bridge, and then you come to the fade-out ending that I love as much as the fade-in, with the Indian-inflected three-part harmonies and George repeating the guitar riff and Paul meandering around on piano and John doing something with a tambourine.  The dark journey of this song was a worthwhile adventure.

George wrote this song to describe "the avalanche of thoughts that are so hard to write down or say or transmit."  Perhaps more than any other Beatles song, this one seems to me to convey its feeling through the music in a way that makes the lyrics superfluous.  I do think the lyrics are fantastic at expressing what George said in that quote (I'll copy the lyrics below this), but even if you stripped the lyrics away, I would fully understand the import of what the music itself is telling me.  All that dissonance, all those parts bouncing off one another - George trying to align his thoughts all comes out in the music.  The piano parts in the verses feel like a huge avalanche exploding down on your head.  Even the voices are allowed to go slightly off-key at times, to show an inability to express exactly what one wants to.  This arrangement of this song to underscore the meaning behind it is simply brilliant.  Like most George songs, I only wish it were longer.

I want to tell you

My head is filled with things to say

When you're here

All those words they seem to slip away

When I get near you

The games begin to drag me down

It's all right

I'll make you maybe next time around

But if I seem to act unkind

It's only me, it's not my mind

That is confusing things

I want to tell you

I feel hung up and I don't know why

I don't mind

I could wait forever, I've got time

Sometimes I wish I knew you well

Then I could speak my mind and tell

Maybe you'd understand

I want to tell you

I feel hung up and I don't know why

I don't mind

I could wait forever, I've got time

I've got time

I've got time

Mr. krista:  "Yeah, that piano is like the Exorcist theme.  Very dissonant.  Also some Eastern influences.  I really like it.  Just a great song.  This hasn’t happened to you.  Probably.  I don’t know if you’ve ever been the only high person in the room. [Narrator:  No.]  Sometimes when you’re high, you have a thought or idea that seems to have importance outside of what it actually is and to other not-high people, the difficulty in communicating that it impossible.  It can be really frustrating or exhilarating, but that’s what that song sounds like.  'You can wait.'  I like that time when you’re not burdened with practicality.  You just feel the rush of coming up with an idea."

Suggested cover:  Melvins

2022 Supplement:  Kinda broke this one down a lot in 2019, eh?  Since I don’t have much more, I’ll mention that this song, like “Love Me To,” was originally named after an apple since, as I described in that write-up, George had difficulty naming his songs.  This song was “Lawton’s Superb,” which is an apple developed in England as a cross between a Cellini and a Cox Orange Pippin.  THE MORE YOU KNOW.  The song then became “I Don’t Know” based on a conversation between George and John, who was once again needling George about his inability to name songs.  Finally, George settled on the obvious and went with “I Want To Tell You.”  I suggest we all call it “Laxton’s Superb” in the future.  

Guido Merkins

Really, there are no bad songs on Revolver.  Perhaps the least known song on the album is the 3rd George Harrison song, a first for Harrison, called I Want to Tell You.

The song features lyrics that talk about the frustration of trying to use words to describe something that is difficult to describe, like George’s experiences with LSD.  Highlighting the frustration that George was feeling, the song itself features dissonance in the chord progression, including a chord that George claimed to have “made up” E7b9.  Whether or not he actually made up the chord, it is an interesting sound and it does add to the feeling of confusion of the song.  Something doesn’t sound quite right.  You can hear the chord on at the beginning of the lines “it’s alright” and “I don’t mind.”

I love the philosophy of the lyrics, especially “if I seem to act unkind, it’s only me it’s not my mind, that is confusing things.”  I also love the guitar riff and the way Paul bends the notes in Indian music style on the word “time” during the harmonies.

I Want To Tell You

64 List Rank: 87

64 List Voters/Points: 7/156

64 List Top 5: 0

64 List Top 10: 0

64 List 1-25 votes: 0

64 List 26-64 votes: 7

All votes after #25. Big move up on the 64.

 

[Zegras11]

It’s All Too Much
2022 Ranking: 118
2022 Lists: 4
2022 Points: 25
Ranked Highest by: OTB_Lifer (8) Krista (Worth) (20) @Pip's Invitation (25) Krista (Rob) (25)
2019 Ranking/Lists/Pts: NR

Getz comments:  Another with four votes NR in 2019. Worth takes over the Chalk lead.

Krista4
My 2019 ranking:  91

2019 write-up:

It's All Too Much (Yellow Submarine, 1969)

Written by George based on realizations from an LSD trip and confirmed by meditation.  Grabs me from the get-go with that guitar sound; loses me by the end.  That droning chord with the fantastic guitar riffs. That basso continuo with all the instruments interlaid on top.  Those expansive drums and jubilant trumpets and clarinet.  Who needs good lyrics?  This song sounds like the best of a rock-psychadelia-Indian mishmosh to me for about four minutes but loses me in the rambling chaos of the last two minutes or so.    

There seems to be a spot of disagreement about who played lead guitar on this one, with all of John, Paul, and George being claimed at one point or another.  

Mr. krista:  "The bassline is really neat, but that flurry of notes sounds like pulses; this neat textural thing that Paul didn’t usually do. It’s a really trippy ####### song. It’s supposed to be.  It’s long and trance-like.  I like it a lot.  I like the horn overdubs.  I guess I like drones.  Have you ever said the same word over and over [narrator:  this goes one for a while] until it sounds different? That’s what I like about music like that.  It involves one on a pre-conscious level."

Suggested cover:  The Flaming Lips

2022 Supplement:  Maybe a smidge high on my list last time; while I do enjoy all the hullabaloo, as I mentioned then it should have been chopped by a third.  Then again, it might make sense for a song about LSD to sound like a too-long trip.  George later explained that the lines, “Show me that I’m everywhere, and get me home for tea,” described the experience of coming down from drugs. “You’d trip out, you see, on all this stuff, and then whoops! You’d just be back having your evening cup of tea!”  He also indicated that the screaming guitar intro (played by Paul) was meant to immediately indicate you’d be going on a trippy experience.  I think George did a great job balancing the ”trippy” with the spiritual in the lyrics, such as “the more I go inside,  the more there is to see,” or “floating down the stream of time, of life, to life, with me.”  With a little editing, this might have become one of his classic works with the Beatles.  If you, on the other hand, think it was too edited, there is an even longer version:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtuMhOeomrs

Guido Merkins

It’s no secret that the Beatles had almost no involvement with the Yellow Submarine movie.  They were contractually obligated to come up with 4 new songs for the film.  Typically, they would take songs they didn’t think much of (or maybe just John and Paul didn’t) and save them for the film. One of those was It’s All Too Much

It’s All Too Much was composed by George on an organ, a strange time in which George seemed to write all of his songs on a keyboard instrument (Blue Jay Way, Within You Without You.)  This song was meant to have a very Indian flavor, written mostly around one chord and very droning.  The lyrics seem to reflect George’s frustration with the drug scene.  George was pretty naive when it came to the drug scene thinking people were taking LSD to be spiritual awakened.  Finding out people were just using it to escape reality caused him to get away from taking LSD.

George and John both play guitar, Ringo on drums and Paul on bass.  George came to dislike the trumpets on the song.  I actually like the song, but it’s too long.  In this case, less would have been more.

It's All Too Much

64 List Rank: 86

64 List Voters/Points: 6/166

64 List Top 5: 0

64 List Top 10: 1 (9)

64 List 1-25 votes: 2 (25)

64 List 26-64 votes: 4

Another nice 64 mover...

 

[krista4]

It's All Too Much

64 List Rank: 86

64 List Voters/Points: 6/166

64 List Top 5: 0

64 List Top 10: 1 (9)

64 List 1-25 votes: 2 (25)

64 List 26-64 votes: 4

Another nice 64 mover...

OH's #27, so he was a big contributor to the move up.  I'd been surprised it didn't make his top 25 initially.

 

[Zegras11]

A song so good it's worth posting twice (so binky would not forget). 

 

[Zegras11]

The Night Before
2022 Ranking: 81
2022 Lists: 5
2022 Points: 72
Ranked Highest by: Krista(TJ/Michael) (4) @Man of Constant Sorrow (5) Krista(Craig) (14) @fatguyinalittlecoat (16) @Binky The Doormat (18)
2019 Ranking/Lists/Pts: 68/4/37

Getz:  I had this at #17 in 2009. Still love it, but it didn’t make the cut this time.

Krista4
My 2019 ranking:  114

2019 write-up:

The Night Before (Help!, 1965)

It's not the most exciting piece, but there are elements to it that I think make it worth listening to more closely.  First, I like the sound of Paul's vocal on it and think his rises and falls are perfect, and I'm also more of a fan of call-and-response than I should probably admit and love John's and George's harmonies.  The sped-up bridge allows Ringo to change his drums to more of Latin feel that's complemented nicely by the twangy guitars.  The guitar solo is Paul and George playing the same solo an octave apart, no doubt Paul performing it better.   And this was the first time that the Pianet electric piano was played, by John.  There's a lot going on in this mostly overlooked song. 

Mr. krista:  "There are elements I like, as Ringo rides an open high hat, and there’s so much reverb, that it seems like proto-shoegaze, like Paul’s vocals are kind of far away, but otherwise it’s just a typical pop song.  Lyrics kind of pointless."

Suggested cover:  None.  I listened to a lot of them.  None.

2022 Supplement:  Rated too high in 2019.  These sound like John-esque lyrics to me, with demands like “were you telling lies”, but this song was primarily – and probably wholly – written by Paul.  Unlike some other songs of the time, these lyrics do not seem to be about his relationship with Jane Asher but instead are an imagined scene.

Ummm, I don’t have a lot to say.  Here’s the scene where this song was used in the movie:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zW-vxIY10Bo

Guido Merkins

A song from the Help album and in the movie, The Night Before is a good song.  Not a major piece of work, but a nice album track.

It consists of the standard Beatles lineup, with the addition of John on electric piano.  In this period, you want to attribute every song from Paul about his relationship with Jane Asher, but this one in particular, there is no evidence that Paul wrote it from any kind of personal experience.  The other cool parts are the harmonies and a guitar solo played by Paul and George simultaneously one octave apart.  

In Paul’s 2011 tour, this was one of the songs that made me smile when I saw him play it because it’s kind of an obscure one and one that I think he plays for the hardcore among us.  The one thing I remember is hearing someone behind me singing the song, word for word, and I glanced back and saw a young lady, no more than about 14 years old.  It made me smile.

The Night Before

64 List Rank: 85

64 List Voters/Points: 8/179

64 List Top 5:  0

64 List Top 10: 0

64 List 1-25 votes: 1 (25)

64 List 26-64 votes: 7

First with 8 votes.

 

[Zegras11]

No Reply
2022 Ranking: 70
2022 Lists: 7
2022 Points: 92
Ranked Highest by: @rockaction(5) @Shaft41(10) @Anarchy99(11) @fatguyinalittlecoat (13) @Uruk-Hai (23)
2019 Ranking/Lists/Pts: 82/1/25
2 --anarchy99---890
4 --Shaft41---768
5 --Krista (TJ/Michael)---763
8 --fatguyinalttlecoat---675
11 --rockaction---514.5

Getz:  Just missed my cut again. A'99 with 15th song.

Krista4
My 2019 ranking:  107

2019 write-up:

No Reply (Beatles for Sale, 1964)

My write-ups are going to be lacking in energy today.  This is a great song.  I don't know why it's not in the top half, except that other songs are instead.

I'll try to do better on the next write-up. Maybe I’ll edit these later.

Mr. krista:  "You creepy stalker.  Take a hint, man."

Suggested covers:  The Flames - the song is just ok, but that album cover is mint.  Gary Holton & Casino Steel - again not a good song, but in this case worth watching for the video.  Hey, the lyrics say "telephone," so let's show a phone!  There's a reference to looking through a window, so let's have him at a window!  I didn't stick around to see how they acted out "I nearly died."

OK, let me try to do a better job here.

Did John get cheated on a whole lot?  Cuz I just realized how many of his songs are about being cheated on.  I can't imagine bland Cynthia would have gotten that much action.  John, I would not have cheated on you, even with Paul.   

John described this as his version of the song "Silhouettes," which had been a hit for the NY group, The Rays.  I didn't know that song and just listened to it; it's nifty.  John wrote this one for Tommy Quickly to use, but he didn't - I always wonder about these people who passed on what became Beatles songs.  The Beatles's publisher **** James complimented John that this was the first song he'd written with a complete story.  I'm not sure why that was important, but I guess it was to **** James.

Something I love about the song is how dark it is for the time.  Even in 1964 they were starting to move away from the cheery pop into a deeper, more adult place.  I love the way John can glide between the moodiness of the verses and into that crazy-catchy middle eight with ease.  The change in feel and tempo on the middle is jarring but still works, in large part due to the Paul's gorgeous high harmonies that sound nearly unhinged.  I wonder if the middle was contributed by Paul?  Always enjoy the songs where they've both contributed their own styles like that.  Ringo's bossa-nova-style drumming and his changes are fantastic throughout this song.

Fine, maybe I would have cheated on John with Paul.  But not with Ringo!

2022 Supplement:  What was I thinking in 2019?  I totally would have cheated on John with Ringo.  In the road.

Guido Merkins

The Beatles typically started albums with loud rockers or pot boilers as George Martin called them, like I Saw Her Standing There or A Hard Day’s Night.  But by the end of 1964, the Beatles were tired. Two years of Beatlemania first in Europe, then everywhere else, was wearing on them.  Beatles For Sale’s cover sleeve tells the story.  Not the smiling Beatles of Please Please Me or the fun loving Fabs of A Hard Day’s Night, the cover for Beatles For Sale showed 4 unsmiling faces that might as well have said “would you just take the ####### picture…”

Anyway, the album took on the same tone as the cover, and therefore, they decided to start the album with No Reply, which was an acoustic number, of all things.  John was the main writer, with a little help from Paul but the song takes on the story of a guy who is calling his girl who isn’t answering the phone, but he knows she’s there because he can see her silhouette in the window.  John claimed he got the idea from a song called Sillouettes at 50s song by the doo *** group the Rays.  Anway, No Reply was a bit more introspective and not just boy-girl love song, which was more typical earlier, no doubt influenced by Bob Dylan.

The best part of the song is the middle (if I were you….).  The way the music swells and the fact that it switches to more of a rock beat with the rest of the song being more of a Latin beat.  Also, John and Pau’s harmonies are exquisite on this part.  It’s one of the most exciting part of any Beatles song up until that point and the group liked the song so much that it was even in the running for a single, until John came up with I Feel Fine.  **** James, the Beatles music publisher was really impressed with the song because it told “a whole story.”  

No Reply

64 List Rank: 84

64 List Voters/Points: 9/188

64 List Top 5: 0

64 List Top 10: 0

64 List 1-25 votes: 2 (16 , 23)

64 List 26-64 votes: 7

I had this at #47

 

[Zegras11]

I’ll Follow The Sun
2022 Ranking: 89
2022 Lists: 3
2022 Points: 53
Ranked Highest by: @ManOfSteelhead (2) @ekbeats (3) @Gr00vus (20)
2019 Ranking/Lists/Pts: 64/5/46

Getz:  Ekbeats on board. 10 left…  First song to have two Top 5 votes. Takes a hit from 2019 from five votes down to three and 25 slots. Only one more song left with three voters.

Krista4
My 2019 ranking:  57

2019 write-up:

I'll Follow The Sun (Beatles for Sale, 1964)

If you'd had me quickly jot down my favorite Beatles songs before I started this project, this one would have been on the list.  It's so sweet and simple, with a gorgeous lead vocal by Paul.  Paul recalls writing it when he was 16, and there's a bootleg version of it that Paul dates to April 1960.  When the Beatles needed more material for the Beatles for Sale album, they dusted this off and recorded a beautifully delicate version.  A lot of songs have skipped over it in my final rankings given this one's simplicity, but I still love to sing along (poorly) with John's harmonies.  A song doesn't have to be complex to be appreciated, and I love this one for its gentle, charming nature.

Mr. krista:  "Great song; they wisely left a lot of percussion out of it.  They sell this soft and somber.    A contemplative type thing, not rock."

Suggested cover:  I don't love the way she hangs onto the notes, or the lack of harmonies, but damn does she have a great voice:  Judy Collins

2022 Supplement:  Paul wrote this one standing in the living room of his last boyhood home.  This home had lace curtains that the McCartneys considered very fancy at the time, and Paul still has lace curtains in his homes as a result.  He’s described it as a “leaving Liverpool” song of a child who knows he’s going to leave this rainy town for a place with more happening.

Though this was one of the Beatles’ earliest compositions, it took a few albums to make the cut due to its gentle sound.  According to Paul, “We had this hard R&B image in Liverpool, so I think songs like 'I'll Follow The Sun,' ballads like that, got pushed back to later.”

Enjoy this early, countrified version of the song from 1960 by the Quarrymen!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKZtEXfB3zU

Guido Merkins

I’ll Follow the Sun is a song that was written by Paul when he was about 16 years old.  He said he remembers writing it after being sick and having that first cigarette after and it tasting terrible.  What resulted was one of the so-called Original 100 that actually saw the light of day.

The song is on Beatles For Sale and fits the album’s more acoustic, introspective vibe.  It’s a little bit of a sad song, especially the bridge (and now the time has come and so my love I must go.)  The song has no bass guitar and Paul picking an acoustic guitar.  Ringo is banging on a packing case and his knees for percussion.  George plays a very minimalist solo.  

I’ll Follow the Sun is a really good song, so the question is, why did it take so long to record?  Well, first, there is a home recording from around 1960 of it with Stuart Sutcliffe with different lyrics and a different arrangement.  Apparently, Paul would play it in Hamburg in between sets on piano.  The Beatles saw themselves as an R&B combo and wouldn’t have recorded something this delicate early in their careers.  As their palette expanded, a gorgeous song like this would be considered.

I'll Follow The Sun

64 List Rank: 83

64 List Voters/Points: 8/190

64 List Top 5: 1 @ManOfSteelhead (2)

64 List Top 10: 1

64 List 1-25 votes: 1

64 List 26-64 votes: 7

 

[Zegras11]

Glass Onion
2022 Ranking: 86
2022 Lists: 5
2022 Points: 56
Ranked Highest by: @jamny (8) @zamboni (10) @MAC_32 (12) @ManOfSteelhead (19) @Shaft41 (25)
2019 Ranking/Lists/Pts: 104/1/15

Getz: Shaft with his third song today.  Moving up the Chalk...
4 --Shaft41---476
5 --ManOfSteelhead---456.5

Krista4
My 2019 ranking:  121

2019 write-up:

Glass Onion (White Album, 1968)

As we creep toward the top half, I'm highlighting some songs that, while I think they're great, have one glaring issue for me.  In "Sexy Sadie," the issue is that it's too acerbic even for me.  In this one, it is those godawful, inexcusable, makes-me-want-to-turn-the-song-off-except-it's-otherwise-so-good...call-backs to their own damn songs.  It's so lame I can't ####### stand it.  You're out of ideas and you've decided that abusing your audience with these condescending references is the way to go.  It feels like it's sung with disgust rather than being tongue-in-cheek.  Therefore, despite this being an otherwise great rock song with a fab bass line, wonderful cello arrangement, and clearly a FBG favorite, I just can't rank it higher, and in fact I have at times had it ranked much, much lower.  

On the other hand, here's an interesting bit from John about this song explaining one of those callbacks itself:  "That's me, just doing a throwaway song. I threw the line in 'the walrus was Paul' just to confuse everyone a bit more.  ... At that time I was still in my love could with Yoko.  I thought, 'Well, I'll just say something nice to Paul, that it's all right and you did a good job over these few years, holding us together.' ... The line was put in partly because I was feeling guilty because I was with Yoko and I was leaving Paul.  It's a very perverse way of saying to Paul, 'Here, have this crumb, this illusion, this stroke - because I'm leaving.'"

More Badfinger trivia:  "Glass Onion" was the name that John had intended to give to The Iveys, who became Badfinger instead.

Mr. krista:  "Bass playing sounds too boring.  Strings are the best part.  They had such a hard time just writing a song.  I think after Revolver, it seemed like each one had to be an event.  The stakes were so high.  That’s how you get #### like that.  It’s so pretentious."

Suggested cover, also kinda:  With sincere apologies to @zamboni, I dig the Danger Mouse "Encore" remake.

2022 Supplement:  Given the negative feedback I recalled for this “low” (hi Binks) ranking in 2019, I expected to find it had been much lower.  I look at it now and think it’s a little too high.  Having now listened to all 21 (21!) Ringo records for the solo project, I can confidently deem all those irritating call-backs downright Ringo-y, and not in a good “peace and love and I’m having fun” Ringo-y way.  I realize John might have meant it to be cheeky but still don’t enjoy it.  I actually like the Esher demo better here, with a much sweeter vocal where he sounds like he’s having fun instead of being aggressively nasty (though he obviously hadn’t worked out the lyrics much yet):  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFqMjR0JWAI  Take 33, released in the Anthology series, is also interesting for its differing sound effects: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8N21SbSUA5Q

Guido Merkins

If there is one thing that John Lennon hated it was people over interpreting his lyrics.  This led to I Am the Walrus and later, Glass Onion on the White Album.

Glass Onion refers to several Beatles songs, I Am the Walrus, Fixing A Hole, Lady Madonna, Strawberry Fields Forever, and The Fool on the Hill.  Other images like “dove tail joints” and “bent back tulips” and “cast iron shore” and a “clue for you all, the Walrus was Paul.”  And the title itself, Glass Onion.  All of these are meant to confuse and as John said “give those Beatles nuts something else to talk about.”  

Anthology 3 has an interesting version of the song, which is practically identical to the finished version, except with sound effects like a phone ringing and a soccer announcer saying “it’s a goal.”  For the finished recording, that was replaced by the strings at the end.

Personally, I love John when he lapses into Lewis Carroll territory with obscure images and such. In someone else’s hands it can feel like a throw away, but John does it well.

Glass Onion

64 List Rank: 82

64 List Voters/Points: 7/196

64 List Top 5: 0

64 List Top 10: 0

64 List 1-25 votes: 2 (11, 19)

64 List 26-64 votes: 5

 

[Zegras11]

Yer Blues
2022 Ranking: 82T
2022 Lists: 5
2022 Points: 63
Ranked Highest by: @turnjose7 (8) @jamny (10) @Man of Constant Sorrow (12) @Oliver Humanzee (16) @Murph (21)
2019 Ranking/Lists/Pts: 106T/1/14

Getz: We have a RingoBingoTM!! Composite and K4 at 82. Solid improvement from 2019. Turnjose7 with his first song…. 9 left….

Krista4
My 2019 ranking:  82

2019 write-up:

Yer Blues (White Album, 1968)

I've read that this song is at least in part meant to be parody, but I think the tongue-in-cheek part is only in its existence, the discomfort and self-consciousness as a well-off white Englishman trying to sing blues.  The song itself displays no parody, though, as the raw, desperate vocal sounds like a truly anguished dude, and the self-revelatory style of the lyrics fit with similar expressions from John in other songs.  John described the songwriting experience as coming from being in India trying to reach God, but feeling suicidal:  "The funny thing about the [Maharishi's] camp was that although it was very beautiful and I was meditating about eight hours a day, I was writing the most miserable songs on earth. In 'Yer Blues,' when I wrote, 'I'm so lonely I want to die,' I'm not kidding. That's how I felt."  

When I first heard this song, I recall thinking it sounded like it had been recorded in someone's basement, and as it turned out, that wasn't far off the mark.  John decided he didn't want to use EMI's Studio Two (their usual location) for this recording, but instead to record it in a 40-square-foot storage room adjacent to the control room.  The close quarters and togetherness - with John on a microphone in the middle - added to the power of the song.  Along with John's despairing vocal, the drums on this song really shine (those fills on the end of every other measure are glorious), the gritty guitar solos sound like modern grunge, and I particularly love the excitement of the interplay between John's guitar and tempo shifts of Ringo's drums.   The whole song feels filthy, which is why I love it.

One unfortunate note on this song:  there's a bad splice of one take over another around the 3:17 mark.  Tough to listen to that.

Mr. krista:  "That’s a good jam.  Hope you’re hearing how hard Ringo is hitting the drums.  That little shuffle.  I liked that a lot.  I liked how British dude blues was a thing in that time, when Ron Wood and the Faces and Eric Clapton got popular, but Lennon clearly loved that music, and he committed to the absolute pathos.  Whereas I think a black guy from the US in the 60s, that person’s tragedy could be apparent and they can communicate it subtly, Lennon has to scream 'I want to die' at the top of his lungs to convey the same feeling.  That 12-bar blues is not terribly exciting, but they play it so well and it’s recorded so well that it just sounds great, and you hear Ringo hitting the living #### out of the drums.  I really like it.  The title is perfect, too."

Suggested cover:  Not sure if it's cheating to post a cover on which John performed, but it's not the Beatles.  The Dirty Mac was a group consisting of John, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, and Mitch Mitchell, who recorded the song for a never-aired TV movie called, "The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus."

2022 Supplement:  I continue to enjoy this one more than most people; the close recording and its general filthiness makes it one of my favorites.  John was, as he said, “trying to reach God and feeling suicidal,” and all of that mishmosh in his head of love and suffering and love of suffering comes through clearly – or rather, appropriately mishmoshy – in the song.  If the originally published version wasn’t filthy enough for you, listen to this bluesy ####### rave-up mostly instrumental version (with faint guide voice by John) they recorded as Take 5, included in the White Album deluxe set released a few years ago:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W75VWUGpwi8

Guido Merkins

John commented how ironic it was that he was in India mediating, but writing “the most miserable crap on earth.”  Yer Blues is one of those, half joking, half not.  With lines “wanna die” and “feel so suicidal, even hate my rock and roll”, John was obviously in a bad head space.  His relationship with Yoko hadn’t started yet, but it would be soon and, apparently, she was writing him while he was in India, so maybe his marriage falling apart was weighing on John.

Whatever it was, Yer Blues was recorded with all four Beatles in one room, with no separation.  You can hear that on the recording.  Sounds like a jumbled, glorious mess.  Grunge in 1968.  Loud, distorted guitars, Ringo bashing away, John screaming.  Great guitar solo by John and George, sounding like it was played through a Leslie speaker.  Paul’s bass, as usual stellar. 

The best “cover” version of this song was by The Dirty Mac, which consisted of John Lennon, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, and Mitch Mitchell for the Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus.  Between the Who and the Dirty Mac(obviously a reference to Paul) blowing the Stones off the stage, it’s no wonder it wasn’t released until decades later.

Yer Blues

64 List Rank: 81

64 List Voters/Points: 8/197

64 List Top 5: 0

64 List Top 10: 1 (8)

64 List 1-25 votes: 2 (16)

64 List 26-64 votes: 6

 

[Zegras11]

I’m Down
2022 Ranking: 97
2022 Lists: 5
2022 Points: 39
Ranked Highest by: @MAC_32 (6) @wikkidpissah (19) @Wrighteous Ray (20) @Anarchy99 (22)
2019 Ranking/Lists/Pts: 127T/1/7

Getz: Did much better in 2022! No newbies again…. A'99 song #11 and a huge Chalk lead.

Krista4
My 2019 ranking:  126

2019 write-up:. 

I'm Down (single, 1965)

Mr. krista:  "Yeah, that’s great.  Just a super-fun song.  It makes sense that teenagers like the Beastie Boys would want to cover it. [Me:  Why?]  Because it’s a super-fun song.  Dudes being dudes type song."

Suggested cover:  The aforementioned Beastie Boys.

For years I assume both of these [Editor’s Note:  in 2019 I grouped this with “Kansas City/Hey Hey Hey”] were covers of Little Richard songs; turns out only the latter was and that "I'm Down" was the greatest Little Richard song not recorded by Little Richard.  "I'm Down" was recorded the same day as "Yesterday" and "I've Just Seen a Face" - just a demonstration of Paul's incredible range and versatility.  Geoff Emerick described the recording session for the "Kansas City" medley:  "...they really cut loose on it, playing with a confidence and a sheer, innocent joy that was positively infectious.  I knew from that minute onward that it was going to be a great session."  That session, by the way, then turned to Mr. Moonlight, I Feel Fine, I’ll Follow The Sun, Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby, Rock And Roll Music, and Words Of Love, as well as the finishing touches on Eight Days a Week.  Not a bad workday. 

John gets enormous credit for his "Twist and Shout" shredding vocal, but I'll put these two underappreciated vocals by Paul up against that one.  He even sounds amazing in the live version of "I'm Down" as the finale of the 1965 Shea Stadium concert, though the highlight for me of that video is John and George cracking up over John's Jerry Lee Lewis style keyboard playing, elbows and all.    Unlike John's delicate songs of insecurity, these laments by Paul makes it seem like he's just going to scream his way out of his sadness, and the songs sounds like they're on the verge of blowing apart at any moment, held together only by Ringo's steady beat.  They're both great fun.  The appreciation Paul had for Little Richard was mutual:  "I've never heard that sound from English musicians before.  Honestly, if I hadn't seen them with my own eyes I'd have thought they were a colored group from back home."

2022 Supplement:  I just started writing about that Shea Stadium performance and then saw I had linked and written about it three years ago.  I really should read my posts.  So, since we’ve covered that, I’ll instead share some of what Paul has written about the song, to give a flavor of the creative process:  “In the course of writing that first verse, you’ve pretty much established everything that’s going on.  You just elaborate on that.  Also, when you’re shouting a rock and roll song, you want to be immediate; you don’t want to get too fancy. …  One of the great things about rock and roll and blues if that it’s very economical.  In the first verse you find your little rhyming pattern, and then normally you stick to that in your rhyming pattern.  It’s going to be a three-minute song; there’s no time to be fancy.”  Paul might have been “down” in this song, but his shouting was still top notch.  Some of his inspiration might have come from John, who as Paul recalled came down form the control room and encouraged him when he felt like he wasn’t doing good enough:  “Comes out the top of your head, remember?”, whispered John.

2022 Mr. krista Supplement:  I’m pretty sure compared to John Lennon that Paul’s down is so mildly unpleasant that it wouldn’t even register.  John is “I’m so lonely, I could die.”  Paul is like “I’ve been better.”  The lyrics are kinda selfish.  Like “How can you laugh when you know I’m down.”  You know, Paul, people gotta live their lives.

Guido Merkins

Out of all the Beatles, Paul was the one most impressed with Little Richard and could channel Richard’s hysterical delivery.  So, Paul wanted to write his own Little Richard song, so that’s how he came up with I’m Down.  

The intro is very similar to Long Tall Sally with Paul coming in screaming at the top of his lungs.  Ringo doing his usual great job of drumming, George and John sharing the solo, with George on guitar and John on electric organ.  

It’s a pretty straight forward I-!V-V chord progression throughout.  Notable is that this song so effectively channeled Little Richard that it replaced Long Tall Sally in the Beatles stage show.  Most notably is the performance in 1965 at Shea Stadium that closed the show had John, in Ringo’s words “cracking up” and jumping around and playing the organ with his elbows.  John described it as “doing Jerry Lee Lewis because he felt naked without his guitar.”  The other Beatles very much were amused by John antics as it helped the break the tension of 65,000 people screaming at them.

Only the Beatles could do a perfect Little Richard imitation and basically throw it away by sticking it on the B side of the Help single.  Other artists make an entire career from that song.

I'm Down

64 List Rank: 80

64 List Voters/Points: 6/203

64 List Top 5: 0

64 List Top 10: 0

64 List 1-25 votes: 2 (14, 16)

64 List 26-64 votes: 4

Decent 64 move...

 

[krista4]

I'll Follow The Sun

64 List Rank: 83

64 List Voters/Points: 8/190

64 List Top 5: 1 @ManOfSteelhead (2)

64 List Top 10: 1

64 List 1-25 votes: 1

64 List 26-64 votes: 7

Another 4 family trifecta!  My mom at #47, me at #53, and OH at #54.  I guess our 25-64 rankings didn't much balance out losing those who'd had it in the top 25, though.

 

[Zegras11]

You Won’t See Me
2022 Ranking: 71
2022 Lists: 7
2022 Points: 91
Ranked Highest by: @jwb (6) @ManOfSteelhead (9) @Man of Constant Sorrow(10) @simey (12)
2019 Ranking/Lists/Pts: 57/4/57

Getz comments:  Krista's friends Michael, Sharon and Doug also voted for this one.  Dropped 14 spots from 2019, despite getting three more votes and 30 more points.

@jwb comments: Was near the back of my list at first, but when I was listening, my wife said “oh, that’s the song you always whistle”. I never quite realized it, but this song is one of my default tunes when I idly whistle. So it took a monster leap.

Krista4
My 2019 ranking:  54

2019 write-up:

You Won't See Me (Rubber Soul, 1965)

Another song about the turmoil in Paul's relationship with Jane Asher; it's just one more perfect pop song from Paul.  And most importantly, another song where I can loudly sing the backing vocals.  At the time Paul wrote this at the Asher family residence where he was living, Jane was in a production of Great Expectations in Bristol, and the couple wasn't seeing each other often.  They'd started to grow apart anyway; Jane was mostly hanging with the theatre crowd and didn't do drugs, and Paul was, ummm, doing drugs.  

This song has so many highlights.  The mood - Paul makes a song about loneliness sound sunny and beautiful.  Of course he does.  The bridge - not only does it have the requisite astounding three-part harmonies, but I love how the lead vocal crescendos from the minor key up and then take a big step back down into a major key for the verse.  The vocals - not just the harmonies, but Paul's lead is perfection, and those croaky, slightly sad "la la la"s fit the song's mood.  The drums - Ringo!  Those little triplets on the high hat, the fills...perfection from Ringo, too.  The bass - critical to the song, and melodically perfect; Paul styled his bass line after one of his idols, James Jamerson of the Funk Brothers (Motown house band - see the documentary Standing in the Shadows of Motown if you haven't).  The lyrics - the wordplay of "you won't see me," with "see" having at least two - maybe three? - meanings.

I'm crushed that I can't fit this into my top 50.  I demand a recount!

Mr. krista:  "Yeah, that little thing on the high hat is nice. [Drums for a while.]  What a great jam.  This is a pretty Paul record, man.  Paul doing the yeoman’s work.  [Makes a lot more drum and high hat sounds.]  I guess I’m not surprised when Paul writes a great song or a great bass line, but Ringo is always surprising in some tiny way, like damn, he made that work too.  That’s kind of what he’s about, though, is not noticing what he’s doing.  He just supports the song."

Suggested covers:  A band that can do those harmonies:  Bee Gees    Nice lead vocal:  Dar Williams

2022 Supplement:  I’m not as crushed as in 2019 to have this miss my top 50.  It’s a great song for me to sing, but pales for me in comparison to much of the rest of Rubber Soul.  Paul’s bassline is outstanding, as would be expected if he were trying to style himself after James Jamerson.  Unlike most of Paul’s compositions, which he writes with full chords, he wrote this one around “a very slim phrase, a two-note progression” very high on the first two strings of the guitar, which might account for some of the simplicity of the melody.  Nice song, but not much more to say.  Anne Murray had a #8 hit in 1974 with a cover of this song.  Do you see it up there in the “suggested covers”?  No, no you do not.

Guido Merkins

Paul is one of rock’s great bass players.  Early on, it was difficult to hear the bass on the Beatles records, but around Rubber Soul, the bass really became more prevalent and would become even more prevalent in the next year.  However, for Rubber Soul, for the first time, you can hear what Paul is doing.

The first song that I would say has, what I would call lead bass, is You Won’t See Me.  Lyrically, the song is about another fight with Jane Asher, who Paul seemingly never wrote a happy song about.  Jane, apparently, wanted to have a more active acting career and Paul wanted her to be waiting for him when he got home.  

Along with the fluid, liquid bass, the song has excellent hi hat work from Ringo and the characteristic Ringo drum rolls as only he can do it.  Then you have John and George with the wordless background vocals.

An outstanding piece of music, maybe Paul’s best song on Rubber Soul.  When I heard it in Paul’s 2004 tour, I was really happy.  Not a super well-known song, but I feel like he was playing it just for us Beatle nuts.

You Won't See Me

64 List Rank: 79

64 List Voters/Points: 10/209

64 List Top 5: 0

64 List Top 10: 1 (9)

64 List 1-25 votes: 2 (15)

64 List 26-64 votes: 8

First song with 10 votes.

 

[krista4]

Yer Blues

64 List Rank: 81

64 List Voters/Points: 8/197

64 List Top 5: 0

64 List Top 10: 1 (8)

64 List 1-25 votes: 2 (16)

64 List 26-64 votes: 6

OH is the high vote here at #16.

 

[krista4]

I'm Down

64 List Rank: 80

64 List Voters/Points: 6/203

64 List Top 5: 0

64 List Top 10: 0

64 List 1-25 votes: 2 (14, 16)

64 List 26-64 votes: 4

Decent 64 move...

My mom's #16 and nearly made OH's list.  Nice to see this movement up (Binky: down) for I'm Down (Binky: up).

 

[Zegras11]

OH is the high vote here at #16.

8 of 23 lists is not too shabby (binky sucks)

 

[krista4]

You Won't See Me

64 List Rank: 79

64 List Voters/Points: 10/209

64 List Top 5: 0

64 List Top 10: 1 (9)

64 List 1-25 votes: 2 (15)

64 List 26-64 votes: 8

First song with 10 votes.

Eked onto OH's list at #61 and just missed mine.  I'm surprised this didn't get a little bump.

 

[Zegras11]

Please Please Me
2022 Ranking: 91
2022 Lists: 5
2022 Points: 50
Ranked Highest by: @Guido Merkins (8) @ManOfSteelhead (13) @DaVinci (17) @Shaft41 (21) @Ilov80s (21)
2019 Ranking/Lists/Pts: 110/2/11

Getz comments:  YT live 1964 from DC. 80's on board!  11 to go... Loved the Blondie link below...

Krista4
My 2019 ranking:  35

2019 write-up:

Please Please Me (Please Please Me, 1963)

The only song on the countdown that was written as a combination of a Roy Orbison and a Bing Crosby song!  John wrote this upon listening to Roy Orbison's "Only the Lonely," but also incorporating thoughts from Bing Crosby's "Please."  As you might imagine from those two influences, the song was originally written and rehearsed at a much slower tempo, but Fifth Beatle George Martin suggested that the dreary, monotonous song be sped up.  At the end of the recording sessions for the now-uptempo song, Martin, who called the recording session "a joy," declared, "'Gentlemen, you've just made your first number one record.'"  And he was mostly right:  though the song only reached #2 on one of the charts, it reached #1 on the rest of the British charts and became their first (almost) #1 hit.  (I discussed "Love Me Do" earlier as the first "true" #1, even though tim didn't read the write-up.)  Even usually surly John acknowledged how happy the band was with the song.  

This became the first song that the Beatles ever performed live on television, on the show Thank Your Lucky Stars.  One could reasonably state that this was the beginning of Beatlemania in Britain, somewhat in the way that the Ed Sullivan appearance fueled the frenzy in the US (though that frenzy had already begun before the TV show).  This show was hugely popular in Britain, and due to some terrible weather in January 1963, the Brits were stuck inside that night hooked to the telly.  Seeing these guys with the unusual haircuts and insane energy and talent helped launch the madness. 

I love every part of this song:  John's sexy lead vocal (yes I went there); Paul's as-always amazing bass lines; the call-and-response between John on the "call" and Paul/George harmonizing the "response"; the harmonica playing in parallel with the guitar; the urgency of the eighth notes on the bridge as compared to the quarter notes in the verses; the unexpected pauses throughout.  One aspect that particularly stands out to me is the harmonic structure of the verse, with Paul maintaining the high note while John descends; gives it a slightly jabby but pleasing sound.  The title with the double "please" was so clever.  The song drowns in hooks, from that intro riff to the little drum fills to the nifty guitar intro to "c'mon c'mon." 

Mr. krista:  [Narrator:  it would be nice if I'd noted which part of the song he was talking about, but from context it appears to be the little drum fill just before the five-note guitar intro to "c'mon c'mon" part.]  "That sets the song.  It sounds like it speeds up, but it doesn’t.  It’s a very unlikely part, but it sets up that great lick that leads to the chorus.  It sounds like a mistake.  That’s what that has such huge payoff, like it moves you into the next part.  It seems intuitive.  None of those chords are difficult and I guarantee that everybody has trouble playing it when they first try.  That’s really good songwriting and is why rock is so good.  That’s part of the rock vocabulary now, and I guarantee it wasn’t before.  It’s just genius.  I don’t mean like Nabokov is a genius, but an inspired moment where you have to be really young or really brave to put in your song."

Suggested cover:  Blondie, why not.  I met Deborah Harry once in New York.  By "met," I mean that she and I came to the same street crossing at the same time that the light turned to "Don't Walk."  She said, "####."  I nodded at her knowingly.

2022 Supplement:  Who wrote the following?  I have it saved in my notes but without attribution!  “Krista touched on this in the write up, and I didn’t get to post this when it came up but I always enjoyed George Martin’s interview about the origin of this song’s recording and how he had to be convinced to record it as the follow up single to Love Me Do.  He tried to push “How Do You Do It” as the 2nd single, which ultimately went to Gerry & the Pacemakers.  Good thing Martin didn’t get his way this time or Beatlemania could’ve been severely detoured.”  Whoever you are, thank you for writing a supplement for me.  I don’t believe that a copy of the “dreary” version George Martin objected to is available, but Anthology 1 contained this somewhat earlier version, with no harmonica and what sounds like Andy White rather than Ringo on drums:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aREpyGhjo1E

2022 Mr. krista Supplement:  How do you write lyrics that are that good when you’re like 16 or something?  And I like how it seems to speed up and slow down at times.  How do they play like that and sing, in like three-part harmonies?

Guido Merkins

“The Beatles want to hold your hand and the Stones want to burn down your town”

Here’s the problem with generalizations.  What’s more badass?  Saying you can’t get no “satisfaction” and because of your image people take you seriously and wring their hands OR you write a song asking your girl to “please” you and because you wear nice clean suits and you seem respectable, it goes right over everybody’s head?  Yes, Satisfaction is a bad ### song, love it.  But John Lennon writes a song about fellatio and they are the “cute lovable moptops.”  Image is all well and good, but it’s very surface.

In any event, over and above the fact that the song is about fellatio, Please Please Me is my favorite of the early Beatles singles.  It doesn’t come across as explosive as She Loves You or Hand, but that great guitar/harmonica lick, Ringo’s great drumming, and John screaming “Come on” and Paul answering him is really cool.  The outro is my favorite part.  Throwing in a C chord in a song in E Major is cool.  It’s the third chord in the closing sequence.  The one that sounds like it doesn’t belong, but once you hear it, you can’t imagine the song without it.  Please Please Me is, IMO, a perfect little pop song.

Please Please Me

64 List Rank: 78

64 List Voters/Points: 8/212

64 List Top 5: 0

64 List Top 10: 0

64 List 1-25 votes: 1 (13)

64 List 26-64 votes: 7
 

I had this at #42. Did well in the 64.

 

[Zegras11]

I Should Have Known Better
2022 Ranking: 93
2022 Lists: 7
2022 Points: 48
Ranked Highest by: @jwb (11) @Getzlaf15 (15) @John Maddens Lunchbox (18) @whoknew(21) @fatguyinalittlecoat (24)
2019 Ranking/Lists/Pts: 119T/2/9

Getz comments:  First song with seven voters. Every song after this one has at least one Top 10 vote. Pretty solid jump from 2019. Who Knew gets his first song posted! 13 left…

Krista4
My 2019 ranking:  102

2019 write-up:

I Should Have Known Better (A Hard Day's Night, 1964)

For three weeks beginning in mid-January 1964, the Beatles were booked at shows in Paris, and they also had a piano brought in to work on new songs for the upcoming A Hard Day's Night movie/album during their "down" time.  When they weren't playing or songwriting, though, they apparently spent all their time listening to the new Bob Dylan record they'd acquired, The Freewheelin'.  You can certainly hear the influence of that record on this song, written entirely by John during that time and paying tribute to Dylan's style on the harmonica.  As on "Love Me Do," the harmonica is the star of the show for me on this song, though this also features a fine John vocal that stretches him throughout his range.  I especially love his "oh"s on the bridge, and the way it feels like he isn't go to hit those notes on "mi-i-i-ine," but he makes it!   Another more subtle bit of the bridge that I love is George strumming those gentle chords at the beginning of each line, signaling the new chord in half time, and the last strum leads beautifully back into the verse.  Just a small touch that keeps the song together.

Fun fact:  George Harrison met his future wife Pattie Boyd when she was one of the girls in the train scenes in the movie, including the scene featuring this song.  Here's her big speaking part:  Prisoners?

Mr. krista:  "I like the harmonica on this song the best, but I feel like it’s kind of silly given what they could do in other songs. I feel like they weren’t trying that hard."

Suggested covers:  Phil Ochs  She & Him  Johnny Rivers 

2022 Supplement:  I…Should Have Known Better than to love this song …etc.  Nice song, but not much to it compared to others on this list, and should have been lower in 2019.  Nice bluesy harmonica and a great scene from the movie, though.  Next.

Guido Merkins

A Hard Day’s Night is filled with memorable scenes.  The 1st musical interlude (after the opening, of course) has the Beatles playing cards in the luggage compartment of the train and they start playing I Should Have Known Better.

It opens with the harmonica, every much in the style of Dylan and features George on his 12 string Rickenbacker, which the Byrds would see and use to great effect.  John is playing his jumbo Gibson acoustic, another iconic Beatles instrument.  The song has great vocals by John and the lyrics are pretty generic and for John, pretty positive too without the usual “don’t break my heart or else” that he is known for.

Once again, there are slight differences between the mono and stereo versions.  The stereo has John’s harmonica intro dropping out briefly, where as on the mono, he completes the line. Seen in the movie among the school girls who are watching the Beatles perform in the luggage area is Pattie Boyd, soon to be Mrs George Harrison.  He met her during the filming of the movie and they started dating.

I Should Have Known Better

64 List Rank: 77

64 List Voters/Points: 9/214

64 List Top 5: 0

64 List Top 10: 0

64 List 1-25 votes: 2 (20, 25)

64 List 26-64 votes: 7

Another that did well in the 64. I had it at #31

 

[Zegras11]

Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da
2022 Ranking: 50
2022 Lists: 13
2022 Points: 154
Ranked Highest by: @Anarchy99(4) Shaft41(Daughter)(9) Krista(TJ/Holly)(9) @Shaft41 (11) @ekbeats (11) Shaft41(Son2)(13) @Wrighteous Ray(hub)(13) Krista(Sharon) @MAC_32 (16) @ConstruxBoy(17) @John Maddens Lunchbox (19) @lardonastick (21) @FairWarning(25)
2019 Ranking/Lists/Pts: 118/1/10

Getz comments:  Last week, I gave “When I’m Sixty-Four” an “*” for being the song that moved up the most from 2019 to 2022. It moved up 71 slots. From zero votes in 2019, to 7 votes and 84 points in 2022.  Ob-La-Di moved up from one, 16th place vote worth ten points, to 13 votes and 154 points in 2022. So in my book, this is the song that rose the most in 2022, even though it was short of 71 and moved up 68 slots. Loved the Bing cover.

From the "What is Wrong with you Dept.": Shaft41 family had three of the votes here.

Krista4
My 2019 ranking:  155

2019 write-up:

Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da (White Album, 1968)

A #1 hit in several countries, this was also voted the worst song of all time in a 2004 online poll in the UK.

Inspired by a phrase used by his Nigerian friend Jimmy Scott (full name:  Jimmy Anonmuogharan Scott Emuakpor), while in India Paul wrote this story about a fictitious couple named Desmond and Molly.  The Beatles recorded it joyfully and merrily during the White Album sessions, all agreeing it was one of their best efforts, and it became a smash hit single.

Wait, that's not quite right.  Actually the other Beatles hated it, hated all the time spent on recording and re-recording it, and this was one of the songs that inspired John to start complaining about Paul's "granny ####."   John famously and furiously acted out during one of the re-recordings, started smashing the piano keys as hard as he could and at twice the speed of prior recording, shouting "This is how the ####### song should go!"  I guess he was right, as this was the intro take that was used in the final product.  Paul's profane tirade against George Martin during later vocal re-recordings then drove away Geoff Emerick, who could no longer stand the atmosphere and vowed never to record with them again (though he did later return for Abbey Road).

Despite the fact that the atmosphere was tense (put charitably) at this point, the song somehow sounds joyous, with the other Beatles hootin' and hollerin' in the background, shouting out clever little retorts.  I think this is the ultimate love-it-or-hate-it song in the Beatles catalogue, and since I vacillate between the two, it falls in the middle of my rankings.  Sometimes I just can't bear that faux-ska sound or the inanity of the lyrics, and sometimes I get caught up in the harmless fun of it and want to dance around.  What can I say; I'm a woman.

If this is "love it or hate it," let's mark Mr. krista firmly in the latter column:  "I hate this ####### song.  I hate the stupid laughter; I hate the background noise. That’s what happens when white people try to play reggae.  It’s awful.  I’m surprised he didn’t put on a fake Jamaican accent like George Harrison did in "Gone Troppo."  All of the Beatles should feel deep shame about this song.  Every time it comes on the radio, they should feel like they just got caught masturbating.  Because they did."

Suggested covers:  Arthur Conley, with Duane Allman on guitar  The Marmalade had a #1 hit with this cover.  Desmond Dekker was the inspiration for naming the character "Desmond."  For a couple more where the videos are pure gold: Andy Williams and Don Ho ; Bing Crosby

2022 Supplement:  Love or hate the song, it’s a huge crowd-pleaser to this day at Paul’s shows, with everyone dancing in the aisles, and he clearly loves playing it.  He’s described this song as a favorite because it deals with “everyday stuff,” and it’s another song in which he was trying to channel “the power of the ordinary” by describing scenes that he thought were universal, such as “a couple of kids running in the yard.”  If you like the song, check out this earlier take that I think sounds great, without some of the sillier effects added later:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5Qb0m2Cf1o

Also love or hate the song, at least we can all agree it was one of Mr. krista’s best bits of 2019 commentary.  

Guido Merkins

Ob-La_di Ob-La-Da was a phrase that a Jamaican conga player Jimmy Scott-Emuakpor, who was an acquaintance of McCartney would use in concert.  Paul used the phrase to write a reggae flavored song around, and got sued for it.  Paul eventually helped Jimmy with some legal fees, and Jimmy dropped the suit.

In any event, John and George HATED this song.  Probably because of Paul’s perfectionism trying to record it just right.  This song caused a bunch of friction during the sessions for the White Album.  John’s open disdain for the song caused many fights.  Geoff Emerick, the Beatles recording engineer since Revolver quit during these sessions, unable to take the fighting anymore.  John coming into the studio stoned one night sat at the piano and said something like “this is how Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da should ####### sound” and proceeded to bang away at the piano really loud and really fast, resulting in what would become the finished take.  Personally, I like the take on Anthology 3 the best and I’m not sure what McCartney heard that he didn’t like about it.

In any event, the audience disagreed with John and George as Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da was one of the more popular songs on the White Album. In some countries it was even released very successfully as a single.  Critics are split on the song, some saying it’s fun and others saying it’s crap.  I’m kind of in the middle.  The White Album is anything goes, so I think it’s great.  It’s certainly not McCartney’s greatest song, but he continues to play it live to this day and the audience loves it.  

Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Dot

64 List Rank: 76

64 List Voters/Points: 8/217

64 List Top 5: 0

64 List Top 10: 0

64 List 1-25 votes: 1 (21)

64 List 26-64 votes: 7

I had this at #34. Shafted down 26 points from the 1-25...   had to do this one before I stop for the night LOL.

 

[krista4]

Please Please Me

64 List Rank: 78

64 List Voters/Points: 8/212

64 List Top 5: 0

64 List Top 10: 0

64 List 1-25 votes: 1 (13)

64 List 26-64 votes: 7
 

I had this at #42. Did well in the 64.

#46 for me.  Glad to see it higher in the 64, but I remain befuddled how it doesn't do better in these polls.

 

[krista4]

Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Dot

64 List Rank: 76

64 List Voters/Points: 8/217

64 List Top 5: 0

64 List Top 10: 0

64 List 1-25 votes: 1 (21)

64 List 26-64 votes: 7

I had this at #34. Shafted down 26 points from the 1-25...   had to do this one before I stop for the night LOL.

Mom's husband loooooves this song, yet none of the other three of us had it in our top 64.  I don't hate it by any means, but if it were on my list, I think OH would require that we remarry just so that he could divorce me this time.

 

[MAC_32]

#46 for me.  Glad to see it higher in the 64, but I remain befuddled how it doesn't do better in these polls.

Not much early Beatles on my list. This is on that depends on the day tier that probably bridges 100. 

 

[Pip's Invitation]

It's All Too Much

64 List Rank: 86

64 List Voters/Points: 6/166

64 List Top 5: 0

64 List Top 10: 1 (9)

64 List 1-25 votes: 2 (25)

64 List 26-64 votes: 4

Another nice 64 mover...

Still my #25. Still deserved better than to be relegated to the YS soundtrack.

 

[krista4]

Not much early Beatles on my list. This is on that depends on the day tier that probably bridges 100. 

It didn't make my mom's or OH's either, so I'm maybe on a island here.  Not as strong as She Loves You or I Saw Her Standing There for the early stuff, sure, but feels to me like a song that has just about everything one might want in it. 

 

[Pip's Invitation]

A bunch more of my list got knocked out tonight. Boys 60, I Want to Tell You 34, The Fool on the Hill 48, Yer Blues 41, I’m Down 32.

Ob-La-Mi, Ob-La-Meh did not make it.

 

[MAC_32]

It didn't make my mom's or OH's either, so I'm maybe on a island here.  Not as strong as She Loves You or I Saw Her Standing There for the early stuff, sure, but feels to me like a song that has just about everything one might want in it. 

Standing there is the early beatles pop that most resonates with me - that's the one I made room for in the 64. 

 

[MAC_32]

A bunch more of my list got knocked out tonight. Boys 60, I Want to Tell You 34, The Fool on the Hill 48, Yer Blues 41, I’m Down 32.

Ob-La-Mi, Ob-La-Meh did not make it.

Glass Onion, I'm Down, and Ob-La-Meh here. First two still in the top 20, but dropped the latter to 40something. Better place for it.

 

[heckmanm]

8 of mine gone so far (it's possible I've missed a couple tho):

25    Wait
35    Good Day Sunshine
38    Maxwell's Silver Hammer
40    Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
41    Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite!
45    I Want To Tell You
51    Magical Mystery Tour
52    Do You Want To Know A Secret

 

[falguy]

Another 4 family trifecta!  My mom at #47, me at #53, and OH at #54.  I guess our 25-64 rankings didn't much balance out losing those who'd had it in the top 25, though.

#31 here 

 

[falguy]

I think these are the songs of mine that have come up. Maybe missed a couple.

14    When I'm Sixty-Four
21    Tell Me What You See
31    I'll Follow The Sun
44    The Fool On The Hill
58    Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
59    I Will
61    Yellow Submarine
62    Please Please Me

@Getzlaf15, do you have any list of all the ones reported so far that you can just copy/paste into here?

 

[heckmanm]

@Getzlaf15, do you have any list of all the ones reported so far that you can just copy/paste into here?

This would help me - I was traveling from the 8th-13th and wasn't able to check in on the discussion more than a couple times.

 

[simey]

Here are my ranked songs that I think have been posted so far:

64   Piggies
63   Yer Blues
62   Because
61   I Will
58   Being For The Benefit of Mr. Kite
49   Magical Mystery Tour
39   Glass Onion
15   You Won't See Me
3     Sgt. Pepper's Reprise
 

 

[Uruk-Hai]

This would help me - I was traveling from the 8th-13th and wasn't able to check in on the discussion more than a couple times.

How was your trip to the Commonwealth?