In this thread I rank my favorite Beatles songs: 204-1. (1 Viewer)

krista4 · Jan 11, 2019

The Background:

I don’t remember exactly when or why I decided to do this, but it’s been rumbling around in my head for a while to put the Beatles song into an order of personal preference. When I mentioned this in passing in the Beatles thread, a few folks – @Uruk-Hai, @rockaction, @Ilov80s– encouraged me to do it and post it, while @Eephusnotably told me I was crazy to pursue it. :lmao:

I am a Beatles late adopter. They were before my time, and I spent my formative musical years shunning them almost entirely, with the belief that the only Beatles song I liked was I Want to Hold Your Hand (hi rockaction!). There wasn’t a lightning-bolt moment where I changed my mind, but beginning ~20 years ago I started listening to them more and more, influenced in great part by the fact that most of my friends at the time were Chicago musicians who were Beatles obsessives.

As a result, I’m not bringing a wealth of personal stories to this endeavor nor a lifelong base of Beatles knowledge. There are a ton of posters here with more knowledge of the Beatles and music in general than I have (I'm not tagging them in case they don't want to be associated with my paltry thread), as well as people like @wikkidpissahwho can write a compelling account of a life experience linked to any damn song. I hope that these folks will participate actively in the discussion. And that’s what I’m hoping this to be – not (just) a narcissistic listing of personal preferences but an opportunity to discuss my favorite music with lots of smart people with strong opinions.

The Process:

This is not a list of the Beatles songs I think are “best”; it is a rank order of which songs I like the most. IMO A Day in the Life is the best Beatles song, but it is not my #1 favorite song.

To put together the list, I started by, over the course of months, sitting with Mr. krista at night and listening to the 12 British LPs and one British EP in order from Please Please Me through Abbey Road. Then we listened to the singles that hadn’t been already covered, most of them collected on Past Masters. I excluded the German versions as well as Real Love and Free as a Bird, which make me angry. If I had it to do over, I would have worked the singles in in their correct chronological order instead.

As we listened, I typed up my comments and put the song in an initial tier, 1 through 5. After the song ended and I had put it in a tier, I asked Mr. krista for his comments and typed those up as well.

Once all 204-211 songs (more on that later) had been put into one of the five tiers, I then went through each tier and preliminarily ordered the songs within the tiers. Once all five tiers were done, I meshed the tiers together, sometimes finding that I actually liked a song in a lower tier better than a song in a higher one, so it wasn’t simply adding tier 2 to tier 1, etc.

After I had this initial rank order of all the songs, I put them in a Spotify playlist in that order and then, over the course of the past several months, have listened to the entire playlist numerous times, moving songs around with each listen. I’d estimate I’ve listened through the entire playlist at least 40 more times, with the middle part getting even more listens. Mr. krista commented a couple of months ago that he has friends who’ve written novels in less time than I’ve spent on this.

The Result:

What I’ll be posting is not an argument that a particular song is objectively better than another; it’s just what I like best. When I couldn’t decide on an order, I’d ask myself which song I’d rather hear if I could only hear one of them again for the rest of my life. I also considered the non-scientific question of “how loud do I turn this up when I comes on the Beatles channel?”

A few other caveats:

1.      I’m treating the Abbey Road medley as one song for ranking purposes (sorry, Eephus), though I will rank each element of the medley internally within whatever ranking it gets as well. In other words, if it was my 50th favorite song, I’ll post an internal ranking of 50(a), (b), etc. With that listed as one song, I ended up with 204 songs ranked in total. I’ll list them all in the next post.

2.      This is a Ringo-friendly thread, and if you don’t like Ringo, this might not be the thread for you, other threads out there, have a nice season, etc.

3.      Do not fear the sitar!

A Couple Of Extras That Resulted From This Thread:

Krista's My Fab Four segment on the Beatles Channel, 4/30/19

Krista's intro to Song #11 on the Top 100 countdown

Talented FBGs and FBG affiliates perform Beatles songs

FBG consensus rankings of Beatles songs

The List (links in song titles are to my write-ups):

(Edited to put list in spoilers for anyone new to the thread)

krista4 · Jan 11, 2019

These are the songs I’ll be posting about, grouped based on the UK releases plus singles:

Please Please Me:

I Saw Her Standing There - #41
Misery - #177
Anna (Go To Him) - #175
Chains - #195
Boys - #142
Ask Me Why - #189
Please Please Me - #35
Love Me Do - #103
PS I Love You - #152
Baby It's You - #183
Do You Want To Know A Secret - #88
A Taste Of Honey - #202
There's A Place - #69
Twist And Shout - #78

With the Beatles:

It Won't Be Long - #76
All I've Got To Do - #135
All My Loving - #12
Don't Bother Me - #170
Little Child - #193
Till There Was You - #145
Please Mister Postman - #151
Roll Over Beethoven - #186
Hold Me Tight - #169
You Really Got A Hold On Me - #95
I Wanna Be Your Man - #147
Devil In Her Heart - #190
Not A Second Time - #194
Money (That's What I Want) - #90

A Hard Day’s Night:

A Hard Day's Night - #30
I Should Have Known Better - #102
If I Fell - #54
I'm Happy Just To Dance With You - #97
And I Love Her - #23
Tell Me Why - #129
Can't Buy Me Love - #57
Any Time At All - #79
I'll Cry Instead - #67
Things We Said Today - #59
When I Get Home - #161
You Can't Do That - #72
I'll Be Back - #140

Beatles for Sale:

No Reply - #107
I'm A Loser - #80
Baby's In Black - #182
Rock And Roll Music - #172
I'll Follow The Sun - #56
Mr Moonlight - #181
Kansas City/Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey! - #125
Eight Days A Week - #74
Words Of Love - #173
Honey Don't - #130
Every Little Thing - #167
I Don't Want To Spoil The Party - #123
What You're Doing - #168
Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby - #185

Help!:

Help! - #15
The Night Before - #114
You've Got To Hide Your Love Away - #21
I Need You - #64
Another Girl - #128
You're Going To Lose That Girl - #58
Ticket To Ride - #16
Act Naturally - #127
It's Only Love - #109
You Like Me Too Much - #157
Tell Me What You See - #99
I've Just Seen A Face - #4
Yesterday - #24
Dizzy Miss Lizzy - #180

Rubber Soul:

Drive My Car - #52
Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) - #7
You Won't See Me - #53
Nowhere Man - #13
Think For Yourself - #149
The Word - #136
Michelle - #111
What Goes On - #158
Girl - #73
I'm Looking Through You - #37
In My Life - #1
Wait - #87
If I Needed Someone - #81
Run For Your Life - #93

Revolver:

Taxman - #32
Eleanor Rigby - #36
I'm Only Sleeping - #29
Love You To - #84
Here, There And Everywhere - #50
Yellow Submarine - #116
She Said She Said - #27
Good Day Sunshine - #100
And Your Bird Can Sing - #5
For No One - #8
Doctor Robert - #159
I Want To Tell You - #65
Got To Get You Into My Life - #60
Tomorrow Never Knows - #45

Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band:

Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - #70
With A Little Help From My Friends - #47
Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds - #61
Getting Better - #83
Fixing A Hole - #108
She's Leaving Home - #133
Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite! - #165
Within You Without You - #89
When I'm Sixty-Four - #154
Lovely Rita - #68
Good Morning Good Morning - #110
Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise) - #101
A Day In The Life - #6

Magical Mystery Tour:

Magical Mystery Tour - #132
Your Mother Should Know - #156
I Am The Walrus - #44
The Fool On The Hill - #164
Flying - #166
Blue Jay Way - #197

The Beatles (aka White Album):

Back In The U.S.S.R. - #71
Dear Prudence - #18
Glass Onion - #121
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da - #155
Wild Honey Pie - #204
The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill - #178
While My Guitar Gently Weeps - #20
Happiness Is A Warm Gun - #33
Martha My Dear - #138
I'm So Tired - #10
Blackbird - #39
Piggies - #201
Rocky Raccoon - #113
Don't Pass Me By - #119
Why Don't We Do It In The Road? - #192
I Will - #117
Julia - #137

Birthday - #144
Yer Blues - #82
Mother Nature's Son - #40
Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey - #51
Sexy Sadie - #122
Helter Skelter - #25
Long, Long, Long - #96
Revolution 1 - #124
Honey Pie - #199
Savoy Truffle - #179
Cry Baby Cry - #94
Revolution 9 - #203
Good Night - #191

Yellow Submarine:

Only A Northern Song - #163
All Together Now - #171
Hey Bulldog - #31
It's All Too Much - #91

Abbey Road:

Come Together - #98
Something - #26
Maxwell's Silver Hammer - #153
Oh! Darling - #77
Octopus's Garden - #115
I Want You (She's So Heavy) - #75
Here Comes The Sun - #17
Because - #139
You Never Give Me Your Money/Sun King/Mean Mr Mustard/Polythene Pam/She Came In Through The Bathroom Window/Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End medley - #3
Her Majesty - #196

Let It Be:

Two Of Us - #28
Dig A Pony - #118
Across The Universe = #2
I Me Mine - #105
Dig It - #200
Let It Be - #38
Maggie Mae - #188
I've Got A Feeling - #49
One After 909 - #162
The Long And Winding Road - #104 (naked version)
For You Blue - #146
Get Back - #63

Singles, etc.:

From Me To You - #92
Thank You Girl - #184
She Loves You - #22
I'll Get You - #150
I Want To Hold Your Hand - #19
This Boy - #85
Long Tall Sally - #174

I Call Your Name - #134
Slow Down - #160
Matchbox - #148
I Feel Fine - #46
She's A Woman - #112
Bad Boy - #198
Yes It Is - #187
I'm Down - #126

Day Tripper - #42
We Can Work It Out - #62
Paperback Writer - #66
Rain - #9
Lady Madonna - #120
The Inner Light - #143
Hey Jude - #14
Revolution - #34
Don't Let Me Down - #48
The Ballad Of John And Yoko - #55
Old Brown Shoe - #131
You Know My Name (Look Up The Number) - #176

Hello, Goodbye - #141
Strawberry Fields Forever - #11
Penny Lane - #86

All You Need Is Love - #43
Baby You're A Rich Man - #106

krista4 · Jan 11, 2019

I’m going to start the actual countdown Monday. I’m just posting this now because Mr. krista claims I’m never going to do this. Speaking of Mr. krista, these are his nine Top 10 songs, in no particular order:

Taxman

Hey Bulldog

Helter Skelter

I’m So Tired

And Your Bird Can Sing

Rain

Across the Universe

I’ve Just Seen a Face

Happiness is a Warm Gun

A hint to my top 10: he and I have at least one of these in common.

Again I can’t emphasize strongly enough that this will just be my own preferences. My top ten doesn’t look like yours would. If I were to try to describe what I like, I’d say… I’m not sappy. I’m not a fan of nostalgia. Like @Gr00vussaid about himself in his thread, I’ve found that I like songs based on feel more than anything. Unless lyrics are particularly great (see, e.g., Leonard Cohen or Townes Van Zandt) or particularly awful (see, e.g., this), they don’t move the needle that much for me. When I do connect with lyrics, it’s not because I’m looking into them deeply to give me some inspiration on how live my life, but because they do a compelling job of evoking how I’ve already lived.

My top 10 consists of one song from Help!, two songs from Rubber Soul, two songs from Revolver, one song from Sgt. Pepper’s, one song from the White Album, one song from Abbey Road, one song from Let It Be, and one single. Feel free to wager.

Bonzai · Jan 11, 2019

Gr00vus · Jan 11, 2019

krista4 said:
Feel free to wager.

I bet I'm going to enjoy this.

Long Ball Larry · Jan 11, 2019

this is ####### crazy

Long Ball Larry · Jan 11, 2019

i'll allow it

Long Ball Larry · Jan 11, 2019

but watch yourself, counselor.

coo coo ca choo

krista4 · Jan 11, 2019

Gr00vus said:
I bet I'm going to enjoy this.

I'll take that bet! Wait...

Long Ball Larry said:
but watch yourself, counselor.

coo coo ca choo

-fish- · Jan 11, 2019

Good luck with this.

ZenoRazon · Jan 11, 2019

When The Beatles were big in their day they were too soft edged for me, I liked it rough, Joe Cocker, Grateful Dead, The Stones, The Doors, Janis, Jimi, etc.

Then about 10ish years ago I found a box of all their stuff on CD;s. at a yard sale.

If anything sounds better with phones on, what?

Gr00vus · Jan 11, 2019

This thread has inspired me to go out and listen to some ELO.

rockaction · Jan 11, 2019

I love this stuff. Thanks, Krista.

AAABatteries · Jan 11, 2019

FINALLY!

Spock · Jan 11, 2019

krista4 said:
Happiness is a Warm Gun

Top 3 for me.

Leroy Hoard · Jan 11, 2019

Gr00vus said:
This thread has inspired me to go out and listen to some ELO.

Jeff Lynne is such a nice guy he even allowed George Harrison into his side project.

AAABatteries · Jan 11, 2019

Let’s get this out of the way.

204. Michelle

JZilla · Jan 11, 2019

KarmaPolice · Jan 11, 2019

Ugh. Could you do a good band instead?

simey · Jan 11, 2019

krista4 said:
Feel free to wager.

I'm looking forward to this, sista krista. Does this mean we can try to guess your top 10?

krista4 · Jan 11, 2019

KarmaPolice said:
Ugh. Could you do a good band instead?

Who let this guy in here??

krista4 · Jan 11, 2019

simey said:
I'm looking forward to this, sista krista. Does this mean we can try to guess your top 10?

Of course!

KarmaPolice · Jan 11, 2019

krista4 said:
Who let this guy in here??

You gonna do a spotify of your top 30 or so?

ZenoRazon · Jan 11, 2019

How anyone could come up with a fav 10 Beatles songs...????

AAABatteries · Jan 11, 2019

@krista4 - I edited my post - I didn’t mean get your thread over with but get on with 203-1 and post that dreck Michelle at 204

krista4 · Jan 11, 2019

AAABatteries said:
@krista4 - I edited my post - I didn’t mean get your thread over with but get on with 203-1 and post that dreck Michelle at 204

You're just jealous that Paul's French is better than yours.

Dinsy Ejotuz · Jan 11, 2019

Love the effort you've put into this.

I went down a deep Youtube rabbit hole with my 7 year old a few months ago watching and ranking songs by Beatles after the band broke up. It was a nostalgia fest for sure as they'd broken up right around the time I became sentient, and I remember the solo stuff being everywhere when I was young, but there's a lot of great songs in there too (Ringo had two #1s!).

Also, please don't leave us hanging at #147 like @Capella did with his "Every James Bond Movie" ever rankings.

krista4 · Jan 11, 2019

KarmaPolice said:
You gonna do a spotify of your top 30 or so?

I have a Spotify of all of them in order right now.

ZenoRazon said:
How anyone could come up with a fav 10 Beatles songs...????

I can't, really. I have 12 that belong in my top ten, then another 10-12 that are right on their heels. But I'm forcing myself to do this. Masochism.

AAABatteries · Jan 11, 2019

Dinsy Ejotuz said:
Also, please don't leave us hanging at #147 like @Capella did with his "Every James Bond Movie" ever rankings.

Yep, he owes us - bound to be some sleepless nights with the kid where he could catch 30 minutes of Never Say Never Again

krista4 · Jan 11, 2019

Dinsy Ejotuz said:
Love the effort you've put into this.

I went down a deep Youtube rabbit hole with my 7 year old a few months ago watching and ranking songs by Beatles after the band broke up. It was a nostalgia fest for sure as they'd broken up right around the time I became sentient, and I remember the solo stuff being everywhere when I was young, but there's a lot of great songs in there too (Ringo had two #1s!).

Also, please don't leave us hanging at #147 like @Capella did with his "Every James Bond Movie" ever rankings.

Fire up your list!

ZenoRazon · Jan 11, 2019

krista4 said:
I have a Spotify of all of them in order right now.

I can't, really. I have 12 that belong in my top then, then another 10-12 that are right on their heels. But I'm forcing myself to do this. Masochism.

I confess there is noway I could do that. And if I could in a few days I'd be changing my mind.

JZilla · Jan 11, 2019

a ten minute top ten from me, to save for later, not much thought, no particular order, but yeah this is what I'm sure it'll pretty much look like for everybody mos def

A Day in the Life
Eleanor Rigby
I'm Only Sleeping
Hey Bulldog
Something
Come Together
Helter Skelter
Blackbird
Day Tripper
Ticket to Ride

Dinsy Ejotuz · Jan 11, 2019

krista4 said:
Fire up your list!

The Ghost of John Lennon would track me down and haunt me on the basis of my ranking of Silly Love Songs.

BroncoFreak_2K3 · Jan 11, 2019

Been waiting for this... thanks @krista4 !

Capella · Jan 11, 2019

Dinsy Ejotuz said:
Love the effort you've put into this.

I went down a deep Youtube rabbit hole with my 7 year old a few months ago watching and ranking songs by Beatles after the band broke up. It was a nostalgia fest for sure as they'd broken up right around the time I became sentient, and I remember the solo stuff being everywhere when I was young, but there's a lot of great songs in there too (Ringo had two #1s!).

Also, please don't leave us hanging at #147 like @Capella did with his "Every James Bond Movie" ever rankings.

I will finish at some point!

Nick Vermeil · Jan 11, 2019

krista4 said:
Mr. krista commented a couple of months ago that he has friends who’ve written novels in less time than I’ve spent on this.

Good grief. I took the day off today and still couldn’t find time to brush my teeth until noon.

ScottNorwood · Jan 11, 2019

:wheelhouse:

Zegras11 · Jan 11, 2019

Not enough time put into this. I'm out.

simey · Jan 11, 2019

I'm guessing this as your top 10, but it is too hard to know how the order will be, so I will first post what I think will be the top two, and the rest are in random order.

The Medley from Abbey Road (Abbey Road)

A Day In A life (Sgt. Peppers)

The other 8 will be in random order:

You've Got to Hide Your Love Away (Help!)

Norwegian Wood (This Bird has Flown) and Nowhere Man (Rubber Soul)

I'm Only Sleeping and And Your Bird Can Sing (Revolver)

Happiness is a Warm Gun (White Album)

Let It Be (Let It Be)

Rain (single)

Zow · Jan 11, 2019

That’s some free time you got there.

krista4 · Jan 11, 2019

Zow said:
That’s some free time you got there.

Sleeping 3-4 hours a night helps.

Zow · Jan 11, 2019

krista4 said:
Sleeping 3-4 hours a night helps.

Oh yeah, I seem to remember that you’re one of the lucky small percentage who can survive on that.

Nigel Tufnel · Jan 11, 2019

Yeah I’m in on this.

Mister CIA · Jan 11, 2019

Mister CIA · Jan 11, 2019

My Bic lighter.

DaVinci · Jan 11, 2019

krista4 said:
My top 10 consists of one song from Help!, two songs from Rubber Soul, two songs from Revolver, one song from Sgt. Pepper’s, one song from the White Album, one song from Abbey Road, one song from Let It Be, and one single. Feel free to wager.

You Know My Name (Look Up the Number) :thumbup:

Mister CIA · Jan 11, 2019

AAABatteries said:
Let’s get this out of the way.

204. Michelle

204. Birthday

Binky The Doormat · Jan 11, 2019

this is impressive ...incredibly impressive.

looking forward to this - a lot.

Zegras11 · Jan 11, 2019

We have to wait until Monday? Stomps like a child.

matuski · Jan 11, 2019

krista4 said:
Speaking of Mr. krista,

Not asking to be nosey, but because it has never occurred to me.. is mr. krista one of us?

I'm not asking who (none of my business), but rather if he is a lurker or regular here over the years?

In this thread I rank my favorite Beatles songs: 204-1. (1 Viewer)

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