Name another band more timeless than The Beatles, I’ll wait… See? Chances are your options are pretty limited. There are a lot of great bands out there that have influenced and revolutionized the music industry. However, whether you’re a Queen fan, Metallica headbanger, Gorillaz jammer, Jonas Brothers enthusiast or an ABBA’s dancing queen, there’s no denying the impact that these musical prodigies of the 60’s have made in rock and roll history..
John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr: four guys from Liverpool that joined together to form what many would say that is one of the most influential, successful, creative and greatest bands of all time. Their humble beginnings engaged booking shows in Hamburg, Germany in 1960. Dressed in their classic tux attire, they performed songs such as: Love Me Do, From Me To You, She Loves You and the song that practically boomed The Beatlemania: I Want To Hold Your Hand, right about the time that the band had crossed over to America and everyone became obsessed with their music to this day. It’s impossible to make a list of the top ten Beatles songs, considering that the majority (if not all) of their songs are unique in every astonishing way. However, I will challenge the impossible, so here are my top ten songs from The Beatles:
10. Eleanor Rigby (Album: Revolver) (1966)
Don’t you just love a track with a great orchestra backing it up? Well, Eleanor Rigby is that track. Just at the beginning, the song captivates the listener with powerful and sharp violin sounds. In terms of tone, it is quite melancholic. The sound narrates the lonely life of Eleanor Rigby along with her priest, Father Makenzie. The tune constantly repeats: Ah, look at all the lonely people—which brings a certain sadness to it, because of the theme of loneliness. However, it’s a song that conveys a story and a moral questioning about the nature of being alone.
Paul McCartney wrote this song while he was inspired by his younger days living in a housing estate. There were a lot of old ladies walking about the area and McCartney enjoyed sitting around them. He listened attentively as they shared their very own anecdotes about many things, especially World War II. However, there was one peculiar lady that he used to buy groceries for and attend . He always kept the image of this lonely lady. He thought of her as a character from a story, so he thought of giving her a name. He always liked the name Eleanor (he happened to work with a woman with that very name.) Yet, the surname Rigby per se came to him as he stared at a shop that had that name, and Eleanor Rigby came to life.
Curiously, McCartney was later notified that there was a gravestone by the name of Eleanor Rigby in Liverpool. What a coincidence, he thought. Who knows? Maybe he subconsciously knew the name all along.
9. Strawberry Fields Forever (Album: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band) (1967)
Strawberry Fields Forever is one of the greatest pop songs ever recorded.
Entering the psychedelic world of tunes, The Beatles bring this masterpiece inspired and written by none other than John Lennon. Strawberry Fields is linked to Lennon’s childhood memories, which weren’t really happy, go-lucky ones. The song is about Lennon’s insecurities and the tough circumstances that surrounded him as he grew up. The title of the song refers to the Salvation Army’s girl orphanage dreamily called “Strawberry Fields” that Lennon lived near growing up in Liverpool.
Though it is a pop song, creatively tuned by the mellotron and the Indian harp, the song projects hardships that eventually will become nothing to get hung about, so carry on.
8. All You Need is Love (Album: The Yellow Submarine) (1967)
This song is simple—the chorus is only one note—yet it brings up an essential message to every person on this planet.
The concept of the song was born out of a request to bring a tune that could be understood by people from all nations. Unsurprisingly, the Beatles nailed it! John Lennon wrote it as an easy message of understanding love and peace. It’s chill to play; the words are easy to remember, and it also encompasses the feeling of the youth during that particular time period. We can all sing along to this timeless melody—as a matter a fact, we all should, urgently. All together now!
7. Penny Lane (Album: Sgt. Pepper Lonely Hearts Club Band) (1967)
Paul McCartney was sitting at a bus shelter waiting for John Lennon to meet him on Penny Lane. While Paul waited, he jotted down the things he saw, including a barber shop and a nurse selling poppies, and thus Penny Lane (the song’s title) was born. Penny Lane actually referred to a bus station that doesn’t exist anymore. When the boys were young, they used to meet at Penny Lane because it was the perfect meeting point. Apart from the story behind it, Penny Lane has an upbeat tune and beautiful imagery that literally anyone can relate with: Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes. There, beneath the blue, suburban skies…
6. Something (Album: Abbey Road) (1969)
If Frank Sinatra says this is one of “the greatest love songs ever written,” it’s because it is one of the greatest love songs ever written. This lovely melody is for all you hopeless romantics out there. No, neither McCartney nor Lennon wrote it—it was actually George Harrison’s creation. Yes, contrary to popular belief, Harrison had more to offer than just playing the guitar. He could sing and write just like the others. This song seemed to be inspired by Harrison’s wife, Pattie, although he actually claimed he did not have anyone in mind when he wrote it.
As a matter of fact, Harrison was very into his Krishna Consciousness studies when he wrote it, which leads some fans to believe that his original intent was to write a song in devotion to Lord Krishna. However, since this kind of ruins the romantic vibes of the song for us, let’s just believe Harrison wrote it as a romantic ode to his passionate feelings for his wife.
Additionally, “Something” depicts the authenticity of love. When you really love someone, it can be quite hard to put all of your emotions and feelings into words; and this song is great at describing that same je ne sais quoi that inevitably comes with falling in love. This song is brilliant in every way and it’s perfect to slow dance with your loved one to. Way to go, Harrison!
5. I Want to Hold Your Hand (Album: Meet The Beatles!) (1964)
This was The Beatles’ song that introduced Beatlemania in America. By 1963, The Beatles became stars in England, but couldn’t break through into the US. Their singles in England: Please Please Me, From Me to You and She Loves You, were issued in America, but through small labels; which ultimately lead to their sales flopping, something that is actually quite hard to imagine since those three records are amazing. It wasn’t until this song came along that The Beatles were an instant hit across the Atlantic. I Want to Hold Your Hand remains today the best-selling Beatles single in the United States, moving over 12 million copies. The Beatles celebrated madly when they found out they were #1 in America.
It’s simple in its message. Heck, the message is basically the title of the song.
Yet, it expressed an urgent feel to tenderly touch your loved one, not just physically, but emotionally as well. There are many songs out there that talk about kissing and whatever those kisses might escalate to, but it’s rare to hear an excited and romantic tune of simply holding someone’s hand. So, enjoy.
4. Let It Be (Album: Let It Be) (1970)
So many of us need to hear this song on a daily basis. We’re sometimes so caught up on stressing and obsessing about things, when in reality we should just let it go, or as Paul McCartney would say: let it be. The tune gently harmonizes with the piano and it’s absolutely emotional. As it happens to be, there’s actually a reason for it. The inspiration for this song came to McCartney in a dream. The musician wasn’t feeling too well, so he laid down and dreamt about his mother. McCartney had the misfortune of losing his mom when he was only fourteen years old, so seeing his mom in the dream was completely emotional and special to him. In the dream, she seemed to realize that he was going through struggles and told him: “everything is going to be alright, just let it be.” When McCartney woke up, he remembered what his mother had told him and quickly went to the piano to write a song about it.
This is the reason why perhaps this song speaks to so many, because it’s a wise phrase with a simple yet profound message. ! Let It Be is emotional, but powerful when sung.
3. Yesterday (Album: Help!) (1965)
Paul McCartney had done it again. This man literally wrote singles as he slept.
“Yesterday” was also a song about a dream. He conceived only the melody in this dream. When he woke up, he had it stuck in his head, so he proceeded to ask Lennon about it, doubting that it wasn’t his own. Eventually, he understood that the melody was, in fact, his creation and wrote the song.
What’s interesting about this one are the lyrics. Though melancholic and touching, one can’t help but to feel puzzled and in a certain grief. There was actually a speculation that McCartney wrote this song in honor of his late mother. This is hinted when the song expresses: Why she had to go, I don’t know she wouldn’t say. Yet, McCartney exposed this rumor in The Late Show and said that it was a possibility, but he surely didn’t intended to.
Nevertheless, although we’re not 100% sure about the inspiration behind the lyrics, it gives fans the right to empathize with the song whichever way it suits them.. However, the song has a definite connection with the past—whatever happened yesterday or any day before that, is something that might haunt us, and McCartney exposes said idea in this outstanding song.
Fun fact: Yesterday had achieved a record as the most recorded song ever in the Guinness Book of World Records. How about that?
2. A Day in the Life (Album: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Band Club) (1967)
This song took 34 hours to record—that’s how intense it is. Written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, this tune introduces us to the Beatles’ psychedelic rock phase, and it is simply divine.
The song depicts exactly what the title suggests, a day in life, but the life that it refers to is not the one with flowers, peace, and love. It’s actually the total opposite. It’s chaos, hastiness, city rush, violence, and war. Though how it’s played at the beginning suggests it’s directing itself to something sweet and soothing, it later takes a sudden twist towards the mid-section when a crescendo of many orchestral instruments shakes you up from the nicely tuned chords of the beginning.
There’s a lot going on in this song and that is fantastic. Actually, Paul McCartney took the lead of the orchestra that was being recorded for the song, telling them to play all the instruments at the same time, starting at their lowest note up to the highest note at their own pace. This explains the overall ruckus of the song. A Day in the Life is certainly an experience lived by just hearing it. Though it is rather sad and chaotic, sometimes it hits us that the reality we’re living in is precisely like that … Oh boy.
1. Hey Jude (Album: Hey Jude) (1968)
Na, na, na, na, na, na! You cannot resist singing along to this song. “Hey Jude”, is number one because it is a unifying song that everybody—and I mean everybody—can relate to. The song is about reassurance. Whenever you feel like you have emotional weight on you, just listen to this song and you’ll see how the stress you felt suddenly loses its weight.
Paul McCartney wrote it trying to provoke that feeling on the listener. He wrote the song when John Lennon and his wife Cynthia had divorced and he felt sorry for their kid, Julian Lennon. He told Julian to “not make it bad (on himself)” in hopes of cheering him up. This thought stayed in his mind, and he eventually wrote the entire song. The name Jude is similar to Julian in a way, but Jude came from McCartney’s particular fondness for that name. Despite the song being seven minutes long, it topped the American Charts for nine weeks—it’s just that good. Hey Jude speaks to anyone and everyone, not just random people named Jude (though if your name is Jude, that’s pretty cool too!) This timeless tune, the nanana’s, the introduction of the instruments and vocals as the song progresses is beautiful.
So, let’s come together and Na, na, na, na, na, na! Na, na, na! Hey Jude!
There you have it: a list of the top 10 Beatles songs. There are obviously so many more songs that are worth listening to. This list was very ambitious, but I did it. If you haven’t listened to one of these songs, or any of them, I encourage you to do so. It might change the way you approach music and maybe expand your perspective on yourself and the world around you.
The Beatles are influential, legendary, and absolutely timeless. Their music legacy will forever be in the hearts of many. Their songs will keep inspiring us, reminding us about love, about the world, about carrying on and making it better. There is so much gratitude directed to these four lads of the 60s that ended up being four legends of all the ages to come.