Ranking The Beatles

After George's infamous walk-out during the Get Back/Let It Be session, his return was one of several conditions. He insisted the band move from Twickenham to their own Apple Studio, the idea of the big live show/tv program had to go, and he pulled almost all of his songs from consideration. After spending the winter holidays in the US with Bob Dylan and the Band and other musician pals, he was ke...

*NOTE - Audio has been corrected! Apologies!* There's no shortage of songs in the Beatles' catalog in which the listener can project their own lives and stories into the lyrics. A song complaining about being on the short end of bad publishing deal may not be one of those songs, but that's just what "Only A Northern Song" is. George's first attempt at a track for Sgt. Pepper is a droney, somewhat...

After an unintended, Hurricane-induced hiatus, we're back in action! And what better way to get the party started back up than by talking about... "Good Night" ? The Ringo-sung, John-penned closer to the White Album has always been somewhat of a polarizing song in the Beatles' cannon. Some love it, some loathe it. Yet, like so many moments in the band's catalog, there's so much more at play here....

The Beatles needed a song for George Harrison to sing in their first film, A Hard Day’s Night . After producing his first self-composed song on the band’s previous album, the still-emerging writer didn’t have one of his own yet to offer up, so John and Paul wrote the uptempo “I’m Happy Just To Dance With You.” A many-chorded, clanging rocker with an incredibly propulsive rhythm guitar part, the so...

After 3 albums where he comes off as the alpha male/leader of the gang, John Lennon seems to be dealing with a crisis of confidence on the band’s fourth album, Beatles For Sale. For the first time, his self-penned songs seem to fully embrace his emotions in a way they hadn’t previously. The self-consciousness on display in “I Don’t Want To Spoil The Party” shows a guy who, while we may have seen h...

It's easy to overlook a song like " Another Girl, " as it sits on an album ( Help! ) with multiple major Beatles classics, and is featured in a film (also Help! )that's usually given the short straw when discussing the Fabs celluloid catalog. However, for something tossed off on a holiday, then captured basically in one take, it's a really fun, breezy pop rock tune. Musically (and visually in the...

This 1963 album Please Please Me album track is a great example of the Beatles understanding the value in digging through record store racks for songs other bands weren't playing. "Chains," a Goffin/King song gave G eorge Harrison a vocal spotlight on the Beatles' debut album, and a place for their impeccable three part harmonies to have a home. There's a great innocence to this track, as the band...

This 1963 John song often gets overlooked these days as album filler. However, this With The Beatles track can be seen as one of the songs responsible for writers and critics viewing The Beatles as actual artists. In a 1963 article, critic William Mann called John and Paul the greatest British songwriters of the year, but also heaped praise upon the band's "lugubrious" music and "pandiatonic clust...

Happy 1 year birthday to us! Thanks to everyone who's joined us on this ride so far! We're releasing this episode 1 year + a day on from our first episode, and we couldn't be more chuffed to have made it this far. We're so glad you're all here with us! Paul's made no bones about his admiration for the music of his parents' generation, the music hall numbers his family loved that must've filled the...

After having his mind perm-blown by acid in the spring of 65, George's songwriting changed its' trajectory, both in quality (upwards) and in subject matter. Gone were the boy/girl-romance songs, and in came a more thoughtful, world-weary young man, the same almost dour man we met just 2 years earlier holding the pen for "Don't Bother Me." With Rubber Soul 's "Think For Yourself," George seems to b...

It's our 50th Episode! Thanks to everyone who's been along for the ride so far. We're so glad you're here! On to this week! Paul McCartney sometimes is (unfairly) criticized for not bearing himself in his songs in the more upfront ways John often did. While he usually wraps his emotions in bigger stories and concepts, there have been times he's been extremely candid about his life in song. Late 65...

Though the Beatles recorded an annual holiday record for their fan club, it took them until 1967 to finally put an actual real Christmas song on one of them. The very last thing the Beatles recorded together in 1967, "Christmastime Is Here Again" is almost a mantra, a repetitive sing-a-long, filled with all the fun and personality you'd want from the Fab Four, capturing a festive holiday spirit wh...

The Beatles 3rd single, and their first bonafide #1 hit, is a sub-2 minute blast of all the early hallmarks of early Beatlemania: John & Paul singing together, a super catchy hook, and chord progressions more complex than just about any of their peers were pulling off. And of course, a mop-shaking "wooooo!" The band always viewed this song as a major leap in their songwriting ability and quality,...

A quintessential Paul McCartney track, "The Fool On The Hill" lands in a dreamy haze on Magical Mystery Tour, the tale of someone who lives with their head in the cloud, not a care in the word, inspire of the worries of those who think they're....a fool. Is the song about the Maharishi? About John? Paul himself? Or maybe all of us? Paul's never quite owned up to the truth on it, but it doesn't det...

Written at the end of 1967 and finding a home later the following year on the back end of the White Album , "Cry Baby Cry" serves as several different significant markers. It's John's last real psychedelic track, marking the end of his acid-haze word play and the start of writing as reporting on real life. It's the last track engineer Geoff Emerick works on with the band, quitting mid-session due...

As one of several songs Paul wrote at the end of 1965 during a rough patch with Jane Asher, "You Won't See Me" provides a glimpse into the real-life on-goings of Paul McCartney, something listeners only ever get careful, glancing views of. With this piano-driven, Motown influenced track, buoyed by an incredibly strong vocal, the lads create something that sounds fresh even today. Recorded on the l...

The affection The Beatles had for Carl Perkins' music is no secret. "Matchbox" was a longtime part of the band's early live show, first sung by John, then by Pete Best, then again by John. Starting in '63, Ringo took it over for a few BBC sessions, then in studio in June of '64, with Perkins himself hanging in the studio with them. Their cover is a swinging, sloppy, rollicking fun mess. Ringo fumb...

The second track on the band's debut LP, "Misery" was actually the first time John and Paul wrote a song with the intent of shopping it to another artist, Helen Shapiro. When she passed on the song, it gained a spot on the Please Please Me album, being one of the only really "new" songs put to tape on the album, most everything else being songs that had long been in their live set. Compared to a l...

Leave it to Paul and the lads to come up with a classic song from conception to mix in just under 12 hours. That's the story of "Birthday," the storming rocker that kicks off side 2 of The White Album . Inspired by the rock and roll of their youth, courtesy of the 1957 rock film "The Girl Can't Help It," the Beatles put together an absolute barn burner of a rock tune, and captured a track that sho...

Written in Feb 1963 just after their marathon recording session for the Please Please Me album, "Thank You Girl" started it’s life as the Beatles’ attempt at their next single, another early example of tunes John and Paul wrote together sitting eye-to-eye. By the time they hit studio to record it, it'd become the b-side of "From Me To You," but it found a home in their live set for a little while...

The morning of Oct 8, 1964, Paul came up with a song idea he was so excited about, he had the band work on it at their recording session that day. He saw it as a Little Richard-esque r&b rock tune, something they hadn't been able to write yet. The track, "She's A Woman," became the b-side for "I Feel Fine," but the band must've had a soft spot for it. It became a staple of their live show from the...

Originally released March 16, 2021 Sometimes, all it takes to write a signature song is...quitting your band. During a sabbatical from the tense White Album sessions of 1968, a trip on Peter Sellers' boat gave Ringo the inspiration for "Octopus's Garden." With a little help from his friends, George in particular, he was able to put together something that's incredibly charming and fun, and the las...

One of the most divisive tracks in the Beatles' catalog is another classic example of Paul McCartney being able to invent stories out of thin air, wrap them in insanely catchy melodies and arrangement, and somehow draw the ire of all of his band mates, and like, 50% of the general population. "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" gets a bad rap...if his bandmates hadn't literally trashed it in the press upon...

You can really chart the band's early growth with all the different versions of this Carl Perkins' tune. "Honey Don't" appeared in the band's live set in 1962, and found a home on the Beatles for Sale album. It made multiple appearances over the years on BBC sessions, and each time, it's done a bit different. The band's growth from rough and ready, garage rock band to seasoned, attentive recording...

In early 1968, the Beatles journeyed to Rishikesh to seek the fulfillment they realized they weren't finding in fame, drugs, money, and success. While the results of the trip on the group are debatable, there's no denying it provided them with tremendous inspiration for songs. One fellow student, and his mother, provided the inspiration for this Saturday morning cartoon adventure, "The Continuing...