All 213 Beatles Songs, Ranked From Worst to Best

The mainstream press were fairly daft back in those days, making a huge deal out of John's "we're more popular than Jesus" thing, and Rev. #9 like it was some kind of secret "devil music". But so much was unexplored territory in the 60s, maybe they just didn't know what to think about so many of the groups.

I'm 56 and it's still fun to piss off the Establishment. ;) Sue me.

No order, but how can you pick just 5?:

- "Cry Baby Cry"
- "Eight Days A Week" - (pure sing-along pop happiness)
- "Norwegian Wood"
- "I Am The Walrus"
- "I've Got A Feeling"

Listen to the bass/drums-intro of "Come together". This tune, this rhythm, this nonchalance were pure magic for me in 1969. How was this strange kind of music possible to be produced? I have listened to that intro a hundred times or more since the last 48 years, but every time it sounds a little bit different to me. Listen to the humorous version of take 1 on Anthology Vol.3.
Hey, these 4 guys had big fun in the studio!
This intro is an icon for the music of my youth....

.
watched the DVD of The Beatles Anthology

couple of tidbits;

about the time of the "With The Beatles" album, George Martin in an interview says "they still wrote songs for singles, that was their focus. The better tunes were released as singles and the rest were thrown together on an album"

Also : On their Paris concerts (just before the first trip to the USA) , they were used to almost exclusively female audiences, in France it was about the opposite, mostly males :blink:

got about half way through .It Was Fifty Years Ago Today! The Beatles: Sgt. Pepper .. https://www.netflix.com/title/80190838 last night.

long film concentrates most on SPLHCB.

one interesting blurb among many was : G Martin considered “Within You Without You” so poor that he positioned it as first track on side 2 so it would be easy to skip it and start with track 2.

that list does not agree.

52. “Within You Without You,” Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967): A slight song that finds enormous force in Indian song stylings and a powerful production schema. The drones, the sitar lines that follow Harrison’s voice, and the vast centuries of composition undergirding the backing track make this one of the most distinctive major songs of the 1960s. Two quibbles: Leaving aside the line that includes the title words, the lyrics are quite lame. And whether it belongs on Sgt. Pepper’s — supposed to be a suite of songs by the psychedelically uniformed and happily oompah-ing Lonely Hearts Club Band — is another question. Harrison was a little checked-out in ’67; could the Pepper sessions have produced an appropriately meta way to handle “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”?

of course the phrase for the song title was "borrowed" from someone else's book..

Did NOT know about the problems in the Manilla concert or how the "more popular than Jesus" brouhaha was setup.

Looking back after all these years: what will be the position in this ranking for "Free as a bird" on Anthology 1? From a 1977 John Lennon demo (mono cassette), it was completed in the first session since 1970 by Paul, George & Ringo in early 1994. Listen to George's solo guitar playing.
A simple beauty, isn't it?

From 2013 triple LP "Beatles on air, Vol.2."
14. July 1964, Live at BBC: their broadcast-version of "And i love her" D5 in mono. George didn't play the nylon strings guitar as in original version. So we are amazed at the wonderful twang of his "Rickenbacker". And i love (her) this guitar....

Legendary record producer Quincy Jones has described the Beatles as “the worst musicians in the world” as he recalled meeting the band for the first time during an interview to promote a new Netflix documentary and US television special.

In the new interview with New York Magazine, he discussed his first impressions of the Beatles in unsparing terms. “They were the worst musicians in the world,” he told interviewer David Marchese. “They were no-playing motherfuckers. Paul [McCartney] was the worst bass player I ever heard.”

Drummer Ringo Starr came in for particular opprobrium: “And Ringo? Don’t even talk about it.”

Jones recalled arranging Love Is a Many Splendoured Thing for Starr’s 1970 debut solo album Sentimental Journey.

“Ringo had taken three hours for a four-bar thing he was trying to fix on a song. He couldn’t get it. We said: ‘Mate, why don’t you get some lager and lime, some shepherd’s pie, and take an hour-and-a-half and relax a little bit.’”

In the interim, Jones called English jazz drummer Ronnie Verrell into the studio.

“Ronnie came in for 15 minutes and tore it up. Ringo comes back and says: ‘George [Martin], can you play it back for me one more time?’

“So George did, and Ringo says: ‘That didn’t sound so bad.’ And I said: ‘Yeah, motherfucker because it ain’t you.’ Great guy, though.”

https://www.theguardian.com/music/20...s-in-the-world

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SEAWOLF97

Legendary record producer Quincy Jones has described the Beatles as “the worst musicians in the world” as he recalled meeting the band for the first time during an interview to promote a new Netflix documentary and US television special.

In the new interview with New York Magazine, he discussed his first impressions of the Beatles in unsparing terms. “They were the worst musicians in the world,” he told interviewer David Marchese. “They were no-playing motherfuckers. Paul [McCartney] was the worst bass player I ever heard.”

Drummer Ringo Starr came in for particular opprobrium: “And Ringo? Don’t even talk about it.”

Jones recalled arranging Love Is a Many Splendoured Thing for Starr’s 1970 debut solo album Sentimental Journey.

“Ringo had taken three hours for a four-bar thing he was trying to fix on a song. He couldn’t get it. We said: ‘Mate, why don’t you get some lager and lime, some shepherd’s pie, and take an hour-and-a-half and relax a little bit.’”

In the interim, Jones called English jazz drummer Ronnie Verrell into the studio.

“Ronnie came in for 15 minutes and tore it up. Ringo comes back and says: ‘George [Martin], can you play it back for me one more time?’

“So George did, and Ringo says: ‘That didn’t sound so bad.’ And I said: ‘Yeah, motherfucker because it ain’t you.’ Great guy, though.”

https://www.theguardian.com/music/20...s-in-the-world

---

The magic of the Beatles: indeed they were not the best musicians. But as a team, they were invincible.
Quincy Jones was a great producer and musician. But where are his songs?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Fritz The Cat

The magic of the Beatles: indeed they were not the best musicians. But as a team, they were invincible.
Quincy Jones was a great producer and musician. But where are his songs?

---

This is in direct contradiction to Quincy's statement that "the song is everything". The Beatles were so damn prolific that they blasted out double A sides to satiate their fan-base while making albums. Anyway, I realize his commentary was directed at their musicianship - which I also disagree with, Malcolm Gladwell, Star Club etc... -but he is way off base here. He basically dishes on everyone if you read the entire interview.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ed Zeppeli

He basically dishes on everyone if you read the entire interview.

---

and yet ..

Jones, 84, reserved praise for Eric Clapton’s Cream, the guitar skills of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen

:blink: :eek:

But perhaps the most surprising statement Jones made in the Q&A is the following claim: that Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen can sing and play guitar "just like" rock legend Jimi Hendrix.

After calling The Beatles "the worst musicians in the world" in an extended response, Jones singled out Eric Clapton's band 1960s band Cream as a band "that could play."

"But you know who sings and plays just like [Jimi] Hendrix?," Jones continued. "Paul Allen."

"Stop it. The Microsoft guy?," Vulture's David Marchese replied.

"Yeah, man. I went on a trip on his yacht, and he had David Crosby, Joe Walsh, Sean Lennon — all those crazy motherf-----s," Jones said. "Then on the last two days, Stevie Wonder came on with his band and made Paul come up and play with him — he’s good, man."

http://www.businessinsider.com/quinc...hendrix-2018-2

McCartney's "the worst bass player [Quincy Jones] had ever heard"?

Just goes to show you that gold records don't work as an enema, because that guy's full of shit.

.
https://www.netflix.com/title/80195654

How the Beatles Changed the World | Netflix

Interviews and rare archival footage illuminate how the Beatles' influence over music and culture continues to be felt around the world.

100 Greatest Beatles Songs

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/l...it-is-19691231

The Beatles' Marathon 'Please Please Me' Session, Hour by Hour

We break down the epic studio day that yielded the bulk of the band's debut LP, from "I Saw Her Standing There" to a cathartic "Twist and Shout"

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/f...y-hour-w517921

.

Long story short, the 20th Century's most widely-known British non-commissioned officer was real. Only his name wasn't Pepper, it was Babington. And he was a Lieutenant General.

Paul McCartney chose the image of Gen. Sir James Melville Babington as the real-life visage of the fictional Sgt. Pepper for the Beatles 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. For most people, being on a Beatles album would be the highlight of their life. Not so for one of the British Empire's decorated officers.

-more- >>>https://www.wearethemighty.com/james-melvin-babington

How far back in history must you go to duplicate the prodigious accumulation of hits and great tunes the Fab Four came up with during their short tenure as undisputed greatest of all time? Count em and compare. Their musicality/musicianship is second to none.

This so called ranking is a bit of a troll btw. 'Good Day Sunshine' the worst? Really? 'A Day In The Life' the best? Really?

I remember years ago 'Stairway To Heaven' being ranked the greatest tune of all time. Really?

I think Eric Clapton was declared the best guitarist in the world among his contemporaries at one time ie: SRV, Jimmy Page, Kieth Richards among others. Really?