In his comments on a recent post, my son Zachary suggested that I should post my top 10 favorite songs by the Beatles and Led Zeppelin, respectively. I've gone a little beyond that in identifying my top 25 songs in each case, but even that was a challenge. Rolling Stone recently published a special edition featuring its list of the 100 greatest songs by the Beatles. At least I narrowed things down more than that! So here's my top 25 favorite songs by the Beatles. A subsequent post will feature
my top 25 favorite Led Zeppelin songs. As always, comments and friendly debates are welcome.
1. Eleanor Rigby
2. Let It Be
3. Yesterday
4. A Day in the Life
5. All My Loving
6. Eight Days a Week
7. While My Guitar Gently Weeps
8. Hey Jude
9. The Long and Winding Road
10. Revolution
11. Helter Skelter
12. Getting Better
13. In My Life
14. The Fool on the Hill
15. Back in the USSR
16. Paperback Writer
17. I'll Follow the Sun
18. Penny Lane
19. We Can Work It Out
20. Here Comes the Sun
21. Get Back
22. Good Day Sunshine
23. Ticket to Ride
24. Lady Madonna
25. Nowhere Man
2 comments:
My top one must now be "Here, There, and Everywhere" as that is what my wife and I danced to at our wedding. I'd drop Let it Be lower, move While My Guitar and Helter Skelter higher. Also, Penny Lane would be higher, and of course, I must ask - where is Maxwell's Silver Hammer?
Making a list like this is almost impossible; there are so many great songs.
My list would have fewer songs from the latter part of the Beatles' career (post-Sgt Pepper) and a few more from the middle (say, Help! through Sgt Pepper), which I regard as the real sweet spot in their history.
So I'd put in "And Your Bird Can Sing" and "Got to Get You into My Life" from Revolver, and take out "Long and Winding Road" and "Hey Jude" to make room for them. And while "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" is a pretty good song, it has to be admitted that the lyrics are somewhat lame ("I look at the floor and I see it needs sweeping"???). I think there a lot of songs that are better examples of Harrison's songwriting talent; "Taxman", "Think For Yourself", and "Something" all come to mind.
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