Yes, It's Another Beatles Thread: Mojo Top 101 Beatles Songs (Again)

[Serge]

So, Mojo have just put together their latest list of the Top 101 Beatles Songs (I'm pretty sure they've done this before) and yes, there are not really many surprises in the Top Ten. To save you from having to go through the list by clicking from song to song on the Mojo website, I've copied the list out here in reverse order:

Spoiler alert

101. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
100. Run For Your Life
99. You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)
98. Shimmy Shake (from 'Live At The Star Club')
97. Octopus's Garden
96. I'll Be Back
95. All My Loving
94. Flying
93. Michelle
92. It's Only Love
91. Mother Nature's Son
90. Back In The U.S.S.R.
89. Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite
88. Glass Onion
87. Money
86. Lovely Rita
85. It's All Too Much
84. You Won't See Me
83. Good Morning, Good Morning
82. All I've Got To Do
81. Because
80. Long Long Long
79. Got To Get You Into My Life
78. Yer Blues
77. Get Back
76. I'll Get You
75. Only A Northern Song
74. Day Tripper
73. The Ballad Of John And Yoko
72. We Can Work It Out
71. The Fool On The Hill
70. I Should Have Known Better
69. Julia
68. There's A Place
67. Yellow Submarine
66. I'm Down
65. Revolution 9
64. Lady Madonna
63. No Reply
62. Blackbird
61. Hold Me Tight
60. You've Got To Hide Your Love Away
59. Hey Bulldog
58. For No One
57. Yes It Is
56. You're Gonna Lose That Girl
55. Sexy Sadie
54. I Will
53. Help!
52. Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
51. Love Me Do
50. Let It Be
49. Getting Better
48. Taxman
47. From Me To You
46. Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except For Me And My Monkey
45. I Feel Fine
44. Dear Prudence
43. If I Fell
42. Drive My Car
41. And Your Bird Can Sing
40. Twist And Shout
39. Helter Skelter
38. I Am The Walrus
37. Paperback Writer
36. Hello Goodbye
35. It Won't Be Long
34. I Want You (She's So Heavy)
33. She's Leaving Home
32. Across The Universe
31. Don't Let Me Down
30. Here, There And Everywhere
29. I'm Only Sleeping
28. All You Need Is Love
27. The Long And Winding Road
26. She Said, She Said
25. Nowhere Man
24. Please Please Me
23. Ticket To Ride
22. I Saw Her Standing There
21. Here Comes The Sun
20. Rain
19. Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
18. Can't Buy Me Love
17. While My Guitar Gently Weeps
16. Revolution
15. With A Little Help From My Friends
14. I Want To Hold Your Hand
13. Come Together
12. Hey Jude
11. Eleanor Rigby
10. A Hard Days Night
9. Penny Lane
8. Happiness Is A Warm Gun
7. Something
6. In My Life
5. She Loves You
4. Tomorrow Never Knows
3. Yesterday
2. Strawberry Fields Forever
1. A Day In The Life

[close]

It did get me thinking: What would a CaB Top 101 Beatles Songs look like? Would anyone be interested in putting up their top tens (with maybe a bit of writing to stop it from being merely a thread of lists?) I'd be happy to collate them into a full list when the time is ripe. And for balance, I'd also be happy to start a Top 101 Krautrock tracks thread.

[Paaaaul]

101 - a song that many think is their worst.
100 - their controversial song about violence towards women
99 - Another loathed song
98 - a song that most people haven't heard
97 - Another heavily hated song

Man, Mojo are edgy.

[SteveDave]

Number 3? Really? Ugh.

[wosl]

The Black Flag logo's let itself go.

[wosl]

If I Needed Someone ought to have made the lower reaches, at least.

[newbridge]

1. Help![nb]#53? What in the FUCK???[/nb]
2. Hey Jude
3. A Hard Day's Night
4. All You Need Is Love
5. Hello Goodbye
6. Eight Days a Week
7. Can't Buy Me Love
8. I Am the Walrus
9. She Loves You
10. Paperback Writer
...
101. Norwegian Wood

[Serge]

98 - a song that most people haven't heard

Ha ha! That struck me too - they did something similar with the Top 100 Bowie songs, when they put the DFA remix of 'Love Is Lost' from 'The Next Day' in there, and I thought, really? You had to bump something decent out of the Top 100 to try and prove some kind of point? I know these things are essentially pointless, but I'd rather see a Top 100 that might actually reflect what a real Beatles or Bowie fan might put in there.

As for the list above, I was surprised that three of the four 'new' tracks from the 'Yellow Submarine' soundtrack made it in there, and no sign of 'I'm Looking Through You'? Fuckers.

[Nowhere Man]

I was just about to comment on how bored I am of the Beatles, and then I just remembered that i'm seeing Macca at the O2 later on. lol

[DukeDeMondo]

I missed snaggin free tickets to McCartney tonight because I didn't check my email in time. Gutted.

Anyway I'm pretty sure my Top 3 Beatles tracks are:

Happiness is a Warm Gun
Rain
For No One

[SteveDave]

1. Strawberry Fields Forever
2. Within You Without You
3. Old Brown Shoe
4. Long, Long, Long
5. You Won't See Me
6. In Spite Of All The Danger
7. Tomorrow Never Knows
8. I Want You (She's So Heavy)
9. Baby You're A Rich Man
10. Here, There & Everywhere

[checkoutgirl]

Number 3? Really? Ugh.

It's an XFactor favourite (Yesterday). Coincidentally it's not to my taste. Michelle is probably my favourite Beeatles song. Unfussy, simple and stuck in my brain for the last 3 years or so. That said, I probably have only a handful of Beeatles songs in my mp3 player. Anymore than that and you're flirting with fetishism like that balding,  broken husk Biggytitbo.

[alan nagsworth]

People who go through these lists and pay any attention whatsoever to anything aside from the bottom and top few are worthless cunts who want a smack in the fucking mouth. Seriously who the fuck cares what comes where? Why does it have aby significance whatsoever  to your life or your own opinions? Utterly meaningless wank, and this is coming from someone for whom "meaningless wank" is a big part of the daily routine.

[newbridge]

Help! might be the best pop song ever written, how can it not be in a Beatles top 10?

[Johnny Textface]

Subjective though innit. Waste of time.

[Serge]

10. Got To Get You Into My Life
It was rumoured at one point that The Beatles were going to go to Muscle Shoals to record at the FAME studios (according to Steve Cropper, anyway), and while that never came to pass, 'Got To Get You Into My Life' is probably the closest thing (well, and maybe 'Lady Madonna') to what would have come out of such a session.

9. I Am The Walrus
I think he may have been on drugs. I've listened to this song so many times that when I heard the backing track-only version on 'Anthology 2', I would fill in all of the missing bits in my mind. And the parts of 'King Lear' that appear in the background to the end section are still the only bits of Shakespeare that I can quote. Also partly responsible the the formation of Can, so there you go.

8. Eleanor Rigby
Basically, this just reinforces the image I have of Liverpool as being exactly like the clip to accompany this song in the 'Yellow Submarine' film. One of the saddest songs I know, and I'm a Scott Walker fan.

7. Help!
Yeah, it is pretty good this one.

6. I Want You (She's So Heavy)
Late-period madness from the Lennon. I've just realised that two of my top ten are two of the only three Beatles songs that exceed the 7-minute mark, which shows how much I like songs to last. I can never exactly second-guess the sudden ending, and end up like that Limmy sketch where he tries to anticipate exactly when a clock is going to change to 14:00. Would still like to know what the bit of chatter captured after Lennon screams "Yeeeeeahhh!" is.

5. I'm Looking Through You
Fuck you, McCartney, for making such an amazing song out of one of your most peevish moments. Written in spite when Jane Asher decided to go on tour with a production rather than stay at home with him, obviously not seeing the irony of this being exactly what he did with half of his life at the time. Though if only all spite could be this insanely catchy.

4. Here, There And Everywhere
And then the bugger was capable of moments of sublime beauty like this. The 'Everywhere' at 1:54 (ish) is one of my favourite seconds of pop music of all time.

3. Tomorrow Never Knows
It still does my head in to imagine exactly what this must have sounded like to the average Beatles fan back in 1966, as it still blows my mind (maaan) to this day, and I've been listening to it for about thirty years at this point. As this list shows, 'Revolver' is my favourite Beatles album, but there's still nothing else on there that could prepare you for this assault and battery of the senses that was/is still able to sound incredible in a club or blasting through headphones as you space out at home decades later.

2. Strawberry Fields Forever
Completing Lennon's trilogy of Totally Weird Shit (with 'Walrus' and 'TNK' either side of it), is this childhood flashback headfuck that must have sounded amazing when it appeared on the radio in early 1967. Mellotrons, hidden voices, a brutal edit that sounds like nothing more than an orchestra suddenly appearing in the studio, a false ending and some cranberry sauce. Fantastic.

1. Hey Jude
But this is still my favourite. Nonsensical lyrics ahoy, McCartney doing his pieces in the second half, a 'Fucking Hell!' that nobody noticed for years, but which I hear every single time now, and the most catchy 'na na na's you'll ever hear. I only noticed a couple of years ago that it actually starts to fade out about two minutes before the end of the record - there are singles that are shorter than that alone. Apparently the movement you need is on your shoulder. Who knew?

[Johnny Textface]

So Martha My Dear doesn't get a look in? Pure balls.

[The Masked Unit]

Exactly what I thought.

[massive bereavement]

Surprised to see "Get Back" so low on Mojo's list, lower than "Ballad of John & Yoko" even.
"Hold Me Tight" as high as 61? That is the one Beatles recording that does place them amongst their Mersey Beat contemporaries for me, who were all terrible on record for the most part (though I'm sure many of them could cut it on stage with the American covers, especially The Big Three).

For what it's worth, my top ten would be.......

10. Get Back [it's a groove and they didn't groove enough]
9. Mother Nature's Son [sweet without being sickly]
8. She Said She Said [Coils of electricity tickling through the brain, a great sound. If the Beatles did EST....]
7. It's All Too Much [I almost fell out of love with Mark Lewisohn over this]
6. I'm Only Sleeping [mostly for the lyrics, I'd have the "Please don't spoil my day....." passage on my gravestone]
5. Long Long Long [for capturing the spooky quality of 'god']
4. I Want You (She's So Heavy) [fucking yes! this fucks arses]
3. Strawberry Fields Forever [a celebration of going mental, cus that's where it's at]
2. Tomorrow Never Knows [Who wouldn't want to die to this record?]
1. Revolution 9 [because it changed the way I thought]

[Jerzy Bondov]

This seems as good a thread as any other in which to say Paul McCartney played Temporary Secretary last night. He fucking well played Temporary Secretary. And guess what, it was good.

I Will is my favourite Beatles song. It makes me totes emosh. A meagre 54 in that useless list. I fuckin hate I Am The Walrus.

[BlodwynPig]

5. Never Gonna Give You Up
4. She Wants to Dance With Me
3. It Would Take a Strong Strong Man
2. Together Forever
1. Cry for Help

[Funcrusher]

I seem to remember that Mojo did a 100 greatest songs ever some years ago and In My Life was deemed number one. Now it's not top 5 Beatles. Fashions in these things seem to change - there was once a time in the 80's when What's Going On was regularly rated the greatest album of all time.

[Tweedy]

1. Revolution 9 [because it changed the way I thought]

The shine was taken off it for me once I'd heard John Cage's 'Rozart Mix' from 1965. Lennon's take on it is great, but it's still effectively just a cover version. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0RXZ1u2ehc

[CaledonianGonzo]

This seems as good a thread as any other in which to say Paul McCartney played Temporary Secretary last night. He fucking well played Temporary Secretary. And guess what, it was good.

He did and it was. It was the atonal lo fi most influential pioneering tits.

I may be misremembering it due to NUFF dark and stormys and ting, but at one point he also seemed to be claiming co authorship of Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite.

[Serge]

They should just sit down Macca and the corpse of Lennon, give them a slap and say, "Look mates, whoever sung it wrote it, alright?"

[Jerzy Bondov]

I may be misremembering it due to NUFF dark and stormys and ting, but at one point he also seemed to be claiming co authorship of Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite.

Yes I noticed that. Has he not said it before? I've always thought of it as a John. Not a Full John though, like Revolution 9 or Julia or some shite like that.

Mind you if I was Macca I'd just say I wrote all the good ones and none of the shit.

[daf]

You can usually tell a Paul melody from a John by it's vertical or horizontal nature.

Paul = Vertical
John = Horizontal

So something by Paul will often jump up and down the scale knocking on the doors of a couple of octaves (eg. Yesterday, Fool on the Hill, Step inside Love).

John's melody line will often have a more limited range - focusing more on harmony and using a small number of notes (sometimes just one) over changing chords (eg. Julia, I'm Only Sleeping, Gimmie Some Truth). [nb]A style often used in Oasis songs[/nb]

Looking at 'I Should Have Known Better' - you can detect that John definitely wrote the horizontal verse with Paul suggesting the vertical bit starting with 'That when I tell you that I love you' - culminating in an unusually high note for a Lennon song ('Mine') that he only just reaches.  [nb]The division of work in 'A Hard Day's Night' is even clearer - as each sing the bits that they contributed[/nb]

So the question is, within which of these patterns does 'Mr Kite' fall?

The only part that sounds like Paul might have suggested is the 'Over men and horses hoops and garters . . . hogshead of real fire' bit.

In conclusion, it's 90% Horizontal - I think Lennon wrote most, if not all of it.

[23 Daves]

This is the problem with re-running these lists at regular intervals - the editors are clearly so tempted to put worthless guff in just to spark a debate and sell more copies that this is exactly what they do. I'm surprised they didn't put "Gnik Nus" at number 98 or something.

Choosing a list of top ten Beatles songs is horribly hard. "Paperback Writer" is probably my overall favourite - that and the flip "Rain" on the original mono single have always been faultless, spiky pop to me, and seem to bookmark the moment they began to be seen as being a serious cultural force rather than simply an absurdly popular group. But then they did things which broke the mould further still, spun pop out in new directions, and contain details I still find myself only just noticing (or finding new meanings for) today.

I'm also still more fond of "Hello Goodbye" than I'm told I have any right to be. It manages to achieve an enormous amount with very, very little indeed - some "Teach Yourself Basic English" lyrics, a bit of banana-fingered piano playing, a stomping rhythm and that's about it. But McCartney finds about a hundred different things to do with that combination. In many respects, it sounds like the start of his solo career, very syrupy and simple but incredibly tricksy with it. I'm a sucker for very simple pop tunes with lots of incredible detail layered beneath.

The futility of such lists is also shown up in the way that tracks on the Abbey Road song cycle - which don't really work as separate elements - have no natural place. And yet that second side of the LP is among The Beatles best achievements for me.

[Serge]

Yeah, I was snottily dismissive of 'Hello, Goodbye' for too many years, but upon listening to it a few years ago - probably when the remasters came out - was suddenly struck by what a bloody marvellous pop song it is. This was also around the time that I switched from being a Lennonist to a McCartneyite, so I was in that frame of mind anyway.

[The Masked Unit]

I like three albums, therefore:

Rocky Raccoon
Taxman
Hello Goodbye
I want to tell you
Tomorrow never knows
Flying
I am the Walrus
Happiness Is A Warm Gun
Martha My Dear
Glass Onion

[massive bereavement]

The shine was taken off it for me once I'd heard John Cage's 'Rozart Mix' from 1965. Lennon's take on it is great, but it's still effectively just a cover version. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0RXZ1u2ehc

That would be like saying "Yesterday" is effectively a cover of "Blowin' in the Wind" because it's somebody singing a series of verses to an acoustic guitar with the same line tagged onto the end of each.
If you'd never heard folk music before, they'd sound the same.

Cage's piece is very stop/start with harsh edits and an awful lot of it is speeded up, so it sounds like you're listening to a tape simply being fast-forwarded for the most part. "Revolution 9" flows in and out with moments of build, tension and reoccurring themes that I can really get into. I couldn't get into Cage's effort. If Lennon was influenced by that (and everything The Beatles did, or anybody else did for that matter, was influenced by something or other) then he well and truly bettered it.

Zappa's "Lumpy Gravy" would be a better example of that kind of thing preceding "Revolution 9", but record companies and record buyers to this day still want "verse chorus, verse chorus, bridge, verse chorus" with 99% of the words about love and relationships and yet nobody sees the hypocrisy in dismissing anything that isn't that as just noise.