"Day Tripper" is one of the very few Beatles songs that any of my bands have attempted to cover, if only for the reason that it contains arguably the most famous riff in their catalog. Playing primarily in riff-based rock and metal bands my whole life, it seems the go to. John Lennon came up with said guitar hook and most of the rest of it, Paul McCartney throwing his two cents in as he was wont to do. Not too serious or too silly, just a hasitly written and recorded single that The Beatles pushed out in time for Christmas of '65 when they and pretty much only they were able to do such things in their sleep.
My cousin once sang along to this in the car going "How can you crap, when you know it's brown?". So now you are welcome, since you will likewise be laughing out loud every time you hear it from here on out, just as I have since that fateful day. There is actually more to give us a chuckle with "I'm Down" than me and my family's immature humor though. The live, Shea Stadium version of the song is the one that features John Lennon's elbows on the Vox organ, an instrument by his own admittance that he had virtually no idea how to play. Try watching said footage and not start giggling right along with George, Paul, and especially John at how wonkers it all sounds.
When Paul McCartney came up with the Magical Mystery Tour film "concept" all on his lonesome, he supposedly drew a circle and said "OK we'll have a song here, then a bit here, then you write something here..." and so on. McCartney not only composed "The Fool On the Hill" solo while mucking about on his dad's piano back home, but during the filming of Tour, he also ran off with the crew and just shot the would-be music video segment solo as well. The rest of the band is on the song, as well as a handful of flutists which you cannot miss, but for the most part this is just a simple and memorable Paul ballad.
The first Beatles jam to get covered and released by another artist and the second song on the band's first album Please Please Me was the ballad "Misery". Actually it was written for British songbird Helen Shapiro whom the Beatles embarked on one of their earliest tours with. Both John and Paul "hacked it out" as they later said backstage and on the fly. Shapiro never used it, but Kenny Lynch, (who later appeared on McCartney's Band On the Run album cover), did. The Beatles version, being the only one anyone remembers anyway, clocks in at less than two minutes and was basically thrown in to give the album another original. Though it is hardly a bad thing as it holds up as well as if not better than many.
Though seemingly 90% written by John, I look at Rubber Soul's "What Goes On" more as a Ringo Starr song. Well for one, it is the first such Beatles original that Mr. Starkey got a writing credit on as he contributed "About five words", he later said. The bulk of it was composed back in the Please Please Me days and was going to be a follow-up single to said title track, an idea that at some point was abandoned. The group brought it back to life though, Paul and Ringo pumped some input into it, and most impressive to me, Ringo delivers his most restraint drum performance on it. Not one fill, crash, or hi-hat accent, just straight time for two-minutes and fifty seconds. For any snobs out there who think such taste need not deserve so much praise, you try playing that so unwaveringly while making it sound so tight and feel so perfect.
Another total John joint, "Help!" was the fourth number one Beatles single in the US in a row and the title track for one of their best, best albums as well as their best film. Yes I know, A Hard Day's Night is amazing too. Lennon, who was manic depressive most of his life, penned the tune as an honest plea for assistance. Yet being the song-slinger that he was with only McCartney as his peer, he could not help but to turn it into a pop masterpiece, the toll of fame, women, and being in his "fat Elvis period" be dammed. So even though its earnestness may have fallen on deaf ears for most people besides those close to Lennon at the time, everyone knows this song, has sung along to it, and loves it.
Sir Paul composed of "When I'm Sixty-Four" when he was sixteen, more as a goof to amuse his Liverpudlian band mates at the time then anything for serious consideration. Call it the eclectic brilliance of Sgt. Peppers, (or the Beatles in general), but the song found its proper and memorable home on said album, fitting there like an old person diaper. I think that makes sense. Anyway, I have always dug this song as I have most of the Beatles "sillier" numbers, ala "Yellow Submarine" and "All Together Now", (more on that one later). The oompa bass line and self depreciating lyrics cannot help but to crack a smile on one's face. Nice brushwork from Ringo as well, naturally.
Whenever I listen to The Beatles discography in order which is often, the "One, two, three, fah!" intro to "I Saw Her Standing There" just seems like the perfect jumping-off point. Just as the "Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End" trilogy is the perfect place to, well, end. This is mostly a Paul song, though John chimed in hilariously with a fix up line. Originally "She was just seventeen, never been a beauty queen", John apparently said that is rubbish and helped contribute the "you know what I mean" line instead. Showing that John probably was the only person ever to have the right to step-in and tell Paul he done fucked up something in a song. Now if only he could have done that for "Wonderful Christmas Time" as well.
A beautiful, understated ballad from John Lennon, the country-esque "I Don't Want To Spoil the Party" fits perfectly on Beatles For Sale. Similar to the lonesome, self-pitying lyrics in "No Reply" and "I'm a Loser" off said album, "Party" is another where John seems to be quietly moping to himself. Never that famous of a Beatles track, Rosanne Cash nevertheless covered it and topped the country charts with it in 1989, proving that a Lennon/McCartney jam can do such things where that genre is concerned as well. As for my self and the Beatles version, I love the melody and twangy guitar solo as well as Ringo's floor-tom hook during the bridge.
12-string goodness right here. Another off the For Sale album, "What You're Doing" features a drum intro, George Martin on piano, and no chorus, most all of which are rare-ish for a Beatles song. Also rare is that it is a more somber love song helmed exclusively by Paul, with doubtful lyrics more akin to something that probably John would have come up with at the time. I love the For Sale album in general as it is a perfect midway point showing the group getting a little weary and restless from Beatlemania as well as from pumping out "I Want To Hold Your Hand" type singles, thus getting into more introspective songwriting. "What You're Doing" fits perfectly with this lot.
Since John apparently did not remember writing it, one must logically assume that "Wait" is a solo McCartney joint. Originally tracked for the Help! album, "Wait" had to "wait", (har, har), for Rubber Soul to finally get unleashed. As great as both Help! and Rubber Soul are, it is at one point impossible to understand how it got cut from the former yet also impossible all these decades later to picture the later without it. "Wait" just sounds like a Rubber Soul jam. For whatever reason, I like how Ringo rather fucks off during the second middle-eight section. It is the little things that matter sometimes.
Were the Beatles the first band to think of using a comb and paper kazoo on a recording? I would place my money on "yes". Perfectly fitting for an album such as Sgt. Peppers, where the rule book was intentionally abandoned anyway, "Lovely Rita" is equally inspiring and amusing in that its genesis lies in the most mundane, (or if it happened to me), the most infuriating would-be everyday life occurrence. Referring to the fact that Paul McCartney got a parking ticket outside of Abbey Road and instead of getting all pissed as I would have done, he simply shrugged it off and wrote a song about the meter-maid who gave him said ticket. Now we have this song and the world is a better place because of it.
"The Long and Winding Road" is almost infamous due to McCartney's own open disdain for the officially released version that Phil Specter "ruined" on the Let It Be album. Maybe it is because that is the version that we all heard for years, but I like it just fine, love it in fact. If McCartney did not take every opportunity available to say how much the strings suck on it I probably never would have even questioned them. The Let It Be Naked and Anthology versions that were eventually put out sans-any orchestral enhancement show Paul's intended vision and also do sound mighty fine. All them fruity Specter strings take nothing away from an exquisite ballad either though, says I.
Sometimes, (well make that all the times), it is nice to just hear The Beatles tearing up a live jam session. "Yer Blues" is John, Paul, George, and Ringo at their proper instruments with no overdubs, a rare moment for the time not only coming out of the Sgt Pepper/Magical Mystery Tour studio experimentation phase, but also being on The Beatles (White Album), where for the most part all four of them went off and did their own thing. John came up with "Yer Blues" while fasting and trying to find god in Rishikesh, India during the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi retreat. The lyrics are full of fun, tongue-in-cheek white-people-playing-the-blues references. Yet mostly the song just kicks ass for rocking harder than the Beatles would usually usually allow at that point.
I will be having a lot of songs from The Beatles (The White Album) on this list as it is my favorite album ever made by humans and now we come to "Cry Baby Cry". A Lennon song with a brief McCartney tag in the form of the "Can You Take Me Back" outro, this is John at his acoustic best. I very much dig the walk down melody in the verses. "Cry" also has one of Ringo's best performances, perfectly placed drum fills as per his usual shtick. Of course I wish the Paul section was longer and more fleshed out, (insert dirty joke there), but a large part of said album's charm is its sprawling mess anyway so this fits right at home.
McCartney made a career out of trying to copy Little Richard whenever he could and he admitted that "She's A Woman" was another attempt at just such a thing. There are many to choose from that qualify, but I would say that this be one of The Beatles most fun songs. A B-side to "I Feel Fine" in 1964, it ended up in the Beatles live set shortly thereafter and got a fittingly rambunctious treatment. Paul's bass line and especially the rhythmic rhythm guitars are slamming. I reckon if I ever get a Beatles tribute band going, (which Satan willing someday I will), this would be one of the first songs that we would attempt to get down.
Sometimes if you are cool enough to be rock royalty, you can not only be in The Beatles elite social circle, but also cool enough to inspire one of their songs. Also cool enough to be a guitar god, Eric Clapton's sweet tooth gave George Harrison the idea to come up with "Savoy Truffle", one of his four songs on The Beatles (The White Album). Similar to how John simply took the text from a poster to make the lyrics for "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite", George reads off a list of flavors from a box of Mackintosh's Good News here. "Truffle" is one of the funnier Beatles songs and one of the stronger George ones to boot.
This may be the shortest song I have on this list, clocking in at only a minute and forty-seven seconds. It is also one of the oldest, a recorded version from 1960 existing in bootleg form for years on the You Might As Well Call Us the Quarrymen album. Appearing officially and superiorly on Beatles For Sale, "I'll Follow the Sun" has always been my favorite Paul moment off said album. Yes acoustic ballads always do it for me so naturally one by the Beatles would extra do it for me. It is also nice that Ringo chose not to use his kit but instead just kept the beat for the song while smacking his knees. I have said it several times, but Mr. Starr always knew exactly what to do to make every song he played on work.
At this point, every Beatles album sounds like a greatest hits album. At least for any other band who could only dream of having ONE record as good as any of theirs. A Hard Days Night proves this in spades as each song is almost better than the last and "Any Time At All" is the debut from said album on this list. This is a true collaboration between John and Paul, with John composing the bulk of it and Paul coming up with the middle-eight. Lennon called it a re-write of "It Won't Be Long", another awesome song that shall be making an appearance later on here. So if you are as good as The Beatles, why not rip yourself off once in awhile and get two masterpieces out of one?
John Lennon playing a guitar solo and singing about being a jealous guy? Well at least one of those two things was a rarity. George actually came up with the guitar intro to "You Can't Do That", but the rest is pretty much John at his threatening best, a precursor to "Run For Your Life" to be sure. Another Hard Days Night cut with typically amazing harmony and call and response vocals from John, Paul, and George, it is just jangly pop greatness as is that whole album plus most of what The Beatles songbook is chock full of. Any band in 1964 would have shot their mother in the face to write a song as good as this mere B-side to "Can't Buy Me Love".
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