Beatles: A Song-a-Day
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134: Another Girl
Another Girl is another track from the excellent side one of the Help! album. As discussed a couple of days ago in the context of The Night Before, this is a sequence of relentlessly accessible and commercial songs which shows the Beatles complete mastery of pop. The sequence begins and ends with the hit singles…
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135: Sexy Sadie
Sexy Sadie is a song from the White Album written by John Lennon. It is one of those Beatles songs with a well known story behind it. The song is about the Maharishi, the Beatles one-time guru, and Lennon’s feelings of disillusion over what he perceived as some kind of betrayal. He began writing it…
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136: The Night Before
The Night Before is a track in the Help! album written by Paul McCartney. It is a bright, uptempo pop song with a very Beatley flavour combining an R’n’B/soul flavour with a strong call-response type vocal arrangement with lyrics that seem like an ironic answer to Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? This song was…
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137: Run For Your Life
Run For Your Life is a song written by John Lennon that appears on the Rubber Soul album. On the surface it is a catchy song with a very slight country flavour, beautiful guitar parts and harmonies, entirely in keeping with the rest of this excellent album. The crisp sound was innovative and plainly influential,…
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138: Savoy Truffle
Savoy Truffle is a George Harrison composition from the White Album. The song is rocky brass-driven track about chocolate and dentistry. Harrison was amused that his close friend Eric Clapton found it difficult to resist sweets despite the fact he was suffering from tooth decay. Around the time the White Album was recorded, Harrison had…
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139: Tell Me Why
Tell Me Why is a song from the Hard Day’s Night soundtrack and was written for a particular scene in the movie where the Beatles were performing in front of an audience at the Scala Theatre in London. John Lennon, who wrote the song said “They needed another upbeat song and I just knocked it…
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140: The Long And Winding Road
The Long And Winding Road is a track on the Let It Be album, and was released as a single in the US, where it became the Beatles last number one. It’s appearance at number 141 in this ranking looks like another anomaly in my system. It is a poignant song, expressing both regret and…
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141: Bad Boy
Bad Boy is a cover of a Larry Williams song which, in the UK, only appeared on a 1966 album called A Collection Of Beatles Oldies during their recording career. As the title suggests, that album consisted of already released songs, with Bad Boy being the odd one out. After the band broke up it…
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142: I’ll Follow The Sun
You learn something everyday, and I confess that until today, when I sat down to research this entry, I did not know that I’ll Follow The Sun, was one of the earliest McCartney wrote, going back to 1959 when he was aged about 16. As the Beatles Bible article says, the Beatles made a home…
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143: I’ll Get You
I’ll Get You wound up as the B-side to She Loves You, but it had earlier been considered as a potential single in its own right. It was co-written by Lennon and McCartney and features dual vocals throughout. To me there’s a slightly strange sound to the vocals as if Lennon and McCartney are imitating…
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144: A Hard Day’s Night
A Hard Day’s Night was the opening title song of the Beatles’ eponymous first film, appearing first on the soundtrack album and also released as a single. The song was written by John Lennon, overnight on 13th April 1964, after the film’s director Dick Lester had chosen its title – a malapropism attributed to Ringo…
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145: When I Get Home
When I Get Home is a song written by John Lennon that appears on A Hard Day’s Night. This album came at an interesting time in the Beatles development. In Britain they were already the focus of Beatlemania, an unprecedentedly intense fandom, that meant they were regularly mobbed. The term had been coined towards the…