Beatles: A Song-a-Day
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158: I’ll Cry Instead
I’ll Cry Instead is a song from the A Hard Day’s Night album, and one of eight on that album written wholly or mainly by John Lennon. Like several other songs of this period it is a well-crafted pop song, but maybe not especially memorable or moving. One sign that it may not have benefitted…
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159: Long, Long, Long
Long, Long, Long, written by George Harrison is track on the White Album. For me it’s an interesting example to think about. I think (and my feelings have probably changed a bit since I did the initial ranking) that it is a beautiful song and a very good but flawed record; the distinction between the…
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160: Old Brown Shoe
Old Brown Shoe is song written by George Harrison and originally rehearsed by the Beatles during the Get Back/Let It Be sessions, but only released later, after further recordings, as the B-side of a single, The Ballad Of John And Yoko. However, it was also selected for inclusion on the Blue Album. I am pretty…
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161: Maxwell’s Silver Hammer
We’ve already seen quite a few of Paul McCartney’s whimsical story songs in this ranking: Rocky Racoon and Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da. Maxwell’s Silver Hammer, from the Beatles final studio album Abbey Road is another in this category. Abbey Road is a very strong album indeed, incorporating everything the Beatles, their engineers and producer had learned since…
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162: Can’t Buy Me Love
This is another case of a song perhaps appearing rather too low in my ranking. Can’t Buy Me Love is a McCartney song, and a massive hit single for the band in 1964, the year that Beatlemania captured the USA and much of the rest of the world. My personal view of the song has…
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163: Don’t Bother Me
Don’t Bother Me is notable for being George Harrisons first original song for the Beatles, appearing on their second album With The Beatles. In my view it is better than several of Lennon-McCartney songs (in this ranking it is higher than Little Child, I Wanna Be Your Man and Love Me Do), so the possibility…
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164: Glass Onion
Glass Onion is one of John Lennon’s songs from the White Album. It’s superficially in the same psychedelic vein as Strawberry Fields Forever, Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds and I Am The Walrus. This period and these songs were amongst my favourites when I first got into the Beatles, but I never liked Glass…
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165: I’m Looking Through You
I’m Looking Through You is a Paul McCartney song from the Rubber Soul album. It has the crisp, clean production and cheerful, upbeat sound that characterises that album. So precise that were later imitations that you could be forgiven for thinking that you’re listening to the Monkees in 1966. But the superficially sunny tone masks…
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166: Tell Me What You See
It’s difficult to work up much enthusiasm for this track from the Beatles 1965 Help! album. It seems to have been written mainly by McCartney with input from Lennon. At least some of the lyrics come from Lennon, as explained in the Beatles Bible article (and also in a nearly contemporary paywalled article by Newsweek…
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167: The Inner Light
The Inner Light was a George Harrison song which was the B-side of Lady Madonna. The single was recorded in early February 1968 just prior to the Beatles’ meditation retreat in Rishikesh India, so that it could be released while they were away from mid-February to (as it turned out) mid-April. The song illustrates both…
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168 & 169: Sie Liebt Dich & Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand
These two songs are German translations of She Loves You and I Want To Hold Your Hand. They were recorded under unusual circumstances while the Beatles were on tour in Paris in January 1964. The Beatles sang the German words to the existing backing track to I Want To Hold Your Hand, while they apparently…
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Brief diversion
Today’s entry in the Beatles Song-A-Day blog is the first that reflects a reorganization of the underlying ratings. I decided that it would be useful to treat some groups of closely-related songs as blocks where there ordering reflected the entire group rather than the rating of the underlying songs. I also took the opportunity to…