Tag: single
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154: From Me To You
From Me To You was the A-side of the Beatles third single and written collaboratively by Lennon and McCartney while on tour with Helen Shapiro in 1963. Paul McCartney regarded From Me To You as an important song in the development of the Lennon-McCartney writing partnership, pointing to the middle eight as a particularly important…
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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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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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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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171: Yellow Submarine
Yellow Submarine was a track on the Beatles revolutionary and mind-blowing Revolver (isn’t the album title a great example of their flair for double – and triple – meanings). It was also one A side of a double-A sided single (with Eleanor Rigby), and a prominent feature of the eponymous film and LP. The beatlesbible.com…
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173: She’s A Woman
She’s A Woman was originally released as the b-side of I Feel Fine, but I mainly know it from Live At The Hollywood Bowl and from playing it as one of several Beatles covers we did as a band during my school days. She’s A Woman was introduced (according to setlist.fm) to the Beatles live…
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174: Thank You Girl
This was a relatively early Lennon-McCartney collaboration originally intended as a single to follow up the Beatles first UK number 1, Please Please Me. It wound up as the B-side to From Me To You. It’s interesting that Lennon and McCartney were already intentionally writing songs to fulfil specific functions. In this case the song…
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180: Baby You’re A Rich Man
This is a lively psychedelic sibling of its A-side All You Need Is Love and cousin to With A Little Help From My Friends and Hey Bulldog with perhaps second cousin relationship to It’s All Too Much and Only A Northern Song, all songs written and recorded around the same time. Baby You’re A Rich…
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187: P.S. I Love You
This is perhaps another aberration in my ranking as it is a very nice song and all the more impressive since it is one of McCartney’s first original contributions to the Beatles recordings, appearing as the B-side to Love Me Do. Apparently it could not be considered as a potential A-side since it shares its…
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188: I’m Down
I’m Down, a McCartney composition, was the B-side of (Lennon’s) Help! and it’s interesting that both songs – superficially at least – deal with negative emotions, but in different ways. Lennon’s song is sincere and concerned with self-doubt, albeit disguised by the upbeat style of the performance. McCartney’s song may be about (sexual) frustration and…
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200: Love Me Do
This was the Beatles first single and an early Lennon-McCartney composition. They had their reservations about it, and although it contains the signature vocal harmonies it lacks the energy of many of the covers they were then performing live. It’s a bit plodding and not the catchiest melody. They got a lot better! The inclusion…
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205: You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)
This is a very unusual track and hard to place. Listening to it again I didn’t know what to make of it, and I decided, for a challenge, to write my initial impression before reading the Beatles Bible article or looking it up Wikipedia. It’s possible these thoughts will have been influenced by some of…