The Best Song From Every Beatles Album
You can’t talk best without mentioning The Beatles. Indeed the crème de la crème of the pioneering rock musicians, there’s a reason why the band sold over 800 million records worldwide. The Beatles were in the right place and the right time, with the right arsenal. With the compositional geniuses of Lennon and McCartney, Harrison’s subtle yet impactful guitar and backing vocals, and human metronome Starr, it didn’t take long for the band to become household names overnight. It was this creative collaboration that gave birth to 13 critically acclaimed studio albums, each of them containing their own charm. Here is a list of The Beatles’ best songs from each of these compilation of masterpieces. We’re playing favorites this time!
Disclaimer: List is subjective as it gets, you may or may not agree with it, and that’s totally fine by us. Take it with a heaping teaspoon of salt, if you may!
I Saw Her Standing There (Please, Please Me – 1963)
The signature sound The Beatles’ were known for since they started is perfectly summed up in this track. The enjoyable progression, tight vocals, and carefree approach appealed to the fans, especially ones who were experiencing the labors of puberty. The easy, lightly flirting with chaos track was a whole new experience to the baby boomers back then. Everything about the song is an allusion to the fleeting moments of youth and its revelry.
All My Loving (With The Beatles – 1963)
Paul McCartney refers to the song as the first one he wrote lyrics first, as he typically put on a melody before writing down lyrics. The track is tastefully done as a country inspired creation, with a bit of Harrison’s Nashville flair. The ode to love has become an audience favorite and has found its way to become part of the band’s quintessential live set tracklist.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OJHVZ7qhwI
A Hard Day’s Night (A Hard Day’s Night – 1964)
The title track to the 1964 album, it was also featured as the soundtrack to their movie of the same name. A vivid quality to the track made it a memorable one, and the band was struggling to find the right tone until Lennon accidentally found the right opening chords to it. The song was inspired by Ringo Starr’s meek observation of a day of toiling, “It’s been a hard day,’ and noticing it was dark, night!”
Eight Days A Week (Beatles For Sale – 1964)
Another chance title brought on by serendipity, the track is simply an endearing progression of romantic lyrics and a fun, easy to catch melody. McCartney said the title drew inspiration from a chauffeur who he asked if he was busy, to which the chauffeur replied with “Busy? I’ve been working eight days a week.” He started there, and even though the song was in pieces when McCartney begun, the band finally finished after a dreadfully weary tour. It’s a miracle the boys completed eight tracks, this single included, in one sitting.
Yesterday (Help! – 1965)
The celebrated McCartney masterpiece actually came from a dream. He thought he was plagiarizing something he heard from somewhere, and let the melody collect dust on the shelf for some time. It even had placeholder lyrics that said “scrambled eggs”. It wasn’t long before McCartney completed the song, with lyrics to match the melancholic melody. A deep pang of regret echoes throughout the track, and this resonated all over the world, becoming one of the most covered songs of all time.
In My Life (Rubber Soul – 1965)
The iconic intro that progresses into a mellow track, this is one of the tracks that show how much the band has grown since their boom in the past year. John Lennon was in a creative turmoil, and didn’t want to mix his personal experiences with songwriting. Not until an interview with a journalist that he changed his perspective, and took a subjective approach in songwriting. The track was born out of it, although some dispute between him and McCartney rose, questioning the real authorship. Either way, the track was one of the quieter, laid back tracks that showed the creative progress of the group.
Eleanor Rigby (Revolver – 1966)
A mystical track brought on by violin elements, McCartney wrote the haunting melody with lonely people in mind. This was a product of experimentation, and the band culminated with the song successfully. It was like nothing at the time, and the appeal of the track to the darker, more serious side of the moon hit a chord with the audience. As for the inspiration of the song, it tells a story of how lives are fleeting and how the world can be oblivious of someone’s plight. The title came from a variation of Eleanors the band has come into contact with in their career, but a discovery in 1980 about a tombstone containing the name, a few steps away from where McCartey and Lennon first met, must have been no coincidence.
A Day in the Life (Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band – 1967)
One of the more inclusive tracks by the band, it was a show of strength in terms of growth and experimentation. They have set aside the charming material that paved the way for their success with a more somber kind of sound, followed by a sort of controlled chaos, a clamor and clash of emotions. But it didn’t get enough credit in its inception, and only until Lennon’s death in 1980 that the crowd regarded it as one of the band’s most illustrious masterpieces. The renewed vigor of the band materialized with this ingenious piece that took the masses by surprise.
Strawberry Fields Forever (Magical Mystery Tour – 1967)
The Beatles is one of the few bands that could make the synthesizer sound so good. A recollection of Lennon’s rather tragic childhood, he brings us to the brightest parts of it. Lennon confessed in the song on how he was “different” from the others, and wasn’t sure where to place himself in that spectrum . The song was beautifully put together after an acoustic introduction to the band, with McCartney adding the mellotron parts and Lennon mixing two parts of different tempos and keys. The surreal feeling evokes a fleeting sense of a vast, barren ambiguity perfectly expressed in music.
While My Guitar Gently Weeps (The Beatles “The White Album” – 1968)
The George Harrison masterpiece was composed during their trip to India in 1968 and came as an epiphany to Harrison due to his interest in mysticism. Although Harrison envisioned the song to be a great one, it didn’t quite get the treatment from the band members, and was worried because the collective couldn’t pull it off. He eventually regained composure and saw new hope in his friend, virtuoso Eric Clapton, when he asked him to play on the record. The band finally stepped up a notch with the legend in their presence, and for the first time the track started to piece together poignantly. Clapton’s personal touch and the emotional solo brought a new dimension to the track, and the rest is history.
Hey Bulldog (Yellow Submarine – 1969)
The funky track is laden with a heavy grit, a newer perspective from the band in a long time. The playful demeanor displayed is a fresh take, and is hilarious as the band members seemed like little children stuck in grown men’s bodies. The mischievousness of the song is only ever toppled by Lennon and McCartney barking in the record like two canines nipping at each other playfully. The driving piano riff and the funky bassline was a welcome addition to the fray, the members stepping up with enthusiasm.
Something (Abbey Road – 1969)
Along with “Here Comes the Sun“, it was evident of George Harrison’s growing passion and talent as a songwriter. A poignant ballad, it contains the iconic riff that evokes a feeling of longing and adoration. Harrison initially had reservations around the song and envisioned other artists performing it before introducing it to the band, to which garnered a warm reception. There was a reversal of roles, where Harrison was at the production’s helm, and honed the track for several months before finally being deemed perfect. Though Harrison wasn’t entirely confident with his skill, the acclamation the track saw says otherwise.
Let It Be (Let It Be – 1970)
A fitting farewell for the band, it was born out of Paul McCartney’s inspiration from Aretha Franklin’s soul roots. He was spurred by the comforting message his mother imparted to him during a dream. The band was in shambles by the time of recording, with even George Martin being left out in the dust. Turmoil was all around, with small arguments became wars of attrition, with the members slowly losing enthusiasm in the process. The remaining members refined the track a year after Lennon left, and added various vocal and instrumental highlights to finish the song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcdNzMMvF_k
