The Online Photographer

Believe it or not, photographer Iain Macmillan only took
six frames with his Hasselblad to get this shot

A little fun diversion for a Sunday. This might seem kinda ageist at this point, but not really; a lot of younger people engage with the Beatles, who belong to everybody. The band's greatest hits album Beatles 1 was one of the top-selling albums of the early 2000s, and the 50th Anniversary reissue of Abbey Road (there's a cooking version and a super deluxe version) hit number three in the U.S. and topped the charts in the U.K. in 2019.

My faves counting backwards:

17. Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)

16. In My Life

15. Baby It's You

14. Cry Baby Cry

13. Glass Onion

12. I'm So Tired

11. I'm Only Sleeping

10. Tomorrow Never Knows

9. Don't Let Me Down

8. Old Brown Shoe

7. Hey Bulldog

6. The Ballad of John and Yoko

5. It's All Too Much

4. A Day in the Life

3. Rain

2. Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!

1. I Am the Walrus

Actually, you could shuffle around the top seven any old which way and I could live with it. Can't believe I left off "Rock and Roll Music" (written by Chuck Berry, and one of Lennon's great vocals), "Ticket to Ride," "Come Together," "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" and "Revolution." Gotta stop somewhere.

Number 15 isn't even a Beatles song—it was written by Burt Bacharach, with lyrics by Luther Dixon and Mack David. But I love it. Bacharach, who died not even two months ago at 94, was the guy who wrote "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head" from that bizarre and incongruous quintessential late-'sixties interlude in the middle of the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, along with bushels of other hits for many different artists.

It would be very interesting to compare this list to my brother Charlie's list, were he to make one. Apart from "A Day in the Life," widely considered one of the very greatest songs of the entire rock era, there might not be a lot of overlap. The Beatles were interesting that way—they had something for everyone. My friend Dan's list would be interesting too. My friend Kim hates lists and the very idea of lists, so there's another party heard from.

Which Beatle
I think there are only two George songs on this list ("Old Brown Shoe" and "It's All Too Much"), and the rest (apart from "Baby It's You") are all or mostly John Lennon songs. Paul wrote the middle eight on "A Day in the Life," the part that starts, "Woke up / Fell out of bed / Dragged a comb across my head"—Paul lyrics if ever there were. Paul also played virtually every instrument other than guitar on "The Ballad of John and Yoko," including drums, and contributed those gorgeous harmonies. Kenneth Womack in The Beatles Encyclopedia reports this exchange from the session:

Lennon (on guitar): "Go a bit faster, Ringo."
McCartney (on drums): "OK, George!"

For his part, George said, "I didn't mind not being on the record, because it was none of my business," adding wryly, "if it had been 'The Ballad of John, George and Yoko,' then I would have been on it." It was the band's last number one hit in the U.K.

I almost included Paul's song "The Long and Winding Road"—the band's last number one in the U.S.—which hit me hard at age 13 when I was homesick during the first week of wilderness camp in Montana. (I recovered and had a blast for the remaining weeks.) But I hate everything about that reprehensible lizard Phil Spector, including his production of that song. Paul, famously, hated it too, naming Spector's troweled-on embellishments among his top six reasons why the Beatles should be disbanded. The version from Let It Be... Naked is better, but still too syrupy for me. I hate to say Spector was right, but it's almost like the song needs some bombast, like Neil Young's over-the-top "A Man Needs a Maid," which features backing by the London Symphony Orchestra no less. Both sound like movie music to me. Couldn't you see "The Long and Winding Road" as the theme music for, say, a movie about a rekindled later-life love affair between old friends?

The right to be wrong
I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that not everyone reading this will agree 100% with the order these are in. A few of you might even have other opinions as to which songs belong on such a list. Have a go.

I hope you have a nice, relaxing, pleasant Sunday, wherever in the world you are. A little music never hurts.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2023 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. (To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below or on the title of this post.)

Featured Comments from:

Albert Smith: "I went to London with my girlfriend and tried to get the Abbey Road crosswalk photo with me in the frame...I know, me and a million others.

"What they don't tell you is that you take your life in your hands because it is an active road with local drivers who are no doubt tired of us 'bloody tourists' blocking their pathway to their destination. Add to that the fact that the road behind the photographer's position curves a bit before coming upon the crossing, and your warning of oncoming traffic is reduced, making your time to set up, compose and shoot very rushed.

"I got several nice shots of my non-photographer girlfriend crossing, but she was not so nimble with my Leica M6, so the pictures of me have slanted angles and are horribly timed, with no separation in my footsteps. This was one time that digital would have been great, since I was gone back to the States when I got the film developed and no reshoot could be done.

"I got on a big George Harrison bend, so my favorite songs, and the ones that I play on my guitar, are George's. On the day George died in 2001, I played 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps' over and over. If I only have 10 minutes to fool around on my guitar, that is the one song that I always play."

Craig: "Your choices are interesting and thoughtful. I don't think I've ever seen anyone say that their favorite Beatles song was "I Am the Walrus", but I've always liked it. (I think I rate the whole "Magical Mystery Tour" album higher than most people do.) Your top 4 songs are definitely among the greatest Beatles tracks, and I think highly of most of the other songs on your list too. "Tomorrow Never Knows" is a masterpiece (and one of relatively few Beatles songs that was mixed better in stereo than in mono).

"I can't agree about 'It's All Too Much,' though. The new songs on Yellow Submarine are, to me, the weakest set of new songs on any Beatles record. Only 'Hey Bulldog' even rises to the level of being enjoyable, and it's not one of John's best, just a fun throwaway with a cute guitar riff."

Alan: "'Hey Bulldog.' When I was 13 I was only interested in the poppy, syrupy stuff. Now I’m pretty sure it’s the greatest tune ever. One day I’ll get around to learning that bass line…."

Joe: "I'm glad to see 'Hey Bulldog' on your list—so good. For some reason I'll never understand, my all-time favorite Beatles tune might be 'Hello Goodbye.'"

Mike replies: That one's extremely catchy. I've read that "Bulldog" is one of the most downloaded Beatles songs by young people. I might have read it 20 years ago, though.

Randall Teasley: "I remember vividly when my twelve-year-old daughter told me that she had discovered a new group called the Beatles. She's forty now and still a fan. A friend of mine says that every generation discovers the Beatles anew."

Mike replies: My son (born '93) did. He went through a phase of listening to all my CDs of the early records when he was 10 or 12. He didn't remain a fan, though.

JTK: "These are the only four Beatles songs I sing to myself occasionally. 'In My Life'—absolutely #1 to me. 'I Am the Walrus,' 'Strawberry Fields,' and 'Paperback Writer' (the one Beatles song I wish I wrote). I Saw them live at The Astoria, Finsbury Park, London, in, I think, 1963. Girls screaming non-stop meant we couldn't hear much. My buddy first clapped eyes on his future wife that night and they are still married. That has to be a 'record'—(sorry ;-) )."

Tom Burke: "I was exactly the right age to be a Beatles fan. Born in 1950, I was a young adolescent when they rose to fame. I was 13 when 'She Loves You' was released, for example, and I thought that was the most exciting thing I'd ever heard. As I proceeded through my teens and started looking for something more, they obliged.

"The white album was the one that divided me and my friends most. We all reckoned that there was a really stunning single album in there, struggling to be heard, but weighed down by all the dross that made up the double album. The interesting thing was that there was huge disagreement among us as to which were the great tracks; everybody's selection for that single album was different. But as I recall, one song that was on almost everybody's list was 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps.' I still listen to that one.

"In fact, I think you've shortchanged George in that selection. No 'Something'? No 'Taxman'?; and above all, no 'Here Comes the Sun'?? Fun fact: George's 'Something' and Eric Clapton's 'Layla' and 'Wonderful Tonight' were all written for/about Patti Boyd/Harrison/Clapton, who was married to both of them."

Dave_lumb: "Most over-hyped boy band ever."

Thomas Mc Cann: "Since the advent of Spotify I have revisited old Beatles songs only to find they have all been 'remastered' so do not coincide with my memories of the originals. Very disappointing."

Peter Jeffrey Croft: "I have too many favourites to list, but being born in 1947 I was 16 in 1963 when The Beatles exploded onto our radios. Therefore I think my favourites date from the early years, when they were so new and so harmonious.

"I especially remember, in the days before stereo and before I had access to a record player, and LP records cost AUD$5.25, more than I could afford, that every track on Beatles records was good. Not like other groups where there might be one or two tracks and the rest were fillers.

"We could only listen on the radio then, big brown leather encased multiband monsters from Singapore and Aden, when my farmer fellow school boarders' well-off parents stopped off on cruises. We had reception of about four or five stations (in a large country town), and we'd finish one Beatles song, then tune down the band and there would be another one playing, and so on, wall to wall Beatles all day and night. Especially Party Time Saturday Night when we sent messages to our sweeties on the radio. Whoo hoo.

"So I grew up with the Beatles and what a privilege it's been. What a great period I've lived through, '60s, '70s, '80s—Beatles, Stones, Pink Floyd, Bee Gees...I have to hand it to the Brits, the talent they came up with is amazing. I'm afraid I don't hear it now.

"Not to mention the first space flights, the first moon landing, my first trip to the UK in 1974. Wow, so many great memories. I'm writing it down as fast as I can before it fades. Luckily my memory is as strong as ever. I have a book in me."