Progressive Boink

[Westby]

This is very interesting so far. Five of my top ten have already been posted (Because, Tomorrow Never Knows, Within You Without You, She Said She Said, and I'm Looking Through You), and two more of the rest. I don't even know where the list is headed anymore, I figured all the artsy songs would be at the top. Nice to know I edged WY,WY in there, though, it's a fantastic song. And where's the love for Because? Nine voices and a harpsichord? Beautiful.

[Z.S. Ghost]

Beatles-related flashback:

When I was in fifth grade, everyone had to take choir. Not that I can't sing, but it just really, really sucked. It was basically standing still on these bleachers for fourty minutes - not easy when you're 11, and me - and having the choir teacher yell at us - all 70 of us, as classes were combined for that period - for not pronouncing our Ts and Ss strongly enough.

So beyond the standard dreck of "choir" songs, she had arranged a Beatles medley for the grade to sing. Now, I didn't really listen to the Beatles at all in fifth grade (I don't remember what I did listen to), but the medley didn't exactly turn me on to it. Its contents:

* When I'm 64
* Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
* Penny Lane

...and I think that was it. Yeah, that plus the fact that the two biggest Beatles fans I know were "kid who is still a douchebag today" and "girl on my street's dad", I stuck with Good Charolette and the like for a while after that.

[B]

lifestyles of the rich and the famous
they're always complainin'

always complainin'

[Duzzy Funlop]

35. Day Tripper - 76 points
(7 of 25 lists. Highest ranking - #5 webber)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=V2UYRoti-tY

"Day Tripper" is a riff-driven rock song written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney and released by The Beatles as a "double A-side" single with "We Can Work It Out". Both songs were recorded during the sessions for the Rubber Soul album. McCartney provides the lead vocal and Lennon the harmony, in contrast to the Beatles' usual practice of a song's principal composer singing lead.

Lennon wrote most of the lyrics and the famous guitar break, while McCartney helped with the verses. "Day-tripper" was a typical play on words by John: "Day trippers are people who go on a day trip, right? Usually on a ferryboat or something. But [the song] was kind of… you're just a weekend hippie. Get it?" In the same interview he said, "That's mine. Including the lick, the guitar break and the whole bit." In his 1970 interview with Rolling Stone, however, he used "Day Tripper" as one example of their collaboration, where one partner had the main idea but the other took up the cause and completed it. For his part, McCartney claimed it was very much a collaboration based on Lennon's original idea.

The lyric may be partly about McCartney's reluctance to experiment with LSD. (Lennon and Harrison had been using LSD since the spring of 1965, when a London dentist slipped it into their coffee after an evening meal. In August, Lennon confessed that he "just ate it all the time.") On the face of it, however, the song is about a girl who leads the singer on. The line recorded as "she's a big teaser" was originally written as "she's a prick teaser." In this sense, it may equally be about the aloof heroine from "Norwegian Wood." In Many Years From Now, McCartney admitted that "Day Tripper" was about drugs.

The riff has been used by many artists not directly covering the song, including Yes, The Police, Devo, 2 Live Crew, The Eagles, Buffalo Springfield, Johnny Marr and Danny Tanner.

Covers:
Otis Redding
Nancy Sinatra
Sergio Mendes and Brasil 66
Electric Light Orchestra
Whitesnake
Bad Brains

[Duzzy Funlop]

34. I Saw Her Standing There - (Please Please Me) – 79 points
(4 of 25 lists. Highest ranking - #5 bericbnauff, Hanstock)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=YwTyaDFTGUI

"I Saw Her Standing There" is a song written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney and is the opening track on the The Beatles' debut album Please Please Me, released in the United Kingdom by Parlophone on 22 March 1963.

In December 1963, Capitol Records released the song in the United States as the B-side on the label's first single by The Beatles, "I Want to Hold Your Hand". The single topped the U.S. charts for seven weeks starting 18 January 1964. "I Saw Her Standing There" entered the Billboard Hot 100 on 8 February 1964, remaining there for 11 weeks, peaking at number 14.

The song was co-written but based on McCartney's initial idea. Originally titled "Seventeen", the song was conceived by McCartney driving home from a concert in Southport, Merseyside and later completed at his Forthlin Road home in September 1962. McCartney said: "I had: 'She was just seventeen,' and then: 'Beauty queen'. When I showed it to John, he screamed with laughter, and said 'You're joking about that line, aren't you?' It was one of the first times he ever went 'What? Must change that...'" The lyrics were written on a Liverpool Institute exercise book.

Covers:
Elton John (live)
Jose Feliciano
Tiffany – I Saw Him Standing There
Daniel Johnston (m4a)

[Duzzy Funlop]

33. Can’t Buy Me Love - (A Hard Day’s Night) – 79 points
(6 of 25 lists. Highest ranking - #2 Maynard)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=2LoYM5OWIqI

"Can't Buy Me Love" a song composed by Paul McCartney and released by The Beatles on the A-side of their sixth British single, "Can't Buy Me Love/You Can't Do That." It was one of the first Beatles songs not to include any other singers besides the lead vocalist (in this case, McCartney).

While in Paris, The Beatles stayed at the five-star George V hotel and had an upright piano moved into one of their suites so that song writing could continue. It was here that McCartney wrote "Can't Buy Me Love." The song was written under the pressure of the success achieved by "I Want to Hold Your Hand" which had just reached number one in America.

When pressed by American journalists in 1966 to reveal the song's "true" meaning, McCartney denied that "Can't Buy Me Love" was about prostitution, stating that, although it was open to interpretation, that suggestion was going too far, saying: "The idea behind it was that all these material possessions are all very well, but they won't buy me what I really want."

When "Can't Buy Me Love" went to number one (4 April 2025), the entire top five of the Hot 100 was by The Beatles, the next positions being filled by "Twist and Shout", "She Loves You", "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "Please Please Me," respectively. No other act has ever even held the top five spots simultaneously.

Covers:
Ella Fitzgerald
Blackstreet
Kids Incorporated

[Gamera87]

Kids Incorporated! That show was the rules... despite Fergie.

[knightni]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jjONHfoLZ0

Anyone remember Showbiz Pizza Place?

Creepy.

[Duzzy Funlop]

holy shit

[Duzzy Funlop]

32. A Hard Day’s Night - (A Hard Day’s Night) – 80 points
(7 of 25 lists. Highest ranking - #2 Borkelmans)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=fNf046Uo2gI

“A Hard Day’s Night” was featured prominently on the soundtrack to The Beatles' first feature film, A Hard Day's Night, and was on their album of the same name. The song topped the charts in both the United Kingdom and United States when it was released as a single.

The song's title originated from something said by Ringo Starr. Starr described it in an interview with disc jockey Dave Hull in 1964: "We went to do a job, and we'd worked all day and we happened to work all night. I came up still thinking it was day I suppose, and I said, 'It's been a hard day...' and I looked around and saw it was dark so I said, '...night!' So we came to 'A Hard Day's Night.'”

On the day the song was written, Lennon is purported to have shown reporter Maureen Cleave of London's Evening Standard the lyrics, and she said that word "tiredness" sounded weak in the line "I find my tiredness is through/And I feel alright." Lennon subsequently replaced the lines in question with "I find the things that you do/They make me feel all right".

Covers:
Peter Sellers
Billy Joel
Mando Diao

[Duzzy Funlop]

31. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band - (Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band) – 86 points
(8 of 25 lists. Highest ranking - #7 knightni)

Included votes for:
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hears Club Band (Reprise)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=qp9gBt6YCBw

"Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" is a song by The Beatles written by Paul McCartney, but credited to Lennon/McCartney, and first released as the opening track on the album of the same name. The writing of the lyrics has been disputed, as the Mal Evans diaries say that he also contributed, but was never officially credited.

On the flight back to England from Nairobi after a holiday in 1966, Evans (Beatles’ road manager) innocently asked McCartney what the letters “S” and “P” stood for on the pots on their meal trays, and McCartney explained that it was for salt and pepper, which led to the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band concept, as well as the song, although McCartney denies the accusation that Evans came up with the name. However, according to Mal Evans' diaries—from which extracts were released in 2005—he helped McCartney write the "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" lyrics.

Evans wrote in his diary, on 27 January 1967:
Sgt Pepper: Started writing song with Paul upstairs in his room, he on piano... Did a lot more of "where the rain comes in". [Evans' title for "Fixing a Hole"] Hope people like it. Started Sergeant Pepper.

He also wrote on 1 February 1967:
"Sergeant Pepper" sounds good. Paul tells me that I will get royalties on the song — great news, now perhaps a new home.

McCartney and Apple Records have not commented about the diaries or the songwriting credits. In 1998, the notebook used by McCartney containing the lyrics for "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and other songs was put up for sale.

The idea for a reprise was conceived by the Beatles' road manager, Neil Aspinall, who thought that as there was a "welcome song", there should be a "goodbye song". The song contains the same melody as the opening version, but with different lyrics. At 1:18, it was one of their shortest songs, although the shortest is "Her Majesty" at 0:23. The reprise was recorded on 1 April 1967, two months after the full version that opens the album.

Covers:
Jimi Hendrix
Bryan Adams
Polyphonic Spree
Stereophonics (reprise)

[Gamera87]

Polyphonic Spree

He does the unthinkable!

[Randy Jones]

45. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da - (The Beatles) - 60 points
(4 of 25 lists. 1 #1 – Randy)

Seriously one of the worst songs of all time


edit: see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainmen ... 998301.stm

i think your ears and artistic taste are broken

[B]

i would wager that ob-la-di, ob-la-da, glass onion, and maxwell's silver hammer are the only good songs the beatles ever made

[Spoodles]

let's save all discussion of maxwell's silver hammer for the top five

[Mally]

* When I'm 64
* Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
* Penny Lane

I had a similar experience, except the 3 songs in my case were "Can't Buy Me Love," "Hard Day's Night," and "Yellow Submarine." I was in a parade and there was this giant yellow Submarine float that kept blaring those same three songs -- or just clips on them -- on repeat... for hours. I can't even hear them anymore without cringing. It's sad.

[Z.S. Ghost]

let's save all discussion of maxwell's silver hammer for the top five

Hahaha yes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jjONHfoLZ0

Anyone remember Showbiz Pizza Place?

Creepy.

...Eleanor Rigby?!

[Duzzy Funlop]

30. Eight Days a Week - (Beatles For Sale) – 87 points
(5 of 25 lists. Highest ranking - #2 Mally)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=0uKwo7exlEY

The song, along with two others from the album ("Baby's in Black" and "No Reply") was planned as a single release. In the end, it was released as a single only in the US on 15 February 2025 becoming a number-one hit. Its B-side was "I Don't Want to Spoil the Party". The single release in the US was the result of DJs playing the song from imported copies of the Beatles for Sale album as an exclusive since it was not included on the album's US counterpart Beatles '65. Later, it made a US album appearance on Beatles VI.

According to Paul McCartney the title was inspired by a remark from a chauffeur who drove him to Lennon's house in Weybridge: “I usually drove myself there, but the chauffeur drove me out that day and I said, 'How've you been?' – 'Oh working hard,' he said, 'working eight days a week.'”

“Eight Days a Week” is noteworthy as one of the first examples of the in-studio experimentation that the band would use extensively in the future; in two recording sessions totalling nearly seven hours on October 6 devoted exclusively to this song, Lennon and McCartney tried one technique after another before settling on the eventual arrangement. Each of the first six takes of the song featured a strikingly different approach to the beginning and ending sections of the song; the eventual chiming guitar-based introduction to the song would be recorded in a different session and edited in later. The final version of the song incorporated another Beatle first and pop music rarity: The song begins with a fade in as a counterpoint to pop songs which end in a fade out.

Covers:
The Libertines
The Supremes
Something from Scrubs (JD learns something, it’s important)
West Indian Girl

[Duzzy Funlop]

29. Happiness is a Warm Gun - (The Beatles) – 90 points
(7 of 25 lists. Highest ranking - #2 Z.S. Ghost)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=itfms556DgE

Lennon once claimed that “Happiness is a Warm Gun” was "sort of a history of rock and roll," as it features five different sections but is less than three minutes long. The song begins with a brief lilting section ("She's not a girl who misses much..."). Drums, bass and distorted guitar are introduced as this portion of the song proceeds. The surreal imagery from this section is allegedly taken from an acid trip that Lennon experienced. After this, the song transitions into a Lennon song fragment called "I Need a Fix," built around an ominous-sounding guitar riff. Lennon's plea "I need a fix/cause I'm going down" in this section forms the basis for speculation that the song is about heroin addiction (indeed, sources have claimed that Lennon was addicted to heroin at this time; Lennon's heroin addiction was referenced famously in "Cold Turkey"). The final section is a doo-wop send up, with the back-up of vocals of "bang, bang, shoot shoot." The song's multiple sections would inspire Radiohead's three part "Paranoid Android" on OK Computer.

According to Lennon, the title came from the cover of a gun magazine that producer George Martin showed him: "I think he showed me a cover of a magazine that said 'Happiness Is a Warm Gun.' It was a gun magazine. I just thought it was a fantastic, insane thing to say. A warm gun means you just shot something."

Covers:
The Breeders
Tori Amos
Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey
U2

[Duzzy Funlop]

28. I’m Only Sleeping - (Revolver) - 90 points
(6 of 25 lists. 1 #1 – Lindy)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=4bTlZDZOj-8

"I'm Only Sleeping" was written solely by John Lennon. It is unique because it features a dual guitar solo by George Harrison played backwards and an electronically compressed rhythm guitar track. The solo is consistent with the rest of the song because Harrison took great pains to practice the entire melody of his solo backwards, so that when reversed and mixed in, it would fit the overall dreamlike mood of the rest of the song.

This hazy, disjointed mood on top of the lyrics suggest a drug-induced state rather than actual dreaming, and this is the most widely accepted interpretation of the song. However, the first draft of Lennon's lyrics for "I'm Only Sleeping", written on the back of a letter from 1966, suggest that he actually was writing about the joys of staying in bed rather than any drug euphoria. In fact, Lennon loved staying in bed or on a couch, and when he wasn't sleeping, he would sit in it and read, write, or watch television. In a March 1966 interview with Maureen Cleave, the same interview in which Lennon made his "more popular than Jesus" remark, Cleave said, "He can sleep almost indefinitely, is probably the laziest person in England."

Interestingly, during the break before the second bridge at about 1:57 minutes into the song, a barely audible voice (probably Lennon's) can be heard saying, "Yawn, Paul." Following this, the slightly more audible sound of McCartney yawning can be heard at about 2:00 minutes into the song.

Covers:
Elliott Smith (live)
Rosanne Cash
Eels (live)
The Vines
The Format
Stereophonics with Oasis
Blues Motel (m4a)