Top 10 Songs by the Beatles
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Of course this list is impossible. How can you limit an anthology of music that includes the best music of all time? Well, we have tried. But rather than put a list of #1 pop Beatles songs, (”Twist and Shout”, “8 Days a Week”, “Can’t Buy Me Love and so on) we decided to create list with a bit more substance. Without further ado, after all the Beatles need no introduction, here is our Top Ten Beatles Songs. If you disagree and I’m sure many of you will, please leave a comment. Like to share your own music list with us, please submit it to Top Tenz.
10. Run For Your Life
“Well I know that I’m a wicked guy, And I was born with a jealous mind”
You have to love a good stalking/revenge song with a beat you can dance to. (I’d rather see you DEAD little girl than to be with another man.) Damn those Beatles were hard core.
9. Eleanor Rigby
“Eleanor Rigby died in the church and was buried along with her name
Nobody came
Father McKenzie wiping the dirt from his hands as he walks from the grave
No one was saved”
Another just good story. I don’t visualize many songs but this one I always do for some reason.
8. I’ve Got a Feeling
“All these years I’ve been wandering around,
Wondering how come nobody told me
All that I was looking for was somebody
Who looked like you”
Great collaboration among the group plus the lyrics “everybody has a wet dream” makes this a winner.
7. Revolution 1
“You ask me for a contribution
Well you know
We’re doing what we can
But when you want money for people with minds that hate
All I can tell you is brother you have to wait”
John Lennon created the perfect protest song.
6. I Feel Fine
“I’m so glad that she’s my little girl
She’s so glad she’s telling all the world”
A historically underrated song for its opening feedback. One of (if not THE) first intentional uses of feedback in a song – this was 1964, folks!
5. Yesterday
“Yesterday, love was such an easy game to play.
Now I need a place to hide away.
Oh, I believe in yesterday”
Have to give props to McCartney for the perfect ballad.
4. Inner Light
“Arrive without traveling
See all without looking
Do all without doing”
The most underrated Harrison song. The sitar work is amazing and I love the purity of the lyrics (The farther one travels the less one knows).
3. Hey Jude
“And anytime you feel the pain, hey jude, refrain,
Don’t carry the world upon your shoulders.”
A big FU to the record company and to radio stations. If we want a 7 minute song – we’ll get a 7 minute song.
2. Across the Universe
“Limitless undying love which shines around me like a
Million suns, it calls me on and on”
Word smithing at its finest (Words are flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup) enough said.
1. A Day In The Life
“Having read the book
I love to turn you on”
Just one of those great songs that tells a story and gives me a weird feeling every time I hear it.
List compiled by Chip Trout.
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Audacious list to attempt. Glad to see the early songs weren’t included.
Paperback Writer? I love that song and I wonder why it didn’t make the list. Of course I could say that about many of the Beatles songs. I agree with Keith, this is a tough list to limit to only 10 songs.
This list is going to piss too many hardcore fans off. You need a TOP 100 list! That way you can put all the songs I wish were on there on there.
One of the good things about these types of lists is that you will likely learn something new. For example, I had never heard Run for Your Life before and after hearing it hear I think it is one of my favorite Beatles songs. Cheers for sharing this.
I also think only the Beatles could handle a top 100 list, which says something about how great they were, I think.
Great list! I was very glad to see that you put A Day In The Life as number 1!
Damn, none of the later years songs with Yoko screeching in the background made the list.
Personally, I always liked the line
“sitting on a cornflake waiting for the van to come”
I can’t say that I was disappointed by this list, as it was quite good. I was hoping I Am the Walrus would be on here. John is right in that the lyrics are obscure, which is what makes it such a wonderful, yet underrated song.
No Drive My Car?
wow! im suprised you were able to do this list. If it were me, I personally would have put norweigian wood or something on here as well. very nicely done though.
even after 40 years, the boys still rock!
This is my beatles top 10 songs! This is not a joke, most of them are not very popular but i realy like these…
1- Dig it
2- You know my name
3- It’s all too much
4- Tomorrow never knows
5- Blue jay way
6- Only a northern song
7- Everybody’s got something to hide
8- Mean mister mustard
9- Polythene Pam
10 Yer blues
1. All You Need Is Love
So simple yet so genius. No other band could have done this song it. The perfect example of Hippie ideals and what the Beatles (at the time) truely felt they stood for, which is a message so simple that anyone in the world could get it.
There’s nothing you can do that can’t be done…
All you need is love, love
Love is all you need
Ok… good list… but come on -.- If you don’t know the difference between Revolution and Revolution 1 you got a problem >.< Revolution 1 is the acoustic version of Revolution. =)
The words to the song Inner Light is taken from the Tao Te Ching. And I quote,
“Without stirring abroad
One can know the whole world;
Without looking out of the window
One can see the way of heaven.
The further one goes
The less one knows.
Therefore the sage knows without having to stir,
Identifies without having to see,
Accomplishes without having to act.”
Tao Te Ching, Book Two, Chapter 47. Lao Tzu
Makes me wonder if Harrison had read the Tao Te Ching and was inspired by it to write the song Inner Light.
Whenever I hear “I’ve Got a Feeling”, I am immediately transported back to that magic winter, tripping around with my friends, and feeling that anything was possible. It’s definitely one of my very faves.
Another one of my husband’s and my favourite songs is “I Will”. We sang this beautiful song at our wedding.
“Twist and shout” is not a Beatles song.
And making that list must’ve been one of the hardest jobs on Earth. I couldn’t do it.
I agree with 1 and 2 but I would have put Blackbird up there too.
Best song, hands down is Rocky Raccoon
Golden slumbers, carry that weight, and you never give me your money are my fav beatles songs.
shoulda made a top 100 woulda been better and easier
Strawberry Fields Forever hasn’t had a mention. I think it is the best song ever written and the film clip has 60’s written all over it. Brilliant.
This is a tough list to compile considering how many number one hits they had. I’ve always been a big fan of the song “Helter Skelter,” but I would be surprised to see it on a standard top ten list.
I would have put ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’ up there, along with ‘Act Naturally’. Kinda underestimated, yet so good.
Mackenzie, if I’m not mistaken, “Act Naturally” is a Ringo Starr song.
No In My Life, writers have said this is the greatest song of all time