The 50 best Beatles songs ever, ranked
Every Beatles fan — and there are a lot of them, from casual to hardcore — has an opinion on when the Fab Four of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr were at their best, from their mainstream pop success to their psychedelic era. Narrowed down from more than 200 recorded songs, we agreed on these top timeless tunes.
Read on for the complete list of our favorites, from best to, well, 50th best.
1. "A Hard Day's Night" (1964, A Hard Day's Night)
The Beatles 'A Hard Day's Night' album cover.
Parlophone
More than 50 years after this single hit the top of the charts on both sides of the Atlantic, it's still nearly impossible to get any two people to agree on what chord that famous opening clang! actually is. But with one majestic, mysterious Rickenbacker distress call, the Beatles as we first met them on The Ed Sullivan Show four months earlier were gone. They'd grown up. The lads had become unwitting passengers on a speeding locomotive they'd never be able to disembark from, and the song's title hints at that weariness. It's right there in the opening scene of the 1964 film that bears the same name, as John, Paul, George, and Ringo are chased by a mob of screaming, ravenous fans. This isn't just a pop song, it's a cathartic cry for Help!
2. "A Day in the Life" (1967, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band)
The Beatles, 'Magical Mystery Tour' album cover.
Capitol
The Beatles' chief songsmiths were on increasingly divergent creative paths, a fact driven home by their collaboration on the grand finale of their most ambitious project. Both men are singing about the most average of daily activities — reading the morning paper, catching a bus — yet these rituals are full of existential pain in John's verses, while Paul's bridge is a whimsical daydream. In less expert hands, the contrast might have felt clumsy. Instead, it's the perfect lead-up to that wild crescendo and last piano chord: a studio trick that echoes in the listener's ears long after the song has ended.
Source: By EW Staff and Kevin Jacobsen
