I am enjoying the Rolling Stone Beatles album-by-album. What a treat!! ( Is there an echo? )
The R.S. has also rated their top 100 songs. I am listing the top ten.
10) "While My Guitar Gently Weeps." A george Harrison tune and one of my all time favorites. Eric Clapton was asked to play lead guitar by George ( pun unintentional ), when Lennon/McCartney weren't overly interested in its recording. Take that, eh?
9) "Come Together." Not sure I would have it this high on my personal list. Covered by Aerosmith and Michael Jackson. The song always reminds me of trekking to Snelling Hall to eat as a newly-scrubbed freshman at Truck U.
8) "Let It Be." From the R.S. article: "McCartney channeled Aretha Franklin's soul in "Let It Be," recorded
during the peak of the Beatles' troubled times. A month after its 1970
release, McCartney announced the band had broken up"
7) "Hey Jude." My one or two favorite. I recall plopping the 45 onto the old record player we had as a teenager-had never heard the song. It was the "A" side single; the "B" side was "Revolution." I was mesmerized. It was flower power incarnate.
6) "Something." Frank Sinatra, old blue eyes himself, said this was his favorite Lennon/McCartney song. Unbeknownst to the Ratpack leader, the song was penned by George.
5) "In My Life." From R.S.: "In My Life," featuring Lennon's most personal lyrics up until that
time, is one of only a handful of Lennon-McCartney songs where the two
strongly disagreed over who wrote what."
4) "Yesterday." As everyone knows by now, the tune began as "Scrambled Eggs."
3) "Strawberry Fields Forever." The video of this and "Penny Lane" featured each Beatle with a mustache. Life as we knew it would never be the same. I love the Anthology version which is void of overdubs and tape looping.
2) "I Want to Hold Your Hand." When I saw the moptops from Liverpool circa 1964 on my old 17 inch b/w tv, I, along with 70 or so million viewers to "The Ed Sullivan Show," couldn't believe what we were witnessing. I was in awe with them and the music.Life as I knew it would never be the same.
1) "A Day in the Life." Who can argue that this shouldn't be number one. Not me. My pal, Steve, loaned me the record in 1966. When I heard this track which ends the "Sgt. Peppers Album," Kansas had been long forgotten.
P.S. The top ten has to include my number one or two. "I Am the Walrus!"
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