The Beatles' 10 most influential/important tracks, and why?

You forgot "You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)" and "Carnival of Light".

 

Some great choices. Your description of "A Day in the Life" is spot on!

 

Right! I had my order reversed. That's why I !/? it for the ending punctuation.

 

Searchers - Needles and Pins sort of points to the early Byrds sound too.

 

The precursor to this sound is found on "What You're Doing." The 12 string riff is one of those inventive creations from George. Listen to the opening of the Byrds 1965 "Mr. Tambourine Man" and then this song from 1964.

 

Hadn't noticed the similarity.

However, McGuinn acknowledged he became interest in 12-string guitars after seeing Harrison play them, possibly in "Hard Day's Night" movie.

Likewise, Harrison openly admitted his use of the Byrds' "quote" in "If I Needed Someone"

 

That's a bit of a stretch on that, but technically you aren't wrong. In fact, why not mention the 12 string parts from You Can't Do That or I Call Your Name if you're going back? Truth is, George dabbled with it. McGuinn used it exclusively on just about every Byrds song and made it his own. Plus the similarity between Bells of Rhymney and If I Needed Someone are quite evident. Also note, George and Paul attended a Byrds session in August 1965 when they were recording the alternate version of The Times Are A Changin' and the incredible Gene Clark tune She Don't Care About Time that had McGuinn playing Bach's Jesu, Joy Of Man's Desiring in the solo! How could you not be impressed by that for a rock band in 1965 let alone today?

 

I think by the end of this thread, every single Beatles recording will have been mentioned - that's how influential they were.

 

everything the beatles did was important.

 

Except break up...

 

Maybe "All My Loving" because that was the first song performed on the Ed Sullivan show. To those people at the time who weren't interested or cared about the Beatles or those who just happened to tune in, that song might have been the first time they heard them and possibly helped them understand what all of the screaming was about.

 

One truly great song on Pepper 'Day in the Life'

 

It's all subjective, but I'd say Getting Better and She's Leaving Home are pretty great, too. I also really like Good Morning, though not sure I'd say it's great.

But if a lot of the Pepper songs are overrated, I think the album itself was still very influential, even if only because it's style and reception got people to think of pop and rock as Art (for good or for bad).

 

Great list, I agree with every choice. If I could, I would add 'Within You Without You' or 'Love To You', 'What Your'e Doing' and 'I Don't Want To Spoil The Party'.

 

Please Please Me - Power Pop starts right here --The Beatles invented it with “Please Please Me.”
Fast tempo, amazing energy, lethal hooks and swooping, swoon-worthy harmonies, delivered with a self-assured gusto that presages all who would follow .. Plus, it’s got certifiably teen frustration lyrics, and a picture-perfect power pop ending.

 

Many great examples posted here!

In the 90's, Musician Magazine had an article wherein many musicians cited how the Beatles' music influenced them, their attitude and approach towards their own music, how they compose and perform, etc.
I recall the various artists ranged from Jazz to Pop to Heavy Metal - surprised me. Some specific songs were cited as major influences; even ones that I would not consider groundbreaking, in of themselves.

(Amazing to think that just one unique vocal, one lyrical turn or a memorable melody by Lennon/McCartney, a guitar tuning by Harrison, or Starr's drum pattern could imbed itself into our collective consciousnesses.)

That seems to be a major benchmark - when well respected extremely talented peers cite The Beatles' numerous songs as inspiration, it demonstrates the immense ripple effect of their music and ongoing legacy.

 

Please Please Me-perfect power pop took them to the next level in the UK.
I Want To Hold Your Hand-This is the song that broke them big in the US
A Hard Day's Night-Title track to their first movie gained them much respect and it is a great song featuring John and Paul
Yesterday-Silenced those who thought the Beatles were just for kids.
Norwegian Wood-added the sitar to rock and also a jump in lyrical creativity
Eleanor Rigby-combined pop and classical music
Strawberry Fields Forever-psychedelic music, great lyrics, and incredibly creative
A Day In The Life-Final track from landmark album is another major stroke of creativity
Hey Jude-the Beatles most popular song. Showed a single could be long and be commercially successful.
Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End-A rousing finale to a classic album.

Even thought I personally find songs like For No One, Tomorrow Never Knows, I Am The Walrus, and Across The Universe to be worthy of this list I went with songs that perhaps are a little more popular to the general public.

 

There's so many but let's not forget Sexy Sadie invented Radiohead

 

"She Loves You" for it's pounding rhythm, great harmonies, and how if written it would look terrible can be so great and clever done by the Fabs.

"Ticket to Ride." Lennon said if mixed correctly, it would have been a much heavier song. I can't think of anyone drumming like this before this song was released. The way Ringo slightly changes it thoughout is pretty amazing.

"If I Needed Someone" Look at all the other bands that covered this hoping to make the charts. George finally gets a win! How many records came out of California with a similar sound after this came out?

"Rain" They achieved a dreary, lazy, but powerful big sounding track by playing a little faster and slowing down the tape before putting the vocals on. It also uses backwards vocals at the end.

"Tomorrow Never Knows" The use of tape loops, hypnotic beat, and swirling vocal. No need to say more.

"Yellow Submarine" The good thing about Ringo being in the band is John and Paul could look into their childish sides and take a breather from having to be hip and write songs about meaningful things. Move forward a few years and who else but John could write a line like "and all I wanna do is boogaloo" and it be alright.

"Strawberry Fields Forever" Amazing edit of two versions that completely takes you into a different realm.

"A Day In the Life" Along with the whole Pepper album, there's a lot of sound involved in this that only gets bigger. It has a spook to it.

"Helter Skelter" Paul can rock. The mix is really thinking out of the box as well. Tons of odd eq's, level changes, etc. It also influenced a whole family of psychos.

"Revolution 9" Sure, John's no John Cage, but he gets to put his own sound collage on a record that's probably influenced a ton of sound collage artists.

 

Slim down the 27 songs from Beatles 1

 

Everything the Beatles did was not right!

They had some bad songs just like any other band!

A song I think was influential is I Saw Her Standing There, to this day it is one of the greatest hard rockers ever recorded!

That 1,2,3,4 opening is just classic!

 

Paperback Writer. It wasn't about a girl.

 

I don't get why so many leave out She Loves You.
It was THE song to define their sound more than anything else.
No one before had sounded this way.
The song-structure and chords are also very defining.
It was their big breakthrough in Europe.

 

From From Me To You to She Loves You was the biggest quantum leap they ever made.

 

"Ask Me Why" was certainly one of, if not the first mid-tempo rocker to make good use of major7 and augmented chords, which were previously only associated with slow ballads like "Misty" (1959) and "Make It Easy On Yourself" (1962).