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

Sounds like The Chemical Brothers. Someone called it "the Beatles ultimate future moment" Took three decades for pop music to catch up.

 

Exactly. The Chemical Brother's called it their 'musical manifesto'.

 

I Want to Hold Your Hand - Inspired many imitators
A Hard Day's Night - Song of the year 1964
Yesterday - John Lennon's best song
Tomorrow Never Knows - The Beatles venture into psychedelic territory
Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band/With A Little Help From My Friends - precursor to Rock Opera's, and overall just an incredible song. Also, Ringo.
Strawberry Fields Forever - groundbreaking in uses of technology
Helter Skelter - The Beatles (with help from The Who) create 'Heavy Metal'
I Want You (She's So Heavy) - The Beatles create 'Doom Metal'
Something - George Harrison's best song
Hey Jude - McCartney's Best Song

 

That's a joke, right?

 

This would be my list, except Tomorrow Never Knows has to be on there. So I'd replace Yellow Submarine with that.

 

Although a great song, hard to put it in the top 10.

BUT, at sporting events, you always hear that famous 1,2, 3 Faaaaw. Great sports pump up song out there!

 

Not hard for me to put in the top 10, in fact I'd put I Saw Her Standing There in the top 5!

 

These songs are not influential or important as such. Good tracks, indeed.
"Helter Skelter" was important for The Beatles, but not anyone else.
That ground had already been covered well by other artists.
"I Want You" is a british blues-pastische. Cream had already done that.
"Something" may be Harrison's best song, but it's not a song which inspired others to write new music.

 

Good points, just my personal opinions, that's all.

 

Most people say it's "Sgt. Pepper". Me, I say "Rocky Raccoon" because it opened the door to a whole new genre. You could make silly songs and it's OK! Even 'cool'!

 

NO that was important...breaking up kept them from releasing a host of mediocre 70s albums like the Stones did....

 

Do you believe John Lennon wrote "Yesterday"?

 

True, but that didn't stop them from releasing mediocre albums individually.

 

• I want to hold your hand - introduced Beatles music to North America
• Yesterday - first use of string quartet by rock band and one of the most covered
• Tomorrow Never Knows - really the forefather of Electronica
• Rain - first prominent backwards vocal (I think) and superb drumming and bass playing unlike any heard befoe
• Strawberry Fields Forever - blending two renditions of song together and introducing the mainstream to psychedelia
• Revolution #9 - introducing avant garde to millions of pop-rock fans
• Within You without you - introducing the world to Eastern music and western/eastern blend; as well as as eastern philosophic principles
• Helter Skelter - the real forerunner of heavey metal
• Hey Jude - one of the longest pop singles ever - a forefront to many sing along songs all the way to lumineers et. al.
• Abbey Road Medly from Because to The End - a rock band making a medly of original song actually good

 

And Bernard Purdie played the strings. Tsk keep up.

 

Okay.... I just made a massive f**k up XD I totally go back on everything I said. For some reason I thought... just... never mind.

 

No need to go back of everything you said except substitute McCartney for Lennon for "Yesterday" and change "Hey Jude" to McCartney's second best song!

 

It may be the best example but not the first - Love You To from Revolver.

 

I Want to Hold Your Hand – you could argue that had Capitol put the same effort into marketing She Loves You the whole conquering America thing would have happened months earlier. But this was the one. How many guitars were sold in the weeks after Sullivan? This opened the floodgates.


A Hard Day’s Night --- a step to maturing the sound---Beatles give birth to Byrds----no longer just for kiddies.


Norwegian Wood --- exotic instrument heard on the HELP! soundtrack incorporated into a pop song dealing with more of an adult subject matter --- the Beatles expand their mastery of ambiance.


Nowhere Man/Taxman --- writing about subjects other than romance (some would say the song Help! did this – but these songs are less ambiguous) soon no topic would be off limits and Lennon would go thru a period of writing about anything but romance


Eleanor Rigby --- unlike Yesterday strings used entirely without sentiment, driving the story, no guitars----progressive rock.


I’m Only Sleeping --- acid rock, the swirling backwards guitars at the fade-out were a part of the blueprint for the recording of Are You Experienced which was the best-selling album of 1968 (1967 More of the Monkees was the first time a rock and roll record was the best selling record of the year)


Got To Get You Into My Life ---- combining Motown horns and “hard” rock in ways that would further be explored in the 70s (when this was issued as a single, made the top 10, didn’t sound a bit out of place)


Tomorrow Never Knows --- radical experimentation made palatable, the mixing desk used as an instrument---sampling---years ahead of its time


Strawberry Fields Forever/Penny Lane ---- expanding on the experimentation of Tomorrow Never Knows and Eleanor Rigby ----fully embracing classical music --- this time on a single reaching a wider audience (owing quite a bit to Good Vibrations)----but not entirely well-received at the time (rightfully regarded by many as their best single)-----wisely the album that followed didn’t completely abandon the use of a hard driving electric guitar.


Let It Be --- the power ballad is (arguably) born for better or for worse

 

Very thoughtful analysis - I only disagree with the inclusion of Got To Get You Into My Life.. The horns are more Stax than Motown and the soul/R&B influence on rock'n'roll bands was there from the beginning.

 

Good point----i just feel the distorted way the horns are recorded and are intruded upon by an acid guitar is more rock in a "new" way---especially combined with the lyrics "another kind of mind"----ode to pot----subtle---maybe not even at all evident until Paul admitted it---though i swear i'd always thought of it as being about pot or acid----subversive.

 

Hard to pick just ten.

Not A Second Time.
So many structural things in the song that are off the wall. The Aeolian Cadence being the most well known. IMO, their first song that really showed "there are no rules" to songwriting.

 

Tomorrow Never Knows--to add what was well said above, you know it's out there when Eno chooses to cover it live, that's tacit high praise
Helter Skelter--shows that loud raucous heavy metal is coming
Yesterday--the strings
Hard Day's Night--how to open a song with a bang
Strawberry Fields--the way the arrangement builds
I'll Be Back--the acoustic playing foreshadows the greatness of Rubber Soul
Revolution--a song that totally reflected the times, lyrically and musically
She Loves You--the Glenn Miller chord
You Never Give Me Your Money--3 very different themes can be united into one song wonderfully
I Feel Fine--the feedback, of course

 

Day in the Life
Hey Jude
Let It Be
Yesterday
Something
When I'm 64
Strawberry Fields/Penny Lane