Ranking the Beatles sorting tool

Didn't do too badly for the first 8 or so
After that it's messed up.

1 Blackbird
2 The Fool on the Hill
3It's All Too Much
4 Eleanor Rigby
5 Because
6 Fixing a Hole
7 I Should Have Known Better
8 Help!
9 Day Tripper
10 I Call Your Name
11 She's Leaving Home
12 Things We Said Today
13 Everybody's Got Something..
14 And Your Bird Can Sing
15 Hey Jude
16 And I Love Her
17 Rain
18 Happiness Is a Warm Gun
19 Paperback Writer
20 We Can Work It Out
21 Penny Lane
22 She Said She Said
23 Strawberry Fields Forever
24 No Reply
25 I've Just Seen A Face
26 Got to Get You into My Life
27 The Night Before
28 Something
29 She Came In Through the B..
30 Golden Slumbers
31 You've Got to Hide Your Lov..
32 You Can't Do That
33 If I Needed Someone
34 Only a Northern Song
35 You Know My Name (Look ..
36
She Loves You
37
Think for Yourself
38
I'm Down
39
I'll Be Back
40
Tomorrow Never Knows
41
Julia
42
The Continuing Story of Bu..
43
I'll Cry Instead
44
When I Get Home
45
Any Time at All
46
Come Together
47
In My Life
48
Sexy Sadie
49
A Day in the Life
50
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts..
51
Good Morning Good Morni..
52
Wait
53
Polythene Pam
54
Magical Mystery Tour
55
From Me to You
56
Hello, Goodbye
57
Getting Better
58
Hey Bulldog
59
Cry Baby Cry
60
The Long and Winding Road
61
A Hard Day's Night
62
Dear Prudence
63
Blue Jay Way
64
Please Please Me
65
You Never Give Me Your M..
66
Lady Madonna
67
Mother Nature's Son
68
I'll Get You
69
Can't Buy Me Love
70
Glass Onion
71
With a Little Help from My ..
72
Being for the Benefit of Mr. ..
73
Back in the U.S.S.R.
74
Long Tall Sally
75
You Won't See Me
76
I Want You (She's So Heavy)
77
Eight Days A Week
78
Mean Mr. Mustard
79
One After 909
80
Run for Your Life
81
All Together Now
82
Long, Long, Long
83
Yes It Is
84
The Word
85
You Like Me Too Much
86
Taxman
87
I've Got a Feeling
88
I Saw Her Standing There
89
The End
90
I Will
91
Sun King
92
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts..
93
Norwegian Wood (This Bird..
94
Drive My Car
95
What Goes On
96
All I've Got to Do
97
I Want to Hold Your Hand
98
I'm So Tired
99
I Feel Fine
100
For No One
101
Tell Me Why
102
Flying
103
Martha My Dear
104
A Taste of Honey
105
Rock and Roll Music
106
It Won't Be Long
107
You're Going to Lose That ..
108
Here Comes the Sun
109
Money (That's What I Want)
110
Rocky Raccoon
111
Boys
112
Kansas City/Hey, Hey, Hey, ..
113
Hold Me Tight
114
She's a Woman
115
Anna (Go to Him)
116
Not A Second Time
116
Baby It's You
118
Let It Be
119
It's Only Love
120
Carry That Weight
121
I Want to Tell You
122
Bad Boy
122
Baby, You're a Rich Man
122
This Boy
125
Her Majesty
125
Misery
125
Get Back
128
Yer Blues
129
All My Loving
130
I'm Looking Through You
131
What You're Doing
131
Little Child
133
Revolution 9
133
Every Little Thing
135
Helter Skelter
135
Lucy in the Sky with Diamo..
135
You Really Got A Hold On Me
138
I'm Happy Just to Dance wi..
139
Yesterday
139
Please Mr. Postman
141
If I Fell
142
Tell Me What You See
143
Within You Without You
143
Two of Us
145
P.S. I Love You
146
Dig a Pony
147
Octopus's Garden
148
Don't Bother Me
149
Savoy Truffle
149
Revolution
149
Maxwell's Silver Hammer
149
Across the Universe
153
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
154
Words of Love
154
Dig It
154
Oh! Darling
154
I Am the Walrus
154
Act Naturally
159
Honey Don't
159
Mr. Moonlight
159
I'm Only Sleeping
159
Maggie Mae
163
Everybody's Trying to Be M..
163
Till There Was You
163
Piggies
166
Why Don't We Do It in the R..
167
Old Brown Shoe
168
The Inner Light
168
Dizzy Miss Lizzy
170
Good Night
170
The Ballad of John and Yoko
172
There's A Place
172
Love Me Do
174
Love You To
175
Another Girl
176
Here, There and Everywhere
177
I Need You
178
Nowhere Man
179
Good Day Sunshine
180
Ticket to Ride
181
Twist and Shout
182
I Wanna Be Your Man
183
I'm A Loser
184
Ask Me Why
184
Slow Down
186
Chains
186
Honey Pie
188
Do You Want to Know a Sec..
189
Birthday
190
Michelle
190
All You Need Is Love
190
I Don't Want to Spoil the Pa..
193
Yellow Submarine
193
Baby's in Black
193
Roll Over Beethoven
193
Doctor Robert
197
Girl
197
Thank You Girl
197
Matchbox
200
Your Mother Should Know
201
While My Guitar Gently Wee..
202
Devil in Her Heart
202
Don't Pass Me By
204
I Me Mine
205
Lovely Rita
206
For You Blue
207
Don't Let Me Down
207
When I'm Sixty-Four
209
Wild Honey Pie
210
I'll Follow the Sun
210
Revolution 1

 

That's what I found when I did my ranking. It didn't look right.
'Strawberry Fields Forever' is my fave Fabs tune and I always picked it over whatever it came up against in this poll. This was true of several other songs as well.
But in the final listing other songs ranked higher.

 

Agreed that the final list didn't match a list I'd build on my own. They have to extrapolate from what they can glean, based on some imperfect algorithm, from a limited number of contests. If you think it already took too long ....

Yeah, me too, but I doubt for many other people.

Fun fact: "Revolution 9" landed at 126 on my list. "Maxwell" was saved from dead last only by "Mister Moonlight."

 

For it to not get in your top ten, you must have ranked more than one song over Penny Lane.

 

It’s not out of the question that I did that mistakenly…but how would that explain IWTHYH ending so far off?? That song, of all songs, unquestionably gets my vote above all of them.

 

Sorry for the accidentally too-long post just upthread.

I meant to delete most of that text in my post, all but the first 2O listed.

 

I worked to get Mr. Moonlight on the bottom.

 

I need to run thru this again when I have more time. I was inconsistent with some of the toss-ups, in some cases ranking them a tie, in other cases making a quick choice.
So I was surprised by some of the results.

Be that as it may, my top 10 were:
1 - I Want to Hold Your Hand
2 - Strawberry Fields
2 - We Can Work it Out
2 - Nowhere Man
5 - Hey Jude
6 - I Am the Walrus
6 - Something
8 - Every Little Thing
8 - You Never Give Me Your Money
10 - It Won't Be Long

Bottom 5 were:
207 - Flying
208 - Goodnight
209- Revolution 1
209 - Why Don't We Do it in the Road
209 - What Goes On

In case anyone's wondering, the infamous Mr Moonlight is 206.

 

I discovered it helps to force yourself to actually choose a song in "almost" every matchup. It tends to give a more direct or honest picture. In other words, only use the "I like both" or "No opinion" option very infrequently. I gather that the more you "put off" actually picking a song (no matter how impossibly close they may be) the more the likliehood of getting a ranking that is "all over the map". The instructions indeed mention this at the top.

 

I totally agree. It’s great if you can just make a clear cut choice in a split second. But with some matchups it’s not that easy and you have to stop and “consider” and be more “technically” methodical…like thinking in specific terms of, which song has the stronger melody or better guitar solo or vocal, etc. it takes more time but as you say, it’s more accurate and can be more fun as well (you just have to have the time for it). In all the matchups, I had about three or four “ties”; I don’t know just how much difference that made.

 

I'm waiting for the Billie Eilish version

 

Yes, some matchups that came up were virtually impossible. Especially when it started asking me my favorite between songs that are more or less in my personal #10-20.

Then again, the hardest ones for me are often those ones that end up around the 50- 75 range. Those songs that are definitely favorites yet not clear favorites. In effect, they all could end up in any given spot within that range and it would be "accurate".

Or even picking between least favorites is terribly hard! Because, again, it ends up as a case of splitting hairs and is ultimately irrelevant anyway.

 

I used to do something similar when I had a small iPod but now that you can fit all of their albums in all the variations on your phone not as much.

 

Not that anyone cares, but these ended up as my 30 Least favorite Beatles songs (#220-250):

Bad Boy
Dig It
Come And Get It
I'm So Tired
I Want You (She's So Heavy)
Dig A Pony
For You Blue
Dizzy Miss Lizzy
Teddy Boy
What's The New Mary Jane
Yer Blues
You've Got To Hide Your Love Away
March Of The Meanies
Oh! Darling
Sea Of Monsters
Run For Your Life
Searchin'
Medley: Sea Of Time & Sea Of Holes
Maggie Mae
Pepperland Laid Waste
Mailman, Bring Me No More Blues
Polythene Pam
Mean Mr. Mustard
Medley: Rip It Up / Shake, Rattle And Roll / Blue Suede Shoes
Please Mister Postman
Sie Liebt Dich
Why Don't We Do It In The Road?
Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand
If You've Got Trouble
Besame Mucho
The Sheik Of Araby

Just as my Top favorites contain candidates that seem to leave people perplexed, I'm sure this bottom ranking does the same for reverse reasons! But it is what it is...

 

Going by instinct as fast as possible.

I only clicked 'tie' when I don't really like/listen to either song. Given how quick I did it it would likely be mood related and change a lot depending when I did it.
Here's my top 50.


1 For No One
2 Here, There and Everywhere
3 Penny Lane
4 I Feel Fine
5 She Loves You
6 Eleanor Rigby
7 The Long and Winding Road
8 Yesterday
9 In My Life
10 Twist and Shout
11 Help!
12 Ticket to Ride
13 She's Leaving Home
14 I Saw Her Standing There
15 Across the Universe
16 Something
17 Paperback Writer
18 Please Please Me
19 A Hard Day's Night
20 Blackbird
21 Nowhere Man
22 All My Loving
23 Lady Madonna
24 Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts..
25 Lucy in the Sky with Diamo..
26 Things We Said Today
27 When I'm Sixty-Four
28 We Can Work It Out
29 Taxman
30 Get Back
31 And Your Bird Can Sing
32 Here Comes the Sun
33 I Want to Hold Your Hand
34 Love Me Do
35 Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts..
36 Come Together
37 With a Little Help from My ..
38 Norwegian Wood (This Bird..
39 All You Need Is Love
40 Back in the U.S.S.R.
41 I'm Only Sleeping
42 You've Got to Hide Your Lov..
43 Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
44 Roll Over Beethoven
45 Hello, Goodbye
46 You're Going to Lose That ..
47 Do You Want to Know a Sec..
48 Yellow Submarine
49 Let It Be
50 I'm Looking Through You

 

I think those including all the Anthology tracks and the George Martin 'Yellow Submarine' songs are skewing their own lists.
These songs shouldn't be counted.

 

That could be it. I know some of my least favorite ones ended up being some of the "underproduced"/unused tracks from the Anthology sets or some of the instrumentals.

That said, I'm actually okay with them being included because some of them are personal favorites. In fact, I would have had a couple more higher entries if the US A Hard Day's Night had been offered. I really like the Martin instrumentals as a true context/reflection of the film (a soundtrack). "Ringo's Theme (This Boy)" is a wonderful piece for example.

As for the Side 2 Instrumentals on Yellow Submarine, I also enjoy them in album listening context. Yet only a couple stand out to me when I was selecting them in terms of song matchups. "Pepperland" is my highest. And the one I enjoy best as a "song" of its own. I have actually used that one in compiling Beatles Retrospectives or playlists.

 

I understand why people don’t like Revolution 9, and no one is obligated to, but it’s not a song and it’s not meant to be thought of as such. It’s an experimental piece, music concrete if you will. It’s the equivalent of Speak to Me or On the Run on Dark Side of the Moon. Perhaps those tracks are better or maybe one doesn’t want that from the Beatles but it has to be taken for what it is. Personally I think the White Album would be incomplete without it just like the seagull sounds on Tomorrow Never Knows.

 

Yes. This times a thousand.

I've even argued before that the fact it is so polarizing or touches so many nerves is precisely why it is significant (in itself, for its time and as an integral part of the album).

It wasn't made so that everyone would gleefully enjoy it, easily accept it or easily digest it upon 1 or even 1000 listens. It's not supposed to be an easy track. That's a good thing in art. It remains something different and revealing on each and every listen. Scholarly studies of the track (and of the Beatles music at large) are not done for nothing!

The more animosity I see towards the track, the more I'm just convinced of its success in regards to what it set out to do. If the track weren't polarizing, then something would be wrong.

I'm proud to say that it came in at #75 on my final rankings. Still about 175 slots above most lists.

In fact, I'm slightly surprised it didn't list it a bit higher for me! I have it closer to the #50 slot on my own handmade list from years back.

 

This was really fun. I'm not a Beatles freak (and you'll see a lot of unpopular opinions underneath this paragraph), but some of these choices were really hard. "Nowhere Man" versus "In My Life"? That's just cruel! I'd love to make my own version of this with other bands... wonder if that's possible.

 

Just for grins I did a sort picking the left choice every time and another one picking the right choice every time.
Top/bottom 5 for each:

LEFT
1. Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby
2. Think for Yourself
3. Ask Me Why
4. Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
5. All Together Now
-------
207. She's a Woman
208. The Long and Winding Road
209. Long Tall Sally
210. Baby's in Black
211. Please Please Me

RIGHT
1. Wild Honey Pie
2. Oh! Darling
3. Ask Me Why
4. Golden Slumbers
5. The Inner Light
-------
207. While My Guitar Gently Weeps
208. The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill
209. You Won't See Me
210. Her Majesty
211. I Should Have Known Better

 

I’ll be accused of not having anything better to do, but I may try this.

 

I chose to exclude them because I havent got the Anthology and I dont think the GM music is The Beatles, but if anyone thinks they are gems, they should be there.

 

I found I put in a lot of ties at the beginning but I realised after awhile that would get me nowhere. Once I got past 25% it became easier to choose one song over another and it would be clear which songs were going down. That's when I started to isolate Mr. Moonlight no matter what other song came up against it. I don't even know if I like it. I just don't remember it.

If I didn't recall the song immediately or it was a cover, I chose the other original. I mean, I was weaned on those early albums so they are part of my genetics musically and I recently went through the first 6 in stereo and mono. If I didn't recall the song by title it wasn't remarkable enough for me. I never chose the cover song the first time it showed but some are really good so they were eventually chosen.

I remember one of the tougher choices - Tomorrow Never Knows against In My Life. My list shows clearly which song I chose.

 

Top 20

1. Rain
2. Tomorrow Never Knows
3. Hey Bulldog
4. For No One
5. Here, There And Everywhere
6. Not A Second Time
7. Getting Better
8. Blue Jay Way
9. All I've Got To Do
10. Mr. Kite!
11. Taxman
12. We Can Work It Out
13. The Night Before
14. Long, Long, Long
15. Across The Universe
16. Lovely Rita
17. Girl
18. Twist And Shout
19. Because
20. She Said She Said

Bottom:

200. Yesterday
201. Can't Buy Me Love
202. Honey Don't
203. Tell Me Why
204. A Taste Of Honey
205. Yellow Submarine
206. Mr. Moonlight
207. Dig It
208. I Wanna Be Your Man
209. What Goes On
210. The Long And Winding Road
211. All Together Now

Revolution 9 came on 178. place.

If I would do a "manual" ranking, they would be slightly differently placed, but with this thing they came up like this.