The 50 greatest Beatles songs of all time
Since 1960, the Beatles—four fabulous lads from Liverpool, England—have remained the greatest rock and roll band in the history of music. How John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr managed to make music together remains a mythical truth over half-a-century later. From Please Please Me to Abbey Road (or Let It Be, commercially), the quartet have influenced thousands—likey millions—of people to pick up an instrument and start writing songs. Without the Beatles, the DNA of modern music as we know it would look unrecognizable.
We first ranked the 50 best Beatles songs nearly a decade ago, and in 2023 we remade the list and took out 20 entries. Now, because opinions change like the day, and because the band is always present and relevant in the zeitgeist, we’re giving the ranking another upgrade. Maybe in two years I’ll bump it up to 100 entries. The popularity of albums and tracks are firmly in flux, and our ranking sets out to illustrate that. I didn’t want this list to look like an obligation. Instead, I hope you can feel the genuine love we have for this band in the order we’ve presented. So, we’ve pulled together a blend of the usual suspects and some deeper album cuts, B-sides, and covers. Without further ado, here are Paste’s picks for the 50 greatest Beatles songs of all time.
Rubber Soul, as masterful as it is, bridges the gap between the very good Help! and the forever-singular Revolver. It got the singles rub in the US a couple months after the album released, but it stalled at #3. No problem, it’s only gone on to be one of the best examples of the Beatles’ historical 3-part harmony technique. Telling the story of a directionless fellow totally separated from love, politics, and motivation, “Nowhere Man” is, in my opinion, John Lennon’s first really mature tune—when he could write philosophically without getting too lost in the weeds of abstraction. When his voice breaks while singing “the world is at your command,” I’m bought all the way in. Side one of Rubber Soul is a murder’s row of songs, but “Nowhere Man” stands the test of time better than (almost) all of them.
Source: Matt Mitchell/pastemagazine.com
