4 Beatles Classics You Won't Believe Weren't Singles
Before The Beatles came around, singles ruled the roost in terms of rock and roll importance. The band started to change that. Their ability was such that even their non-singles rivaled or surpassed the quality of their contemporaries’ biggest hits.
Because these four songs are so popular, you might think they were huge smashes. But The Beatles never even released them as singles.
“In My Life”
In the first half of their recording career, The Beatles, for the most part, released singles in the United Kingdom that didn’t appear on their albums. In turn, they usually reserved the albums for songs that wouldn’t get a single release. This wasn’t a hard and fast rule. But it did mostly account for brilliant songs like “In My Life” only getting exposure via LP. The song could easily have been another No. 1 for the group, as it’s one of the most beautiful, affecting ballads ever written. Of course, it wasn’t long before people who heard it realized its brilliance. It has received a ton of cover versions over the years as well. But none of them match the unaffected lead vocal of John Lennon on the original.
“A Day In The Life”
When The Beatles first began separating singles from albums, they did so as more of a commercial ploy. But by the time they got around to making Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, it became more a matter of insisting on a sense of artistic purity. They didn’t really want any of the songs off that album to be presented as something apart from the whole. In the case of “A Day In The Life”, it still works beautifully when you hear it on its own on the radio. But it’s a different story when it comes rolling in quietly after the raucous applause from the reprise of the album’s title track. Hearing that final piano chord after going through the entire journey of the album makes for a special experience.
Source: Jim Beviglia/americansongwriter.com
