Greatest Beatles Song?

If you had to pick one. Which one would it be?

Annie...

Well, I don't know about "greatest," but if I was forced to pick one
favorite... I would go with "You Never Give Me Your Money." It is

Sean Carroll...

I can't pick one favourite, so instead I'm picking 64 favourites in four
tiers, from minor favourites to very bestest greatest favourites. ;)
Subject to change at any and all times, except for the top tier.

Tier 1: She Loves You, This Boy, Slow Down, And I Love Her, You've Got
to Hide Your Love Away, I've Just Seen a Face, Norwegian Wood (This Bird
Has Flown), The Word, Run for Your Life, I'm Only Sleeping, Good Day
Sunshine, She's Leaving Home, All You Need Is Love, Revolution, Glass
Onion, The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill, Piggies, Revolution 9,
Mean Mr Mustard/Polythene Pam, Across the Universe.

Tier 2: Long Tall Sally, I Feel Fine, Ticket to Ride, Yes It Is, We Can
Work It Out, Paperback Writer, Nowhere Man, Girl, In My Life, Love You
To, Penny Lane, Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Fixing a Hole, The
Fool on the Hill, Dear Prudence, Julia, Everybody's Got Something to
Hide Except Me and My Monkey, Only a Northern Song, Hey Bulldog, The
Ballad of John and Yoko, Something, Because, The End, Let It Be, For You
Blue.

Tier 3: Day Tripper, Rain, Eleanor Rigby, She Said She Said, And Your
Bird Can Sing, Got to Get You into My Life, Getting Better, Good Morning
Good Morning/Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise), Happiness
Is a Warm Gun, Helter Skelter, Come Together, Here Comes the Sun.

Tier 4: Tomorrow Never Knows, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, A Day in
the Life, Strawberry Fields Forever, I Am the Walrus.

great and I love it. :) I love how flexible the lyrics are,
metaphor-wise, and the range of emotion the song expresses,
particularly that achey-good melancholic regretful feelin'.

Other greats which I love: I Am the Walrus, Fixing a Hole, the Abbey

Bernie Woodham...

Good Day Sunshine?

Road medleys, Please Please Me, I Saw Her Standing There, Rain, Ticket
To Ride, Eleanor Rigby, For No One, A Day In the Life, Come Together,
Here Comes the Sun, Good Morning Good Morning, Penny Lane, You've Got
To Hide Your Love Away, Back In the USSR...

To mix it up a bit, here are some that are undoubtedly great, but just
never grabbed me for whatever reason: Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds,
Something, Let It Be, Yesterday...

And some which... maybe wouldn't _objectively_ rank as "great," but
which I love madly nonetheless: Because, Mother Nature's Son, Lovely
Rita, SPLHCB (Reprise), And Your Bird Can Sing, The Long and Winding
Road, It's All Too Much, Dear Prudence, Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da...

DC...

"Old Brown Shoe", of course!

My choice would be A Day In The Life. It has great music, lyrics, has
that grand orchestral sound and has the creepy sound too. Plus I like
it the most.

Lookingglass...

One of the songs that really gives me 'chills' is THINGS WE SAID TODAY...

...OUTSTANDING...!!!

Bernie Woodham...

You know I was just thinking of that song this morning. You just can't
shortchange McCartney on that song. It was an early glimpse into just how
sophisticated their music would be.

dancin' dave (...not a lot to say...)

Frank from Deeetroit...

Hardest question to answer. Beatle songs are like one's children, you love
em all, none more than the others. Maybe you have one that you want to keep

poisoned rose...

It would be an easier question if you rated the songs with a cool
analytical head, rather than sentimentally viewing them as
"children." A big problem here, in general.

My favorites remain pretty consistent...the order might shuffle a
bit, but I think the top of my list is always going to be some
permutation of Strawberry Fields Forever, I Am the Walrus, Nowhere
Man, Dear Prudence, Hey Jude, A Day in the Life, Ticket to Ride,
Tomorrow Never Knows, Penny Lane, Eleanor Rigby, Yesterday, All You
Need Is Love, Norwegian Wood, Let It Be, Help! and Here Comes the
Sun. I made a half-assed attempt to order those, but it's not
absolute.

in the attic or chained to the furnace, but they are all great.

Dale Houstman...

I don't know what the greatest Beatles song is - although I am sure it
isn't "The New Mary Jane," "Blue Jay Way," or "Dig It".

My favorite is "I Am The Walrus" because of the fantastic lyric, and the
general creepiness of the sound, with that great noise of an outro.

Lookingglass...

Yes...that is my favorite too...! But so is STRAWBERRY FIELDS FOREVER and
PENNY LANE and LOVE YOU TO and DEAR PRUDENCE and BLACKBIRD and I WILL and IN
MY LIFE and TICKET TO RIDE...on and on and on...across the universe...!!!

Dale Houstman...

My real favorite is the tenth track on the obscure bootleg "Too Much
Trouble To Record Properly": the one titled "Don't Go Looking For The
Cookie In The Bottom Of The Well" with its slapdash glass harmonica solo
and the fluttering waft of the twenty treble trombonettes. Also the
lyric, with its melange of medieval troubador songs ("and where oh where
do the nightingales room when the polar bears won't rent to them
anymore?"), goth-metal hysteria ("and then comes Gangkor, devil son of
the moonlit gargoyle army"), and a little dash of Lewis Carroll ("and
thrombling the jaggospwan ignobled all the groots"). It is surprising -

poisoned rose...

Why are you compelled to spew out this "surreal" fluff, day after
day? Is it supposed to be cute? Witty? Impressive? What?

given such a mixture - that the song is unusually moving. At least I had
to move once I played it for the "little woman".

;^)

dancin' dave (...it's ALL too much...)

Bernie Woodham...

I agree with what just about everybody says; this is a very unfair
question. My first gut reaction would be to say "I Am The Walrus". But,
I'm not the Walrus, (although I am descended from the eggman).

But, when I think about it "I Feel Fine" has got to be up there. So, I'm
tempted to say "I Feel Fine" even though right now I have a bit of a
headache.

"A Hard Day's Night" is a pretty good song. As is "Help!"

"DayTripper" was a good rocker.

Not a very good question, all in all.

Philip S....

I think it's a perfectly fine question, but it needs to be asked every week,
because that's how often my answer changes.

Okay, maybe every day.

Lookingglass...

EXCELLENT...!!!

dancin' dave (...things we said today...)

Lookingglass...

RAIN.

That song says it all for me.

dancin' dave (...when the sun shines...)

Andrew...

Blowin' In the Wind (from "A Mighty Wind")

Angielexis...

My brother says their best song ever is "I Saw Her Standing There". He
likes it because it's rock 'n roll at its best.

I'd probably say "Eleanor Rigby"

DanKaye...

What, nobody has said "Strawberry Fields Forever" yet?

To me, that one is their greatest achievement:
For one thing, they worked very hard on it, especially John and George
Martin. The strings, the slowed down stuff, the little bit at the end,
the fantastic surreal lyrics, the vocal, the drums, the guitar... Just
an amazing work of genius!

But it IS difficult to pick just one.
Honestly it would be difficult to pick 20 if I had to pick just 20 to
take with me to a deserted island, for example.

Quite honorable mentions:
I Am the Walrus; Tomorrow Never Knows; Eleanor Rigby; It's All Too
Much; I Saw Her Standing There; I Should Have Known Better; the Abbey
Road medley; A Day In the Life; Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds; all
these would no doubt be in my Top 20 Beatles songs.

Dale Houstman...

I do think "I Saw Her Standing There" is a very good choice. Great
energetic rock and roll.

"Eleanor Rigby" is in a different (but equally colorful) part of the garden.

Joe B...

I was going to say "Strawberry Fields Forever" buy at the last minute
I changed to "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)" because I love
hearing John and Paul sing together. Any favorite song would have to
include that. I would love to see them perform "Baby's In Black" at a
single mic. Anyone every seen a film of that?

Bernie Woodham...

The problem with Shea is that they had to overdub in the studio due to the
noise.

At the Budokan show, the audience was very quiet.

Bernie Woodham...

Don't think it was at a single mic, but they did perform BiB at the Budokan
show in 1966.

OK, anyway, my answer is "Norwegian Wood".