January 23, 2009

Ranking All 185 Beatles Songs

Writer "JBev" completed a Herculean and thankless task: he ranked and reviewed all 185 Beatles songs (written by the Fab Four), from 185st to 1st. (NOTE: I am sorry to report that his website has disappeared since I first found it in 2009.) Of course I don't agree with all of his choices, but that's not the point.
I think it's kind of arbitrary to be so precise in your rankings- after all, how do you choose which song is 112th as opposed to 113th? -- but I have attempted something a little less precise. I have ranked all 185 original Beatles songs from 1/10 stars, to 10/10 stars, with two additional special categories- a 11/10 Stars Best of the Best, and a 0/10 Stars Bottom Ten list. Enjoy and Discuss!
NOTE: Each list is in alphabetical order.
 0/10 Stars Bottom Ten
“Blue Jay Way”
“Don’t Bother Me”
“It’s All Too Much”
“Maggie Mae”
“Only A Northern Song”
“Revolution 9”
“Run For Your Life”
“Tell Me What You See”
“The Night Before”
“Wild Honey Pie”
1/10 Stars
“Dig It”
“I’ll Be Back”
“Julia”
“Little Child”
“The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill”
“Think For Yourself”
“Wait”
“When I Get Home”
2/10 Stars
“Ask Me Why”
“Doctor Robert”
“Hold Me Tight”
“I Wanna Be Your Man”
“I’ll Get You”
“I’m Happy Just To Dance With You”
“Love You To”
“Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds”
“Magical Mystery Tour”
“Maxwell’s Silver Hammer”
“One After 909”
“Sun King”
“Tell Me Why”
“The Inner Light”
“The Word”
“Why Don’t We Do It In The Road?”
“Within You Without You”
“You Like Me Too Much”
“Your Mother Should Know”
3/10 Stars
“Another Girl”
“Baby’s In Black”
“Dig A Pony”
“Every Little Thing”
“Fixing A Hole”
“For You Blue”
“Hello Goodbye”
“Honey Pie”
“I Me Mine”
“I Need You”
“Not A Second Time”
“P.S. I Love You”
“Piggies”
“Savoy Truffle”
“Sexy Sadie”
“Thank You Girl”
“The Fool On The Hill”
“What Goes On”
“What You’re Doing”

4/10 Stars
“All Together Now”
“Baby You’re A Rich Man”
“Because”
“Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite”
“Cry Baby Cry”
“Day Tripper”
“Flying”
“Good Night”
“I Call Your Name”
“I Don’t Want To Spoil The Party”
“I Feel Fine”
“I Want You (She’s So Heavy)”
“I’ll Follow The Sun”
“Long, Long, Long”
“Rocky Raccoon”
“She’s A Woman”
“There’s A Place”
“You Know My Name (Look Up My Number)”
5/10 Stars
“All I’ve Got To Do”
“For No One”
“Good Day Sunshine”
“Her Majesty”
“I Am The Walrus”
“I Want To Tell You”
“I’m So Tired”
“Love Me Do”
“Martha My Dear”
“Mean Mr. Mustard”
“No Reply”
“Octopus’s Garden”
“Old Brown Shoe”
“Polythene Pam”
“Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)”
“Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”
“You Never Give Me Your Money”
“You Won’t See Me”
6/10 Stars
“Ballad Of John And Yoko”
“Do You Want To Know A Secret”
“Don’t Pass Me By”
“Drive My Car”
“Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey”
“From Me To You”
“Get Back”
“Glass Onion”
“I Want To Hold Your Hand”
“I’ll Cry Instead”
“I’ve Got A Feeling”
“If I Needed Someone”
“It’s Only Love”
“She’s Leaving Home”
“Things We Said Today”
“This Boy”
“We Can Work It Out”
“Yes It Is”
“You Can’t Do That”

7/10 Stars
“All You Need Is Love”
“And I Love Her”
“And Your Bird Can Sing”
“Any Time At All”
“Come Together”
“Eight Days A Week”
“Good Morning Good Morning”
“Happiness Is A Warm Gun”
“Hey Bulldog”
“I’m A Loser”
“I’m Down”
“I’m Looking Through You”
“I’ve Just Seen A Face”
“Lovely Rita”
“Michelle”
“Oh! Darling”
“Revolution 1”
“She Came In Through The Bathroom Window”
“Yer Blues”

8/10 Stars
“All My Loving”
“Birthday”
“Can’t Buy Me Love”
“Don’t Let Me Down”
“Girl”
“Got To Get You Into My Life”
“Helter Skelter”
“I Will”
“If I Fell”
“Misery”
“Nowhere Man”
“Paperback Writer”
“Taxman”
“When I’m Sixty-Four”
“While My Guitar Gently Weeps”
“With A Little Help From My Friends”
“Yellow Submarine”
“You’re Going To Lose That Girl”
9/10 Stars
“A Hard Day’s Night”
“Back In The U.S.S.R.”
“Getting Better”
“Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End”
“Help!”
“Here Comes The Sun”
“I Should Have Known Better”
“I’m Only Sleeping”
“It Won’t Be Long”
“Lady Madonna”
“Mother Nature’s Son”
“Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da”
“Penny Lane”
“Please Please Me”
“Revolution”
“She Said She Said”
“Ticket To Ride”
“Two Of Us”
“You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away”
10/10 Stars
“A Day in the Life”
“Blackbird”
“Eleanor Rigby”
“Here, There, And Everywhere”
“In My Life”
“Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)”
“Tomorrow Never Knows”
11/10 Stars Best of the Best
“Across The Universe”
“Dear Prudence”
“Hey Jude”
“I Saw Her Standing There”
“Let It Be”
“Rain”
“She Loves You”
“Something”
“Strawberry Fields Forever”
“The Long And Winding Road”
“Yesterday”

January 08, 2009

120: Everything In Its Right MIX

I have been listening to this mix in the car for a few days, and I think it's done. Now I just have to give it a title!
  1. "Cleanin' Up The Town" by The Busboys is from the movie Ghostbusters. The words tell the story of the movie!
  2. "Barbara Ann" from The Beach Boys Party, an album recorded to sound like a house party where the Beach Boys are sitting around the living room, jamming on their favorite songs unplugged.
  3. "Nutmeg" by John Legend, is a sexy and hilarious song about the ultimate eggnog condiment, from A Steven Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift Of All!
  4. "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue" My mother listened to a lot of pop-country when I was growing up. One of my strongest, earliest memories of music is this Crystal Gayle song.
  5. The Replacements' "Skyway" is about those heated passageways between buildings in Minneapolis, to keep the public warm in the wintertime.
  6. I heard "Tulsa County" by Son Volt on my iPod Shuffle All Songs function.
  7. I first heard "Guitars, Cadillacs" by Dwight Yoakam in the background of the honky tonk scene in Terminator 2: Judgement Day, where the Terminator acquires his biker clothes at the beginning of the movie. At the same time I bought this song on iTunes, I also picked up his cover of "Suspicious Minds". The review of his Best Of CD said that Yoakam is the first choice of alt-rock hipsters who want to buy some legit contemporary country music.
  8. "Here Comes The Weekend" Dave Edmunds
  9. "Topaz" I really enjoy the entire B-52's album Cosmic Thing.
  10. "Carry On" Maybe my favorite song from Crosby Stills Nash, and Young.
  11. "She's My Baby" I have been listening to a lot of the Traveling Wilburys lately.
  12. "Love is For Lovers" The Db's were a one-hit wonder; lead singer Peter Holsapple might be more famous for his work with R.E.M. This song was a near-miss single, which I have on the POPTOPIA Power Pop collection from Rhino. Holsapple wrote an extended blog posting about the making of this song for the New York Times.
  13. I love the guitar hook on "Rumbleseat", from John Cougar Mellencamp.
  14. "Another Done Somebody Wrong Song", My mother listened to a lot of pop-country when I was growing up. One of my strongest, earliest memories of music is this B.J. Thomas song. Thomas's biggest hit was "Raindrops Keep Fallin On My Head".
  15. "Tighten Up" Archie Bell & The Drells
  16. "Everything In It's Right Place" Somehow, the structure of this Radiohead song reminds me of the following track...
  17. When you hear "Motown", people usually think of fun and good times. "You Keep Me Hangin On" by Diana Ross & The Supremes is as serious as a heart attack! Such drama in the words and the music.
  18. I love the super-1980s drum sound on the J. Geils Band's "Flamethrower".
  19. The Futureheads' song "Robot" is a leftover song from my mix The Future.
  20. "Hip-Hug Her" is an instrumental by Booker T. & The M.G.s, better known for their "pitching change at a ballgame" instrumental "Green Onions".