Best of the beatles?

      Over a very short period of extraordinary creativity, just eight years or so, the Beatles recorded 213 songs. Over an incredibly long period of remembrance, now nearly 60 years, so many of those songs have stayed with us.

      And not just us.

      The grandchildren of those who first heard the songs are still singing them or humming along. The songs still get streamed regularly (the most frequently streamed Beatles song today? “Here Comes the Sun” with more than a billion downloads). The music is still everywhere—on our Spotify playlists, on the remaining classic rock radio stations, in cover versions, as background sound in dentist offices or in elevators and, infrequently, in commercial advertisements (the Beatles were strongly opposed to commercial use of their work). Documentaries are still being made.

      The songs have held up remarkably well. Which got me to thinking: out of those 213 recordings, which are my favorites? My top five. Which would be yours?

      I make no claim that my favorites are the best songs the Beatles ever recorded. According to ChatGPT, the five best Beatles songs—or at least the ones that have aged the best, because how could AI measure such an abstract concept as best—are, again, “Here Comes the Sun,” “In My Life,” “A Day in the Life,” “Blackbird” and “Come Together.”

      Good songs—great songs—all, but those would not be my five. Mine are the ones that immediately evoke a time and place and that continue to have special meaning, a deep emotional resonance for me.

      Here are mine right now, with the proviso that tomorrow I might choose three or four different ones:

Hard Day’s Night

       I heard it in the middle of the night, around 3 a.m., on a tinny car radio AM station while speeding up the Hudson River Valley in New York State. It had been a hectic few hours for me and my friend Alan, who had foolishly, absurdly, decided to venture into Harlem to see what was happening with the 1964 riots.

      The radio station DJ, assuming, probably accurately, that few were listening at that time of the night played “Hard Day’s Night” four or five times in a row. It remains stuck in my brain. I can hear that tinny radio still. I can remember both the relief and the exhilaration.

Something

      I was wandering through Central Park with the woman who would become my wife. It was one of our first dates and the song just kept echoing in my head. There was, indeed, something about the way she moved. Something that has led to 55 years of marriage.

Yesterday

      For the second time in two years, I had been thrown out of college. It may have had something to do with the fact that I rarely showed up for the required calculus class. I was, not surprisingly, particularly nostalgic for the recent past, when I had a schedule to follow and I didn’t have to worry about what the hell was I going to do today. Yesterday seemed far more attractive. Sometimes, it still does.

Let it Be

      By 1970 when the song came out, all of us felt we had been through the ringer. The assassinations, the war in Vietnam, the riots in the streets, the bombs, the anger, the protests, all of it. “Let it Be” offered relief in times of trouble. It still does.

I Saw Her Standing There                                                                       

      This may have been the first Beatles song I heard, or really heard. Oh, I guess I had heard ‘She Loves You” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand” before, since they were inescapable at the end of 1963. But I hadn’t really listened to them. Mainly that was because, and this is a painful admission, I generally had dismissed the Beatles when they first came on the scene.

      Showing keen foresight, I predicted—no matter how popular they were in Britain–they would never make it in America because of those silly hairstyles. But then, in the college cafeteria, I heard “I Saw Her Standing There,” and it was loud and raucous. It reminded me of the rock and roll I had loved—the rock of Jerry Lee Lewis, before more restrained doo-wop set in—and I couldn’t stop tapping my feet. This, I thought then and still think, was real rock and roll.  

Honorable Mentions

      On another day, these could make my top five:

      “All You Need is Love,” “Hey Jude,” “Back in the USSR,” “Day Tripper,” “Can’t Buy Me Love”

      Okay, that’s my list. What’s on yours? Comment on this article or send an email to writingaboutourgeneration@gmail.com