May 15, 20241 yr Author 12th: 508 points Come Together 45cYwDMibGo Brer 48 steve201 47 Notorious D.O.T. 45 danG 44 Chez Wombat 38 Bjork 38 Jade 35 Roba. 33 gooddelta 30 jimwatts 28 Ben08 24 dandy* 23 Severin 22 …ready for it 19 JulianT 18 King Rollo 16 popchartfreak 0 WhoOdyssey 0 This John written song that opened “Abbey Road” and was the grittier double A side single twin of “Something”. It was inspired by counterculture figures speaking to him after he and Yoko had been joining anti Vietnam war protests, whose slogan was “Come together - join the party!” The song’s bluesy style was the subject of a lawsuit for its similarity to Chuck Berry’s “You Can’t Catch Me”, which no doubt inspired it. Ringo placed tea towels on the drums to create the distinctive damp sound. This would also have reached the Top 10 including chartjack2’s votes.
May 16, 20241 yr I've never been a fan of Come Together really, I've always found it a bit dull! :huh: quite the take, I think it sounds amazing and fresh even today! :P
May 16, 20241 yr Never got it either, rarely got radio plays and I first heard it when I bought the Blue album in 1975 and was unimpressed in comparison to other tracks. I liked it but didnt love it. It started to pick up in the 90's when Michael Jackson covered it (having bought The Beatles rights obv) and it's seems to have grown in the 21st century in stature - but still passes me by. Ballad Of John & Yoko anyday for me... :o
May 16, 20241 yr Author 11th: 515 points Ticket To Ride SyNt5zm3U_M Chart run: 11-{1}-1-1-2-3-7-10-14-24-32-50->12 Severin 47 danG 43 …ready for it 42 Chez Wombat 40 Roba. 40 Jade 36 steve201 33 Bjork 30 popchartfreak 28 King Rollo 28 JulianT 27 gooddelta 25 Notorious D.O.T. 23 WhoOdyssey 21 Ben08 20 Brer 16 jimwatts 9 dandy* 7 This was primarily a John song, and was released as a single in April 1965 and later included on the “Help!” album. It’s another track with a distinctive riff played by George on the Rickenbacker 12 stringed guitar, and an interesting coda section. Like “A Hard Day’s Night” from the previous year, it feels like a step forward from everything that went before, both lyrically with its more sophisticated theme and musically with more avant garde and complex instrumentation. It was also the first Beatles track to exceed 3 minutes. Here it’s the 3rd of 6 songs to receive points from every voter.
May 16, 20241 yr Author (1962-1966 Disc 1) 1. Love Me Do 2. Please Please Me 3. I Saw Her Standing There 4. Twist And Shout 5. From Me To You 6. She Loves You 7. I Want To Hold Your Hand 8. This Boy 9. All My Loving 10. Roll Over Beethoven 11. You Really Got A Hold On Me 12. Can’t Buy Me Love 13. You Can’t Do That 14. A Hard Day’s Night 15. And I Love Her 16. Eight Days A Week 17. I Feel Fine 18. Ticket To Ride 19. Yesterday (1962-1966 Disc 2) 20. Help! 21. You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away 22. We Can Work It Out 23. Day Tripper 24. Drive My Car 25. Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) 26. Nowhere Man 27. Michelle 28. In My Life 29. If I Needed Someone 30. Girl 31. Paperback Writer 32. Eleanor Rigby 33. Yellow Submarine 34. Taxman 35. Got To Get You Into My Life 36. I’m Only Sleeping 37. Here, There And Everywhere 38. Tomorrow Never Knows (1967-1970 Disc 1) 39. Strawberry Fields Forever 40. Penny Lane 41. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band 42. With A Little Help From My Friends 43. Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds 44. Within You Without You 45. A Day In The Life 46. All You Need Is Love 47. I Am The Walrus 48. Hello, Goodbye 49. The Fool On The Hill 50. Magical Mystery Tour 51. Lady Madonna 52. Hey Jude 53. Revolution (1967-1970 Disc 2) 54. Back In The U.S.S.R. 55. Dear Prudence 56. While My Guitar Gently Weeps 57. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da 58. Glass Onion 59. Blackbird 60. Hey Bulldog 61. Get Back 62. Don’t Let Me Down 63. The Ballad of John and Yoko 64. Old Brown Shoe 65. Here Comes The Sun 66. Come Together 67. Something 68. Octopus’s Garden 69. Oh! Darling 70. I Want You (She’s So Heavy) 71. Let It Be 72. Across The Universe 73. I Me Mine 74. The Long And Winding Road 75. Now And Then 90s Top 10 hits: 76. Baby It’s You 77. Free As A Bird 78. Real Love
May 16, 20241 yr Author Points left to give /1,275: 1 (2) Chez Wombat 427 2 (3) Roba. 411 3 (7) gooddelta 402 4 (1) danG 387 5 (3) Jade 380 6 (11) King Rollo 367 7 (13) jimwatts 365 8 (8) steve201 361 9 (5) JulianT 359 10 (12) Bjork 352 11 (6) Brer 350 12 = (9) dandy* 347 12 = (15) popchartfreak 347 14 (10) Notorious D.O.T. 315 15 (15) ben08 308 16 (14) Severin 306 17 (17) WhoOdyssey 203 18 (18) …ready for it 171 And chartjack2 would have 241
May 16, 20241 yr Add me to the list of those that don't see the fuss around Come Together. It's fine but like popchartfreak says nobody discussed it much until the 90s. Although I wouldn't credit Jackson's version so much - that was actually recorded for his Bad album but slipped out quietly in 1988 on Moonwalker. In my circles it got noticed more after McCartney, Paul Weller and Noel Gallagher recorded it as the Smokin' Mojo Filters for the Help project.
May 16, 20241 yr Author 8 of the Top 10 received at least one 50 pointer and the other 2 multiple 49s. One track received 5 sets of 50 points…
May 16, 20241 yr Aww at 'Ticket To Ride' just falling short of top 10 here but with what's made it can't also moan about that!
May 16, 20241 yr Unsurprising for me to say given the leaderboard, but fantastic top 10 there, even the ones that have tired from overplay are full-on classics and some proper psychedelic classics too *.* Though Something and Come Together really should've been there too, two of their very best singles.
May 17, 20241 yr Author 10th: 521 points A Day In The Life usNsCeOV4GM Severin 50 danG 50 King Rollo 50 dandy* 50 JulianT 50 jimwatts 49 Notorious D.O.T. 48 Jade 43 Chez Wombat 43 Brer 36 Roba. 32 gooddelta 18 popchartfreak 2 …ready for it 0 Bjork 0 steve201 0 ben08 0 WhoOdyssey 0 One track received 5 sets of 50 points……and yet it crashes out in 10th due to also having more zeroes than anything else in the Top 20. :nocheer: I was asked to provide the commentary on this when it made the final 100 of the Buzzjack’s Favourite Song poll in the lounge last year, and I’ve copied that commentary here. A Day In The Life” was the final track on the 1967 “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” album. The majority of the song was written by John Lennon but Paul McCartney contributed the middle “Woke up out of bed…” section. I believe it is the only track in the final 100 to have never been released as a single anywhere (even “Champagne Supernova” was released in some countries). John’s lyrics were inspired by news stories of the time, in particular Irish socialite Tara Browne’s death in a car crash. The line “I’d love to turn you on” was thought by some to be a drug reference, leading to the track being banned from BBC radio, but Lennon & McCartney denied that it was. This line was blended into two instrumental crescendo sections, conceived after the rest of the track and recorded using a 40 piece orchestra. This track, along with “Strawberry Fields Forever” and a few others, really represent the zenith of the Beatles’ late ‘60s psychedelic period. I think it’s fair to say that most Beatles songs clearly bear the mark of one person, whether that’s John or Paul or George, and I love the fact that “A Day In The Life” really is combined effort by John and Paul. I also love the contrast between Paul’s part depicting mundane reality and the rest of the song representing a dream which is on the one hand peaceful and serene and on the other dark and disturbing.
May 17, 20241 yr I'm amazed that anyone wouldn't put this in their top 10 Beatles songs. I guess that's testament to the quality of the work but for me this really is flawless
May 17, 20241 yr I'm also shocked that quite a few wouldn't rank A Day In The Life even among the top 50 Beatles records. It's right up there for me, hence getting my bronze position. Pioneering, experimental, psychedelic brilliance.
May 17, 20241 yr 'A Day In The Life' below 'Help!'? Oh boy... At least it's top 10, but there was a while when it was my favourite song of all time.
May 17, 20241 yr I think when you place A Day in the Life within its historical context, it just goes to show what a completely groundbreaking and astonishing piece of work it is. It really is a masterpiece of writing, arrangement and production. Nobody had ever recorded anything quite like it before and it sits comfortably among the most influential songs of all time. With due respect to other acts like The Velvets, Pink Floyd, Beach Boys, Byrds, Hendrix etc, the entire late sixties music scene underwent a seismic shift in their wake, with A Day in the Life regularly cited as a point of inspiration. Even to this day it still gets rated as one of the greatest songs of all time, and the juxtaposition from John's surrealistic parts to Paul's more traditional section only serves to make the song even more strange, dream like and otherworldy. The transition to and from that is exceptional too. For many of my younger years I would casually dismiss The Beatles and much of the era as the music of my parents. Combined with my earliest exposure to music being Punk and Disco (and I didn't like Disco), The Beatles seemed like a relic for a different generation to cling to, even though their songs were always on the radio they seemed irrelevant when compared to all the Punk/New Wave and later Post Punk and New Romantic stuff that seemed so fresh and exciting. But if you go back and look at their work with the benefit of histrical context and free from any prejudiced thoughts... boy were they a phenominal band when they went for it.
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