My favourite Beatles song: Something

Four readers tell us why they think Something, written by George Harrison, is the Beatles' best song

We continue our series in which readers tell us about their favourite songs from the Fab Four. If you'd like to take part in future weeks, simply visit this page and use the form to tell us about the Beatles song that means the most to you.

This week's track of choice is Something, the second song on the band's 1969 album Abbey Road. Written by George Harrison, who also performs lead vocals, the track was supposedly inspired by Harrison's wife at the time, Pattie Boyd, although rumours abound as to its real origins, with Harrison himself once stating he was thinking of Ray Charles when he wrote it.

A critical and commercial success, Something has been covered over 150 times, although Harrison picked James Brown's version as his personal favourite, keeping a copy in his jukebox. Lennon and McCartney both praised the song, with Lennon describing it as the best track on the album, and McCartney as the best track George had written at that point.


'This was the song that had it all'

"My parents had Abbey Road on a BASF double cassette that I wore out single-handedly. For me as a three-year-old, this was the song that had it all – a great intro that gradually swells, easy lyrics, and a chorus that demands to be belted out at full volume. As I grew older I realised that this wasn't the definitive Beatles sound I had imagined it to be – their songs hurdled genres and leapfrogged topics. And as I grew, and fell in love (several times), this song remained completely topical as the soundtrack through it all. I have a lot of favourite Beatles songs but this one is my favourite favourite." – chhavi

'A beautiful song'

"Had to be something off Abbey Road as the vinyl copy my Dad owns is completely shredded due to the amount myself and my sister listened to it when we were kids/teens. Something is a beautiful song." – Tim Robinson

'The best love song for the last 93 and a half years'

"My favourite Beatles song should be Glass Onion, as my dad's cousin, Norman Lederman, played violin on it. However, 'The Quiet One' was the real dark horse throughout the Beatles canon. He was so much more than the junior partner to Lennon and McCartney. His guitar added texture and counter melody which made good songs great. A George song has to be my number 1. Something was described by no lesser light than Frank Sinatra as "the best love song for the last 50 years". Frank was right, except now it's the best love song for the last 93 and a half years. Rather oddly, I have a copy of the handwritten lyrics hanging above my loo and am therefore guaranteed to sing the song to myself daily." – Paul Maxin

'Sung from the heart'

"George Harrison's finest piece of writing (well it must be if Lennon and McCartney thought so). It is a sublime love song, that is sung from the heart. It was recorded at a time when the Beatles' songs were cryptic and not very often about love. The beauty of it, is that it is exactly not that." – Richard Harrris


http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2013/apr/10/my-favourite-beatles-song-something?

Edited by Joffa: 13/4/2013 03:52:35 PM

Edited by Joffa: 22/4/2013 08:43:03 PM

Edited by Joffa: 31/5/2013 09:29:23 PM

My favourite Beatles song: Strawberry Fields Forever

Five readers tell us why they think Strawberry Fields Forever is the Beatles' best song
Iain Clarke

Strawberry Fields Forever remains the single most original and inventive record ever recorded under the banner of "pop". It sounds as fresh today as it ever did, partly because no one else has ever made a record like it. It has a "strangeness" unlike anything else. It demonstrates why the Beatles are in a league of their own.

Like Good Vibrations, it's a one-off original. It blew me away when I first heard it in 1967 and I played it endlessly. A lot of things from that era now sound dated and pretentious, but SFF still shines on, radiating mystery.


Tony Wood

This is the peak for me of the Beatles music, it's the exact point where they blend tunefulness with psychedelia and create something otherworldly and new that is ironically about the mindset of the young John Lennon. It still sounds amazing today, 46 years later.

Hilarious

It's unusual, different and encapsulates the Beatles' sound so well - the harmonies, melody, mystery of the lyrics, instrumentation. It takes me right back to that time in the mid-60s when people were handing out daffodils in the streets and promoting peace; the Carnaby Street/Soho area where I used to work in my first job. It was a great time for music, film and life.

Beatlemaniac1960

I could write a million words and l would still not be able to express how I feel when I listen to it. It's some kind of reunion with one's childhood that they see as the most ideal and the happiest time of their lives full of freedom and innocence of a higher quality. It's a shelter of beautiful and warm memories. Even if one hasn't ever been to Strawberry Fields, everyone has their own, just like John did.

• What's your favourite Beatles song? If you'd like to contribute to this series in future weeks, tell us what it via this page.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2013/mar/13/my-favourite-beatles-song-strawberry-fields-forever

My favourite Beatles song: A Day in the Life

The final track on Sgt Pepper takes in newspaper headlines, suburban routine, drug references and perhaps the most memorable closing chord in pop history. Here, four readers tell us why it's their favourite Beatles song

Today we kick off a new series in which readers tell us about their favourite Beatles songs. If you'd like to take part in future weeks, simply visit this page and use the form to tell us about the Beatles song that means the most to you.

One of the songs most readers have named as their favourite is A Day in the Life, the closing track on Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Recorded at Abbey Road in 1967, over a total of 34 hours, the song is often regarded as one of the best Lennon-McCartney collaborations. Damon Albarn once described it as "one of the first supermarket emptiness songs," it reportedly played a part in Brian Wilson abandoning work on the Beach Boys' Smile, and the handwritten lyrics are so prized they raised $1.2m (£700,000) in a 2010 auction.


Reading on mobile? Watch A Day in the Life on YouTube

"A song that haunts you and makes you hum along"

"A Day in the Life embodies most of the things that make the Beatles great. Nonsensical lyrics are made to sound like poetry; the blending of both Lennon and McCartney's vocals typify how they complimented each other; without Starr's subtlety underpinning everything, the song would be stripped of its beauty; Harrison's maraca playing is as thoughtful as it is representative of his variability as a musician. George Martin's talents are clear: A Day in the Life is effectively two songs that he made one and, in making it sound so coherent, his importance to the Beatles is obvious. A Day in the Life typifies the very best of the Beatles in five minutes – a song that haunts you and makes you hum along while doing so: the most beautiful of beasts." – foreveruntitles

"The scope of their imagination beggars belief"

"This is the sound of a band smashing through the boundaries of popular music. An artfully crafted piece with a fragile, wonderfully English lyric that conjures dark and surreal images for the listener. Lennon's gentle acoustic section leads to Macca's short upbeat tale of a hazy trip to work, which then changes from a soaring dreamlike passage to the mother of all bad trips. The scope of their imagination in this single five minute song beggars belief." – Phil

"Beautiful, sad and haunting"

"I can still remember the first time I heard A Day in the Life; I was 10, and it was completely unlike anything I had ever experienced. It affected me deeply, and others I have spoken to have remarked that they too had a strong, visceral reaction it. It's tremendously inventive, ambitious and original – but also beautiful, sad and haunting, a strange fusion of sounds and sentiments that all fit together perfectly. What makes A Day in the Life so special is the sense of euphoria I feel at its conclusion; it builds slowly from Lennon's evocative lyrics at the start, through McCartney's jaunty middle section, and is heightened by the orchestral crescendos before being fully realised by that mind-blowing final chord. It's an enduring, progressive and emotional masterpiece that I come back to time and time again, and the perfect way to end Sgt Pepper's." – Faye

"An extraordinary achievement"

"The final chord needing three pianos, Mick Jagger appearing in the bizarre accompanying video, and the crazy crescendos that apparently have a note only dogs can hear … Clearly only the Beatles could come have come up with anything like this, and they could have only come up with it when they were at the peak of their powers. It's an extraordinary achievement that no band will come close to matching as long as we're all alive. Well worthy of the title of best song by the best band of all time." – wellplastic


http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2013/mar/05/my-favourite-beatles-song-day-in-the-life

Top Ten of current favourites of mine( the list change often)

Here, There and Everywhere
In My Life
Penny Lane
Let It Be
Something
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
You've Got to Hide Your Love Away
All Things Must Pass
Cry Baby Cry
Dig a Pony

And seriously how can you limit any Beatles list to just ten....I could name another ten just as good, and probably another ten after that.

Edited by Joffa: 13/4/2013 02:14:59 PM

Do You Want To Know A Secret is my favourite of the early stuff.

Top 10 in no particular order.
Hey Jude
Revolution
Come Together
Eleanor Rigby
Help!
I am the Walrus
Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Let it Be
With A Little Help From My Friends

Almost a completely different top ten to mine and yet I agree, every song you've listed is a cracker....

The Beatles had more incredible songs than any other band I know. It's amazing to consider that 50 years on, they still have millions of fans world wide. In another 50 years, current by bands like One Direction will have faded into obscurity, but The Beatles will still be well known.

I've been listening to some of their rockers lately like

Back in the U.S.S.R.
Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey
Get Back
Dig a Pony
Helter Skelter
Revolution
The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill


Edited by Joffa: 13/4/2013 02:41:22 PM

It is amazing how well their music has aged, it still sounds so fresh and relevant, their popularity transcends trends, styles and genres

Rocky Racoon

Someone should start a 60s/70s music thread in here. The only music thread seems to be for contemporary metal/hardcore etc.

Top 10 in no order:

With a little help from my Friends
Drive my car
Within without you
Strawberry Fields Forever
I saw her standing there
A day in the life
Taxman
Norwegian wood
Being for the benefit of Mr. Kite
Helter Skelter

I couldn't of said it better myself.

Edited by sydneyfc1987: 13/4/2013 03:04:06 PM

Lets do it , in fact lets make this thread it...

Good stuff, I'll get us started with some Pet Sounds tracks

[youtube]AOMyS78o5YI[/youtube]

Football favourite here:

[youtube]09dQmeB_NgU[/youtube]

[youtube]fuqlRcmmyPw&desktop[/youtube]


[youtube]Q1809vqz3zA&desktop[/youtube]

[youtube]fuqlRcmmyPw&desktop[/youtube]


[youtube]Q1809vqz3zA&desktop[/youtube]

[youtube]JBfjU3_XOaA[/youtube]

[youtube]MN6ejvcV9Vs&desktop[/youtube]

[youtube]pcN56R63kck&desktop[/youtube]

[youtube]-bliyct4_6o[/youtube]

Love Crosby Stills and Nash

[youtube]azgwfnZu7c&desktop[/youtube]

[youtube]wORwlCy3JDI&desktop[/youtube]

The Beatles are one of those bands where you could listen to any of their songs and enjoy it.

My heart, music wise, is with the bands of the 70's, especially prog rock. Yes, King Crimson, Rush, Genesis (early on)... Also like Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Wishbone Ash.

I'd never consider myself a music buff though, not the type of bloke who could fire off a top 10 out of the blue. I dunno, you music buffs intimidate me.

Edited by KenGooner_GCU: 13/4/2013 05:24:22 PM

I dunno that's a fairly impressive list of bands you've named there.

I really like the country rock genre of the Eagles, The Band, CSNY, Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Allman Brothers, CCR and so on...

[youtube]dVC2cszdTao[/youtube]

[youtube]TiX8Rz5C3LY[/youtube]

+1 love all those bands as well but not familiar with wishbone ash at all.

Favourite Neil Young song at one of the greatest concerts ever and with The Band as well....you simply must see The Last Waltz before you die!



[youtube]eYWrlfC6TRM&desktop[/youtube]

Wishbone Ash is pretty unheard of but they're some of the best guitarists I've ever known. Their heyday was the early 70's I think. Their album Argus was the first album I ever listened to in full and, being a true internet generation kid, the first album I ever had in full. This lot have a special place for me.

Whole album:
[youtube]Hhc0B7ubMWY[/youtube]

Sometime World
[youtube]kvLVSPPLZZY[/youtube]

my favourite beatles song is elenor rigby .followed by back in the ussr