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The Beatles For Beginners

December 28, 2007 // 3 Comments  // Add yours »

The Beatles For Beginners

Making a Beatles mix is really tough.  It's like making a greatest hits compilation for a band that only wrote hits... and did so for 7 years.  There's no automatic inclusions. For example, if I were to make someone a Billy Joel mix, I can guarantee I'd include "Piano Man".  It's not that easy with The Beatles because there's far too many great songs to chose from.  But this Christmas I gave it a shot, and came up with a list of songs I'd suggest listening to if you wanted to introduce yourself to their music.  Here's how it looks:

  1. A Hard Day's Night
  2. I'll Follow the Sun
  3. Help!
  4. Ticket to Ride
  5. You've Got to Hide Your Love Away
  6. Michelle
  7. Eleanor Rigby
  8. We Can Work It Out
  9. Got to Get You Into My Life
  10. Hello, Goodbye
  11. Strawberry Fields Forever
  12. Drive My Car
  13. The Fool on the Hill
  14. Lady Madonna
  15. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
  16. Blackbird
  17. While My Guitar Gently Weeps
  18. Helter Skelter
  19. Across The Universe
  20. Let It Be
  21. Here Comes the Sun
  22. In My Life
  23. A Day in the Life
  24. Hey Jude
  25. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)
  26. All You Need Is Love

Keep in mind this is not a "greatest hits", but more of a "recommended listening" list.  I kept it somewhat chronological, and saved the best for last.  I think i came up with a nice representation of how their music evolved over the years. If anyone would like a copy, just send me an email with your address and I'll send you one.  I've got a bunch already made - each with it's own unique fun label.

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Comments:

Robert Rouse: 

This isn't bad, but you need to spread the love a little more. 15 out of the 26 are McCartney tunes, 7 are Lennon tunes, and 2 are Harrison's. Other than that, the biggest problem I have is that you leave out a lot of the really good little known Beatles tracks like Hey Bulldog, Tomorrow Never Knows, and Glass Onion. I would also pull more from the Golden age - that is from Revolver and Rubber Soul. In addition, you only hit on one song from the great Abbey Road album. I feel like I can say these things, after all my son's name is Harrison and i named my daughter McCartney! LOL

Posted on: Dec 28, 2007 4:44:51 PM

Mindy: 

I think its great for beatles first-timers (supposing they exist.) Although there is a McCartney bias I think it's a good representation of the best place place for the naive beatle fan.

As far as really good little known Beatles tracks, I think there's enough. I'll Follow The Sun & Got To Get You Into My Life do well.

I already told you, but now i'm telling the internet: I think your next compilation should be a two disk set of Beatles songs. One for McCartney and one for Lennon.
And, I think a compilation for the Intermediate Beatle Fan would benefit from songs like Hey Bulldog. Which I agree, is a little known gem.

Posted on: Dec 28, 2007 5:14:16 PM

Sean Henri: 

Robert, I agree with you that I show a bit of a McCartney bias. I absolutely love John's songs, and had trouble excluding so many of them from this mix, but here's my reasoning. I felt that songs like Hey Bulldog, Don't Let Me Down, Dear Prudence, I Am the Walrus, and Happiness Is A Warm Gun would fit better on the second mix I plan on making. I wasn't really trying to be fair with this one. I wanted to give the more the catchy songs... the ones that are easy to listen to and to pick up on quickly. Once you're hooked, then you dig deeper into their music and you start to appreciate John's more unique style of song writing. The same goes for George's songs.

As for Abbey Road, it's my favorite Beatles album. As a whole, it's an absolute masterpeice. Breaking it up into bits and pieces and throwing it in a mix doesn't do the songs justice. They need to be presented together as a package.

As for your kids, are they old enough to understand who they're named after? How do they feel about the Beatles?

Mindy, I think the Lennon/McCartney double disc compilation sounds interesting. But I'm not sure I'd limit the playlist to just songs from their Beatle days. If I were to do that I'd look at their careers as a whole, mixing their Beatles songs along with the stuff from their solo careers.

Now as for the compilation for the Intermediate Beatle Fan... that's coming soon.

Posted on: Dec 29, 2007 4:02:40 PM

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