You’ll have no problem finding various lists containing folks’ opinions on The Beatles’ best songs. That’s not our intention here. Instead, we’re trying to pinpoint the four songs that did the most to cement their legacy as the consensus greatest band in music history.
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In other words, without these four songs, they still would have been great, but maybe not quite as monumental. See if you agree.
“I Want To Hold Your Hand”
In terms of their recorded output, “I Want To Hold Your Hand” represented a somewhat natural progression in complexity and songwriting acumen. You could reasonably argue that “Please Please Me” and “She Loves You”, both of which preceded it as singles, were of better quality. But “I Want To Hold Your Hand” proved to be the right song at the right time. It broke The Beatles in America. They crossed a threshold that no previous British artist had managed. And it sent their worldwide superstardom to unprecedented levels. We’ll never know if any of their other early songs might have done the same had they been released in the same time frame. But we can say for sure that “I Want To Hold Your Hand” got the job done.
“Yesterday”
“Yesterday” was by no means the first Beatles ballad. And we wouldn’t even say that it was the best Beatles slow song to that point in their career. (“If I Fell” certainly gives it a run for its money.) But several factors come to the fore when it comes to its impact on The Beatles’ legacy. The use of strings stood out at the time, as most beat groups had previously stuck to traditional rock instrumentation. Soon after “Yesterday”, rock artists were falling over themselves to include baroque touches in their songs. On top of that, the song represented the first time that a mostly solo performance counted as a group effort. That opened the door for other groups, free from having to follow any formulas, to expand the palette of rock and pop music.
“A Day In The Life”
The impact of “A Day In The Life” is inextricably linked to that of the album that included it. You can argue all day about what constituted the first rock concept album. But there’s no doubting that Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, more than all predecessors, made the LP feel like an event. That started the shift in power in rock music away from the single. “A Day In The Life”, which closed out Sgt. Pepper’s, also stands out for the bold experimentation within its recording and production. It, and the entire album, alerted musicians to the power of the studio. That, in turn, helped push the boundaries of rock so far that they essentially ceased to exist.
“Hey Jude”
“Hey Jude” earns points in terms of its lasting impact simply because of its length. Pop songs over seven minutes just weren’t done, let alone released as singles. (John Lennon, who didn’t write it, famously championed it anyway against the concerns of The Beatles’ handlers, rightfully realizing that radio stations would play it anyway.) More than that, however, “Hey Jude” represents perhaps the highest peak, both commercial and critical, that the group achieved over its final few years of recording. Had “Hey Jude” not existed, you could imagine a scenario where folks focused solely on the turmoil surrounding the band in those years. The reverberations from that massive song didn’t allow that to happen.
Photo by John Downing/Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
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