This feels like an almost impossible task. How can one choose their least favorite Beatles song? If you downright hate these icons, it probably would be easy to rattle off a few song titles from the get-go. However, as a fan of the Fab Four, choosing my least favorite songs from The Beatles feels both blasphemous and just straight-up hard. Still… there are a few songs out there that haven’t hit quite as well as the rest of their legendary discography.
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“Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da”
Alright, I’m a fan of jangly, goofy, nonsensical music. “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” was a delight to hear as a little kid for a while. However, like every Millenial who had family members in love with The Beatles, the 1968 White Album was played on repeat, 24/7, with no reprieve.
This song’s sickeningly sweet melody, that jarring opening, and the self-indulgence of it all got old very quickly. Again… this is all just my personal opinion and the result of my own personal trauma of having to hear this song 500 times before my frontal lobe developed.
“Maggie Mae”
This Let It Be track is a deep cut loved by many, but not by me. If you also hate it, that’s likely because it’s a bit of a try-hard homage to a classic Liverpool folk song. If you love it, you probably can at least agree that it’s simply too short to have been included on The Beatles’ final album.
“Revolution 9”
Countless fans and non-fans of The Beatles have all said that this song scared the crap out of them as children… and also as adults. I’d have to agree with the sentiment that this sound collage from the White Album was a surprising and downright creepy addition.
As a grown adult with a musician’s ear now, I still find “Revolution 9” to be a little uncomfortable. But I can at least appreciate it for what it is. At the very least, I can now listen to it without being afraid that the number 9 was going to embody a corporeal form and kill me in my sleep. Few musicians were getting quite this avant-garde in the 1968s, and that’s something to applaud.
So, what’s the final verdict on my least favorite Beatles song of all time? I’m going to have to go with “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da”. However, if it comes on the radio, I won’t turn it off. The Beatles were just that good.
Photo by Hans J. Hoffmann/ullstein bild via Getty Images
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