The Beatles Songs That Paul Simon Thought Wouldn’t Age: “There’s No Way of Picking Out the Best Songs”

An artist’s success in the 1960s was seemingly always compared to The Beatles‘, as was their music. Consequently, we have loads upon loads of material from contemporaries of The Beatles who provided opinions on the Fab Four’s success and music. Some of those opinions are positive, and others are not. Regardless, one individual who added to this monster catalog of material was Paul Simon, and he did so in a complementary manner, as he named several Beatles songs he believed would age well back in 1972.

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The Beatles and Simon & Garfunkel are certainly two of the most memorable acts from the 1960s. While they didn’t toil in the same genres, they both released music that was soft-spoken, sentimental, and ultimately provided to the zeitgeist of the 1960s. Without them, the soundtrack of the decade would not have some of its biggest hits. Given their mutual talent and success, game respected game. In other words, Simon spoke very highly of his British peers in a 1972 interview with Rolling Stone.

Paul Simon Thought These 3 Songs Were Going to Stick Around

Before we reveal the three songs Simon picked, we want to pose the following question: What Beatles songs do you think have stood the test of time? Is it one, 10, 25, or all of them? Of course, everyone’s answers will differ, but there is an underlying objectivity in Simon’s answer, as the songs he selected are certainly fan favorites.

When asked what Beatles songs would age well, Simon replied, “I would pick ‘Yesterday’. I would pick ‘Strawberry Fields [Forever]’ — although there is your example of a total record. A very important record to me, I like it a lot. You can’t even sing the song. It’s really hard to sing the song.”

“It may take a song instead of being dated after three years, maybe some songs won’t be dated for five years. Eventually, all records are dated, but the song comes back. ‘Eleanor Rigby’ was a really fine song. There’s no way of picking out the best songs,” added Paul Simon”.

As stated previously, Simon’s answer was as correct as an answer such as this one can be. After all, what 1960s music fan doesn’t still listen to these three songs now and again? Also, it’s worth mentioning that Paul Simon has had his fair share of songs that aged incredibly well, and we probably don’t even need to name them for you.

Photo by David Redfern/Redferns