Sources: The Telegraph, Rockcellarmagazine, Apple Corps, Wikipedia.
Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) “There’s an emotion there in John’s voice. The chord structure of it—the way he put the song together—has always given me goose bumps. And don’t forget: buy the mono versions. That’s all we had.”
Across the Universe “It wouldn’t be ‘Hey Jude.’ I’ve got so many memories of that song being played. Thank God it’s a good song. It would be terrible to be named after an awful song. ‘Across the Universe,’ actually. I’ve always enjoyed Lennon’s nonsense verse.”
“It’s got nothing to do with him [pointing to Law]. It’s philosophical. It’s a deep song.”
“She’s Leaving Home.” Because I love the chord pattern
“It marks the beginning of social commentary—an observation about conformity, which is different from their earlier songs about youth and love. It shows the evolving musical maturity, deeper meaning, and reflection that eventually led to Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, which changed
Come Together or While My Guitar Gently Weeps
“I love the psychedelic phase, but yeah, that’s really tough for me to pick. 'Come Together’ is [great]. I can’t tell you why. I’m not good that way. I just know it works for me.”
Here Comes the Sun “I listen to this whenever I’m feeling down, or on cloudy days, and it makes me feel like somehow everything is going to be OK.”
Penny Lane “The descending bass line, the high trumpet voluntary, the great lyric painting a picture of suburban life in Liverpool in the ’60s—the barber, the banker, the fireman ... and a sense of observing it at once up close and from a great distance.”
(Yes featuring Jon Anderson, Trevor Rabin and Rick Wakeman):
My favorite Beatles song is “I Am the Walrus.” It’s a brilliantly constructed piece of music, wacky lyrics, spaced-out tune, wonderful orchestration from George Martin and a production way ahead of its time. The Beatles did record quite a lot in the psychedelic era but nothing came close to “Walrus.”
You Won’t See Me (1965)It has the best harmonies, absolutely classic Beatles.
Free As A Bird (1995)
The amazing thing is that it even exists. I had to make this little cassette of John’s become a Beatle record. It was just recorded on a Walkman on top of a piano, and the voice was so scratchy and thin, and you couldn’t separate the piano. It was a real industrial job. Paul, George and Ringo hadn’t been in a room, all three together, for maybe 25 years. They were like “wow!”, it was all hugs and kisses and sit down and reminisce, and those hours were just magic. Then the seriousness of the situation kicked in. It was the hardest thing I have ever done.
One of the reasons it worked is that Paul ghosted the vocal under John, he followed him really closely, just to give it some body. When it was over, Paul came up and said “Well done, Jeff, you did it”, and gave me a hug. It’s just the Beatles playing but I do one low harmony on the chorus, so I can hear myself on a Beatle record. It was a marvellous experience.
(Peter and Gordon): It would be “I Want to Hold Your Hand” because I think of the exciting moment – I got to hear the song the instant it was written. This was the period when Paul was living in our family home (Jane Asher was Paul’s girlfriend) in London and there was a little music room downstairs.
She had told Paul that if ever he needed the piano, he could use that room. And it was quite shortly after he’d moved in, in fact, that John Lennon came over. The two of them were down there in that room for a couple of hours with just the piano, interestingly, no guitars, and Paul stuck his head out of the door and called up the stairs to my bedroom and I was ordered to come down and hear this song they had just finished. And I came down and sat on the little sofa and they sat side by side on the piano and he played me “I Want to Hold Your Hand” for the first anywhere to anyone.And the song, alone in that room with the two of them, hammering away at the piano, it sounded incredibly good. They asked me what I thought and I said, “It’s amazing, it’s the best sound I ever heard in my life. Please play it again” and they did. So that song’s stuck in my head for understandable reasons.
The Beatles had a huge impact I think on everybody because they were always amazing. Every album they did had great songs. But then when Sgt. Pepper came out, they were back, right on top, because that was such an incredible album. Everybody raved about it, everybody played it all the time. It was a sort of historic moment in music, I think, and they were back on top until they finished. You play any track and it’s pretty well perfect.
When I played with Paul McCartney I was terrified. Definitely terrified. But he was incredibly nice, really friendly and every time we ran a track in the studio he sang. And he doesn’t just sing, it’s like one hundred percent. . And in between takes he’d go into “Good Golly Miss Molly,” just played and sang the whole thing. Pretty amazing.
He was always very chatty and he related that when he worked with Michael Jackson on that single “The Girl Is Mine,” he was saying how awestruck and intimidated he was about Michael Jackson [laughs]. And I just wanted to say, “Paul, how do you think we feel with you?”
The Beatles influenced me with the variety of the music they made and the chances they took. They really never repeated themselves musically and that is something I have tried to do. All my songs are different. My favorite song of theirs is “No Reply.”
(Grand Funk Railroad): “Taxman.” Harrison wrote it. And I got to jam that, when we did the “Walk Down Abbey Road” tour in 2002. Jack Bruce was the bass player on that lineup, Steve Murphy was the drummer and we did a three-piece power trio on “Taxman.” And of course we gave the Beatles their due but we tore it up. It’s good, it’s what rock and roll is supposed to be doing. And it’s in the face of the Man, it really is.
I was always a Beatles fan because I saw the impact that those lads had on the world and I viewed it as an anointing, like what Elvis enjoyed, that very few people will get – that kind of flash and energy.
On Revolver, “I’m Only Sleeping.” I just love the fact that they took that Middle Eastern stuff, they took all that backwards stuff and associated it with rock music – it was awesome, it was really awesome stuff.
The Beatles’ Revolver album is what we were listening to when we did our first Vanilla Fudge album. We were definitely inspired by them. And then when our album came out, George Harrison walked around with it. We were blown away, we heard that rumor and never really had it confirmed until I played with Rod Stewart.
“And Your Bird Can Sing.” I must confess, this isn’t my favorite Beatles song. I really can’t pick any single track from their formidable catalog. I like it a lot, but I can also say that about so many of their songs. It would be far easier to pick a least favorite song.
I picked this because I think it contains many of the elements that represent what attracts me to the Beatles music – melody, harmony, counterpoint and, most of all, some pretty cool guitar playing. And it’s delivered with a joyous energy that seems to leap out from the speakers. The lyrics also have a nice blend between an obvious message and the more obscure references.
It seems clear that John, at times, is singing about the trappings of the material world, and it also hints at raised awareness. But, beyond that, I’m not sure I know what it’s about. Also, it’s very succinct – just under two minutes.
I really like playing “I Saw Her Standing There” because combining the bass line and the melody is just something that really makes an audience pay attention. But it’s not necessarily my favorite Beatles song, it’s fun to play because it’s good entertainment. I like getting into “Strawberry Fields Forever” or “I Am the Walrus” where they don’t subscribe to the normal kinds of chord sequences or the normal kind of texture. That’s stuff that really appeals to me.
The first song I ever learned from the Beatles because I’m a guitar player was “Yesterday.” That’s the ultimate guitar-by-yourself song, “Yesterday.” All those intricate parts and voicings and cool song structure is what I really like. For a guitar player, you have to know that song.
As for the Beatles themselves, the vocal harmonies. The song structure. The chord changes. Techniques like starting off with the chorus of a song instead of going right to a verse, doing a musical intro and then going to a verse, where you actually sing and introduce the song with the chorus.
If you mean favorite Lennon/McCartney song, I would change slightly because I would have to say “World Without Love” because, of course, it’s the song that was my first record and changed my life forever. It was the beginning of my long and fortunately continuing career in the music business.
They didn’t want it. During this time Paul and I were living next door to each other and Paul had explained to me that it was an unfinished song that he’d abandoned because John didn’t like it. Or at least didn’t think it was right for the Beatles. And I’ve read since then that apparently when Paul was singing it, John would even stop him after the first line, which was “Please lock me away.” John would go, “OK, stop, I will. The song’s over.”
So Paul had abandoned it and then later when Gordon [Waller] and I had a record deal in play, signed and done and ready, we had a date set for our first session, that’s when it occurred to me that maybe that song was still unwanted. And it was. It was still an orphan song. So I asked Paul if we could have it and he said fine. And then he finished it, added the bridge and the missing lyrics and so on in time for the session. But we basically got it because it was lying on the cutting room floor as it were. It was a reject and Paul graciously said that we could do it.
