r/beatles • u/-ADMIRAL_HALSEY- • 7h ago
Discussion Enough talk about best or worst Beatles songs. What is the most middle of the road, generic Beatles song?
My nomination would have to go to Any Time At All from A Hard Day's Night. It feels like the kind of song that a tribute band would write.
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u/SubterraneanLodger 6h ago
Probably one of the ones from the early albums that’s just a standard rock n roll riff tbh
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u/Juniper41 6h ago
I mean just by nature of how many great Beatles songs there are, it's still probably going to be a very good song. Their middle of the Road is plenty of other band's best song.
If we have it ranked 1-10 with one being the best, 10 being the worst it probably looks something like this.
- A Day In The Life, Let It Be, Strawberry Fields Forever, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Something, Yesterday etc...
- Day Tripper, We Can Work It Out, Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds, Eleanor Rigby, And I Love Her, Dear Prudence, Here Comes the Sun etc...
- Got To Get You Into My Life, Girl, Nowhere Man, Helter Skelter, You Never Give Me Your Money, She's Leaving Home, I Am The Walrus
- Taxman, Octopus's Garden, This Boy, I'll Follow the Sun, Long Long Long, Fixing a Hole, I Will, Julia
- Mid Song
- I Want To Tell You, Yellow Submarine, Your Mother Should Know, Wait, I'm A Loser, I Don't Want To Spoil the Party,
- It's Only Love, Mean Mr Mustard, Don't Bother Me, What You're Doing, Think For Yourself, Tell Me What You See, Magical Mystery Tour
- Piggies, Only a Northern Song, All Together Now, What Goes On, P.S. I Love You,
- Run For Your Life, You Like Me Too Much, Don't Pass Me By, I Want To Be Your Man, Hold Me Tight, When I Get Home
- Wild Honey Pie, Little Child, What's The New Mary Jane etc...
That would mean a mid tier song would be between Taxman/Octopus's Garden/Fixing A Hole/Julia (to give each Beatle a song) and I Want to Tell You/Yellow Submarine/Your Mother Should Know/I'm A Loser
I feel like songs between those would be like "Old Brown Shoe, "With a Little Help From My Friends", "Mother Nature's Son" and "No Reply".
It's kind of wild because those are all great songs.
That being said, you could interpret this question to mean, what song did the Beatles write that is middle of the road in general, not by their standards. Which in that case I feel like "Tell Me What You See" is very forgettable.
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u/yaniv297 5h ago
Your tier 4 is pretty much all masterpieces and Octopus's Garden. Tier 3 is all amazing songs too. I'd rank them all above Day Tripper and We Can Work it Out...
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u/Juniper41 3h ago
You’d rank I’ll Follow the Sun and This Boy above one of the best selling singles of all time? I mean you do you but I think 90% of the world would not agree
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u/No_Ground8642 3h ago
Run for Your Life and Don’t Pass Me By are at least three tiers too low in my opinion.
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u/overtired27 2h ago
Hold Me Tight is so underrated.
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u/Juniper41 2h ago
I genuinely really like it, I think Paul’s voice is so interesting and catchy sounding. I put that low because it’s a pretty popular “bad” choice. Personally I’d put it like 7
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u/Appropriate_Try_2565 Abbey Road 6h ago
To me it’s always been two songs that I’m totally indifferent towards that other people seem to at least like. Hello, Goodbye and Fool On the Hill. For some reason they just don’t do it for me.
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u/IDigRollinRockBeer Abbey Road 6h ago
Hello Goodbye is kinda meh but I like the outro. Fool on the Hill is great though
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u/PJmichelle Please Please Me 6h ago
I think The Fool on the Hill has one of the best lyrics McCartney ever wrote.
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u/ReporterFeisty4619 3h ago
Agreed, until he runs out of lyrical steam towards the end (“…they don’t like him!”)
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u/That-Okra-9224 5h ago
I often say “She’s a Woman” is the worst Beatles song, but with THIS framing, I think I understand why I say that. It’s boring.
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u/arthursultan 4h ago
Tell Me Why
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u/ReporterFeisty4619 3h ago
Certainly not one of your best but I like the way they have a bit of fun with the atonal harmonies.
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u/ReactsWithWords The Beatles 4h ago
Sorting their songs alphabetically, right in the middle is Lady Madonna.
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u/ReporterFeisty4619 3h ago
If you’re referring to Beatles-by-numbers tracks that are mundane without being downright poor, a few that come to mind are “Baby’s in Black”, “I Need You”, and “What Goes On”. A few of their rock n’roll covers and B-sides are in the same category.
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u/Ched_Flermsky 6h ago
“I Need You,” from Help. George wasn’t quite there as a songwriter yet, and this is just a collection of Paulesque hooks strung together with that obnoxious “fleep-flurp” sound.
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u/Juniper41 6h ago
I love the song, especially Tom Petty's cover, but I agree, it's very formulaic. They have a few songs from that era that just feel like cut/copy of generic 2 minute pop song format. "Tell Me What You See", "I'm Happy Just To Dance With You, and "Little Child" also feel very formulaic.
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u/ReporterFeisty4619 3h ago
“I’m Happy Just to Dance With You” is formulaic but has a certain innocent charm about it. And John’s rhythm guitar work elevates it out of the ordinary.
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u/Juniper41 3h ago
I love all of the songs mentioned, just pointing out they are formulaic and simple. Not a bad thing
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u/Sorry_Another 6h ago
Most of the Beatles catalog is really strong, so their most “middle” song would still be pretty good.
Maybe “Martha my dear”
It’s a good song, I like it, and it probably falls near the middle of my ranking for their songs.
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u/BirdlandDeadhead 6h ago
A middle-of-the-road Beatles song is still going to be a good song. Just gets lost among all the rest. I’ll nominate I’m Looking Through You. Relatively simple lyrics but catchy. Part of a great album but no one is calling it their favorite song on Rubber Soul.
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u/ECW14 Ram 6h ago
It’s my favorite on Rubber Soul and I honestly believe it has the best lyrics on the album
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u/BirdlandDeadhead 3h ago
I mean this is the definition of a subjective question. We (mostly) all agree what’s amazing and we (mostly) all agree what’s towards the bottom. Sorting out what’s right in the middle is what it is. I like this song plenty. I basically like all of their songs. And maybe my original wording was a bit too absolutist. To me, this one is just a good album track, but nothing more and nothing less.
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u/ReporterFeisty4619 3h ago
“I’m Looking Through You” is great. A rare flash of Angry Paul!
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u/BirdlandDeadhead 3h ago
Yeah. It’s great. They’re almost all great, that’s what made them what they are 60 years later. Something’s gotta be the “most middle-of-the-road.” For me, anyway, this is it.
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u/Helecopter0000 7h ago
Beatles For Sale. The whole album, (except for Eight Days a Week).
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u/Beneficial-Age-4059 6h ago
No Reply, I’m A Loser and Eight Days all have such a great presence to me. John didn’t like Eight Days A Week, and they never performed it live. The words are terrible but the walking bass line, claps, melody and harmonies just work so well I can’t help but like it. That and Help are the Beatles songs I first remember liking as a small child.
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u/ReporterFeisty4619 3h ago
“I’ll Follow the Sun” is also very atmospheric imo. There’s also a bit of intrigue in the lyrics which I like - his reasons for leaving aren’t clear.
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u/Necro_Badger 6h ago
No Reply, Baby's in Black and I'm a Loser are very much not generic Beatles tracks imo. The early Beatles tend to be viewed as upbeat, optimistic and lively (e.g. She Loves You) and these first three tracks are a real, unexpected downer.
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u/Responsible_6446 5h ago
oh-blah-di
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u/ReporterFeisty4619 3h ago
“Ob-La-Di” is one of their most marmite tracks. Love it or hate it, but middling it ain’t.
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u/Steve_Dankerson 6h ago
Why don't we do it in the road? Could be middle or side of