FEATURE:
No Need to Ask Me Why
The Beatles: The Singles Collection: The Iconic Band’s Ten Finest U.K. Singles
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IT seems like there is constant updates and activity…
IN THIS PHOTO: The Beatles in 1963/PHOTO CREDIT: Dezo Hoffmann
when it comes to The Beatles. Not only have we just celebrated fifty years of Abbey Road; there is a new collection out that compile all of their U.K. singles: The Singles Collection is a must for those who adore The Beatles! Twenty-three incredible Beatles singles are lovingly cut to 7”, with great artwork accompanying each – depending on which country is being represented, you get a fantastic cover. It is, essentially, a treasure trove for fans! The Beatles’ official site tells us more:
“We are proud to announce the release of this collectible box set presenting 46 tracks on 23 7-inch vinyl singles, in faithfully reproduced international picture sleeves, accompanied by a 40-page booklet with photos, ephemera, and detailed essays by Beatles historian Kevin Howlett.
These singles, plus an exclusive new double A-side single for the mid-1990s-issued tracks “Free As A Bird” and “Real Love,” are newly remastered from their original master tapes and cut for vinyl at Abbey Road Studios for a new limited edition boxed set”.
At the time of writing this feature (Friday, 22nd November), I have not purchased the set yet! I am sure that will change because, when it comes to The Beatles, you can never really have too much! Some may claim charging people nearly two-hundred quid for songs one can get on YouTube and Spotify is a bit steep. I agree that the price could have come down a bit, but this is less of a new release and more an artifact and treat that you can pass down the generations.
Few bands have released music as evocative, timeless and gorgeous as The Beatles. In fact, I think their music is finer and stronger than any artist that has ever come. There is something wonderfully moving listening to an early single like Love Me Do (their first) and comparing that with, say, Something – there is only a gap of a few years, but you can see the contrast and difference! With Paul McCartney confirmed for Glastonbury next year as a headliner and Ringo Starr generally being awesome, it is wonderful we have two Beatles in the world who get to see people’s reaction to The Singles Collection. Whether you plan on buying the new stack of Beatles vinyl or are tempted to revisit their singles through streaming services, it is a wonderful way to spend some time. Whilst all twenty-three singles (and their B-sides) are solid and superbly crafted, not all are equal. There is, then, that pressing question when we consider The Beatles’ (U.K.) singles: Which ones are the absolute best?! Everyone has their opinion but, to celebrate The Singles Collection, I have put together, what I think, are the ten best British singles from The Beatles. I am running them chronologically and, as a bit of a bonus, I will also include the B-side. The Beatles will always provoke passion and love so, with their U.K. singles available in this beautiful format, I give you the very best Beatles singles.
IN THIS PHOTO: The Beatles, circa 1970
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Love Me Do
Release Date: 5th October, 1962 (U.K.)/27th April, 1964 (U.S.)
Chart Position (U.K.): 17
Album: Please Please Me (1963)
Who Did What:
Paul McCartney: vocals, bass
John Lennon: vocals, harmonica and acoustic rhythm guitar
George Harrison: acoustic rhythm guitar
Ringo Starr: drums, tambourine
Pete Best: drums
Andy White: drums
The Skinny:
“Despite this, McCartney remembers Love Me Do as a joint effort between the two of them, and that it came out of their early songwriting experiments.
Love Me Do was completely co-written. It might have been my original idea but some of them really were 50-50s, and I think that one was. It was just Lennon and McCartney sitting down without either of us having a particularly original idea.
We loved doing it, it was a very interesting thing to try and learn to do, to become songwriters. I think why we eventually got so strong was we wrote so much through our formative period. Love Me Do was our first hit, which ironically is one of the two songs that we control, because when we first signed to EMI they had a publishing company called Ardmore and Beechwood which took the two songs, Love Me Do and PS I Love You, and in doing a deal somewhere along the way we were able to get them back - Paul McCartney (Many Years From Now, Barry Miles)
Although The Beatles started out by performing cover versions, as Lennon and McCartney grew as songwriters they began introducing their own compositions into their live shows.
Introducing our own numbers started round Liverpool and Hamburg. Love Me Do, one of the first ones we wrote, Paul started when he must have been about 15. It was the first one we dared to do of our own. This was quite a traumatic thing because we were doing such great numbers of other people’s, of Ray Charles and [Little] Richard and all of them.
It was quite hard to come in singing Love Me Do. We thought our numbers were a bit wet. But we gradually broke that down and decided to try them - John Lennon (Anthology)
As well as being their debut single, the band also recorded Love Me Do eight times for the BBC. A version from 10 July 1963, recorded for the Pop Go The Beatles programme, is available on Live At The BBC” – The Beatles Bible
B-Side: P.S. I Love You
She Loves You
Release Date: 23rd August, 1963 (U.K.)/16th September, 1963 (U.S.)
Chart Position (U.K.): 1
Album: Non-Album Track
Who Did What:
John Lennon: vocals, rhythm guitar
Paul McCartney: vocals, bass
George Harrison: lead guitar, vocals
Ringo Starr: drums
The Skinny:
“The song was mostly written on 26 June 1963, in a room in the Turk’s Hotel in Newcastle, prior to The Beatles’ second performance at the city’s Majestic Ballroom. A true collaboration between Lennon and McCartney, She Loves You distilled the essence of excitement in their music, and became a defining moment of their early career.
I remember it was Paul’s idea: instead of singing ‘I love you’ again, we’d have a third party. That kind of little detail is apparently in his work now where he will write a story about someone and I’m more inclined to just write about myself - John Lennon, 1980 (All We Are Saying, David Sheff).
McCartney’s original idea was to have a call-and-response song, with him singing the title line and the others answering with “yeah, yeah, yeah”. John Lennon, however, persuaded him otherwise.
John and I wrote She Loves You together. There was a Bobby Rydell song [Forget Him] out at the time and, as often happens, you think of one song when you write another.
We were in a van up in Newcastle. I’d planned an ‘answering song’ where a couple of us would sing ‘She loves you…’ and the other one answers, ‘Yeah, yeah.’ We decided that that was a crummy idea as it was, but at least we then had the idea for a song called She Loves You. So we sat in the hotel bedroom for a few hours and wrote it” - Paul McCartney (Anthology) – The Beatles Bible
B-Side: I’ll Get You
Can’t Buy Me Love
Release Date: 20th March, 1964 (U.K.)/16th March, 1964 (U.S.)
Chart Position (U.K.): 1
Album: A Hard Day's Night (1964)
Who Did What:
Paul McCartney: vocals, bass
John Lennon: acoustic rhythm guitar
George Harrison: lead guitar, rhythm guitar
Ringo Starr: drums
Norman Smith: hi-hat
The Skinny:
“Can’t Buy Me Love is my attempt to write a bluesy mode. The idea behind it was that all these material possessions are all very well but they won’t buy me what I really want. It was a very hooky song. Ella Fitzgerald later did a version of it which I was very honoured by - Paul McCartney (Many Years From Now, Barry Miles).
Written by Paul McCartney, Can’t Buy Me Love became the first of the group’s singles to feature just one singer. John Lennon may have felt his position as The Beatles’ leader was threatened by the move; following the release of the single, Lennon wrote the majority of songs on the A Hard Day’s Night album.
That’s Paul’s completely. Maybe I had something to do with the chorus, but I don’t know. I always considered it his song - John Lennon, 1980 (All We Are Saying, David Sheff).
Can’t Buy Me Love featured twice in the A Hard Day’s Night film. The first was a scene in which they escape from the television studio to fool around in a field; the other involved the group running to and from a police station, with law officers in hot pursuit” – The Beatles Bible
B-Side: You Can’t Do That
Help!
Release Date: 23rd July, 1965 (U.K.)/19th July, 1965 (U.S.)
Chart Position (U.K.): 1
Album: Help! (1965)
Who Did What:
John Lennon: vocals, electric guitar; acoustic guitar, 12-string acoustic guitar; electric piano, Hammond organ; tambourine and snare drum
Paul McCartney: vocals, electric guitar; acoustic guitar, bass guitar; piano and electric piano
George Harrison: vocals, electric guitar; acoustic guitar, 12-string acoustic guitar and güiro
Ringo Starr: vocals, drums; tambourine, maracas; cowbell, bongos; claves, percussion; handclaps, acoustic guitar and percussion
George Martin: piano
Johnnie Scott: tenor flute, alto flute
Tony Gilbert: violin
Sidney Sax: violin
Kenneth Essex: viola
Francisco Gabarro: cello
The Skinny:
“Lennon’s writing for the Help! LP continued the inward reflection first explored on Beatles For Sale, with the title track speaking of his insecurity during the peak of The Beatles’ fame.
The whole Beatle thing was just beyond comprehension. I was eating and drinking like a pig and I was fat as a pig, dissatisfied with myself, and subconsciously I was crying for help…
When Help! came out, I was actually crying out for help. Most people think it’s just a fast rock ‘n’ roll song. I didn’t realise it at the time; I just wrote the song because I was commissioned to write it for the movie. But later, I knew I really was crying out for help. So it was my fat Elvis period. You see the movie: he – I – is very fat, very insecure, and he’s completely lost himself. And I am singing about when I was so much younger and all the rest, looking back at how easy it was - John Lennon, 1980 (All We Are Saying, David Sheff)
Lennon’s other key compositions for the album were Ticket To Ride, which became The Beatles’ first single of 1965, and You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away, a mostly acoustic recording featuring introspective lyrics inspired by Bob Dylan.
I was in Kenwood and I would just be songwriting. The period would be for songwriting and so every day I would attempt to write a song, and it’s one of those that you sort of sing a bit sadly to yourself, ‘Here I stand, head in hand…’
I started thinking about my own emotions – I don’t know when exactly it started, like I’m A Loser or Hide Your Love Away or those kind of things – instead of projecting myself into a situation. I would try to express what I felt about myself which I’d done in me books. I think it was Dylan helped me realise that – not by any discussion or anything but just by hearing his work – I had a sort of professional songwriter’s attitude to writing pop songs; he would turn out a certain style of song for a single and we would do a certain style of thing for this and the other thing. I was already a stylized songwriter on the first album. But to express myself I would write Spaniard In The Works or In His Own Write, the personal stories which were expressive of my personal emotions. I’d have a separate songwriting John Lennon who wrote songs for the sort of meat market, and I didn’t consider them – the lyrics or anything – to have any depth at all. They were just a joke. Then I started being me about the songs, not writing them objectively, but subjectively - John Lennon, 1970 (Lennon Remembers, Jann S Wenner)” – The Beatles Bible
B-Side: I’m Down
Paperback Writer
Release Date: 10th June, 1966 (U.K.)/30th May, 1966 (U.S.)
Chart Position (U.K.): 1
Album: Non-Album Track
Who Did What:
Paul McCartney: vocals, lead guitar and bass
John Lennon: backing vocals, tambourine
George Harrison: backing vocals, rhythm guitar
Ringo Starr: drums
The Skinny:
“Paperback Writer was a standalone single released in June 1966, written by Paul McCartney and recorded over two consecutive days during the Revolver sessions. The song Rain was on the b-side.
Paperback Writer is son of Day Tripper, but it is Paul’s song. Son of Day Tripper meaning a rock ‘n’ roll song with a guitar lick on a fuzzy, loud guitar - John Lennon (All We Are Saying, David Sheff).
At the start of The Beatles’ career, Brian Epstein and George Martin had drawn up a plan of releasing four singles and two albums each year to sustain interest in the group and satisfy popular demand.
The release of Paperback Writer came 27 weeks after its predecessor, Day Tripper/We Can Work It Out. It marked the end of the release plan, and saw The Beatles entering a phase where they were less motivated by commercial demands and more focused on musical development.
Paperback Writer was an attempt by McCartney to write a song based on a single chord – possibly influenced by Indian music, but most likely a result of their marijuana use; other songs from this period, notably The Word, If I Needed Someone and Tomorrow Never Knows, were similarly modelled.
John and I would like to do songs with just one note like Long Tall Sally. We got near it in The Word - Paul McCartney
McCartney wrote Paperback Writer after reading a Daily Mail report about an aspiring author, and composed it on the way to Lennon’s house in Weybridge.
You knew, the minute you got there, cup of tea and you’d sit and write, so it was always good if you had a theme. I’d had a thought for a song and somehow it was to do with the Daily Mail so there might have been an article in the Mail that morning about people writing paperbacks. Penguin paperbacks was what I really thought of, the archetypal paperback.
I arrived at Weybridge and told John I had this idea of trying to write off to a publishers to become a paperback writer, and I said, ‘I think it should be written like a letter.’ I took a bit of paper out and I said it should be something like ‘Dear Sir or Madam, as the case may be…’ and I proceeded to write it just like a letter in front of him, occasionally rhyming it. And John, as I recall, just sat there and said, ‘Oh, that’s it,’ ‘Uhuh,’ ‘Yeah.’ I remember him, his amused smile, saying, ‘Yes, that’s it, that’ll do.’ Quite a nice moment: ‘Hmm, I’ve done right! I’ve done well!’ And then we went upstairs and put the melody to it. John and I sat down and finished it all up, but it was tilted towards me, the original idea was mine. I had no music, but it’s just a little bluesy song, not a lot of melody. Then I had the idea to do the harmonies and we arranged that in the studio - Paul McCartney (Many Years From Now, Barry Miles)” – The Beatles Bible
B-Side: Rain
Strawberry Fields Forever
Release Date: 17th February, 1967 (U.K.)/13th February, 1967 (U.S.)
Chart Position (U.K.): 2
Double-E.P.: Magical Mystery Tour (1967)
Who Did What:
John Lennon: vocals, acoustic guitar; piano, bongos and Mellotron
Paul McCartney: Mellotron, bass; electric guitar, timpani and bongos
George Harrison: electric guitar, svarmandal; timpani and maracas
Ringo Starr: drums, percussion
Mal Evans: tambourine
Neil Aspinall: guiro
Terry Doran: maracas
Tony Fisher, Greg Bowen, Derek Watkins, Stanley Roderick: trumpets
John Hall, Derek Simpson, Norman Jones: cellos
The Skinny:
“Dick Lester offered me the part in this movie, which gave me time to think without going home. We were in Almería, and it took me six weeks to write the song. I was writing it all the time I was making the film. And as anybody knows about film work, there’s a lot of hanging around - John Lennon, 1980 (All We Are Saying, David Sheff)
Like Penny Lane, Strawberry Fields Forever was a nostalgic look back at The Beatles’ past in Liverpool. Strawberry Field was the name of a Salvation Army children’s home near John Lennon’s childhood home in Woolton.
I’ve seen Strawberry Field described as a dull, grimy place next door to him that John imagined to be a beautiful place, but in the summer it wasn’t dull and grimy at all: it was a secret garden. John’s memory of it wasn’t to do with the fact that it was a Salvation Army home; that was up at the house. There was a wall you could bunk over and it was a rather wild garden, it wasn’t manicured at all, so it was easy to hide in” - Paul McCartney (Many Years From Now, Barry Miles) – The Beatles Bible
Second A-Side: Penny Lane
Hey Jude
Release Date: 30th August, 1968 (U.K.)/26th August, 1968 (U.S.)
Chart Position (U.K.): 1
Album: Non-Album Track
Who Did What:
Paul McCartney: vocals, piano and bass
John Lennon: backing vocals, acoustic guitar
George Harrison: backing vocals, electric guitar
Ringo Starr: backing vocals, drums and tambourine
Uncredited: 10 violins, 3 violas, 3 cellos, 2 double basses, 2 flutes, 2 clarinets, 1 bass clarinet, 1 bassoon, 1 contrabassoon, 4 trumpets, 2 horns, 4 trombones, 1 percussion
The Skinny:
“Hey Jude was the first release on The Beatles’ own Apple Records label. It was a ballad written by Paul McCartney, to comfort John Lennon’s son Julian during the divorce of his parents.
Hey Jude is a damn good set of lyrics and I made no contribution to that - John Lennon, 1980 (All We Are Saying, David Sheff)
It was written in June 1968, as McCartney drove his Aston Martin to Weybridge to visit Cynthia Lennon and her son. On the journey he began thinking about their changing lives, and of the past times he had spent writing with Lennon at the Weybridge house.
I thought, as a friend of the family, I would motor out to Weybridge and tell them that everything was all right: to try and cheer them up, basically, and see how they were. I had about an hour’s drive. I would always turn the radio off and try and make up songs, just in case… I started singing: ‘Hey Jules – don’t make it bad, take a sad song, and make it better…’ It was optimistic, a hopeful message for Julian: ‘Come on, man, your parents got divorced. I know you’re not happy, but you’ll be OK.’
I eventually changed ‘Jules’ to ‘Jude’. One of the characters in Oklahoma is called Jud, and I like the name” - Paul McCartney (Anthology) – The Beatles Bible
B-Side: Revolution
Get Back
Release Date: 11th April, 1969 (U.K.)/5th May, 1969 (U.S.)
Chart Position (U.K.): 1
Album: Let It Be (1970)
Who Did What:
Paul McCartney: vocals, bass
John Lennon: harmony vocals, lead guitar
George Harrison: rhythm guitar
Ringo Starr: drums
Billy Preston: electric piano
The Skinny:
“Various demo versions of this early version were recorded, one of which contains the following lines:
Meanwhile back at home too many Pakistanis
Living in a council flat
Candidate Macmillan, tell us what your plan is
Won’t you tell us where you’re at?
Despite being satirical in nature, it didn’t prevent accusations of racism being levelled at McCartney for years to come, after the Get Back bootlegs became public.
When we were doing Let It Be, there were a couple of verses to Get Back which were actually not racist at all – they were anti-racist. There were a lot of stories in the newspapers then about Pakistanis crowding out flats – you know, living 16 to a room or whatever. So in one of the verses of Get Back, which we were making up on the set of Let It Be, one of the outtakes has something about ‘too many Pakistanis living in a council flat’ – that’s the line. Which to me was actually talking out against overcrowding for Pakistanis… If there was any group that was not racist, it was the Beatles. I mean, all our favourite people were always black. We were kind of the first people to open international eyes, in a way, to Motown” - Paul McCartney (Rolling Stone, 1986) – The Beatles Bible
B-Side: Don’t Let Me Down
Something
Release Date: 26th September, 1969 (U.K.)/1st October, 1969 (U.S.)
Chart Position (U.K.): 4
Album: Abbey Road (1969)
Who Did What:
George Harrison: vocals, lead guitar
John Lennon: piano
Paul McCartney: backing vocals, bass guitar
Ringo Starr: drums
Billy Preston: Hammond organ
Unknown: 12 violins, 4 violas, 4 cellos, double bass
The Skinny:
“Something was written during the 1968 sessions for The Beatles (White Album), though it wasn’t finished until the following year.
I had written Something on the piano during the recording of the White Album. There was a period during that album when we were all in different studios doing different things trying to get it finished, and I used to take some time out. So I went into an empty studio and wrote Something - George Harrison (Anthology)
A demo version of Something, recorded by Harrison on 25 February 1969, his 26th birthday, was included on Anthology 3. It was also remixed and reissued on some formats of the 50th anniversary version of Abbey Road.
Although originally offered to Jackie Lomax, the guitar-and-vocals demo was given to Joe Cocker. Cocker’s version was recorded before The Beatles’, but not released until November 1969” – The Beatles Bible
B-Side: Come Together
Let It Be
Release Date: 6th March, 1970 (U.K.), 11th March, 1970 (U.S.)
Chart Position (U.K.): 2
Album: Let It Be (1970)
Who Did What:
Paul McCartney: vocals, backing vocals; piano, bass guitar and maracas
John Lennon: backing vocals
George Harrison: backing vocals, lead guitar
Ringo Starr: drums
Billy Preston: organ, electric piano
Linda McCartney: backing vocals
Uncredited: two trumpets, two trombones; tenor saxophone and cellos
The Skinny:
“The song was written during the sessions for the White Album, at a time when Paul McCartney felt isolated as the only member of The Beatles still keen to keep the group together. His enthusiasm and belief had kept them going after the death of Brian Epstein, but increasingly he found the others at odds with his attempts to motivate them.
Although his public persona remained upbeat, privately McCartney was feeling insecure and wounded by the gradual disintegration of the group. During this period, his mother Mary – who had passed away in 1956 when McCartney was 14 – appeared to him in a dream.
One night during this tense time I had a dream I saw my mum, who’d been dead 10 years or so. And it was so great to see her because that’s a wonderful thing about dreams: you actually are reunited with that person for a second; there they are and you appear to both be physically together again. It was so wonderful for me and she was very reassuring. In the dream she said, ‘It’ll be all right.’ I’m not sure if she used the words ‘Let it be’ but that was the gist of her advice, it was, ‘Don’t worry too much, it will turn out OK.’ It was such a sweet dream I woke up thinking, Oh, it was really great to visit with her again. I felt very blessed to have that dream. So that got me writing the song Let It Be. I literally started off ‘Mother Mary’, which was her name, ‘When I find myself in times of trouble’, which I certainly found myself in. The song was based on that dream” - Paul McCartney (Many Years From Now, Barry Miles)” – The Beatles Bible
B-Side: You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)