Aggregating Beatles Songs

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Mason
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Aggregating Beatles Songs

Post by Mason »

I made a spreadsheet aggregating the best Beatles songs, using 11 Beatles-centric lists, all of which are already on AM.

Unsurprisingly, A Day in the Life and Strawberry Fields Forever and #1 and #2, respectively, but the rest of the list is pretty interesting to me. I used Best Ever Albums' rank score formula for the rankings.

I did this mainly out of boredom, but I'm interested in doing it with other artists. Let me know what you think.

Google Sheets Link

Download
beatles_aggregate.xlsx
Here is the top 20:
1 | A Day in the Life | 1967 | Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
2 | Strawberry Fields Forever | 1967 | Magical Mystery Tour
3 | While My Guitar Gently Weeps | 1968 | The Beatles ["The White Album"]
4 | Hey Jude | 1968 | Single
5 | In My Life | 1965 | Rubber Soul
6 | Eleanor Rigby | 1966 | Revolver
7 | Tomorrow Never Knows | 1966 | Revolver
8 | Something | 1969 | Abbey Road
9 | Yesterday | 1965 | Help!
10 | Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) | 1965 | Rubber Soul
11 | Let it Be | 1970 | Let it Be
12 | Penny Lane | 1967 | Magical Mystery Tour
13 | She Loves You | 1963 | Single
14 | Ticket to Ride | 1965 | Help!
15 | I Am the Walrus | 1967 | Magical Mystery Tour
16 | Help! | 1965 | Help!
17 | Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End | 1969 | Abbey Road
18 | All You Need is Love | 1967 | Magical Mystery Tour
19 | Come Together | 1969 | Abbey Road
20 | I Want to Hold Your Hand | 1963 | Single
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Brad
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Re: Aggregating Beatles Songs

Post by Brad »

Interesting list Mason.
Coincidentally, I have a Beatles song exercise I'll roll out later this week - something that I've been trying to work out for a while. I can use this list in my example.

Always intrigued that "I Want To Hold Your Hand" is the 4th highest-rated Beatles tune on this site. Huge impact, undoubtedly, but hardly anyone's personal fave!
Mason
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Re: Aggregating Beatles Songs

Post by Mason »

Brad wrote: Mon May 10, 2021 5:17 pm Interesting list Mason.
Coincidentally, I have a Beatles song exercise I'll roll out later this week - something that I've been trying to work out for a while. I can use this list in my example.

Always intrigued that "I Want To Hold Your Hand" is the 4th highest-rated Beatles tune on this site. Huge impact, undoubtedly, but hardly anyone's personal fave!
Thanks for checking it out! I did find it interesting how low "I Want to Hold Your Hand" was, despite being the 4th highest like you said. To me it seems when compiling these Beatle-specific lists, critics tend to rank their more experimental stuff (most of which are post-Rubber Soul) more favorably. Meanwhile, at least usually, in "Best Songs of All Time" lists you'll see more emphasis on "mainstream pop" songs. As a result, some of the Beatles' earliest songs, like the aforementioned "I Want to Hold Your Hand", are probably going to suffer the greatest on the Beatle-specific lists, but rank higher on "greatest songs" lists.
Last edited by Mason on Mon May 10, 2021 6:05 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Mason
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Re: Aggregating Beatles Songs

Post by Mason »

I got a request for access to the Google Sheet online. I don't intend on giving anyone else editing access, but as far as I know the Google Sheet should still be viewable. Let me know if you can't see it.
Harold
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Re: Aggregating Beatles Songs

Post by Harold »

Let's see, there's "Within You Without You," "Maxwell's Silver Hammer," "Old Brown Shoe"... Whoops, sorry - I misread the thread title as "Aggravating Beatles Songs." :mrgreen:

I love these kinds of lists, so thanks for this. Very glad to see that "Free as a Bird" 's absurdly high ranking in the Spagnesi/Lewis book wasn't enough to put it in the top 100 here. I'm a purist and don't consider that or "Real Love" (or anything exclusive to the Anthology series, for that matter) to be canon, so it irritates me when they're included on these lists.
Mason
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Re: Aggregating Beatles Songs

Post by Mason »

Harold wrote: Mon May 10, 2021 6:23 pm Let's see, there's "Within You Without You," "Maxwell's Silver Hammer," "Old Brown Shoe"... Whoops, sorry - I misread the thread title as "Aggravating Beatles Songs." :mrgreen:

I love these kinds of lists, so thanks for this. Very glad to see that "Free as a Bird" 's absurdly high ranking in the Spagnesi/Lewis book wasn't enough to put it in the top 100 here. I'm a purist and don't consider that or "Real Love" (or anything exclusive to the Anthology series, for that matter) to be canon, so it irritates me when they're included on these lists.
I'm glad you enjoyed it!

Personally, while I do like "Within You Without You", I've always found "Love You To" to be the superior raga-inspired song, but that one never gets any attention :?
Mason
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Re: Aggregating Beatles Songs

Post by Mason »

Well, despite much tribulation, I'm declaring the spreadsheet as updated. I say this because there's one list that's incomplete (Now & Then's 1992 list), although I'm only missing one placement from that list. If anyone knows where to find the full list, please let me know.

I added two lists, one from Rolling Stone Germany, and the aforementioned one from Now & Then (Sweden).

Updated spreadsheet:
beatles_aggregate_v2.xlsx
The new Top 20:
(old) new | song | year | release

(1) 1 | A Day in the Life | 1967 | Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
(2) 2 | Strawberry Fields Forever | 1967 | Magical Mystery Tour
(6) 3 | Eleanor Rigby | 1966 | Revolver
(3) 4 | While My Guitar Gently Weeps | 1968 | The Beatles ["The White Album"]
(4) 5 | Hey Jude | 1968 | Single
(5) 6 | In My Life | 1965 | Rubber Soul
(8) 7 | Something | 1969 | Abbey Road
(9) 8 | Yesterday | 1965 | Help!
(7) 9 | Tomorrow Never Knows | 1966 | Revolver
(12) 10 | Penny Lane | 1967 | Magical Mystery Tour
(15) 11 | I Am the Walrus | 1967 | Magical Mystery Tour
(10) 12 | Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) | 1965 | Rubber Soul
(16) 13 | Help! | 1965 | Help!
(14) 14 | Ticket to Ride | 1965 | Help!
(11) 15 | Let it Be | 1970 | Let it Be
(13) 16 | She Loves You | 1963 | Single
(19) 17 | Come Together | 1969 | Abbey Road
(18) 18 | All You Need is Love | 1967 | Magical Mystery Tour
(26) 19 | Happiness is a Warm Gun | 1968 | The Beatles ["The White Album"]
(24) 20 | Revolution | 1968 | Single
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Mason
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Re: Aggregating Beatles Songs

Post by Mason »

Hi everyone, I've changed the viewing permissions of the online version of the spreadsheet, so anyone who clicks the link should be able to view it without needing to request.
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