Since 1960, The Beatles—four fabulous lads from Liverpool, England—have remained the greatest rock ‘n’ roll band in the history of music. How John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr managed to make music together remains a mythical truth over half-a-century later. From Please Please Me to Abbey Road (or Let It Be, commercially), the quartet have influenced thousands—likey millions—of people to pick up an instrument and start writing songs. Without the Beatles, the DNA of modern music as we know it would look unrecognizable.
We ranked the 50 best Beatles songs nearly a decade ago, and we decided it was time for an upgrade. Since the band is always present and relevant in the zeitgeist, the cultural consensus on their catalog is constantly shifting. The popularity of albums and tracks are firmly in flux, and our ranking sets out to illustrate that. Notable entries from our 2015 list that didn’t make the cut this time around include “Come Together,” “I Saw Her Standing There” and “Here Comes the Sun,” but we’ve also added a good amount of undersung masterpieces to balance out those losses. Here are our picks for the 30 greatest Beatles songs of all time.
30. “Penny Lane”
No Beatles song uses horns better than “Penny Lane.” David Mason’s piccolo trumpet solo—the first time the high-pitched instrument was used in pop music—is a thing of beauty by itself, but all the brass and winds give a joyful tinge to the nostalgic song about the actual street where John and Paul would change buses to visit each others’ houses as teens. —Josh Jackson
Album: Magical Mystery Tour
Lead Vocals: McCartney
Released: February 13, 1967
29. “You’re Going to Lose That Girl”
The Bob Dylan and Byrds influence can be felt all across Help!, the first Beatles record that felt like a real investment in dynamic, intricately layered folk rock—a benchmark worth celebrating, given that it was also a soundtrack for the band’s second cheeky movie. Yet a song like “You’re Going to Lose That Girl” refuses to ditch the boyish, harmonious charm that the Beatles perfected on Please Please Me and Beatles For Sale. It built on the pop framework of A Hard Day’s Night by centering John’s ooing, double-tracked singing within a warm envelope of George’s silky lead Stratocaster and Paul’s perfect backing vocal. “If you don’t treat her right, my friend, you’re gonna find her gone,” the song goes. “‘Cause I will treat her right, and then you’ll be the lonely one.” Soon, the Fab Four would ditch the cinema and live in the studio. Knowing that Rubber Soul was on the near-horizon, “You’re Going to Lose That Girl” is an obvious, enchanting precursor. —Matt Mitchell
Album: Help!
Lead Vocals: Lennon
Released: August 6, 1965
28. “All You Need Is Love”
While so many of the Beatles’ early songs shine in their simplicity, “All You Need Is Love” excels by embracing complex instrumentals and multiple elemental structures. It encompasses various meters and musical excerpts (including the French national anthem, “Greensleeves,” and of course, the band’s own “She Loves You”), not to mention orchestral instruments from the string and brass sections. John once conceded that “All You Need Is Love” was, of course, a propaganda song, but its motto remains one of timeless idealism. —Hilary Saunders
Album: Magical Mystery Tour
Lead Vocals: Lennon
Released: July 7, 1967
27. “For No One”
Revolver is stoked in unparalleled genius. The five-song run at the center of it—“Here, There and Everywhere,” “Yellow Submarine,” “She Said She Said,” “Good Day Sunshine” and “And Your Bird Can Sing”—is one of the greatest five-song runs in all of rock ‘n’ roll. But, many forget the track that arrives right after: “For No One.” At a runtime of 1:59, the song is not just one of Paul’s toughest ballads; it’s one of the Beatles’ most pristine storytelling accomplishments—highlighting a romantic argument with no resolution. A godfatherly moment of baroque pop masterwork, “For No One” was written by Paul while he was in the Swiss Alps with his then girlfriend Jane Asher. “And in her eyes, you see nothing / No sign of love behind the tears / Cried for no one / A love that should have lasted years” is one of the most heartbreaking choruses you’ll ever hear. Oh, and that French horn from Alan Civil? Pure poetry. —Matt Mitchell
Album: Revolver
Lead Vocals: McCartney
Released: August 5, 1966
26. “I Will / Julia“
The final two tracks on Side Two of The Beatles go hand in hand with each other. You have “I Will,” a beautiful, brisk love song from Paul, who plays lead acoustic guitar and performs “vocal bass,” as John shakes a maraca and Ringo pats on the bongos behind him. “If I ever saw you, I didn’t catch your name,” Paul sings. “But it never really mattered, I will always feel the same.” “Julia” runs a smidge longer and finds John singing about his mother, who passed away in 1958 when he was only a teenager. “Her hair of floating sky is shimmering,” he sings, “glimmering in the sun. Julia, Julia. Morning moon touch me, so I sing the song of love.” All of the gooey love songs wash away in this moment, as John becomes his most vulnerable and tender—honoring his mother by way of one double-tracked acoustic guitar and his own wounded, reflective vocals. Together, “I Will” and “Julia” are both some of Paul and John’s finest, bare-bones work. On an album that was, for better or for worse, all over the place, in this two-part Side Two finale, The Beatles is pulled into focus more than ever. —Matt Mitchell
Album: The Beatles (The White Album
Lead Vocals: McCartney & Lennon
Released: November 22, 1968
25. “Ticket to Ride”
This John-penned song from Help! takes all the catchy pop elements of early Beatles songs and amps it up through Ringo’s driving beats. It’s one of their heaviest pop songs, its upbeat melody contrasting with John’s lament for an imminent break-up. The song’s tempo picks up even more for the coda, “My baby don’t care.” This is a more muscular and complex version of Beatles pop bliss. —Josh Jackson
Album: Help!
Lead Vocals: Lennon
Released: April 9, 1965
24. “Across the Universe”
I feel like “Across the Universe” was probably the moment where my grade school self thought for the first time, “Whoa, the Beatles are deep.” Obviously, Beatles fans who lived through the group’s discography knew that much, much earlier, but these were the simple revelations of a fourth or fifth-grader who was exposed to the Beatles music in no discernible or logical order, listening to songs from With the Beatles and Let it Be interchangeably. Regardless, I could immediately recognize “Across the Universe” as something different from the expertly crafted pop songs I’d heard before. Here was this beautifully poetic ballad, incorporating both the instrumentation and transcendental themes the band was immersing itself in at the time, and it all started with a bit of midnight inspiration from John Lennon. For as John told it, “Across the Universe” was just one of those poem-songs that poured out of him as if engaging in the process of “automatic writing”—a literal moment of “words flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup.” His prodigious songwriting talent was the sort of natural force that simply insisted upon itself, with songs like “Across the Universe” as the result. —Jim Vorel
Album: Let It Be
Lead Vocals: Lennon
Released: May 8, 1970
23. “Eleanor Rigby”
I once argued that “Eleanor Rigby” is the saddest song ever written. With the small chamber ensemble scratching their strings in quick staccato succession in a minor key, the two-and-a-half-minute song checks off many of the musical stereotypes that constitute what makes songs sad. But when Paul starts telling the interwoven tale of Eleanor Rigby and Father McKenzie’s lonely souls, the song’s narrative begins to exacerbate the already anxiety-ridden instrumentals. While the verses ache in their specificity, the chorus delivers the most painful existential questions: “All the lonely people / Where do they all come from? All the lonely people / Where do they all belong?” —Hilary Saunders
Album: Revolver
Lead Vocals: McCartney
Released: August 5, 1966
22. “It’s All Too Much”
Of course, there are the obvious great George moments in the Beatles catalog—like “Here Comes the Sun,” While My Guitar Gently Weeps” and “Something”—but one of his finest (and funnest) works in the Fab Four came on the Yellow Submarine soundtrack. “It’s All Too Much,” a six-minute (which was long for a Beatles cut), psychedelic journey is not just George’s most-unsung creation with the band, but his most-daring. “All the world is birthday cake,” he sings, “so take a piece, but not too much.” “Penny Lane” trumpeter David Mason comes rushing in, as John and George trade lead guitar licks into an oblivion of chaos and joy. One of the few Beatles tracks that employs feedback, “It’s All Too Much” is a distorted, acid-rock benchmark that—unlike the meticulousness of Revolver and Sgt. Pepper—feels free and improvised and unlike anything else the quartet ever conjured onto tape. —Matt Mitchell
Album: Yellow Submarine
Lead Vocals: Harrison
Released: January 13, 1969
21. “Happiness Is a Warm Gun”
The absurd lyrics, the overpowering cynicism and the harsh tones segueing into a beautiful melody prove that “Happiness Is a Warm Gun” is unequivocally a John Lennon song. The title, which was lifted off an advertisement from an American publication (shocker!), is so terrifying and borderline psychopathic that you can see its appeal to a subversive like him. “This is how the brain of man works,” John seems to imply, and from that starting point, he wrote one of the boldest songs of its era. It builds and builds, with disturbing (and darkly funny) lines like “a soap impression of his wife which he ate and donated to the National Trust,” until finally, in a warm therapeutic splash, that wonderful chorus hits. It’s goosebump-inducing, and the really wild thing about this song is that there will be a part of you—the sensible, humanity-loving part—that really wishes those goosebumps hadn’t formed. —Shane Ryan
Album: The Beatles (The White Album)
Lead Vocals: Lennon
Released: November 22, 1968
20. “Revolution”
Other than “Helter Skelter,” no Beatles song rocks heavier than “Revolution,” John’s gigantic examination and questioning of social change enacted through violent revolt. An uptempo, harder iteration of “Revolution 1” from The Beatles—which hadn’t even been released yet—“Revolution” was the B-side to “Hey Jude” and, arguably, the greatest B-side in rock ‘n’ roll history. The song was one of the more explicit tipping points in John’s foray into political songwriting, and it would directly make conversation with his future solo efforts—especially songs like “Power to the People” and “Give Peace a Chance.” The other three Beatles may have been initially hesitant to put this version of “Revolution” out into the world, but John’s instincts were right: It remains one of his toughest songs and an immediate reference point for how the Beatles were not just meticulous, compositional geniuses; from time to time, they could cut up the rug better than anyone else. —Matt Mitchell
Album: Past Masters
Lead Vocals: Lennon
Released: August 26, 1968
19. “Paperback Writer”
Released in between Rubber Soul and Revolver, “Paperback Writer” is one of the sharpest non-album singles Paul ever composed. It perfectly melds the quartet’s Beatlemania-era pop prowess and their psychedelic inclinations of the mid-1960s. It followed the incredible double A-side singles “Day Tripper” and “We Can Work It Out” but shone greatly on its own accord—and often brighter. Initially inspired by Paul’s Aunt Lil, who challenged him to write a non-love song, “Paperback Writer” came to be after he saw Ringo reading a book backstage. It’s a simple narrative, an author pleading his worth to a prospective publisher—but what turns it into an anthem is the unflinching, cosmic rock ‘n’ roll arrangement. Paul helms that incomparable opening riff, while John shakes a beautiful tambourine in-sync with Ringo’s robotic, precise drumming. They’d continue to build on these explosive, larger-than-life instrumentals on Revolver, but it’s hard to imagine that record sounds the way it does without the groundwork established on “Paperback Writer.” —Matt Mitchell.
Album: Past Masters
Lead Vocals: McCartney
Released: May 30, 1966
18. “Tomorrow Never Knows”
I thought I knew the Beatles pretty well. I had dubbed most of the later albums from my brother’s copies by the time I was 12. I knew all the early hits through constant play on oldies radio. I knew the trajectory from a boy band to psychedelic explorers and how it was analogous to culture in general throughout the 1960s. And then one day when I was 15 years old, I heard “Tomorrow Never Knows” for the first time in a friend’s car and immediately wondered if somebody had slipped me something. Even though The Theatre of Eternal Music was already squatting on single notes before Revolver came out, “Tomorrow Never Knows” was almost definitely most people’s first exposure to drone rock, with its (more or less) single-chord monotony, barely two-note bass line and stuttering drums. Toss in the whirring, chirping tape loops that wrapped around the song (which 19-year-old engineer Geoff Emerick accomplished by running John’s voice through a rotating Leslie speaker), and lyrics that sound like Timothy Leary biting from The Tibetan Book of the Dead, and you’ve got an almost unthinkable turn from a band that at that point was still only two years removed from its Ed Sullivan debut. —Garrett Martin
Album: Revolver
Lead Vocals: Lennon
Released: August 5, 1966
17. “She’s Leaving Home”
The entire Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band tracklist could take up part of this ranking, that’s for certain. But, an undersung part of that album is Paul’s “She’s Leaving Home,” a song that supposedly hurt George Martin’s heart—because Paul employed Mike Leander for the string arrangement. Because it’s one of the only Beatles tracks where none of the members actually play an instrument, it’s a direct example of the complex, irreplicable compositionality that the band was working through at the time. In fact, George and Ringo aren’t even credited on the song (which would turn into a normality over the next two-and-a-half years). With a coterie of violins, violas, cellos, double bass and harp, “She’s Leaving Home” is one of the most graceful, thoughtful and delicate Beatles songs ever put to tape. With Paul’s floating, double-tracked falsetto and John’s double-tracked, rythmic chorus, it’s a benchmark not just from a rock ‘n’ roll standpoint but an orchestral one, as well. Paul once played the tune for Brian Wilson and his wife Marilyn, and the famous Beach Boy had only this to say: “We both just cried. It was beautiful.” It’s hard to find praise higher than that, and “She’s Leaving Home” would be the greatest chapter on Sgt. Pepper if it weren’t for one generational masterpiece. —Matt Mitchell
Album: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
Lead Vocals: McCartney, with Lennon
Released: May 26, 1967
16. “Two of Us”
Let It Be has the unfortunate responsibility of being the last Beatles album ever released (even if it was recorded before Abbey Road), its incompleteness and individualist energy paralleling the band crumbling apart at the turn of the 1970s. Much of Let It Be is a wash, with a tracklist that just doesn’t stand the test of time like its predecessors. But, the parts of the album that work do so at seismic rates. Opening track “Two of Us” endures for how it has become an ode to Paul and John’s musical partnership. Of course, Paul may have written it about him and Linda Eastman’s new marriage, but what the song symbolizes in the contemporary context of Paul and John’s leadership speaks volumes. “You and I have memories longer than the road that stretches out ahead,” Paul sings across the bridge. It’s a subtle folk rock tune that puts the focus not on the band’s sonic craftsmanship, but on Paul’s storytelling. From playing gigs as the Quarrymen in Liverpool to becoming the greatest recording act in the history of rock ‘n’ roll, “Two of Us” is a proper, joyous bookend to a decade of love and success. —Matt Mitchell
Album: Let It Be
Lead Vocals: McCartney & Lennon
Released: May 8, 1970
15. “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”
A great highlight from The Beatles, George’s “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” is a cry for universal love tracked with a deftly incendiary guitar solo from an uncredited Eric Clapton. Partially inspired by the band’s cohesion slowly eroding after a transcendental meditation retreat in India, George took the psychedelia of “Within You Without You” and “Taxman” and plugged it into a heavenly blues rock joint that was built to last forever. If it weren’t for “Something,” “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” would remain George’s greatest composition as a Beatle. “I don’t know why nobody told you how to unfold your love,” he opines. The song would kickstart a period in which he’d begin formulating many songs that would wind up on Abbey Road, Let It Be and his own solo record All Things Must Pass. —Matt Mitchell
Album: The Beatles (The White Album)
Lead Vocals: Harrison
Released: November 22, 1968
14. “And Your Bird Can Sing”
As short as any punk song (2:01) and just as punchy, “And Your Bird Can Sing” bursts right out of the gate on Revolver, trundling ahead ebulliently on the wings of the dual lead guitar line played by Paul and George. The song was as bitter as any written by the Buzzcocks or The Jam, with John dangling the bullshit boasts of some acquaintance in front of them before cutting them right off at the knees with the reminder, “You don’t get me.” —Robert Ham
Album: Revolver
Lead Vocals: Lennon
Released: August 5, 1966
13. “And I Love Her”
“And I Love Her” is one of Paul’s most heartfelt, tender vocal performances, backed by gentle acoustic strumming and scant percussion. Macca only has two-and-a-half minutes to express his undying love for a woman, and he minces no words over the course of three verses and a short, but effective, middle eight. George punctuates these verses with delicate arpeggios, and his tasteful acoustic solo cements his status as one of the most economical lead players of all time. Paul, on the other hand, would later build a reputation as a world-class balladeer; “And I Love Her” was his first homerun. —Bryan Rolli
Album: A Hard Day’s Night
Lead Vocals: McCartney
Released: July 20, 1964
12. “Yesterday”
There is a reason that “Yesterday” is not only considered among the best Beatles songs, but also the best pop songs in history. The Paul tune (that supposedly came to him in a dream) is the saddest of the sad breakup songs, but also has a sort of hopefulness about it that really makes you want to curl up under the covers and contemplate life. Legend has it that the rest of The Beatles, particularly George, were ready to throttle Paul during the production of Help!, where “Yesterday” appeared. McCartney took the inclusion in the film as an opportunity to continue to tinker with the song until he got it just right, and we’re glad he did. —Amy McCarthy
Album: Help!
Lead Vocals: McCartney
Released: August 6, 1965
11. “Blackbird”
Inspired by both the ongoing Civil Rights Movement in the Southern United States and the literal presence of blackbirds in Rishikesh, India—where the Beatles were studying transcendental meditation—“Blackbird” is a shining moment on The Beatles that has been interpreted to fit almost any understanding of empowerment in the 50 years since its release. “You were only waiting for this moment to arrive,” Paul sings, as birds chirp behind him. The only player on the tune is Paul himself, who performs acoustic guitar and taps his foot like a metronome across the two-minute runtime. While The Beatles could get cheeky and hunky dory at times, “Blackbird” is one of the album’s purest moments of maturity. Though the Beatles were fracturing greatly during its recording, the song remains a call for unity and strength that has transcended the era it was written in—all while still maintaining its original, urgent glow. —Matt Mitchell
Album: The Beatles (The White Album)
Lead Vocals: McCartney
Released: November 22, 1968
10. “Strawberry Fields Forever”
This is a song that understands the psychedelic experience, passing suddenly from blissful and lethargic to menacing, as the drums grow threatening and the strings ominous. Even today, the mellotron intro still sounds otherworldly, like some kind of paradimensional organ drifting into our universe and straight onto tape. Even though the lyrics are intentionally confused and vague, this song sounds wise, alternately light yet heavy as memory. A lot of psychedelic music sounds like a clown show today, like the worst, most indulgent impulses given free rein, but “Strawberry Fields Forever” is as powerful as ever, even without mentioning tape loops, a false ending or the “I buried Paul” theory. —Garrett Martin
Album: Magical Mystery Tour
Lead Vocals: Lennon
Released: February 13, 1967
9. “Hey Jude”
I don’t care who you are or what your story is—I know that, at some point or another, you’ve sung along to “Hey Jude.” It’s the ultimate participatory Beatles song (you don’t even have to know the words as long as you can remember “na na na na na na na”), and it stands as one of the all-time best. Penned for Julian Lennon to comfort him during his parents’ divorce, “Hey Jude” is Paul’s master work—simple, melodic, yet structurally complex. It showcases everything in his arsenal, starting as a lovely ballad before that scream signals the beginning of rock’s greatest coda, four minutes of Paul stretching his wings (no pun intended) vocally as he ad-libs over what almost feels like a mantra of sorts, the closest he ever got to “Hare Krishna.” It’s uplifting, reassuring and catchy, and we will all be singing along to it until the sun burns out. —Bonnie Stiernberg
Album: Past Masters
Lead Vocals: McCartney
Released: August 26, 1968
8. “I Want to Hold Your Hand”
I remember the exact moment I found the deeper meaning to “I Want To Hold Your Hand.” I sat in a London hotel room too fancy for two college freshmen to inhabit and babbled to my best friend about how electric the most common tactile gestures become when you fall in love. But even if this 1963 single should actually just be taken at face value, “I Want To Hold Your Hand” exemplifies the era’s joyful pop rock, noted by kitschy handclaps, a swinging backbeat and perfect Fab Four harmonies. —Hilary Saunders
Album: Past Masters
Lead Vocals: Lennon & McCartney
Released: November 29, 1963
7. “Here, There and Everywhere”
The first Beatles LP I ever bought with my own money was Revolver. As it spun on my cheap turntable, I found myself mystified by the non-chart-toppers in the band’s catalog—most immensely “Here, There and Everywhere,” one of McCartney’s sweetest and greatest ballads. “There, running my hands through her hair,” he sings, “both of us thinking how good it can be.” With Lennon and Harrison spinning their backing harmonies into a bed of flowers for McCartney to collapse into, “Here, There and Everywhere” is a mystical collage of late-50s doo-wop, singer/songwriter and psych-pop. One of the many truths surrounding the Beatles is that McCartney’s songbook command was unlike anyone else’s across all of rock ‘n’ roll. This Revolver benchmark is where he elected to take it to the stratosphere. But even that checkpoint feels understated. —Matt Mitchell
Album: Revolver
Lead Vocals: McCartney
Released: August 5, 1966
6. “Let It Be”
This simple song of acceptance emerged from the most tumultuous time in Beatles history—the fragmented sessions taking place throughout 1969 that preceded the band’s contentious breakup. Over just four chords in the remarkably normal key of C and a straightforward 4/4 rhythm, “Let It Be” manages to convey grace, unity and peace, even when John, Paul, George and Ringo found themselves in times of trouble. Even with the irony, “Let It Be” remains one of the band’s most beloved tunes, a mantra for the disheartened and a symbolic song representing the Beatles’ storied career. —Hilary Saunders
Album: Let It Be
Lead Vocals: McCartney
Released: March 6, 1970
5. “In My Life”
Right smack in the middle of the ‘60s, The Beatles released Rubber Soul, and the album served as a bridge between their early pop and the more psychedelic sound that followed. It also marked a string of albums written solely by the band. “In My Life” was John’s attempt to capture his childhood in the Northwest of England, though much of the original lyrics were reworked by Paul. George Martin added a piano solo recorded an octave lower but sped up the tape to make it sound like a trippy harpsichord. The combination of pop melody, perfect harmonies and baroque solo helped ensure that millions of fans would be along for the more experimental second half of the band’s career. —Josh Jackson
Album: Rubber Soul
Lead Vocals: Lennon
Released: December 3, 1965
4. “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)”
While John and Paul co-wrote this Rubber Soul standout, the relentlessly melodic, quietly melancholy tune is best remembered for George’s singular sitar riff. “Norwegian Wood,” one of the band’s very first sitar experiments, is classic rock ‘n’ roll in its subject matter—casual sex—yet wildly inventive in its Far-East instrumentation and chorus-less song structure. It’s said that Bob Dylan’s “Fourth Time Around” was written as a love letter to “Norwegian Wood,” or a joke at its expense, depending on whom you ask. Only an iconoclast like Dylan would dare deny that this song is a dark and dreamlike pop classic, from its beautiful, oblique, John-penned opening lyric (“I once had a girl / Or should I say, she once had me”) to its final resonant note. —Scott Russell
Album: Rubber Soul
Lead Vocals: Lennon
Released: December 3, 1965
3. “Something”
George’s single greatest feat while in the Beatles came on Abbey Road, when he gave everyone “Something,” one of the prettiest love songs ever penned—if not the absolute prettiest. It’s a precious, thoughtful illustration of mythical romance. Who it’s about remains a mystery, as George denied writing it about his then wife Pattie Boyd, and some of his friends claimed he wrote it about the Hindu deity Krishna. Nevertheless, 150 musicians have covered it over the years—making it the second-most covered Beatles song after “Yesterday”—and Frank Sinatra called it “the greatest love song of the past 50 years” when it was released. “You’re asking me will my love grow,” George sings. “ I don’t know, I don’t know.” Abbey Road is, arguably, the greatest Beatles record, and “Something” is, arguably, its single greatest treasure. —Matt Mitchell
Album: Abbey Road
Lead Vocals: Harrison
Released: October 6, 1969
2. “A Day in the Life”
The magic of The Beatles is that two men with very different aesthetics, John and Paul, somehow formed one of the most dynamic combinations in the history of rock and roll. “A Day in the Life” is the consummate example of how perfectly their collaboration could work when the elements mashed. The song starts with John’s reflections on the news of the day, tinged with his usual dark outlook. By itself, it’s no more than a melancholic mood piece, but then, after a sudden transition made from harsh glissandos, it changes into what sounds like a separate song—Paul, churning out one of the light, gorgeous melodies he seemed to summon at will. Again, it may have been insubstantial on its own, but the very English nostalgia is a perfect fit with Lennon’s moody discourse on the dingy present. As they move back for one last verse with John, the transition is made with him drifting off into a vocal daze, druggy and gorgeous, and it all leads to that long final chord, made from three pianos and a harmonium—the perfect, haunting end to the perfect song. —Shane Ryan
Album: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
Lead Vocals: Lennon & McCartney
Released: May 26, 1967
1. “Abbey Road Medley”
There has been an almost universal consensus that “A Day in Life” is the best Beatles song, and I get that argument. From a compositional standpoint, what Lennon and McCartney put together on the Sgt. Pepper finale had never been heard before in rock ‘n’ roll, and it rivaled the work of classical and jazz titans. But it’s hard to overlook the medley of nine songs (eight, depending on how you feel about hidden tracks) that close out Abbey Road. Comprised of “You Never Give Me Your Money,” “Sun King,” “Mean Mr. Mustard,” “Polythene Pam,” “She Came In Through the Bathroom Window,” “Golden Slumbers,” “Carry That Weight,” “The End” and “Your Majesty,” the 16-minute medley is the single greatest closing moment on an album across music history altogether.
Knowing what we know—that Let It Be was recorded before Abbey Road—the fact that the Beatles opted to finish like this is biblical. As grand and magnificent as “A Day in the Life,” what makes McCartney and George Martin’s suite better is that it checks every box: the composition has endless replay value, showcases every member’s strengths and is dynamically arranged into a twisting and turning, striking concerto of rock ‘n’ roll royalty. The Abbey Road medley also has Ringo Starr’s only drum solo as a Beatle, a trio of guitar solos from McCartney, Lennon and Harrison and, of course, that final line: “And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.” —Matt Mitchell
Album: Abbey Road
Lead Vocals: Lennon & McCartney, with Harrison & Starr
Released: September 26, 1969