Worst Beatles Single

it's funny how few of these singles rank among the best beatles songs for me, and i'm a pretty big fan. "please please me," "hold your hand," "AHDN," "help," "strawberry fields"/"penny lane" and that's about it. i'm sick of all the big mccartney ballads and their late-period back-to-basics stuff doesn't do much for me. "hello goodbye" sounds really forced and contrived, but yeah, "walrus" is more than enough to offset it. "ballad" is lennon at his most insufferable but i like "old brown shoe." i'm probably going to have to go with "lady madonna," which is pleasant enough but really sounds like the first beatles single of all that any old band would have knocked off, nothing special or interesting about it at all.

"Ballad Of John And Yoko".

The single song that I dislike the most is "Come Together", but that one was a double a-side with the brilliant and beautiful "Something".

"Ticket To Ride" without a second thought. It sounds like they're not even trying.

'i feel fine' seems to me as the most boring, mediocre. def. the worst. i can't even remember what the b-side 'she's a woman' sounds like.

BRANG
DANG
DANG
DANG
BRANG
DANG
DANG
doodoobiedoo
doodoobiedoo
mah love don't giive me presents
I know that she's no...peasant

Tossup between Hey Jude and Let It Be. (Hey Jude is probably worse, but B-sides may balance them out.)

― xhuxk, Sunday, 4 January 2009 00:41 (17 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

^

"ticket to ride" is wonderful.

John's vocal is a little bit woozy though, I have to give the haters that. But the rest of the band is in top shape, Ringo is having lots of fun...

The only single on that list wherein both the A side and B side are bad is Day Tripper and We Can Work It Out. Everyone should vote for it. Day Tripper is saved by Yes It Is, Paperback Writer is saved by Rain, Hey Jude by Revolution. Also, You Know My Name (Look Up The Number) is excellent IMO. Obviously it's long and repetitive, but I'll be damned if it isn't the best sounds-like-they-were-having-a-whole-lotta-fun-when-they-recorded-it song i've ever heard.

We Can Work It Out is bad? You are clearly insane.

'm probably going to have to go with "lady madonna," which is pleasant enough but really sounds like the first beatles single of all that any old band would have knocked off, nothing special or interesting about it at all.
otm

what the hell is wrong with day tripper?!?! (xxp)

The Help-era singles are all Godlike. WTF @ people are voting ticket to fucking ride as worst Beatles single???

It's a one riff song.
(xpost)

What's right with it: textbook example of the Beatle's patented layered intro.

Don't know what the beef is with "Ticket To Ride": where else will you find such an enjoyably stop start and stumble drum beat? Well maybe in that Hüsker Dü song that copies it, but still.

Which also functions as proof that it was better when Paul told Ringo what to play but still let Ringo play it, as opposed to playing the drums himself.

"Ticket to Ride" is worth it for the part where John goes "OOoooh..." before the last chorus, alone.

lol at "all other Beatles fans on the internet are batshit insane except ME!!!!".

I'm guilty as charged.

"Ticket To Ride" is not their strongest moment, but obviously beats most of the post 1967 singles anyway.

Paperback Writer/Rain - 10/8, average 9
Day Tripper & We Can Work It Out - 9/8, average 8.5
Help!/I'm Down - 9/8, average 8.5
Strawberry Fields Forever & Penny Lane - 10/7, average 8.5
I Feel Fine/She's A Woman - 9/8, average 8.5
Ticket To Ride/Yes It Is - 10/7, average 8.5
Something & Come Together - 9/7, average 8
A Hard Day's Night/Things We Said Today - 9/7, average 8
Please Please Me/Ask Me Why - 9/5, average 7
She Loves You/I'll Get You - 10/4, average 7
I Want To Hold Your Hand/This Boy - 9/5, average 7
Can't Buy Me Love/You Can't Do That - 8/6, average 7
Hello Goodbye/I Am the Walrus - 6/8, average 7
Hey Jude/Revolution - 5/9, average 7
Eleanor Rigby & Yellow Submarine - 8/4, average 6
Get Back/Don't Let Me Down - 6/6, average 6
From Me To You/Thank You Girl - 6/4, average 5
All You Need Is Love/Baby, You're A Rich Man - 6/4, average 5
Love Me Do/P.S. I Love You - 3/6, average 4.5
Ballad of John and Yoko/Old Brown Shoe - 6/3, average 4.5
Lady Madonna/The Inner Light - 5/3, average 4
Let It Be/You Know My Name (Look Up the Number) - 4/2, average 3

10 pt. scale, obv.

that list is fucking wack. the average rating was 6.2 (yes i counted), and this is the fucking beatles singles! also, paperback writer a ten? i'll get you a four? you can't do that/don't let me down/all you need is love a six?! i realize how ridiculous it is to argue about shit like is, but dude you should lower your standards.

i dont know if this is separate-thread worthy, but what about worst song, single or not? hey bulldog gets my vote. discuss!

I think there's a Worst Beatles Song thread, from pre-poll days. (Whatever the lameness of polls, they at least get everything listed there so you don't forget anything.)

Worst Beatles anything is really contaminated a lot by resentment over canonization of crap songs - so I am very tempted towards contrarian voting for things like the snoozey "Come Together" even though it's clearly better than inoffensive and overlooked filler like "Hold Me Tight." You can guarantee that the winner of that poll would not be anything close to the worst Beatles song.

So here's how it breaks down for me:

CLASSIC through and through:

She Love You/I'll Get You
I Want To Hold Your Hand/This Boy
Paperback Writer/Rain
Eleanor Rigby & Yellow Submarine
Strawberry Fields Forever & Penny Lane
Hello Goodbye/I Am the Walrus (just barely on "Hello Goodbye")

One side saved by another:

From Me To You/Thank You Girl
Can't Buy Me Love/You Can't Do That
A Hard Day's Night/Things We Said Today
Help!/I'm Down
Day Tripper & We Can Work It Out
Hey Jude/Revolution
Please Please Me/Ask Me Why

Nothing classic, but pretty darn good, eh

Ticket To Ride/Yes It Is
Something & Come Together
Ballad of John and Yoko/Old Brown Shoe ("Ballad" is inane but "CHRIST!", "Old Brown Shoe" is memorable, should have gotten more attention from the band)

Kind of dull really:

Love Me Do/P.S. I Love You

Lady Madonna/The Inner Light

Outright LOUSY

Get Back/Don't Let Me Down
All You Need Is Love/Baby, You're A Rich Man
Let It Be/You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)
I Feel Fine/She's A Woman

Starting to really lean towards All You Need/Baby. Probably the one 45 here that if you played it for an alien you would give them no concept of why this band was popular.

Christ, how can anyone dump on "I Feel Fine?" Sounds fucking revolutionary 40+ years later.

Pretty good B-side too.

yeah that is ridiculous, both are 10s if we're playing that game

I guess we're just going to have to agree to disagree call each other crazy.

Never been a big fan of 'Get Back' - especially since that outtake with the original lyrics.

'Don't Let Me Down' is an absolute stinker.

"I Feel Fine," I dunno...I'll give it John's vocal, some of his better rock n roll singing - I just think it's a kind of dumb lyric. "She's A Woman"'s is worse but they're both dopily materialistic, I don't relate to either of them particularly, nor do I much enjoy singing along, which saves several of these songs for me...

Never knew everyone hated "Hey Jude" that much, one of my very favorite Beatles songs. I also love that weird album they built around it.

"Don't Let Me Down" is a dud?!?

I've gone for Paperback Writer/Rain. Especially Rain - songs about the rain suck. Paperback Writer is ok I guess, but a bit boring.

Ballad of John and Yoko is pretty wack too - it's more or less a John solo song.

Get Back is awful, but Don't Let Me Down has that lovely organ riff that makes me feel nostalgic. Think it was one of my Dad's faves.

"Don't Let Me Down" also has that great guitar sound and Paul's agonized harmonies.

At this point, after raking over the sandbox for so long, even for the songs I don't like very much there's some little bit of business, some drum fill, bassline, harmony or weird time signature that saves it for me.
(xpost)

Except for the ones where Macca is the drummer, where I have a hard time not focusing on that. But even those...

that list is fucking wack. the average rating was 6.2 (yes i counted), and this is the fucking beatles singles!

I should have mentioned that I rated these against each other, not against the rest of the world of mere mortals. Add a point or two to everything if you want. "This song goes up to 11."

At least everyone's craziness in this thread will balance out, making it a somewhat unpredictable poll.

I still don't understand this fascination about "Old Brown Shoe". It's OK and all, and yes, it is better than "Ballad Of John And Yoko" and obviously should have been the a-side, but George Harrison has written lots of considerably better songs.

I think it gets the boost of all unheralded B-sides: they avoid overplay by radio as well as by novice fans, then you get to discover them tucked away on the compilation and they sound really fresh compared to everything else. Also a few really good lyrics of a bent George doesn't do so often, mainly "Want a short-haired girl who sometimes wears it TWICE as long!" No idea what that means but I totally know what it means, y'know?

Also "For your sweet top lip I'm in the QUEUE!"

Anthology version is good too.

I should have mentioned that I rated these against each other, not against the rest of the world of mere mortals. Add a point or two to everything if you want. "This song goes up to 11."

well, i'm relieved.

I left out Free As A Bird and Real Love for fear they would derail everything

good choice, but i can't imagine anyone voting for real love. maybe i'm alone on this, but it's definitely in my top 5 john songs.

Dude, people are voting for Paperback Writer and We Can Work It Out here. ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE.

XXP But there have been so many good unheralded b-sides. I would say the best completely unheralded Beatles b-side is probably "This Boy". Also love "Thank You Girl".

blasphemy

― miss precious perfect (musically), Saturday, January 3, 2009 7:42 PM Bookmark

When I was a senior in HS, one of the few black students at my all-white school, there was an assembly I couldn't manage to get out of, and at the end of the assembly they played "Hey Jude", which at that point I'd never heard in my life. Everyone else sang along to this song I'd never heard before, and then it got to the coda and it just kept going on and on forever and ever with 2000 white kids surrounding me, enthusiastically chanting this neverending unfamiliar refrain. It was surreal. I have never felt more alienated in my life than that moment and I've absolutely detested "Hey Jude" ever since.

heh owned

Reminds me of Tom Ewing's complaint, that it starts out as an avuncular cheer-up chat and devolves into a gregarious, unsolicited bear-hug from which there's no escape and you wind up feeling sorry for Jude. Anyway I can sympathize, on the general principle that anything used in a school assembly context connotes forced fun, which, aligned with race or not, sucks.

I've already voted, but I would consider rating "Let It Be" higher because George's solos are fantastic.

"Hey Jude" is actually a nice little song that probably would have worked perfectly had George Martin had the balls to stop it at 3 and a half minutes.

Yeah, that's probably otm.