Take a Sad Song and Extract Every Last Ounce of Spontaneity from It: the Beatles Uber-Ballad Poll

* and maybe, like, 5 of those above songs are likely to be well-known by the average person, right? I only know about half of them and things like Back Seat of My Car is hardly an iconic hit.

I dunno man. When I think of John Lennon, it's him in his white suit and his white piano singing Imagine and Jealous Guy. He had a lot of other famous songs too - Nobody Told Me, Woman, Watching the Wheels etc. I don't picture McCartney or any of his songs in quite the same way.

― boat of boats (dog latin), Wednesday, June 17, 2015 3:04 PM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It's telling that three of the songs you mentioned are either from Double Fantasy or Milk and Honey - those tracks ('Nobody Told Me', 'Woman', 'Watching The Wheels') were all released as singles after Lennon was murdered. 'Jealous Guy', although it was first released on the Imagine album in 1971, wasn't released as a single until 1985 (again, after Lennon's death) - 'Imagine' is a strange one, because it was released as a single in the US but not in the UK in 1971 (it was a US #3) - however, it did make it to #6 in the UK when it was re-released to promote the Shaved Fish compilation. It did eventually make it to #1 in the UK, but again after Lennon's death.

Conclusion: airplay of Lennon's songs from his brief solo career skyrocketed after he died, obviously helping people become very familiar with his solo material. Well, the ones they could play, anyway: for some reason I can't imagine (hohoho) 'Cold Turkey', 'Woman Is The ****** Of The World' or 'Mother' getting much airtime.

Or any of the solo stuff from before the Beatles broke up.

I do remember "Working Class Hero" getting played at the fade of the BBC's Lennon tribute that night.

"Mother" and "The Dream is over" also got a fair bit of play around that time.

Also, "Give Peace a Chance" has always been up there.

.. which was before the Beatles broke up..

That's interesting and fair enough, Turrican. I wonder what UK hits did Lennon have in his time then?

eleanor rigby is the worst beatles song in this category

and maybe, like, 5 of those above songs are likely to be well-known by the average person, right? I only know about half of them and things like Back Seat of My Car is hardly an iconic hit.

― boat of boats (dog latin), Wednesday, June 17, 2015 3:22 PM (14 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Well, I didn't include all the singles! But of the ones I listed there, yeah, I'd say that half of them would be comfortably well-known to the average person, maybe more... and no, 'Back Seat Of My Car' wasn't a big hit, but it's a fucking great single and I'm sure it'll become iconic after McCartney passes away and everyone says how they thought his solo stuff was great all this time.

"Press" should be higher

"Peace a Chance" was written to be a Beatles song, it's was even credited Lennon-McCartney when released.

UK/US perspectives... keep those in mind. US is kind of lunatic abt the Beatles in a way the UK has never been.

Was it? I thought Lennon gave Macca credit as a return for services rendered on "The Ballad of John and Yoko."

Was it? I thought Lennon gave Macca credit as a return for services rendered on "The Ballad of John and Yoko."

yup.

That's interesting and fair enough, Turrican. I wonder what UK hits did Lennon have in his time then?

― boat of boats (dog latin), Wednesday, June 17, 2015 3:40 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

UK hits:

Give Peace A Chance (UK #2)
Instant Karma (UK #5)
Power To The People (UK #7)
Happy Xmas (War Is Over) (UK #2)
Imagine - 1975 release (UK #6)
(Just Like) Starting Over (UK - Peaked at #8, fell to #21, then #1 after Lennon's death)

UK flops:

Cold Turkey (UK #14)
Mind Games (UK #26)
Whatever Gets You Thru The Night (UK #36 - but was a US #1!)
#9 Dream (UK #23)
Stand By Me (UK #30)

#14 is hardly a flop

as for TLAWR, it was written as a Ray Charles sog and it kinda works...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhVy3Tx07vA

"Press" should be higher

― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, June 17, 2015 3:44 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It wasn't a ranked list, but if it was then yeah, it'd be up there. I know you've always had a soft spot for that track!

#14 is hardly a flop

― The Manner of Crawly (Tom D.), Wednesday, June 17, 2015 3:53 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It is when you're a Beatle. In 1969. After releasing a solo single that made it to #2. Yeah, I'd say it was a flop.

a very hard spot!

xpost

I think it did pretty well to reach #14 tbh (xp)

yeah #14 for the king beatle in 69 is clearly a flop !

ha – didn't Lennon return his medal on the grounds that "Cold Turkey" was a chart flop?

Hehehehe yeah, that was one of the reasons given...

eheh he was such a dick sometimes.

Not at all, that was funny!

yeah, that too. he could be both !

I'm not even going to bother listing the chart positions for all of McCartney's singles, but yeah, loads of top ten hits, plenty of UK #1 hits... 'Mull Of Kintyre' was a million seller. Plenty of US hits too, as Alfred already pointed out.

I think to most Americans Paul is the guy singing that weird synthy song playing in every store at Christmas time.

Or the guy who plays the guitar for Rihanna.

One reason Paul had the most successful solo career was that he more or less was constantly recording and playing music, George just stopping playing live in the mid 70s, John had the Lost Weekend and then quit music altogether for half a decade, Ringo doing more movie stuff, etc. It's not like they were all continuously engaging w the music industry on the same level.

'My Love', 'Band On The Run', 'Listen To What The Man Said', 'Silly Love Songs', 'With A Little Luck', 'Coming Up', 'Ebony and Ivory' and 'Say Say Say' were the US chart toppers. Funny how 'Mull Of Kintyre' became a UK million seller, but didn't make #1 in the US. Having said that, 'Pipes Of Peace' was a UK #1 as well.

Ringo didn't stop making music – it just sucked.

Ringo just wanted to play. I always thought he should've spent his post-Beatles years as the drummer in a band like The Band or Moby Grape.

Yeah, George stopped playing live in the mid '70s, but he didn't really slow down on his album output until 1982's Gone Troppo. He released eight albums from 1970-1982, but then only two albums (1987's Cloud Nine and 2002's posthumous Brainwashed) after that.

Of course, Paul was also writing and recording songs that people liked and clearly wanted to buy.

If only all of Ringo's stuff was as good as 'It Don't Come Easy'.

Paul is a hustler (I don't mean this in a bad way fwiw) w a pathological need for approval in a way the others weren't imo

By the way:

It Don't Come Easy (UK #4)
Back Off Boogaloo (UK #2)
Photograph (UK #8)
You're Sixteen (UK #4)

^^^

Four Top 10 hits. That's the same amount of UK Top 10 hits from 1969-1974 as Lennon achieved in the same time period.

(Given that the UK 'Imagine' single was issued in '75, and '(Just Like) Starting Over' was '80)

Also, looking at Harrison's UK chart positions, it would seem that even though he never stopped making albums, the hits had pretty much dried up from 1974-1987.

My Sweet Lord (UK #1)
Bangla-Desh (UK #10)
Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth) (UK #8)

then...

Ding Dong (UK #38)
You (UK #38)
Blow Away (UK #51)
All Those Years Ago (UK #13)

then...

Got My Mind Set On You (UK #2)
When We Was Fab (#25)
This Is Love (UK #55)
Any Road (#37)

for a while in America Ringo was the most successful solo Beatle on the Hot 100.

Seriously? I assume that would have been around the time of the Ringo album, right?

every song between "It Don't Come Easy" and "No No Song/Snookeroo" hit the top ten.

it wasn't even close. George was the biggest solo Beatle as far as album sales until 1973.

Man, Ringo's US singles run from 1971-1975 was nuts:

"It Don't Come Easy" (#4)
"Back Off Boogaloo" (#9)
"Photograph" (#1)
"You're Sixteen" (#1)
"Oh My My" (#5)
"Only You (And You Alone)" (#6)
"No No Song" (#3)

every one of those is songs is at least a B+ or B too.

Holy shit, you guys took to Ringo's solo stuff far more than we ever did, it has to be said!

I'm guessing Paul overtook everyone from 1973 onwards.

Ahah the top 3 most listenned songs for macca on Spotify are :
#3 live and let Die
#2 let it be
And by very far.... #1 three four seconds !
That said it's the live version of let it be.

It helps that McCartney still plays 'Live and Let Die' in his live sets.