POLL Those Years Ago: The Beatles Solo Careers Poll Results Thread

i think they're all p clumsy!

wow here i am with a radical beatle opinion

Jet was my #2 (I think), great melodies, hook after hook, I can't fault it.

Brad otm

hey, even Greil Marcus liked "Jet"!

2. What Is Life - George Harrison (feat. George, Ringo) (2257 points, 28 votes, 2 No. 1 votes))
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/23/What_Is_Life_%28George_Harrison_single_-_cover_art%29.jpg

was surprised this was so high. must be "Goodfellas"

what is life was my #1 and i forgot it was even in Goodfellas

same!

It deserves to be this high!

i think i first heard "what is life" in... a commercial? anyway i wish it were no. 1

guess we all shine on

everything is perfect--the riff, the rhythm guitar, the soaring chorus, the wall of sound.

So #1 is 'Instant Karma!' then.

also shouts out to whoever is drumming on "what is life" (almost certainly jim gordon)

Wow

@ Instant Karma being #1. Great song but didn't see that coming.

and now... Paul's finest moment

at least this is the first poll in a while where the no. 1 was something i voted for

i also forgot i was gonna do a fake no. 1 for "it's johnny's birthday" so pretend i did

1. I'm the Urban Spaceman - The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band (feat. Paul) (2388 points, 28 votes, 2 No. 1 votes)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGVwreJNWlk

lol

Yeah, give us the actual #1.

Apollo Vermouth is such a cool alias

1. Press - Paul McCartney (1000 #1 votes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLSKNzT0Ve8

right there!

Hahahahahaha! Alfred OTM.

1. Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft - The Beatles (3000 #1 votes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9URM_5R-vWk

fine here is the ACTUAL number 1
1. Basketball Jones - Cheech & Chong (feat. George) (2388 points, 34 votes)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlhWPVJNAOo

The amount of McCartney songs placing isn't really because McCartney released more material than Lennon and Harrison, it's because he put out a higher volume of good to great material.

hey, hot take: it could be a little of both

also shouts out to whoever is drumming on "what is life" (almost certainly jim gordon)

― flamenco blorf (BradNelson), Tuesday, June 5, 2018 4:17 PM (eight seconds ago)

OTM. I think I love the drumming on this album more than any of the other instruments. Great combo of fire and taste.

xps lol and lol and lol
xp Brad otm

1. Instant Karma! - John Lennon (feat. John, George) (2388 points, 28 votes, 2 No. 1 votes))
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f0/Instantk.jpg/220px-Instantk.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZQny1XxOdI

damn i would've snuck in a vote for basketball jones if i knew it was eligible

i did not vote for instant karma

Even if it's just McCartney in the '70s it's single tracks plus...nine albums. That's more material.

There's a lot of tracks that have placed here that could have been a deserved #1, and 'Instant Karma!' is one of them - I have no problems with it taking the top spot as it's fucking great.

when i first heard "what is life" it struck me as a theme song for a sitcom, like it could be the intro to something like silver spoons or family ties. i like it in spite of this

sad to not see any of these place - Simply Shady, Sour Milk Sea, No Words, In The First Place, You, This Song, San Ferry Anne, I've Had Enough, Big Barn Bed, Ski-ing, Bless You, So Bad, Put it There

justice for no words and big barn bed

this was a ton of fun thank you shakey

The amount of McCartney songs placing isn't really because McCartney released more material than Lennon and Harrison, it's because he put out a higher volume of good to great material.

the numbers don't bear this out. Here's how it breaks down:

Total points allotted: 145,566
Paul: 56,600
John: 51,038
George: 42,159
Ringo: 35,528

Total No. of Songs voted for: 506
Paul appears on: 246
John appears on: 124
George appears on: 128
Ringo appears on: 59

Of all the points allotted, Macca got 40% of the points while accounting for 49% of the songs voted for. This looks like a pretty good ratio, except that Lennon and Harrison's are considerably better. Lennon had half as many songs, but is pretty close to the same amount of total points as Paul. (35% to John's 39%)

Songs with Lennon, which only account for 25% of the songs voted for, still got 35% of the points allotted. And Harrison was just slightly below that, with 25% of the songs voted for and 29% of the points. What that means is Lennon and Harrison had fewer songs to vote for, but people on the whole rated them more highly.

er 35% to PAUL's 39%, that should say

Well, if you've got so much great stuff to choose from, there's always going to be vote splitting :)

if people felt like McCartney had a higher volume of good to great material, there would've been more ballots with Paul tracks stacked at the top. And there were a few, but generally that was not the case - it was much more of a mix, with a lot of Paul stuff occupying the lower 2/3rds of people's ballots. Top 10s were on the whole split among all four artists (which is also reflected in the final results)

Wow @ the difference between Lennon and Harrison

mmmm, sabermetrics

For example, here's the placings for Maybe I'm Amazed: of the 25 votes for it, 12 were in the top 10, but the rest ranged from the teens to the 80s. If everyone thought this was such an amazing song, more people would have put it in the top 10.

Jet is the same story: 27 votes, but only 9 in the top 10, and the rest range from 12 to 95.

Instant Karma: 28 votes, 17 in the top 10, 7 in the top 30, and the lowest ranking is 76.

yeah, well, jet is way better than instant karma, so really it's the kids who are wrong

Wow @ the difference between Lennon and Harrison

bear in mind that John and George both play on the #1 song, Instant Karma.

they all shine on iirc