01	Get Back						03:11
	02	Let it Be						03:55
	03	Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da						03:11
	04	Back in the USSR						02:47
	05	Octopus's Garden						02:50
	06	While My Guitar Gently Weeps						04:47
	07	Hey Jude						07:07
	08	Penny Lane						03:02
	09	Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band						02:05
	10	With A Little Help From My Friends						02:47
	11	A Day in the Life						04:51
	12	Hello Goodbye						03:28
	13	Magical Mystery Tour						02:48
	14	Lady Madonna						02:17
	15	The Ballad Of John And Yoko						03:00
	16	Here Comes The Sun						03:07
	17	Come Together						04:19
	18	Across the Universe						03:44
	19	Strawberry Fields Forever						03:34
	20	Don't Let Me Down						03:32

1967-1970
Date of Release Apr 2, 1973


Picking up where 1962-1966 left off, the double-album compilation 1967-1970, commonly called the "Blue Album," covers the Beatles' later records, from Sgt. Pepper through Let It Be. Like the Red Album, the Blue Album contains a mixture of hits, including singles like "Lady Madonna," "Hey Jude," and "Revolution" that were never included on an LP, plus important album tracks like "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," "A Day in the Life," "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," and "Come Together." Like its predecessor, 1967-1970 misses several great songs, but the compilation nevertheless does capture the essence of the Beatles' later recordings. - Stephen Thomas Erlewine

1. Strawberry Fields Forever (Lennon/McCartney)
2. Penny Lane (Lennon/McCartney)
3. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Lennon/McCartney)
4. With a Little Help from My Friends (Lennon/McCartney)
5. Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds (Lennon/McCartney)
6. A Day in the Life (Lennon/McCartney)
7. All You Need Is Love (Lennon/McCartney)
8. I Am the Walrus (Lennon/McCartney)
9. Hello, Goodbye (Lennon/McCartney)
10. The Fool on the Hill (Lennon/McCartney)
11. Magical Mystery Tour (Lennon/McCartney)
12. Lady Madonna (Lennon/McCartney)
13. Hey Jude (Lennon/McCartney)
14. Revolution (Lennon/McCartney)
15. Back in the U.S.S.R. (Lennon/McCartney)
16. While My Guitar Gently Weeps (Harrison)
17. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da (Lennon/McCartney)
18. Get Back (Lennon/McCartney)
19. Don't Let Me Down (Lennon/McCartney)
20. The Ballad of John and Yoko (Lennon/McCartney)
21. Old Brown Shoe (Harrison)
22. Here Comes the Sun (Harrison)
23. Come Together (Lennon/McCartney)
24. Something (Harrison)
25. Octopus's Garden (Starr)
26. Let It Be (Lennon/McCartney)
27. Across the Universe (Lennon/McCartney)
28. The Long and Winding Road (Lennon/McCartney)


George Harrison - Guitar, Vocals
John Lennon - Guitar, Vocals
Paul McCartney - Bass, Guitar, Piano, Vocals
Ringo Starr - Drums, Vocals
George Martin - Producer
Phil Spector - Producer

1993 CD Capitol 97039
1993 CS Capitol 97039
1973 LP Capitol C1-90438
1990 LP Capitol 90438
CS Capitol C4-90438
1994 LP Capitol 97039





Strawberry Fields Forever
Composed By John Lennon/Paul McCartney

AMG REVIEW: A hit single (as part of a double A-side with "Penny Lane") in early 1967, "Strawberry Fields Forever" is one of the Beatles' peak achievements and one of the finest Lennon- McCartney songs. At the beginning of its quite complicated evolution, the tune, principally the work of John Lennon, was a folky ballad evoking a dream world where nothing was real and there was nothing to get hung about. As is well known, Strawberry Fields is a real location in the city where Lennon grew up, Liverpool. Strawberry Field (the actual name is singular) was a Salvation Army orphanage where he used to play with his friends as a child. The song "Strawberry Fields Forever," however, is not so much about a physical place as it is about a state of mind, drug-influenced almost surely. As is the case with several other Lennon songs of the period, there could be an implication that this attractively lethargic, peaceful state is an inner state of being preferable to that of the straight world. "Strawberry Fields" is not necessarily a utopia, though, as the references to living being easy with eyes closed convey; it could be interpreted as an unhealthy escapist withdrawal from reality or even an inference that death is preferable to life. The song's effect was greatly enhanced by its production, with an arrangement that would undergo numerous changes during the course of the recording process. Two finished versions were completed, one closer to the song's folky origins, one more orchestrated. John Lennon wanted to use portions from each, and asked George Martin to combine them, despite the fact that they had been recorded in different keys and tempos. In his most famous production feat of all, Martin slowed one portion down and sped up the other, finding that - miraculously - both the tempos and the keys then matched. That accounts in large part for the magnificently varied moods and textures of the final track, with its unearthly opening mellotron introduction (mistaken by some for flutes) leading into the gently delivered initial chorus and verse. The atmosphere becomes tenser and effectively underscores the ambiguity of the song's lyrics, as funereal marching brass is introduced, making the promise of Strawberry Fields' dream world seem more ominous, even menacing (especially when a noise like that of a spade digging a grave is hard). The song comes to a glorious close with several repetitions of the title chorus and a fadeout with lovely guitar, cello, and swordmandel (played by George Harrison). But wait - that isn't quite the end. After a few seconds of dead air, a totally unrelated and quite dissonant piece of musique concrete fades in, with crunchy Ringo Starr drum rolls, nightmarish flute mellotrons, and a noise that sounds like muted ambulance horns. This coda again could signify that the placid dreamscape of Strawberry Fields isn't all it seems, and that a hellish whirlwind could be lurking just underneath. At the very end of a fade-out, a creepy slowed-down voice mumbles what many understood to be a Paul McCartney-is-dead clue, "I buried Paul," although it was actually Lennon saying "cranberry sauce." Hardly an easy performance to match and redefine, "Strawberry Fields Forever" nonetheless was attempted by a few others, including the late-'60s British psychedelic band Tomorrow (who did a faithful hard rock version with Steve Howe on lead guitar) and Richie Havens, who interpreted numerous Beatles songs in a folky style. - Richie Unterberger



Penny Lane
Composed By John Lennon/Paul McCartney

AMG REVIEW: As one-half of a double A-side with "Strawberry Fields Forever" in early 1967, the Beatles' "Penny Lane" was one-half of the ultimate pop single - one which boasted all-time classics on each side that neatly complemented each other in subject matter and also subtly illustrated the complementary strengths of the greatest songwriting partnership in rock music. Like "Strawberry Fields Forever," the key image of "Penny Lane" derived from Liverpool childhood, although in "Penny Lane" this was an image utilized by principal composer Paul McCartney, whereas "Strawberry Fields Forever" had been John Lennon's work. Not far from the Strawberry Field orphanage that figured in "Strawberry Fields Forever," Penny Lane is an actual street in a Liverpool shopping center. Where Lennon had used Strawberry Field as a springboard into a sleepy dream-state, however, McCartney described "Penny Lane" with bright, acute detail, from the shelter in the roundabout and the nurse to the barber, the fireman, and the banker without a raincoat (termed a "mac" in the song, in accordance with the British term for raincoat). In this respect, "Penny Lane" set the pace for a distinctively British brand of psychedelia that would use children's storybook-like imagery as an evocation of a happier, purer state of mind, whether found in Syd Barrett's early songs for Pink Floyd or in obscure cult bands such as Tomorrow. "Penny Lane" was not just a sharply sketched, nostalgic slice of British life, however. The soaring bridge, in which Penny Lane becomes part of the narrator's very ears and eyes, intimates that Penny Lane, like Strawberry Fields, is as much a state of mind as an actual place. The reference to "fish and finger pie" is Liverpool slang for a sexual treat that might have gotten the song banned from the airwaves if the reference had been spelled out. There's also the way the bridge seems to be drifting off into a dream with the words "in summer" before it's suddenly brought back to earth by the lines "meanwhile back," like a narrator suddenly shifting the scene back to the character-dominated verse where it belongs. It's as if the verses are reality and the bridges a journey into a different, perhaps hallucinogenic, world. Musically, "Penny Lane" is sheer delight, with one of McCartney's bounciest, catchiest melodies, an effective blend of piano and orchestration (particularly in the high-pitched trumpet solo on the instrumental break), and exhilarating harmonies on the bridge. One more indication that the world of "Penny Lane" might have more disturbing, complex undertones than are evident on the surface arrives at the very end, when the song ends on a pleasing piano chord, which briefly sustains before an unexpected swell of distorted-sounding cymbals. It's a marvelously spooky (and surprisingly little commented-upon) touch that, like the brief bit of dissonant instrumental madness after "Strawberry Fields Forever"'s false ending, adds a sinister edge to an apparently lighthearted nostalgic reflection on a time and place that maybe never was as magnificent as they were thought to be in the mind's eye. Equal in brilliance to "Strawberry Fields Forever," "Penny Lane" made number one in the U.S., where "Strawberry Fields Forever" (measured separately on the chart, although it was an official double A-side in the U.K.) only made number eight. At the time, then, "Penny Lane" was certainly the more popular and widely played of the two songs, although time has evened any imbalance in exposure. - Richie Unterberger



All You Need Is Love
Composed By John Lennon/Paul McCartney

AMG REVIEW: "All You Need Is Love" was a number one single in mid-1967, becoming the unofficial hippie anthem for the Summer of Love, that brief time that ranks among the most optimistic periods in popular music and culture. It is to the Beatles' credit that the song endures as a pop classic today, removed from its original context. In part this is because the Beatles had the acumen not to take the song too seriously, punctuating it with the irreverent humor that had been a calling card for the band since their inception. Mostly written by John Lennon, the song had its genesis in an event that, in hindsight, seems rather peculiar and opportunistic. On June 25, 1967, the BBC television program Our World broadcast a live worldwide program incorporating material from 18 countries. The Beatles were to represent Britain with a new song, performed live. For that reason, Lennon kept the lyrics fairly simple, emphasizing the power and value of love in its universal sense, rather than merely a man-woman or romantic one. Given its worldwide exposure, the Beatles were perhaps also mindful of playing a song with a message that promoted peace and understanding, as the world of 1967 was unfortunately (as is the case in any other era) divided by numerous wars and ideological feuds. Although the circumstances dictating the song might have been seen as confining, the Beatles, as usual, if anything turned such obstacles to their advantage, coming up with a song that was both suitable for the broadcast and a suitable choice for their next single. Any suspicion of over-earnest pontificating is abolished by the famous opening brass fanfare, quoting briefly from the French national anthem "La Marseillaise" before launching into the Beatles' playful high harmonies on the word "love" (which recur behind the verses throughout the song). The Lennon-sung verses are perhaps the most serious element of the track, sincerely urging listeners to try and do anything they want, with a can-do optimism that is downright empowering. The ultra-catchy singalong chorus is underscored by witty, jazzy horns from the big band era, and the brief instrumental break features an even briefer biting guitar solo before a sumptuous burst of orchestration. On the second pass through the chorus, the party singalong mood is further embroidered by shouts of "all together now" and "everybody," in much the same way similar shouts confirmed the conviviality near the end of "Yellow Submarine." That sets the stage for one of the most famous Beatles fades of all: a repetition of the last line of the chorus as the orchestra takes off into several different tangents, including brief quotes from classic love songs of the past, such as "Greensleeves" and Glenn Miller's "In the Mood." There is also the famous voice singing a super-short extract of the Beatles' own "She Loves You": a classic that, although only four years old at the time "All You Need Is Love" was released, already seemed to belong to a long-gone, distant era. - Richie Unterberger



I Am the Walrus
Composed By John Lennon/Paul McCartney

AMG REVIEW: "I Am the Walrus" was one of the strangest and most avant-garde Beatles songs. For all its weirdness, however, it wasn't devoid of some conventional melodic pop appeal, and it was used on the B-side of "Hello Goodbye" (as well as on the Magical Mystery Tour album and film). "I Am the Walrus" is the densest and most symphonic track from the Beatles' psychedelic period, with so many layers of sounds and effects that it takes quite a few listenings to get to the bottom of them. Sung and written by John Lennon (although credited to Lennon- McCartney), the ominous mood of the song is established by the opening two-note riff, inspired by the sound of a police siren. Swooping strings then embellish the sense that listeners are about to embark on something resembling a bad acid trip. The very first line is fair warning that listeners are not going to sit back and be entertained by a straightforward story, with its almost nonsensical string of pronouns, as if Lennon is taking absurdist revenge on all those 1963 Lennon- McCartney lyrics in which the composers determined to use as many "you" and "I" pronouns as possible. "I Am the Walrus" is, in fact, a stitching together of several fragments that could have been developed into entirely different songs, but what could have been a mess flows together quite well, aided by the esteemed producer George Martin. In the verses, Lennon cleverly alternates between similar, but not exactly similar, melodies in which the surreal images fly at a furious rate. It's free association which does not make sense - and Lennon always said they weren't intended to make sense - like sitting on a cornflake, penguins singing "Hare Krishna," and, most unforgettably, the yellow matter custard dripping from a dead dog's eye (the last of which was actually adopted from a British school children's rhyme). There's the brief sexual reference (about a girl letting her knickers down) that showed up in many a mid-'60s Beatles song, and what may be the first deliberate reference to another Beatles song ( "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds"); "I Am the Walrus" itself would later be referred to in another Beatles track ( "Glass Onion"). At one point, "I Am the Walrus" suddenly derails into a burst of white noise jabber - as if a radio tuner has suddenly switched channels - and mournful strings introduce a dreamy line about sitting in an English garden that has no apparent melodic or lyrical relation to anything else in the composition. That detour is quickly steered back to the chorus, as if it's a miniature break from the nightmare (or from the absurd reality of life?). And what a strange chorus it is: Lennon declaring that he is the eggman, whatever that is, and is also the walrus, ending with a nonsense lyric, as responsive harmonies follow the ascending melody like a chorus of ghouls. The lengthy fade-out is no less weird than the rest of the track, with those ghoulish harmonizers (actually the Mike Sammes Singers) sounding like a children's nursery rhyme run amok and the memorable addition of dialog from a BBC broadcast of Shakespeare's King Lear (a snippet of dialog also appears earlier in the song). One would think that "I Am the Walrus" would actually scare away potential cover versions due to the complexity of its arrangement and its sheer oddness, but it has actually attracted its share of attempts over the years, including a heavy rock interpretation by Spooky Tooth, a damned strange one by British avant-garde musician Lol Coxhill, and another by 1990s Brit-pop stars Oasis. - Richie Unterberger



Hello, Goodbye
Composed By John Lennon/Paul McCartney

AMG REVIEW: Of all the songs to be recorded by the Beatles during their psychedelic apogee in 1967, "Hello Goodbye" might simultaneously be the most innocuous and the most commercial. It was a huge number one hit at the end of 1967 - bigger, indeed, than "Penny Lane" or "All You Need Is Love," although time tends to forget this since those other songs have gained greater critical attention. The chief, and considerable, appeal of "Hello Goodbye" is primary composer Paul McCartney's beguiling melody, twisting and turning inventively through both its cheerful verse and the more haunting chorus, but always extremely memorable and hummable. The track boasts an extremely attractive combination of piano, viola, and occasional spidery lead guitar lines. The use of counterpoint vocal harmonies is, as was frequently the case on Beatles tracks, incredibly artful, both in the chorus and in the last pass through the verse, where voices answer McCartney's lead vocals with different but complementary melodic lines. The lyrics are little more than a series of paradoxes: The narrator wants to say one thing, the person he's addressing wants to say the complete opposite. Viewed cruelly, you could say it's nothing more than a variation on the time-honored cliche "you say toh-may-toh, I say toh-mah-toh." Viewed within the context of the psychedelic era, it could be speculated that the Beatles were saying, as they often implied during that year, that there were more facets of reality than were immediately apparent. McCartney himself said (in his autobiography) that it was a song mirroring the duality that runs so deep in the universe, pointing out, interestingly, that he (as the "I" in the song) emphasized the positives, as opposed to the "you" in the song that emphasized the negatives. As is seen in numerous other McCartney songs, it stressed clever wordplay that suited the melody over personal emotional expression. Perhaps that's why John Lennon was quite negative in the dismissal of the song (in an interview with Rolling Stone) a few years later, but it can't be argued that within the limits of that approach to songwriting craft, "Hello Goodbye" is nigh unbeatable. The track boasts one of the coolest Beatles fades: After coming to a dead false stop, with a lonely decaying McCartney vocal, the song comes to life again with a lively nonsense chant with a melody heard nowhere else in the composition. The somewhat South Pacific-sounding rhythms in the cadence of this coda led the Beatles to nickname this a "Maori finale." - Richie Unterberger



Fool on the Hill
Composed By John Lennon/Paul McCartney

AMG REVIEW: Aside from "I Am the Walrus," "The Fool on the Hill" was the offering of highest quality on the Magical Mystery Tour soundtrack. (The Magical Mystery Tour album, as released in the U.S. in late 1967 with an expanded track lineup eventually adopted as the worldwide standard for CD reissues, featured other songs from 1967 Beatles singles, but those did not appear in the film soundtrack.) "The Fool on the Hill" was written solely by Paul McCartney, although jointly credited to Lennon- McCartney, as was the custom for Beatles songs involving either of the parties. It was typical of McCartney's ballads: a lovely, lilting tune that, unlike much of the Beatles' work, was easily adaptable for the sets of middle-of-the-road pop singers who would usually dress it up in far more garish arrangements than the Beatles did. The words, however, were more sophisticated than the romantic ones McCartney had employed for his most popular previous ballads, such as "And I Love Her" and "Yesterday." The subject was, indeed, a fool on a hill, one who to surface appearances does little but stand there and observe the spinning world. There's the effective contrast that one had come to expect from the Beatles by this point between the bright melody of the verses and the minor, sad one of the bridge, keeping a song that verged on sappiness from actually being sappy. The tune lightly implies that the fool on the hill might be a lot wiser than people think, or indeed might be wiser than those people who would make fun are. Perhaps by extension, it could be a comment that the "fools" of the era - the hippies who were dropping out of the straight world to play and reach into themselves - were a lot smarter than the straight world was giving them credit for, although that might well be reading too much into the composition. It's interesting, though, that the Fool, a group of Dutch hippies, had begun to do some artistic and design work for the Beatles around this time. Perhaps McCartney had this specific Fool in mind, either consciously or subliminally; he wrote in his autobiography that "The Fool on the Hill" grew out of his experiences of having his Tarot cards read by the Fool. The playful idiot-savant character of the fool is emphasized by the rather woolly and wobbly recorder that takes over on the instrumental break. "The Fool on the Hill" was not a Beatles single, but Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66 recognized the commercial potential of the song with an easy listening bossa nova cover, complete with Astrud Gilberto-style vocal, that made the Top Ten in 1968. - Richie Unterberger



Magical Mystery Tour
Composed By John Lennon/Paul McCartney

AMG REVIEW: "Magical Mystery Tour" was the theme song for the ill-fated television movie of the same name that the Beatles did for the BBC in late 1967. Unlike all four of the other theme songs for Beatles films - "A Hard Day's Night," "Help!," "Yellow Submarine," and "Let It Be" - "Magical Mystery Tour" was not destined to be a smash single (or even a single) or a much-recognized standard. There's a reason for that which goes beyond the failure of the film to gain U.S. broadcast and theatrical distribution. "Magical Mystery Tour" was a pleasant, get-up-and-go tune, but not one of the Beatles' very best songs, though principal author Paul McCartney no doubt would have liked it to be, since the Magical Mystery Tour film was his idea to begin with. Still, on its relatively modest merits, the "Magical Mystery Tour" song is a good listen. Its exhortative "you can all join in" air no doubt was influenced by the whimsical premise of the film, in which ordinary British citizens join the Beatles for a semi- psychedelic bus tour around Britain. A declamatory brassy fanfare - something the Beatles utilized often in 1967 ( "All You Need Is Love," "Penny Lane," "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band") - opens the song before a rather jazzy verse that implores listeners and passengers to get into the spirit of the venture. Counterpart harmonies nicely underpin McCartney's lead vocal, which is really not much more than a string of tourist agency cliches; the chorus, again decorated by expansive horn lines, seems more heartfelt. When Beatles compositions were a little on the slight side during the psychedelic era, the tracks were virtually always rescued by some unusual additions and augmentations. In "Magical Mystery Tour" those can be heard in the odd bit after one of the choruses in which the group suddenly sings a new reverie-like melody about a mystery trip, leading into another burst of snazzy trumpets and a gradual speeding up of the tempo as the verse returns. It's as if the Beatles had been slipping into a dream, then roused slowly back to reality - another feature of circa-1967 Beatles recordings such as "A Day in the Life" and "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds." There are also those whooshes of bus noise from time to time, reminding listeners of how exciting the tour will be (although many of those who have seen the film would beg to differ). Then there's the strange coda, with its slightly dissonant, minor piano ramblings. This strikes a bittersweet mood rather at odds with the relentlessly upbeat pose of the rest of the song, as if to say the magical mystery tour might not be quite the wholesome carnival it's being billed as. - Richie Unterberger



Lady Madonna
Composed By John Lennon/Paul McCartney

AMG REVIEW: "Lady Madonna" is one of the Beatles' lesser-known singles, perhaps in part because it was slightly less successful than their usual 45 (reaching number four in the U.S. instead of the usual number one, although it topped the chart in Britain), and perhaps also in part because it was never attached to a non-compilation Beatles album. Still, it was an excellent song, written and sung by Paul McCartney, although credited to Lennon- McCartney (as the end of the 1960s approached, the pair was writing entirely separately for much of the time). It also heralded the end of their psychedelic phase and their return to a fairly "back-to-basics" rock approach, one that was widespread in early 1968, as in the Rolling Stones' "Jumpin' Jack Flash" and Bob Dylan's John Wesley Harding album. With its pounding boogie piano and relaxed, bluesy vocal, "Lady Madonna" has been frequently and justifiably seen as taking Fats Domino as a musical model. Actually, much of the arrangement had been based on a mid-'50s British trad jazz hit by trumpeter Humphrey Lyttleton that was quite well known in the U.K., but virtually unknown in America. The lyrics, however, were more intriguing than anything Fats Domino was likely to come up with in their depiction of a struggling mother. The words strongly imply, albeit in a chipper fashion, that Lady Madonna is a prostitute, with the protagonist juggling the needs of her clients and those of her kids on different days of the week. The group's love of puns expresses itself in the line which could refer to either runs in stockings or running kids. The use of religious imagery - referring to one of her (probable) customers as creeping like a nun, using the very name of Madonna for someone involved in the profession, and the query about the futility of waiting for money to be sent from heaven - was a titillating blend of sexual and religious symbolism that could be interpreted as blasphemous in some quarters. Musically, the highlights were the wordless harmonies in the instrumental break, where the Beatles effectively and wittily mimicked the sound of brass instruments with their voices. It was perhaps inevitable that Fats Domino himself would quickly do a faithful cover of "Lady Madonna" as a comeback single, although it didn't set the charts afire. - Richie Unterberger



Hey Jude
Composed By John Lennon/Paul McCartney

AMG REVIEW: With their 1968 number one single "Hey Jude," the Beatles managed to cover several bases at once. It was one of their most memorable, classic, romantic songs, and it was simultaneously quite commercial and structurally daring, even barrier-breaking. The barrier being broken was that which limited pop singles to about two or three minutes in length, and certainly never more than five; "Hey Jude" went on for just over seven minutes. Sung and written by Paul McCartney (although John Lennon was instrumental in getting him to keep the line about the movement on his shoulder), "Hey Jude" is not exactly a standard love song, but a song of consolation, sympathy, and encouragement. After all, the singer is not singing about himself or singing to a lover, but to a friend, imploring him or her to let go of the sadness of the past and open up to the possibilities of a new relationship. Lennon even speculated that McCartney was addressing the song to him, saying it was okay for him to begin his relationship with Yoko Ono. It was written around the time McCartney's engagement to Jane Asher broke off (and shortly before his relationship with Linda Eastman became serious), however, so it could also be seen as a subtle message to himself. Whatever, "Hey Jude"'s strength lies in its sublime melody, sad at points but never depressing, with an elegiac mood heightened by McCartney's stately piano playing and the Beatles' angelic background harmonies. What could have been just another great Beatles ballad became something quite extraordinary at the end of the last verse when the vocals unpredictably repeat the last word over and over again in ascending notes, ending in a full-out jubilant scream. That's the signal for the most elongated Beatles fadeout ever, lasting about four minutes, consisting solely of repeated harmonized "nah nah nah" refrains. What could have very easily been boring is instead hypnotic, because McCartney varies the vocal with some of the greatest nonsense scatting ever heard in rock, ranging from mantra-like chants to soulful lines to James Brown power screams. In addition, there's a gradual addition of numerous orchestral instruments, creating a symphonic grandeur that builds in majesty. "Hey Jude" can easily be covered by reducing much or most of the fadeout, and has been frequently interpreted by rock, pop, and even jazz performers, including Elvis Presley and (in a live rendition) the Grateful Dead. The most commercially successful one, however, was by Wilson Pickett, whose soul cover, with guitar by Duane Allman, made the Top 30 in early 1969, just a few months after the Beatles' own version had topped the charts. - Richie Unterberger



Revolution
Composed By John Lennon/Paul McCartney

AMG REVIEW: As the B-side of "Hey Jude," "Revolution" formed one-half of a worthy contender for the best rock single of all time. As with another contender, "Penny Lane"/ "Strawberry Fields Forever," each side represented one of the best and most characteristic songwriting efforts by Paul McCartney and John Lennon, respectively (even if they were billed to Lennon- McCartney jointly, out of contractual custom). "Revolution" was, of course, quite different in tone from "Hey Jude," one of the group's best ballads. In contrast, "Revolution" was one of their greatest, most furious rockers, also featuring some of Lennon's most challenging, fiery lyrics. It must first be noted that two entirely different arrangements of "Revolution" were recorded and released. A slow one with doo wop-inspired harmonies, officially titled "Revolution 1," appeared on The Beatles (popularly known as the White Album); the faster and, most would agree, superior version appeared on the B-side of the "Hey Jude" single. The song described here will be the single version, simply entitled "Revolution." Leading off with a startling machine-gun fuzz guitar riff and a scream, the heart immediately starts pounding before Lennon goes into the first verse. (Trivia note: An obscure 1954 recording by bluesman Pee Wee Crayton, "Do Unto Others," has an opening riff that sounds almost identical to the riff that opens "Revolution." Coincidence, or not?) Combining one of his throatiest vocals and the consistently buzzing, fuzzy guitars, you have one of the most down-and-dirty Beatles tracks ever. In "Revolution," Lennon seems to be questioning, quite reasonably, the validity of changing the world through violent means. He was setting himself up for criticism from all sides here, particularly in the turbulent year of 1968: the establishment was angered by anyone talking about "Revolution" in any context, while some of the left viewed refusal to overthrow society by any means necessary as a cowardly sellout. Lennon is quite emphatic, however, that when it comes to violence, you can count him out. (Typically, he would sit on the fence on this issue over the years, and in "Revolution 1," qualify his observation by immediately singing the word "in" after declaring that he could be counted out.) Characteristically, optimism prevails in the Beatles' world, even when taking on one of the most explosive subjects possible, as on the uplifting chorus (helped greatly by harmony vocals), when the group urgently and repeatedly reassures listeners that everything's going to be all right. Those reassurances become sing-shouts in the final refrain, though the loud guitar figures in the background imply that everything might not be all right, as does a final near-hysterical repetition of the phrase by Lennon. "Revolution," incidentally, was one of the few Beatles tracks to feature a contribution from an outside rock session musician, Nicky Hopkins, who adds ebullient keyboards to the performance. - Richie Unterberger



Back in the U.S.S.R.
Composed By John Lennon/Paul McCartney

AMG REVIEW: "Back in the U.S.S.R.," the opening track on The Beatles (aka The White Album), was both a tribute to and a satire of traditional rock forms that had formed the foundation of the Beatles' sound, even if the group had spent most of their career transcending those foundations. There was a Chuck Berry chug to the verses - indeed, the words were a spin on Berry's "Back in the USA" - and an explicit emulation of the Beach Boys' high harmonies on the bridge. ( The Beach Boys influence is perhaps attributable to Beach Boys singer Mike Love, whom McCartney had spent time with in early 1968 when studying with the Maharishi in India, and who had suggested the idea for the song in the first place.) In a sense it was a pastiche, and for those critics that favor intense personal expression over craftsmanship, it might be judged as unduly superficial. Within the limits of the pastiche, however, "Back in the U.S.S.R." is at the very top of the genre in quality. The jet-propelled excitement of the song is established by the opening and closing sound effects of an airplane taking off and/or landing, and urgent ascending guitar chords in a boogie rhythm. The Beatles had recently embraced a back-to-basics rock ethos with their "Lady Madonna" single, and "Back in the U.S.S.R." continued that trend, with one of Paul McCartney's patented forceful hard rock vocals. "Back in the U.S.S.R." was not merely a rewrite of a combination of classic 1950s and early-'60s rock songs, however. Few or, more probably, none of the acts recording in that style back then would have devised such a sharp, tongue-in-cheek lyric, talking about a flight so dreadful that you almost threw up, foxy chicks in Moscow and the Ukraine, and hailing the sound of balalaikas (instead of guitars) ringing. It was, and still is, unusual to hear an English lyric singing about Soviet life (should we now say "former Soviet life"?) in such glowing, sassy, and fun terms, even if the intent was ironic rather than based on factual experience. Some of the more boneheaded conservatives of the day, in fact, seized upon "Back in the U.S.S.R." as evidence that the Beatles were Communist shills. "Back in the U.S.S.R.," unlike many other late-'60s Beatles songs, has a straightforward basic arrangement that's easy to play live, and has been covered from time to time on record; John Fred & the Playboys (of "Judy in Disguise" fame) did a brassy soul version, for instance. - Richie Unterberger



While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Composed By George Harrison

AMG REVIEW: George Harrison had established himself as a decent songwriter in the years prior to 1968, but he had not come up with any songs that sat on the same level as the best Lennon- McCartney compositions or had entered the body of popular music as a standard of sorts. "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," from The White Album, was the best shot he had launched toward achieving that status up to that time, even if it fell just short of landing within the best few dozen or so Beatles songs. Although it starts off at a fairly brisk mid-tempo speed dotted by stuttering notes, it soon settles into a dramatically slow tempo that stays just this side of funereal. Harrison almost always had a more pious, brooding tone to his work than Lennon- McCartney did, and that's evident on the verses of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," with their mournful, almost resigned reflections. This is juxtaposed with a more uplifting - musically, at any rate - bridge in which Harrison's voice soars at the very limits of his upper range, and which adopts a somewhat more questioning, wondering attitude. A song about a guitar gently weeping, of course, would be expected to prominently feature guitars, and the fluid leads are played by Harrison's friend Eric Clapton, in the single most famous instance of an outside rock musician contributing to a Beatles recording. The fades on Harrison's songs tended to be more prone to aimless meandering than those used on Lennon- McCartney's - on "Blue Jay Way" and "Love You To," for instance - and the extended tag to "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" approaches those qualities, although some may see that as suitable for the song's passive flavor. A completely different alternate take of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" was recorded featuring only Harrison and his acoustic guitar (with a bit of overdubbed organ by McCartney), and including a verse not heard in the White Album version. This take was issued on Anthology 3, and unlike most of the alternates heard on the Anthology series, was both different from and equally as impressive as the familiar version. It had a subdued, "unplugged" feel that was quite enchanting, amplifying the song's saddest and most solitary qualities. - Richie Unterberger



Don't Let Me Down
Composed By John Lennon/Paul McCartney

AMG REVIEW: "Don't Let Me Down" was one of the Beatles' most powerful love songs, used for the B-side of "Get Back," and fairly popular on its own merit, reaching the Top 40 under its own steam. The principal composer for this outing was lead singer John Lennon, who delivered one of his most soulful vocals ever for the track: a vocal that conveyed soulful ecstasy and desperation. As with other of Lennon's songs from the late '60s, "Don't Let Me Down" manages to harmoniously string together what sound like fragments that could have developed into two or three different songs. The tune's mainstay is its chorus, with its rich wailing harmonies, consisting of nothing but the title. The verses usually extol the delightful infatuation of a fresh romance, motivated by the initiation of Lennon's long relationship with his soon-to-be-wife Yoko Ono. However, there's also a verse that goes into a different melody and peppier rhythm. Despite its assertions that the narrator is in love for the first time with a love that will last forever, there's a slight underlying feeling of anxiety and uncertainty, as if the singer suspects it might be too good to be true. As on "Get Back" and some other songs from the group's early-1969 Let It Be sessions, its soulfulness is accented by the electric keyboards of a temporary fifth Beatle, Billy Preston. - Richie Unterberger



Ballad of John and Yoko
Composed By John Lennon/Paul McCartney

AMG REVIEW: No Beatles single could be said to be obscure, but "The Ballad of John and Yoko" is among their lesser-celebrated singles, despite its dependable high quality. There are a few reasons for that: it was issued while their previous 45, the number one single "Get Back," was still on the charts; it would not be part of a non-compilation Beatles album; and, in the United States, its air play was curtailed due to the lyrical reference to Christ. In fact, it only reached number eight in the States, although it made in the U.K. Why was it released so quickly in the wake of "Get Back"? Because it's about John Lennon and Yoko Ono's March 1969 marriage and honeymoon, and Lennon was determined to get it released as soon as possible, particularly since much of that honeymoon had been devoted to promoting world peace at their "Bed-In" in Amsterdam. As such, "The Ballad of John and Yoko" is almost like a newspaper story set to music, consisting of Lennon's witty recounting of real-life events. ( Paul McCartney, incidentally, did help Lennon complete the song, although the pair were for the most part writing entirely on their own by 1969.) Like many of the songs from the Beatles' early 1969 Let It Be sessions, such as "Get Back," "The Ballad of John and Yoko" has an updated 1950s rock & roll feel, albeit with the kind of ambitious lyrics that would have never been heard on an actual 1950s rock & roll record. The melody and arrangement is greatly aided by Mexican-like ascending and descending guitar strums in the chorus, as well as excellent high McCartney harmonies throughout. At this point, Lennon was a most controversial public figure, due to his volatile sociopolitical statements and his increasingly bizarre artistic endeavors with Yoko Ono. "The Ballad of John and Yoko" (not really a ballad, incidentally; it's pretty brisk in tempo) succeeds as entertaining music because Lennon tells the story of their recent events in a likable, breezy fashion, without ever descending into bitterness or hostility, although the couple was the target of much criticism during this era. There's also a neat sexual pun when he sings about him and his new wife trying to get them some peace: By doing their "Bed-In," they were in a sense getting themselves sexual "piece" and promoting world "peace" at once, although they didn't actually have sex in front of the media during the event. Lennon could not resist emphatically exclaiming the word Christ in frustration during the chorus, when he noted that all of this brouhaha wasn't easy, and was in fact setting himself up for crucifixion (though in all likelihood, he probably used words much stronger than "Christ" when complaining about this situation in real life). As mentioned, this was not universally well received in the U.S., where only three years earlier Lennon had invoked considerable outrage with a comment claiming the Beatles were more popular than Jesus. The "Christ" exclamations resulted in air play restrictions that probably kept it from rising higher in the charts (sometimes the offending word was even blipped out on the radio). Because Lennon was in such a hurry to record and release the song, only two Beatles, McCartney (who plays the drums) and Lennon, appear on the single, an indication of how by 1969 the group was not as strong a unit as they had been throughout most of their career. Now get ready for a little-known factoid about the final instrumental tag, in which the guitars play a descending line like serenaders in a Mexican restaurant. The melody of that line is virtually identical to the closing riff of a pop tune that the Beatles had covered for the BBC in 1963. And what was the name of that tune? "The Honeymoon Song" (now available on The Beatles Live at the BBC). Thus, the song, about John and Yoko's honeymoon, ends with a musical quote from another tune called "The Honeymoon Song." That's an inside joke that very few listeners picked up in 1969, and in fact very few have picked up on since. - Richie Unterberger



Here Comes the Sun
Composed By George Harrison

AMG REVIEW: After years of residing in the heavy shadow of the awesome Lennon- McCartney writing partnership, George Harrison obtained equal recognition for his songwriting on the Beatles' final album, Abbey Road, with both "Something" and "Here Comes the Sun." Although "Something" remains his most famous composition, "Here Comes the Sun" is of equal quality and almost as well known, and like "Something" has been frequently covered by other artists. Most of Harrison's Beatles songs were fairly noted for their dour, brooding qualities. One reason "Here Comes the Sun" (and "Something") attracted so much more attention than his usual efforts was that it displayed a much brighter and livelier attitude than much of his previous work. Indeed, "Here Comes the Sun" radiates goodwill and hope from its opening classic acoustic guitar figures, bringing to mind someone sitting in a field playing on a beautiful day. That image does not turn out to be far from the truth; Harrison wrote it in the garden of his friend Eric Clapton on one of the first nice days of spring, after deciding to skip one of the enervating business meetings that were beginning to tear the Beatles apart. Another reason that "Here Comes the Sun" received so much acclaim was that it, like "Something," boasted a melody on par with Lennon- McCartney's finest efforts. That's especially apparent in the chorus, where the keys ascend with a lovely grace, complemented by nice vocal harmonies and a timely segue back into the acoustic guitar riff that opened the song. George Martin did his part to help the track with a string arrangement (that was understated in comparison with the one he added to "Something"). In keeping with the cosmic image Harrison had developed by the late '60s, the song also features early use of the Moog synthesizer, again in an understated fashion that underscores the song's upbeat mood instead of overwhelming it. Among the more notable of the many covers of "Here Comes the Sun" were a folk-rock one by Richie Havens and another by eclectic soul/ jazz-pop singer Nina Simone; Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel took a version to the British Top Ten in 1976. - Richie Unterberger



Come Together
Composed By John Lennon/Paul McCartney

AMG REVIEW: The opening track on Abbey Road and a number one single in 1969 as part of a double-side with "Something," "Come Together" was one of the Beatles' tougher and bluesier late-'60s rockers. Introduced by an unforgettable Paul McCartney bass line, the verses are not so much mid-tempo as a funky trudge through the swamp, the murky feel drawn out by John Lennon's clipped, distant-sounding vocals. The pop appeal of the song rests mostly with the chorus, which is among the most anthemic and instantly catchy of any in late-period Beatles songs. Other than the chorus, the lyrics consist mostly of the absurdist collages of images that Lennon was fond of running together in several of the Lennon- McCartney songs of the era in which he was the primary writer, such as "I Am the Walrus" and "Happiness Is a Warm Gun." Lennon came in for his share of controversy regarding authorship of these lines from two directions. "Come together, join the party" was the slogan of LSD guru Timothy Leary's campaign for governor of California; Lennon was made aware of the slogan when Leary sang on the chorus of Lennon's 1969 "Give Peace a Chance" single. Lennon even made a brief tape of a song built around the "come together" phrase that Leary used as a campaign theme song of sorts. Leary recalled that he was slightly miffed to find that song expanded and rewritten into the song that the Beatles recorded. More troublingly, some of the lyrics were taken from Chuck Berry's "You Can't Catch Me," eventually resulting in Lennon placating the song's publisher by recording it (and two other songs administered by the publisher) in the mid-'70s. Sometimes it has been mooted that "come together" refers to sexual climax and is one of numerous subtle sexual double entendres buried in Beatles songs, but it should be noted that Lennon himself didn't acknowledge any hidden meaning in that direction in interviews. "Come Together" also became a Top 40 hit in the late '70s in a hard rock version by Aerosmith. - Richie Unterberger



Something
Composed By George Harrison

AMG REVIEW: "Something" is unquestionably George Harrison's most famous composition. It is also one of the most popular Beatles ballads of all, reaching number one as part of a double-sided single (with "Come Together") in late 1969, and other than "Yesterday," it might be the most frequently covered Beatles composition. In short, it is a popular music standard, the first one George Harrison came up with (and one of the few). At a time when most of the Beatles' songs were dealing with non-romantic topics or presenting cryptic and allusive lyrics even when they were writing about love, "Something" was an unabashedly straightforward and sentimental love song inspired by Harrison's wife of the time, Patti. In fact, the opening line about the way his love moves was directly inspired by - some would say lifted from - the early James Taylor tune "Something in the Way She Moves," recorded for the Beatles' label, Apple Records. In its classic pop melody, "Something" could have been (but was not) the work of Lennon- McCartney, the principal hook being the tangy curling, ascending guitar line that opens the song and reappears throughout the track. Its appeal to middle-of-the-road pop listeners was ensured by a rather gushing string arrangement by George Martin. Although for the most part the song is lighthearted and confident, a slightly more ambiguous element is introduced by the soaring bridge, Harrison posing questions about whether the love will grow and answering that he doesn't know. An early demo version (available on Anthology 3) contains a new verse with a counter-melody placed where the instrumental break occurs on the official take, although it was wise to omit these lines since they're superfluous and don't really add any meaning to the song. Oddly, Harrison didn't seem to know what he had with "Something" at first, offering it to Joe Cocker to record before deciding to do it with the Beatles on Abbey Road. Cocker's version came out in late 1969, certainly among the first (and possibly the very first) of an army of covers of "Something" recorded by artists as diverse as Ray Charles (whom Harrison had in mind as the singer when he wrote it), Elvis Presley, and the O'Jays. Like "Yesterday," the song was easily adapted into the repertoire of popular musicians of all kinds, including easy listening singers and instrumental jazz players. Frank Sinatra also recorded it. - Richie Unterberger