Worst Beatles Single

I can't believe Strawberry Fields/Penny Lane won the other poll, because it's by far the stinkiest thing in the Beatle catalogue.

Hate "Love Me Do" so damned much. That fucking harmonica!

Yeah that's probably it with Baby You're a Rich Man dragging the otherwise tolerable All You Need Is Love down into the pits

My vote is probably for the labored, wheezy Blueshammer warmup of "Get Back"/"Don't Let Me Down," but I'm going to sleep on it because I know there are times when I've liked both songs more than I do now. "Love Me Do" is at least fun to sing along to.

"All You Need Is Love"

Ticket to Ride, easy.

Come Together

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

lady madonna or ballad of john and yoko

"Ballad of John & Yoko" is such a minor song it shows that the Beatles could have released any old song as a single and it woulda gone Top 10. I'm sure that was released just to keep John happy, since he hadn't had an a-side in a while.

it's funny how the b-sides are better on the entire second half of the list.

Lady Madonna/Inner Light, narrowly over John Yoko/Brown Shoe

WAHT Ballad of John & Yoko is probably in the top 10 of my favorite Beatles tracks.

That last exasperated "CHRIST!" aside, it hasn't grown on me much in the last few years - thought it was great when I first got into the band but there's not too much there to discover. Really wish they'd given it a little more of their usual effort, maybe, you know, gotten the rest of the band to play on it. Ringo could have REALLY helped it out I think.

Voted "Something" b/w "Come Together", two Beatles classics that never did much for me.

Ballad of John and Yoko is probably my favourite Beatles tune. So many others are just too familiar - this song has a great story - giving a fair idea of what it must be like to be a Beatle. "Christ you know it aint easy" quite amusing considering the furore created with the earlier 'God' comments. Plus that wierd burpy guitar playing that sounds quite spacey and strange. Kind of feels more like a Lennon solo joint more than anything but who cares.Its ace.

Also the momentum and repetition in the song kind of nicely matches the feeling of being chased and harried across the planet.

All You Need Is Love / Baby....
vapid and insipid b/w navel-gazing and self-satisfied
Fab Four at their worst

I can't stand Come Together but I love Something, otherwise that was my first pick. I'll probably go with Get Back, it's pretty dull and the b-side is barely a song.

Ballad of John and Yoko is a favorite of mine, and Old Brown Shoe is a very underrated classic.

I feel like it's cheating to pick "Love Me Do/P.S. I Love You" but it's really the only one where I could easily never listen to the A or B side ever again.

All You Need Is Love / Baby....
vapid and insipid b/w navel-gazing and self-satisfied
Fab Four at their worst

I agree about All You Need is Love for all the reasons you mentioned, but I have always really liked Baby You're A Rich Man.

I sort of file Baby You're A Rich Man with the Yellow Submarine songs as "Beatles songs they never play on the radio and I sort of forget about them" - whatever its grating qualities it's still kind of a nice surprise, and worth it just for the twisty, speed-uppy intro, which sort of feels like the last good trip these guys ever went on. The lyric is pointless, though.

Let It Be/You Know My Name

I have a lot of time for saccharine Macca, but man oh man do I hate "Hey Jude"

Nothing against "Revolution", but "Hey Jude" is one of my least favorite songs ever.

Whenever I look at one of the lesser sides of these double-sided singles, it's impossible for me to vote because the other song pulls me back. "All You Need is Love/Baby You're a Rich Man" comes closest to irritating me.

the first three are kinda lame seeing as how they had better songs on the records at the time imo. but yeah, as mentioned up thread, the sucky A-sides are typically balanced out with B-sides i can totally get on board with. I like Baby yr a rich man!! the lyircs are dumb as hell, but man so was like everything else they were doing around then. i like a lot of that MMT stuff though. Ballad of/ old brown shoe might be my favorite... either that or it's getting mega points for not being ruthlessly over-played

I don't hate "Ballad of J&Y" by any means, I just think it's minor. "Hello Goodbye" is probably worse, but "Walrus" on the flip kept me from voting for it.

"Baby You're a Rich Man" would be in my Top 10 Underappreciated Beatles Songs entirely because of the tremendous verses and that swirly psych keyboard; unfortunately the chorus doesn't remotely live up to the rest of the song. (Side note: It occurred to me recently that there aren't any "psychedelic" McCartney songs, only Lennon and Harrison. Am I forgetting any?)

Well, "Yellow Submarine," sorta.

Paul was the last to try acid and it doesn't seem to have ever really been his thing as fully - his free-thinking counterculture type songs tend to be sonically straightforward - "Fool on the Hill" is the main thing that comes to mind. He certainly used the period's freedom as much or more than any of the others, taking the opportunity to cover a ridiculous amount of ground in terms of genre... but there's nothing as soupy and dense as "Walrus" or "It's All Too Much" to his name.

With Paul "psychedelic" often took the form of experimenting with vaudeville ("When I'm 64," etc).

I went "Paperback Writer" b/c it sounds like they're copying the Monkees, which seems really wrong in the scheme of things. "Ballad of J&Y" was saved by the B-side, one of George's best.

"Paperback Writer" beat "Last Train to Clarksville" to stores by a couple of months, but I totally get what you're saying.

ok, you guys don't have to agree with me in "Ballad of John and Yoko" = worst.

But those of you saying "Ballad"'s your favorite, THEN saying "Hey Jude" or "Lady Madonna" or "Paperback Writer" is the worst = CRAZY FUCKING TALK

"Ballad of John and Yoko" = whiniest Top 40 song ever?

ps I don't hate John nor Yoko. I love the Plastic Ono Band stuff

Over at Popular, Tom wrote this, which kind of nails the central problem of the song...whatever its charms, it's kind of hard to become invested in the speaker's woes:

Knocked out quickly with half the band absent it’s a postcard from Lennon and Ono’s ‘68-’69 peace tour, turning on the repeated chorus suggestion that “the way things are going / They’re gonna crucify me”.

The background to this imminent martyrdom includes:

* Honeymoon in Paris
* Marriage in Gibraltar (“near Spain”!!)
* Staying in bed for a week
* Pillow-talk with new wife on spiritual matters
* Stopover in Vienna to eat cake
* Warm reception on return from British press

Set against this we have a certain amount of interested cynicism from other pressmen and some difficulty getting a boat in verse one. Even so it’s fair to say Jesus had a harder time of it.

I really really really hate "You Know My Name, Look Up the Number." Can't believe it's Paul favorite Beatles track.

I sorta love all these a's & b's except the crap from the colorful suit era ("Strawberry Fields", "Penny Lane," most Sgt. Pepper stuff). THOSE are the songs where writing takes a backseat to pastiche, and a bad pastiche it is.

decided to go with "hey jude." no b-side can justify that crap.

All You Need Is Love has always been intolerable.

I don't hate "Ballad of J&Y" by any means, I just think it's minor. "Hello Goodbye" is probably worse, but "Walrus" on the flip kept me from voting for it.

"Baby You're a Rich Man" would be in my Top 10 Underappreciated Beatles Songs entirely because of the tremendous verses and that swirly psych keyboard; unfortunately the chorus doesn't remotely live up to the rest of the song. (Side note: It occurred to me recently that there aren't any "psychedelic" McCartney songs, only Lennon and Harrison. Am I forgetting any?)

― Hideous Lump, Saturday, January 3, 2009 9:09 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

helol goodbye is the only good beatles song marinate on that

helol

"Yellow Submarine" is my least favorite Beatles song. Can't take a second of it.

"Hey Jude" is totally redeemed by its extended coda.

what exactly is wrong with hey jude? it's not the long and winding road for chrissakes! great, great melody, great vocal, wonderful Lennon harmonizing, great buildup, yeah the outros a little gratuitous but he does a good little richard so why not? it's also a very pure sentiment, sort of the anti-Baby Youre a Rich Man. If you see the David Frost "performance" on the Anthology DVD(even though alot of it looks lipsynched), I really defy you not to like it at least a little...

hey jude maybe not objectively horrible (up 4 debate n e way), just tired of hearin that shit

wait a sec...where is long and winding road in this poll?

"Hey Jude" is totally redeemed by its extended coda.

― inhibitionist, Saturday, January 3, 2009 7:25 PM Bookmark

This is the worst part. It seems like it's about 5 hours long.

blasphemy

wait a sec...where is long and winding road in this poll?

Not a UK single.

went with "Let It Be" largely b/c of the b-side about which we should pass over in silence, but the a-side is something I rarely want to hear (still fucking great though).

i voted for the politics of messenger bags

hey jude maybe not objectively horrible (up 4 debate n e way), just tired of hearin that shit

Which is why the thread is called "Worst Beatles Single," not "Beatles Single I'm Most Sick Of" (which would be ending a thread title with a preposition, which is not allowed).

"Ballad of John and Yoko" = whiniest Top 40 song ever?

Does this mean they invented emo?

all you need is stuff (everybody!)

Amazed "Hello Goodbye" didn't 'win' this easy...

Day Tripper & We Can Work It Out 1

i must have been the one to vote for this one because i still hate both of these songs!

How anyone could hate We Can Work It Out is beyond comprehension.

I see I said the same thing 3 years ago.

if someone were to present that song to me i would just dump them -- "try to see it my way"?? "life is very short" ?? if that's all you got i don't even know

But it's just sung and played so beautifully!

And it's their tightest melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic composition! It's fucking astonishing!

All those hooks and melodies and tempos, in 2 minutes! Not a wasted second. Maybe my favourite Beatles song.

Many of these have brilliant b-sides. Baby You're A Rich Man is one of my favorite Beatles songs and All You Need Is Love is awful, I agree but it feels unfair to the b-side. Why would anyone vote for these following two as the worst in the Beatles catalogue is beyond me:

Something / Come Together
Get Back/Don't Let Me Down

Also Lady Madonna is awesome, Sublime rip-off aside. I'll assume you all voted for the horrid b-side instead.

these are all good singles imo

"the inner light" is good though

xp

"We can work it out" is great because the singer is all "I am right and you are wrong, let's compromise". Even Lennon's middle8 is "Fighting is wrong, I think we should talk some more before I lump you one"

Flopson: Not Working It Out

this is the dumbest ilm thread ever

half of the people who participated should be banned from talking about music in any capacity ever again

People who post on a thread merely to say it's the dumbest thread ever are the dumbest posters ever.

I agree with whoever said Baby You're A Rich Man is diminished by its association with the singalong all you need track.

Not sure how you could think Strawberry/Penny Lane is the worst Beatles single and still claim to like the Beatles, I mean that single basically is the distillation of mid-period Beatles

Long and Winding Bore

Long-Winded Road

Lady Madonna seems like a slick and cynical attempt to market to the underappreciated female head-of-household demographic.

I have always hated Lady Madonna. Come Together too. and Get Back also (it might be the Beatles song I hate the most, actually).

For a long time I have found Ballad of J&Y pretty bad but since the remasters I have enjoyed it a lot. It's got a good groove !

for all the complaints about it, Spector's production on Long and Winding Road actually saves it from being a total piece of shit, as demonstrated by the Anthology album.

It's still a song Paul should have given to, like Englebert Humperdink or someone, rather than the Beatles.

Spector's production is the only interesting thing about the song poliopolice otm. the demo version is an ineterminable bore

Or maybe he could have sold it to a movie studio. I could see it as the theme song to some late-60s dry love drama.

Hard Day's Night is kind of a bad song in my book too.

Ficking crazy talk.

My iPad is south African.

AHDN is stupendous. Mainly for Paul's "cos when I get home to you, I find the things that you do" backing vocals.

it feels very half-assed to me. I do realize it was written and recorded in less than 24 hours, for which they maybe deserve some credit, but not too much since the song sucks. XD

Probably would have voted for 'All You Need Is Love/Baby You're A Rich Man', actually! I've never been a massive fan of either song.

I think my least favorite of these is probably i feel fine/she's a woman. never cared for she's a woman and I feel fine is ok but I like almost every other a side more. barring that, I don't love lady madonna/inner light either.

"She's a woman" is too tautological for my tastes as well.

It's also not really a song.

Yes, and it's not a single b-side by The Beatles either..

you know what song kicks ass? "hello goodbye"

the most depressing transition on any beatles CD has to be the second disc of past masters, when you go from 'rain' to 'lady madonna.' the first four tracks are basically the beatles at the top of their game, just so sleek and confident and gorgeous, basically the coolest band ever, the james bonds of pop music. and then you jump ahead two years and already the band's turned into paul mccartney + three lazy stoners just fucking around in the studio.

Reminds me of that Fake Pinterest twitter joke: "a photo of young Paul McCartney and his three handsome butlers. YUM!"

Yeah, I adore Past Masters, especially disc 2, but it took me a long time to reconcile those four songs with what came later. They are, for me, the absolute peak of The Beatles. Which is why the crazy talk upthread is so crazy.

"Lady Madonna" >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> "Rain" imo

I agree with that.

One could also argue that with "Pepper" they stopped being quite so much of a singles band.

Old Brown Shoe >>>> Across The Universe

the james bonds of pop music

im sure this is true re how they treated women

"The Inner Light" >>>>>>>>>>>> "Lady Madonna"

J.D. otm!!!

Lady Madonna better than Rain? Fucken hell.

Despite the bass and drums being fucking awesome I think Rain is a pretty boring song.