Worst song on With The Beatles

Previously:
Worst Beatles song on Please Please Me

I love just about this entire album but Till There Was You is the obvious answer here...

I'd say "Little Child" might be the laziest piece of songwriting ever, so that one.

God this is tough... 'Hold Me Tight' I think. 'Little Child' would be a close second but I like the harmonica.

Little Child probably, but they're all pretty great. Till There Was You is one of the best songs on the album, imo.

"Hold Me Tight" has some of the most off-key singing you'll ever hear from McCartney. Must have been recorded at the tail end of a long session.

"roll over beethoven" can't be the worst song obv because it is a great song but man i think this version sucks it's so funny how they botch the opening guitar line so bad

the bongo type drums totes save till there was you

I don't like the cover of "You Really Got A Hold On Me" here; the harmonies are uncharacteristically sloppy, working against each other instead of fusing. So it gets my vote.

I dig Lennon's yearning vocal and the general weariness of the production in You Really Got a Hold On Me.

I hate how Paul says, "Sar" instead of "Saw" on Till There Was You and I think overtall the lyric's are lame even by the early Beatles' standard...

Always hated "Money". Even though the Beatles version is better than the original.

"Roll Over Beethoven" and "You Really Got a Hold On Me" were both really pointless too though.
The Lennon/McCartney penned songs are as always generally better than the rest (other than the largely horrible "I Wanna Be Your Man", and "Don't Bother Me" isn't too bad either.

"Till There Was You" is the best cover here btw. Almost pointing towards the genius of Paul's own ballads, which started with "And I Love Her" of course.

Always hated "Money". Even though the Beatles version is better than the original.
Big surprise here.

Note that I love Motown. But not until Motown started sounding like Motown, which started with ca. "My Guy".

And I suppose Motown stopped sounding like Motown with What's Going On.
You just never get tired of being wrong, do you?

Till There Was You is the obvious answer here

I think you've got trouble, right here in River City...

... with a capital T and that rhymes with P and that stands for pool!

hard to see that cover now without thinking of The Residents and wot they did to it!

"Devil in Her Heart" or "Little Child," even though the remasters transform the opening harmonica and piano noise of the latter into something awesome.

And I suppose Motown stopped sounding like Motown with What's Going On.

Yes it did (or in fact it did even a few years later with Norman Whitfield started playing around with Sly Stone influences), but it's still a great album, and some great music has also been released on Motown after that. But the core Motown sound was from "My Guy" until Holland/Dozier/Holland left Motown.

"Till There Was You" is nice, but of course not as good as most of the Lennon/McCartney originals, who even on one of their worst albums were in a league of their own even from the start.

yes Geir we are all familiar with your nuanced grasp of the Beatles catalog

As obvious as this might be, "Till There Was You" by a mile! That'd be on my short-list of worst ever...in fact, that's the one: worst ever.

"Roll Over Beethoven." Their version is tedious.

I went for "Little Child" because of all the tracks ever, it's the one I struggled to recall.

A friend loaned me the USA "Story of the Beatles" 2LP set, and at one point there was a medley of bits, and that was the song I went "hang on, what's that one?"

Zero cover versions? If there were. none made it famous.

Although "Till there was you" was the last gasp of their "showtunes" period. And good riddance.

"Till There Was You" was the beginning of Paul trying out ballads (well, besides "A Taste Of Honey" but that one didn't work out as well). Of course it's a boring song compared to what Paul would come up with on his own, but I still kinda like it. Compared to the other cover versions that is.

I say no.

But that's your opinion, and fair enough.

agree about the lack of spark in the chuck berry cover here, but Devil in Her Heart bores me more...
otherwise one of my favourite beatles albums

I expected more disdain for "Don't Bother Me" which is one of The Beatles most underrated songs imo

Money (That's What I Want)

Voted for this. A nice encapsulation of the Beatles' go-to-market strategy with all their releases since, say, 1980 or so.

'Don't Bother Me' - "the first in a long line of George Harrison songs in which people were advised to bugger off" (Alexis Petridis)

(Not my choice - I just like the description.)

'Not a Second Time' is the one I skip most.

"Till There Was You" annoys more often than any of the others. Paul the liar!

Had this album contained "From Me To You", "Thank You Girl", "She Loves You", "I'll Get You", "I Want To Hold Your Hand" and "This Boy" in place of all those cover versions, then it would have been one of the best Beatles albums instead of one of the weakest.

This is the only one that I still only know from the US issue, so several of these are unknown for me still..one last Beatles treat to savor someday I guess. But I agree with this:

"Roll Over Beethoven." Their version is tedious.

"Not A Second Time" is fabulous, maybe best as an album closer (which I think it is on Meet the Beatles). I also like "Don't Bother Me"...these notes of bleakness are kind of essential to the texture of the album. So are the relatively undercooekd uptempo numbers "Hold Me Tight" and "Little Child" - whatever their thin-ness as compositions they are FUN to sing along to. "Hold (HOLD!) me tight (ME TIGHT!)" etc.

Yeah I've changed my mind, I'm going with 'Roll Over Beethoven', I'd never noticed just how bad that intro is.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

It's 'badness' is what makes it!

It's dissonance! Nut until "Rev9" etc blah...

"Roll Over Beethoven", which they shouldn't have given to George to sing, since vocally he had the least rock-n'roll credibility-charisma of any of 'em. (Not necessarily a putdown.)

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

4. Don't Bother Me 0

Wow, has any Beatles song ever had such a critical turn-around as this?

bah! you all hate rock and roll! a pox on you then!

Also kind of amazed that nobody went for "Don't Bother Me". I mean, I would never vote for it when the album is half crowded with pointless cover versions, but it would take another year and half for George to be able to write really good songs.

Roll over Beethoven has a lot going for it in berry's original, but you'd hardly call it his finest song. imagine what john would have done with it though, and compare his version of Rock n' Roll Music.

Yup. The Beatles' "Rock and Roll Music" is one of the few Berry covers that outshines the original, IMO. Another example is Jerry Lee Lewis' "Little Queenie," which is absolutely menacing.

I've always heard that "Rock and Roll Music" allegedly featured John, Paul and George Martin all playing the same piano. Is that really the case? Have to give it a listen when I get home...

hey abanana i suggest when you do the final poll to exclude the top three of this poll, and other covers if they were to win. if "roll over beethoven" wins well what have we really proved? i'd be more interested in finding out what the worst song the beatles wrote is rather than the worst song they ever recorded.

I shouldn't worry, it's not going to win "worst of the worst" by any long chalk.

This unfinished Lennon song might of been a nice addition to this album:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrSS2ndDbPo&feature=related

Final version of the song by The Fourmost. Internet says this is the Lennon/McCartney-written single released in the U.S.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoAr8Dcm-5M&feature=related

Not a bad pair of tunes! Never heard either before. Thanks.

Not at all disagreeing, but obviously these might also have been great additions:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8EyY2XJhqw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CMX0mCFYJ4

Although the former would arguably not have been a contender until "A Hard Day's Night" - by which time the competition was considerably stronger.

Am love love loving this album right now. The apotheosis of the 'beat-group' genre. I find every song on it utterly charming and can't choose a worst. (Tho if pressed at gunpoint, I'll take "Devil in Her Heart" for a slightly unconvincing performance and the unnecessarily ungrammatical line "Nay will she deceive".)

All of The Beatles' ballads are pointless, but the ones in this one seem more pointless than anywhere else. Maybe because the cover versions on "With The Beatles" are largely more famous in their original versions than most other Beatles covers are.

Wait. What? The Beatles ballads are pointless?

Whee!

covers, I mean... Sorry. Been spending too much time arguing in the ballads thread :)

"Till There Was You" is pretty much pointless though. And a ballad and a cover. :)

Ahhhh, but Paul's singing on that is very pretty I think.

Yes, but as I said, cover versions are pointless. Next time around, he wrote "And I Love Her" instead. Which was much better. :)

Wow, Geir had me worried for a moment there!