Obviously, this will not be the only Beatles album I will review. It’s just the one I am starting out with. So, saying that, I look forward to reviewing more Beatles albums in the future. Why I chose to review this album first is because, believe it or not, this was the first Beatles album I ever bought. Yes, it does show my age. When I was ten years old was when I truly heard The Beatles for the first time. Now, I have heard The Beatles records my entire life of course from my grandparents at their house, at their cabin and on the “oldies” station on the radio. But when I was the age of ten, I decided I wanted to go out and actually buy a Beatles album (although it actually was a cd). “Get something with their greatest hits on it” is something my grandpa always
tells me when I go shopping for albums.
Diving right into this wonderful album filled with number one hits from The Beatles, twenty-seven to be exact, the first song is none another than… Love Me Do. I can vaguely remember hearing this song on the radio and in stores when I was younger, the harmonica always kind of reminded me of the music from the Sesame Street theme song for some odd unknown reason. It’s such a simple song that repeats itself over and over again, but you know all the words and can’t help but sing along to it.
Lyrics that hooked me:
“Love, love me do, you know I love you, I’ll always be true, so please, love me do”
The second hit on this album is titled “From Me to You”. From the documentaries and stories from fans that I have explored, this was one of MANY that made the girls swoon. Shaking their heads while they rocked and singing love songs, who wouldn’t swoon?
Lyrics that hooked me:
“If there’s anything that you want, if there’s anything I can do, just call on me and I’ll send it along, with love, from me to you”
“I’ve got arms that long to hold you and keep you by my side, I’ve got lips that long to kiss you and keep you satisfied”
“She loves you…” Yeah, yeah, yeah? This track was the first one I really got into from The Beatles. The faster paced, upbeat, rock song with harmonies from John and Paul are just perfect. I feel that this is the song where they started shaking their heads a LOT. Especially when they sing “wooooo”.
Lyrics that hooked me:
“She loves you and you know that can’t be bad, she loves you and you know you should be glad”
“She loves you yeah, yeah, yeah, with a love like that you know you should be glad”
“I Want to Hold Your Hand” was when I truly learned that The Beatles were singing about love. For some reason, even though I listened to the first three tracks on the album before this one, this was when I thought to myself, “Oh, The Beatles sing love songs. They sing about girls. They sing about wanting to hold girls’ hands.” I was only ten when I first listened to this album and I hadn’t experienced my own version of “Beatlemania” or whatever until my later years. So, I didn’t really understand what was going on with their love songs. But even if I didn’t understand them back then, I still loved the songs and still knew every word. I have listened to these songs regularly for the past thirteen years, but truly thinking about these songs and lyrics as a twenty-three-year-old, now that I am more experienced in life, these songs have so much passion and value and meaning in them.
Lyrics that hooked me:
“Oh, please say to me you’ll let me be your man and please say to me you’ll let me hold your hand I want to hold your hand”
“And when I touch you, I feel happy inside, it’s such a feeling that my love, I can’t hide”
“Yeah you’ve got that something I think you’ll understand, when I feel that something, I want to hold your hand”
“Can’t Buy Me Love” is exactly what it says. Not sure if I understood it when I was a ten-year-old and just sang along, but I have definitely learned that over the years.
Lyrics that hooked me:
“I don’t care too much for money, money can’t buy me love”
“A Hard Day’s Night”. Great movie. Oh, you mean it’s a song, too? Just kidding. I used to love this song as a kid and still do, but growing up with The Beatles, I have found that some of the songs I used to never care for, more serious songs, tracks that are from 1967-1970, I have grown to like more than some of the “early” Beatles songs from 1962-1966.
Lyrics that hooked me:
“It’s been a hard day’s night and I’ve been working like a dog, it’s been a hard day’s night I should be sleeping like a log. But when I get home to you, I’ll find the things that you do, will make me feel alright”
“When I’m home, everything seems to be right, when I’m home, feeling you holding me tight, tight yeah”
“I Feel Fine” is one of those songs that nowadays, I kind of have to be in the mood to listen to. I mean if it’s playing randomly on my Spotify, or on the radio, I’ll listen to it and sing along. I do like the song, but I don’t love the song.
Lyrics that hooked me:
“I’m so glad that she’s my little girl, she’s so glad she’s telling all the world that her baby buys her things, ya know he buys her diamond rings, you know he said so, she’s in love with me and I feel fine”
Not only is “Eight Days A Week” a great film by Ron Howard, but it also happens to be a great song by The Beatles. I’m kidding people. I am a real Beatles fan. It’s such an understatement to say that this track is so fun to sing to, but it is.
Lyrics that hooked me:
“Hold me, love me, hold me, love me, I ain’t got nothing but love babe, eight days a week”
“Eight days a week, I looooove you. Eight days a week is not enough to show I care.”
“I love you everyday girl, always on my mind. One thing I can say girl, love you all the time.”
“Ticket to Ride” was my first ever favorite Beatles song. Although I’m still unsure why this is one of my favorite Beatles tracks of all time, I think I like the slower, softer sound of this song.
Lyrics that hooked me:
“She’s got a ticket to ride and she don’t care”
“I don’t know why she’s ridin’ so high, she ought to think twice, ought to do right by me”
“Help!” is a song I can remember hearing on a certain episode of Full House where Uncle Jesse had an accident on his motorcycle during season one, (I watched this show a LOT when I was younger) and a different non-Beatles version of the song played during the episode. But going back to how this song was written, we can always use a little help sometimes. (Also, we could use a little help from our friends, but that will come later) When this song was written, was when it was “too much” for The Beatles. After the Beatles came to America and went on a huge tour, playing Shea Stadium, thousands and thousands of screaming fans, the press always on their asses, they were pretty much done and ready to quit all together.
Lyrics that hooked me:
“When I was younger so much younger than today, I never needed anybody’s help in any way”
“Help me when you can I’m feeling down, and I do appreciate you being ‘round, help me get my feet back on the ground, won’t you please, please help me”
“Yesterday”. When all our troubles seemed so far away? This song is very important to know for any Beatles fan. This song is such a great and serious song that makes us all truly think about life.
Lyrics that hooked me:
“Why she had to go, I don’t know she wouldn’t say. I said something wrong, now I long, for yesterday.”
“Suddenly, I’m not half the man I used to be. There’s a shadow hanging over me, oh yesterday came suddenly.”
What could “Day Tripper” possibly be about? Paul McCartney confirmed that the song is about drugs. No shit.
Lyrics that hooked me:
“Got a good reason for taking the easy way out”
“She was a day tripper Sunday driver yeah. It took me so long to find out. And I found out.”
“We Can Work It Out” is about when The Beatles would be fighting and arguing.
Lyrics that hooked me:
“Life is very short and there’s no time for fussing and fighting my friends”
“Paperback Writer”. A novel!
“It’s a dirty story of a dirty man and his clinging wife doesn’t understand. His son is working for the daily mail, it’s a dirty job, so he wants to be a paperback writer.”
“Elanor Rigby.” Who? What a strange Beatles song. But hey, it’s a hit. I think the violins really put this song together.
Lyrics that hooked me:
“Ah look at all the lonely people.”
“Eleanor Rigby picks up the rice at a church where a wedding has been”
“Yellow Submarine” Who wrote this song?
Lyrics that hooked me:
“In the town where I was born lived a man who sailed to sea and he told us of his life in a yellow submarine”
“We all live in a yellow submarine, yellow submarine, yellow submarine”
“Penny Lane” was and still is one of my favorite songs by The Beatles. I can’t even tell you why. I guess because it’s just such a simple song and the happy and positive vibe that it gives off is what really makes this track.
Lyrics that hooked me:
“Penny lane is in my ears and in my eyes, there beneath the blue suburban skies”
Love, love, love. "All you need is love. Love is all you need".
Lyrics that hooked me:
“There’s nothing you can do that can’t be done. Nothing you can sing that can’t be sung. Nothing you can say, but learn how to play the game, it’s easy”
“All you need is love, all you need is love, all you need is love, love, love is all you need”
My absolute favorite lyric:
“She loves you yeah, yeah yeah”
“Hello, goodbye”. Too simple, right? To me, this song means there are positive and negative people in the world. For instance, “you say goodbye” being the negative and “and I say hello” being the positive.
Lyrics that hooked me:
“You say goodbye and I say hello. Hello, hello. I don’t know why you say goodbye, I say hello.”
“I say high, you say low, I say why, you say I don’t know”
“Lady Madonna” is quite an interesting Beatles song. When I was younger, I thought the beat of the track was like doing the Hand Jive that they do in the 1978 high school musical phenomon, Grease.
Unfortunately, no lyrics hooked me from this song.
“Hey Jude”. One you’ve probably been waiting to hear about. The stadium song. The uplifting, powerless and timeless song. This track has been an uplifting ballad for decades. Paul originally had “Hey Jules” in mind for John’s five-year-old son, Julian, for when his parents were getting a divorce. “Jude just sounded better in my head. So that’s why it’s called ‘Hey Jude’”., McCartney told Rolling Stone in 1967 when the song dropped. This song is such an iconic song and the fact that it is still as great in 2019 as it was 1967, it will live on forever.
“Get Back” is the song that the beat makes me feel like I’m riding a horse.
“The Ballad of John and Yoko” is obviously about the love affair and marriage of John Lennon and Yoko Ono. This track was specifically done by Paul and John and not the other Beatles because the two had been writing separately for the last few hours. Paul and John were also able to get this song recorded in a single day. The controversy of this song caused the track to be banned by the BBC and most U.S. radio stations due to religious controversy, in which John had been known for, stating in 1964 that the Beatles were “bigger than Jesus”, in which he told a reporter at a party, although he did not know he was talking to a reporter at the time.
Lyrics that hooked me:
"And any time you feel pain, hey Jude, refrain don't carry the world upon your shoulder"
"Remember to let her into your heart, then you can start to make it better"
"Hey Jude, don't make it bad, take a sad song and make it better, remember to let her under your skin, then you begin to make it better"
“Christ you know it ain’t easy, you know how hard it can be, the way things are going, they’re gonna crucify me”
One of my very favorite Beatles songs, “Something” written by the “quiet Beatle” George Harrison, was written for his wife, Pattie.
Lyrics that hooked me:
“Something in the way she moves, attracts me like no other”
“Somewhere in her smile she knows, that I don’t need no other lover”
“Something in the way she knows, and all I have to do is think of her”
“Come Together”. I’m not sure if this is an actual conspiracy or if it’s my own personal opinion… We all know the beginning lyrics are “shoot me”. And then the lyrics of the chorus are “come together right now over me”. It was pointed out to me by anonymous (aka my boyfriend) that John Lennon is singing “shoot me” and then “come together right now over me” which would basically be saying “come together and stand over me because I was saying ‘shoot me’ earlier” and the way we all know John Lennon died was because someone shot him. Did John Lennon know he was going to be shot? Was the whole thing staged? Did John Lennon actually want to be killed because he felt that peace was never going to be given a chance? And the world will never live as one? (“Disclaimer: These are just conspiracies, not facts… So, don’t sue me.” – Shane Dawson)
Lyrics that hooked me:
“Got to be good lookin’ ‘cause he’s so hard to see, come together, right now, over me”
“Let It Be”. One of the most famous and greatest Beatles still of today. The meaning behind this track is that everything had been falling apart. They were fighting, having issues with songs, what songs would make it onto the albums, John making a rule that wives and children were not allowed in the studio but then let Yoko come to the studio all of the time. Paul had a dream one night and his mother, Mary, who died when he was just 14. “It was in autumn of 1968. The Beatles were working on a follow-up album to the White album. I think I could sense that the Beatles were breaking up, so I was staying up late at night, drinking, doing drugs, clubbing. But one night, I had a dream. My mother came into my dream and said, ‘let it be’. And I went right over to the piano and wrote, ‘When I find myself in times of trouble, mother Mary comes to me, speaking words of wisdom, let it be.”, Paul said. This song has lasted decades and is really an anthem for people struggling and going through tough times, including myself.
Lyrics that hooked me:
“And in my hour of darkness she is standing right in front of me, speaking words of wisdom, let it be”
“And when the broken-hearted people living in the world agree, there will be an answer, let it be”
“For though they may be parted, there’s still a chance that they will see, there will be an answer, let it be”
“And when the night is cloudy, there is still a light that shines on me, shine until tomorrow, let it be”
“The Long and Winding Road” as we all know, is the last Beatles track ever recorded and resides on the Beatles last album, “Let It Be”. “It’s a sad song because it’s all about the unattainable.”, Paul said. We all have our own interpretations of this song, or any song. My own personal interpretation is from the first time I heard thig song to the last time I listened to it, to mean, it’s about the Beatles breaking up. The long and winding road that they were on for so many years together and that it was finally coming to an end. This track has only Paul on it along with an orchestra song in the background. This is also the final track on both “The Beatles: 1” album and “Let It Be”. It’s the perfect way to end both albums… And the Beatles legacy.
Lyrics that hooked me:
“The long and winding road that leads to your door”
*This concludes my first album review for The Beatles. I will review many more Beatles albums. Songs will repeat themselves. I will talk about things over and over again. So, stay tuned.
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