Thursday, August 26, 2010

The Fab 100

Have you seen the latest nonsense from Rolling Stone?  They've ranked the Beatles' 100 greatest songs and packaged them in another of their Collectors Edition "books."   Already we hear fights breaking out. Maybe we'll start one ourselves.

We were going to snap up a copy until we learned which song had been annointed No. 1 by RS: "A Day in the Life." Talk about an argument waiting to happen! Immediately we took a left where we generally take a right and wound up in the parking lot of Ray's Liquors. We purchased a cheap bottle of scotch for roughly the money it would have cost for the keepsake, and now we're sitting here sipping a Clunys and trying to guess the other 99 songs.

But first:  Why 100 songs?  Nice round number, but the Beatles couldn't have recorded more than 250 songs.  Why not include them all?  Now that would be a Collectors Edition, no matter how you ranked them. This was the Beatles, it's not like there's a dropoff in quality between Nos. 100 and 101. In fact now we're more interested in learning which songs RS could possibly have left out.

We're betting we can list some fabulous Beatles songs that will not be among Rolling Stone's Top 10.  This exercise will prove nothing, except that we're dealing with such an incredibly strong catalog of songs there's no rhyme or reason to ranking them.  Unless, of course, you're trying to generate a revenue stream. 

Here are 10 of our favorite Beatles songs that probably won't crack the RS Top 10:

Get Back
Back in the USSR
Paperback Writer
You've Got to Hide Your Love Away
I Saw Her Standing There
A Hard Day's Night
Eight Days a Week
Drive My Car
She Loves You
Here Comes the Sun

Where do these songs rank in the Collectors Edition?  Damned if we know. But this Clunys is definitely underrated.

3 comments:

  1. Another insane idea. The editors must be hitting the Clunys hard these days.

    But for the sake of discussion, one of my favorites is "And Your Bird Can Sing" - pop magic.

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  2. You gotta admire a man who has his priorities in order!

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  3. Actually, I might have to agree with RS on their first pick. Here's how I'd rank them:

    1. A Day in the Life
    2. She Loves You
    3. Hey Jude
    4. In My Life
    5. Strawberry Fields
    6. I Want to Hold Your Hand
    7. Come Together
    8. Girl
    9. I Am the Walrus
    10. And Your Bird Can Sing
    +

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