Greetings,
Welcome back to my Top 50 Beatles countdown. Now let's continue on with Numbers 40 to 31. I can barely contain my excitement. I'm sure you feel the same. Onward!
#40. "Octopus's Garden" - There you go, Ringo. I gave you a spot. To be fair, I do find this song enjoyable. It sounds like a children's book. It should be a children's book. Is it already a children's book? I don't know.
#39. "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da - I still say that this song sounds better sung by the cast of Life Goes On. What? They had Patti LuPone! I don't know what this title means. I don't know who these people are in the lyrics. But that is a seriously catchy melody they got there. And I'm sure that Desmond and Molly are somebody's OTP.
#38. "I'll Follow the Sun" - Now, if I knew that it was going to rain tomorrow, I would not follow the sun. I would stay put, as I am a person who loves rain. And funny enough, I find this to be a great song to listen to on a rainy day. Go figure. I must really be into the whole contrast thing.
#37. "I'm Happy Just to Dance With You" - Would you judge me if I said the first time I heard this song was on a show called Just the Ten of Us whilst it was being sung by the four girls playing the teenage daughters? I hope not. Because it's not my fault that I saw that show before I saw A Hard Day's Night. But wasn't that nice of John and Paul to give George one of their songs to sing?
#36. "I Need You" - And, speaking of George, here's another one of his songs. I could use the excuse that every song sounds better when it's being played in a field with tanks surrounding you, but it actually sounds good on the album, not just in that one scene in Help!
#35. "A Day In the Life" - As a writer, I get inspired by so many things in the world. Music and movies and people and places...and occasionally a newspaper. Nice to see that I'm not the only one. But, as much as I love this song, I'm still not sure about that little insert of a Paul song near the end. You know what I'm talking about. For real, what was up with that? Found my way upstairs and had a smoke, indeed.
#34. "I Should Have Known Better" - I love trains and I love harmonicas. Well, I saw The Beatles sing this on a train and there was, in fact, a harmonica in there somewhere. And they shout "Hey, hey, hey!" THAT...is awesome.
#33. "Strawberry Fields Forever" - I remember seeing a clip from American Bandstand where they showed a promotional video for this song to the youngsters. It was right after they had been out of sight for a while, and were coming back a changed band. Not all the kids liked it; some did. I would have been in the latter group. And thank God for this song, because if it didn't exist, people would have to come up with some other name to call their strawberry flavored and/or scented whatnots. Serious eye roll.
#32. "I'm Only Sleeping" - Apparently, sleeping is the best thing ever. It might even be better than the drugs. Or at least, that's what some people's interpretation of these lyrics are. What I do know is that John wrote them on the back of a letter? See, if emails were a thing back then, he couldn't have written it. Thus, actual paper letters are better than email. Boom.
#31. "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" - What's this? A THIRD song sung by George in this installment? Well, then. But let's be honest, this is only good because of the Eric Clapton on it. Okay, that's not the ONLY reason, but it's a big reason. Although, as a lyric snob, I must admit, it's got some darn good words there. Credit where it's due.
And that's my second set of favorites. The third is on its way. Remember. Patience is a virtue.
Love and full moons,
Becky the Writer
