This site is one I rediscovered looking back through my MetaFilter comments. The author makes excellent use of brief MP3 clips to illustrate the various points. (Make sure you click through to Part Two linked at the top of the page as well.)
And here's a list I compiled a long time ago as the basis for a mix tape. I'd come across an article that ranked the Top 101 Beatles songs so I decided to rank my own favourites (with the article's rating in brackets.)
10. Please Please Me (24)
– their first #1 is also one of their most exhuberant
9. Inner Light (-)
– the best sitar song I've ever heard!
8. In My Life (6)
– heartbreaking. And I love that piano solo.
7. A Day In The Life (1)
– the top choice in this magazine's (and most) polls, it's definitely great and the story behind its creation is even better (and Wikipedia also makes me realise it was probably Mojo magazine where I first saw the article ranking the Beatles songs)
6. All You Need Is Love (28)
– the ultimate musical message set to a universal nursery rhyme melody
5. If I Fell (43)
– I love the obvious maturing when Lennon cites his earlier work “…and I found that love was more/Than just holding hands”
4. And Your Bird Can Sing (40)
– a musical head rush, criminally underrated
3. Strawberry Fields Forever (2)
– mystic artistic memory, haunting
2. Don't Let Me Down (-)
– pure lust, love and naked neediness
1. Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) (19)
– great sitar intro, get acoustic guitar, great cryptic story, great first line, great!
(Edit: Found a link to the complete list.)
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