Off The Beatle Track

Let’s stipulate that the three best songs that George wrote for The Beatles were Something, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, and Here Comes the Sun (in no particular order, but . . . in that order). They may not be your three favorites, but I’m fairly confident that they rank at the top among a consensus of Beatles fans. Probably.

So what’s George’s fourth-best Beatles song? Let’s take a look at the candidates:

Group A: The noncontenders

Nothing against these songs, but they don’t measure up to George’s best work:

• Don’t Bother Me (1963)
• You Like Me Too Much (1965)
• Piggies (1968)

Group B: Songs that I’m supposed to like but don’t care for

I appreciate this next group of songs more than I admire them. I know that many Beatles fans adore some or all of these songs, but I can’t generate much enthusiasm for them:

• Blue Jay Way (1967)
• Long, Long, Long (1968)¹
• Only a Northern Song (1969)

Group C: Perfectly fine songs

This group represents the unfairness of comparing The Beatles (or a Beatle) to themselves (or himself). These are good songs, but they don’t belong on George’s Mount Rushmore:²

• I Need You (1965)
• If I Needed Someone (1965)
• Think for Yourself (1965)
• Savoy Truffle (1968)
• Old Brown Shoe (1969)
• For You Blue (1970)
• I Me Mine (1970)

Group D: The contenders

That leaves us with this list of excellent songs from which to choose:

• I Want To Tell You (1966)
• Love You To (1966)
• Taxman (1966)
• Within You Without You (1967)
• The Inner Light (1968)
• It’s All Too Much (1969)

(Before I reveal what I consider to be George’s fourth-best song, I’ll admit that my fourth-favorite George song is If I Needed Someone.)

As much as I like the other three, I’ll whittle the list of contenders down to Taxman, Within You Without You, and It’s All Too Much. I could make a case that any of them has earned the number four slot on this list.

But I think the right choice is Taxman. It’s the only George song to open an album, and the album that it opens, Revolver, ranks among the best pop/rock albums ever made.³ On Within You Without You, with George Martin’s help, George seamlessly blends indian and Western instrumentation. And It’s All Too Much is an underrated gem, arguably⁴ an even more effective psychedelic statement than even Strawberry Fields Forever.

What your choice for George’s fourth-best Beatles song? Email me at beatletrack@gmail.com.

1. Long, Long, Long may be my least favorite Beatles’ original. No, wait–Don’t Pass Me By still exists, right? ↩︎
2. For you non-U.S. readers, Mount Rushmore is a national memorial consisting of sculptures of a great U.S. president, two so-so presidents, and Teddy Roosevelt. ↩︎
3. With Taxman, Love You To, and I Want To Tell You, George had a helluva Revolver. But then they all did, didn’t they? ↩︎
4. I hate the adverb arguably. One could argue that LeBron James was the ninth Beatle. One would lose that argument, but one might be stupid about arguing. ↩︎