The Beatles, Ranked! 21-25

Dance on George

21
Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) (31) I should hate it because it's John's confessional about being a rat to his wife Cynthia, but it's just so... complicated. The opening guitar riff is intimate, George's sitar is otherworldly, and I got the complexities of the story when I was young, even if the innuendo went completely over my head at the time. And as the narrator, he's not the winner in this story; the girl rebuffs him, and he ends up sleeping in the bathtub. This was my first choice for My Fab Four on Sirius XM. 

22

In My Life (4) It should be higher of course, but we are talking about all A+ material at this point. I tend to compare and contrast masterpieces based on eras, and this beats Yesterday (2) for me every which way. John considers it his first great song. I've been having conversations with Will about the Beatles as he says they were the first boy band. I agreed but pointed out the distinct difference of how they quickly evolved from She Loves You to things like this.  

23

Nowhere Man (42) Three Rubber Souls in a row. More introspection from John. Those harmonies can melt the coldest of souls, but the way he sings "Maaaaaaan" alone is enough to earn top rankings. 

24

Don't Bother Me George wrote this one while sick in bed and noping out early on Beatlemania. There's an echo-y quality to his singing, the guitar groove is all that, but I love the percussion provided by Ringo on bongoes and Paul playing a woodblock. Plus there's pretty cool b-roll of the boys dancing to it at a nightclub in the A Hard Days Night movie. Critics have long said this is The Beatles at their worst, and I've listened to it carefully in an attempt to hear what they are trying to say. Nah, this is a jam and so really like him. 

25

In Spite of All the Danger The first song to make it on vinyl, a Quarrymen song credited to McCartney-Harrison. They paid five pounds in July 1958 to record the 78 in a closet with a microphone. Doing the math, George was 15 and Paul had just turned 16. The other Quarrymen, in addition to John, were Duff Lowe on piano and Colin Hanton on drums. 

In true teenage boy fashion, they pooled their money to make the record, coming up just short a few shillings. When they finally had enough, they paid the last of the deposit, and the record, a single solitary disc, was theirs. They all took turns owning it, passing it around, with Lowe keeping the record until Paul asked to buy it back in 1981. 

It was made available to the public on the Anthology recordings in 1995 and Paul still plays it live as a tribute to George and John. Thanks to Duff for keeping it safe all those years, I'm glad his brief membership in the band paid off very well. 

It was not my intention, but interesting to note #25 was their first recording and #26 was the last.

Sirius/XM did their annual Top 100 countdown over Memorial Day weekend. A number in parenthesis is that song's position on that countdown.