Category Archives: beatles weekends

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Song of the Day #514: ‘Day Tripper’ – The Beatles

Here’s the flip side of that double-A single I mentioned yesterday, and while ‘Day Tripper’ wasn’t as big a hit as ‘We Can Work It Out’ (and isn’t as good a song) it’s still an excellent tune.

John was the principal author of ‘Day Tripper,’ though there are conflicting accounts about how much of a role Paul played. It’s funny how the two men are in agreement about the authorship of so many of their songs but once in awhile you come upon one that they can’t seem to agree on. Just a case of fuzzy memories, I suppose, because it’s not like either man needed a bigger piece of ‘Day Tripper’ to solidify his songwriting bona fides.

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Song of the Day #513: ‘We Can Work It Out’ – The Beatles

This weekend I’ll highlight two more of The Beatles’ non-album tracks, starting with the more popular song on their 1965 double-A side release of ‘We Can Work It Out’ and ‘Day Tripper.’

Though Lennon and McCartney shared songwriting credit on every one of their songs, it was very rare that they actually collaborated. ‘We Can Work It Out’ was one of those infrequent collaborations — Paul wrote the verses and chorus while John contributed the bridge (“Life is very hard and there’s no time…”). For that reason, and because it’s so damn good, this is generally considered one of the band’s best songs.

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Song of the Day #507: ‘Do You Want to Know a Secret’ – The Beatles

Here’s the “favorite song” from Please Please Me I alluded to yesterday. There’s something so simple and lovely about this tune, which you can say about so many great Beatles songs. And I love the use of the intro before the main melody kicks in… similar to Lennon’s opening to ‘If I Fell.’

George Harrison handled lead vocals on this one. Normally George sang only on the tracks he wrote (about two per album, starting with the band’s second release) but he also handled several of the covers (‘Devil in Her Heart’ is a standout among that group) and occasionally, as in the case of today’s song, John and Paul let him take the lead on one of their compositions.

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Song of the Day #506: ‘Please Please Me’ – The Beatles

I started these Beatles weekends with the first track from their first album — ‘I Saw Her Standing There’ on Please Please Me. I’ve since dedicated a week to every Beatles album (with the exception of the lame Yellow Submarine) so I’m circling back around to again focus on their debut.

The band famously recorded the whole album in just under ten hours, essentially capturing on tape the live show they’d been performing for months in the Cavern Club (that’s where they racked up those 10,000 hours of practice Malcolm Gladwell writes about in Outliers). Six of the songs were covers while the eight originals made it clear right out of the gate that Lennon and McCartney were expert songwriters.

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Song of the Day #500: ‘Twist and Shout’ – The Beatles

Here I am at my 500th Song of the Day. Haven’t missed a single day for nearly a year and a half. I admit there are times when I wonder if I can keep this going for very much longer but then I stop and think about dozens of songs and artists I haven’t been able to cover yet and I realize that the SOTD series will certainly never die for lack of material. If it dies, it will be because I give up. And I don’t give up easy.

I considered finding some meaningful song to position in this spot to mark the occasion, but I couldn’t come up with anything. And because I was featuring Beatles cover songs this weekend, I figured their most famous one is certainly worthy of the spot.

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