Category Archives: beatles weekends

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Song of the Day #499: ‘You Really Got a Hold On Me’ – The Beatles

The Beatles are so well known for the songs they wrote than it’s easy to dismiss their early cover work. On three of their first four albums, covers make up about half of the track lists, with the Fab Four trying their hand at everything from rock to country to show tunes.

A few of those covers are so successful that they’ve become Beatles classics in their own right. ‘Baby It’s You,’ ‘Dizzy Miss Lizzy’ and ‘Devil in Her Heart’ are three that jump to mind. Today and tomorrow I’ll highlight the two that really rise to the top.

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Song of the Day #493: ‘I’m a Loser’ – The Beatles

imaloserAfter ‘What You’re Doing,’ my favorite song on Beatles For Sale is John Lennon’s ‘I’m a Loser.’ Lennon dressed up his famously low self esteem in a song about a failed relationship but really about his own insecurities.

Lennon was paying a lot of attention to Bob Dylan at the time, and this is the first of his songs that makes that influence clear (it would become more clear with ‘You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away’ on the band’s next album).

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Song of the Day #492: ‘Eight Days a Week’ – The Beatles

eighdaysThe Beatles’ fourth album, Beatles For Sale, has the dubious honor of being my least favorite of the band’s releases. Nestled between A Hard Day’s Night and Help! with half of its tracklist dedicated to covers, it never really stood a chance.

But, as the saying goes, the worst Beatles album is still better than most of what’s out there. And Beatles For Sale certainly has its share of great songs.

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Song of the Day #486: ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ – The Beatles

strawberryHere’s the other half of the one-two punch I alluded to yesterday.

John Lennon’s ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ is also rooted in nostalgia, though not as overtly as McCartney’s ‘Penny Lane.’ Strawberry Field is the name of a Salvation Army house near Lennon’s childhood home, but the song isn’t really an exploration of that period of his life.

What it is is one of the band’s very best songs.

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Song of the Day #485: ‘Penny Lane’ – The Beatles

pennylaneThis weekend I’m highlighting one of the best one-two punches in music history, a pair of songs released on a “double-A-sided” single that are among the best The Beatles ever recorded.

Today’s track comes courtesy of Paul McCartney. ‘Penny Lane’ is his remembrance of a street in Liverpool, where he and John grew up. I don’t know if the fireman, banker, barber and nurse were actual people Paul encountered as a lad or inventions for this song, but he certainly paints a lovely picture.

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