Daveportivo's Cultural Evaluation Facility

Where this under any criteria other than the Beatles best number one this track would probably be way way higher, as this is the Beatles at the most heart wrenching. The anguish in Lennon's voice is amazing, thinking back this really should have made my tear jerkers list. It's so genuine, so passionate, it's a feeling that we've all had, and you can relate to in so many situations. The brilliant of the track is also in a rare sparse arrangement and with Harrison's guitar not gently weeping but sobbing uncontrollably. McCartney's backing harmonies are also sublime. Proving that not only could they write the best sunshine pop but the most heart wrenching blues, pure perfection.

How could a song that starts with such a desperate plea from John Lennon be so much fun? Well who knows? It's brilliant though, and the fact that indie clubs still play this track is utterly remarkable, I mean they don't even have music videos, and their still not on itunes. Guess it just goes to show that true genius knows no bounds. The track remains as immediate and powerful as it ever was, I remember the first time I ever heard it, I felt I knew ever word even though there was no way I possible could, this is the kind of track that is ingrained in the British national psyche at birth.

Ah back to the Beatlemania days, when they were the world's biggest beat band. Little did we know what was in store for the world. Love Me Do may not be a complex masterpiece put its a pure honest and perfect pop record. The harmonica undoubtedly steals the track giving the track a rich ballsy texture serving as a stark contrast to the sparse simplistic verse. It's a simply sentiment "I know I love you, I'll always be true, so please, please, love me do", remarkably in the following 50 years few pop records have said it better.

You know what here in England we have a pretty shit national anthem, I've stuck up for it from time to time, mainly because people actually know the words and it has a rousing quality at sporting events, but it's truly pathetic and dated. A reminder of the foolishness of our past, of the horrid ideas of monarchy and that men have their god given place and their limits...yuck. If we had some real balls we'd change the anthem tomorrow to this; All You Need Is Love. It always felt like the national anthem of Beatleland. For all their complex detours, the great experimentation, and the never ending creativity, the Beatles and the sixties ultimately had one message, one simple statement on life, All You Need Is Love and it rings as true today as it did all those years ago.

This often feels like the forgotten classic of the Beatles, sure it went to number one but it never quite feels like it's a national treasure like their other classic number ones, perhaps it because it was banned in the states but who knows. It feels ahead of it's time in so many ways, Paul's bass line is just remarkable, feels like it was begging to be on the Reservoir Dogs soundtrack before Quiten Tarantino had the first spark of an idea. Combine that with Lennon's song writing, the feeling of being hounded press, the celebrity culture, the pressures of being constantly in the public eye, this sounds like a Lily Allen tweet or a Britney Spears track, but Lennon beat them to the punch by fifty years! Remarkably, the way celebrity culture has exploded The Ballad Of John And Yoko may just be the most relevant Beatles track of them all.

Classic McCartney, a simple narrative full of remarkable little details, and flourish of character development, it's amazing the way Paul does it. He conjures these simplistic charming narratives, wrapped around these gorgeous vocal harmonies and he just drops in this little extra details that truly make a track standout "his son was working for the Daily Mail, it's a steady job but he wants to be a paperback writer". It just adds an intangible, regardless this is classic pop of the highest order, from the harmonies to the souped up bass, this is the Beatles at their slickest and their tightest. Enjoy this famous performance from Japan, poor Paul, his microphone just won't stay still.

So after a McCartney classic it's time to slide back over to Lennon, with the Beatles sliding between their most visceral and their most harmonious. The best thing about the White Album is that in between it's huge creative and it's scatter brained ideas, was some of the Beatles beefiest rock, and the guitars howl and scream on this track, as John Lennon lays down his best idealist lyrics. Revolution is a track that both thrills and charms in equal measure, McCartney howls and Lennon croons, it's a staggering balance, Lennon sings disarmingly but there is a real sense of venom and disdain behind his vocals, yet at it's soul it's a hazy relaxed and loving rejection of hate that encapsulates the Beatles and this track; "Well if you want money for minds that hate, Well all I can tell you brothers is that you'll have to wait".

I have to admit I sent a rather embarrassing message to a friend early today in regards this song and a certain pop star. I've always loved this song, as have many, it's a perfectly judged played that hits the spot every time, it's so deft, so utterly timeless, and ultimately so true. "Sometime in the way you move, attracts me like no other lover" Harrison wrote those words it's reported for his wife, and it's a beautiful sentiment. Like so many of Harrison's compositions, they play directly to your heartstrings, there incredibly affecting, and I really don't write at two great a lenght, as George's work truly speaks for itself.

Part of an abandoned project dreamt up by Paul McCartney to do a concept album dedicate purely to their hometown of Liverpool. Judging by the two tracks that did see the light of day Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane it looked like being one hell of a record. I've given the nod here to Lennon's effort Strawberry Fields... but to be honesty both track show the Beatles at the top of their game. Many consider this the best Beatles track, there's a pretty defined split between this and A Day In The Life, I prefer the latter but that's like preferring to Guadi to Mozart it doesn't matter their both utterly superb. It's so hard to write something new about a track that has had so much written about it, there's almost too much to talk about, the psychedelia, the thundering drums, the horns, the subtle chimes, the gorgeous production, the Divine harmonies, the overwhelming emotion affect, there's just too much, and not enough room to write, and I don't think it's in the spirit of the track to take it this seriously. Oh and after all it's only number two, on my list.

So what could possible finish above Strawberry Fields Forever? Well nothing could really top that, but if any number one single could even dare to dream it has to be the Divine Eleanor Rigby. How on earth Paul McCartney managed to squeeze so much soul into two minutes and seven seconds I will never know. This is a epic monumental track, and yet it's over in a flash, he how on earth he manage such lush story telling in such minimal space is beyond me. Eleanor Rigby truly is a perfect track, nothing is wasted, not one second over stays it's welcome, it's Divine. There are so many quoteable lines, of course theirs the epic refrain "All The Lonely People, Where Do They All Belong", then of course there's the story of the woman who was "buried along with her name", or the face that she keeps in a jar by the door, and my favourite line of all in this tragic tear joking narrative has to be "Father Mckenzie writing the words to a sermon that no one will hear". This is tragic reflection at it's best and unlike so many other Beatles track there is no uplifting final note, no message of hope, it's purely reflective, speculative, this is looking out your window on a rainy day, with nothing but the sorrow of the city to comfort you. Alot is said about the psychedelia, and Lennon's lyrics, but it's so easy to forget just how powerful McCartney's everyday story telling can be, and there is no example finer, and none more powerful, than Eleanor Rigby, my ultimate Beatles number one record.