The 10 best ballads by The Beatles
The Beatles have always been the archetype of what a perfect rock and roll band should be. Throughout their tenure, each member of ‘The Fab Four’ was responsible for revolutionising how most rock fans looked at the genre, from new production sounds to some of the heaviest music the scene had ever heard. There was always more to The Beatles’ sound than just a bunch of good rock and roll tunes, though.
From their earliest slow burns to their stately masterpieces later down the line, some of the best material the band ever put out was always under the realm of ballads. While they might have originally started out with the traditional rock and roll lineup for their ballads, their later years brought new accompaniment, often using lavish string arrangements and entire orchestras to drive the point home.
While it’s easy to associate most of the ballads with Paul McCartney’s style of writing, John Lennon could also keep up with that earnestness, bringing a more philosophical bent to his greatest tunes. For all of the supposed “soft” music from Macca, Lennon paints some incredibly detailed pictures in his ballads, with even George Harrison playing a handful of tearjerkers throughout his career.
Despite most artists wanting to give their listeners the sound of a mean guitar blaring at all volumes, The Beatles were always more concerned with having a good melody and telling their fans a story every time they played one of these tunes. They already had respect as rock and rollers from their early days, but The Beatles earned their songwriter stripes when writing each ballad.
The 10 best ballads by The Beatles
10. ‘Norwegian Wood’ – Rubber Soul
The album Rubber Soul always marked a turning point in The Beatles’ career. No longer having to work within the confines of the standard rock and roll tune to play live, the band were focused on making an album that was a statement by itself, with songs that dealt with the intricacies of love. Though ‘Drive My Car’ gave fans a more upbeat song to kick everything off, John Lennon slipped into serious territory on ‘Norwegian Wood’.
Being the first song in their canon that featured a sitar, Lennon paints a vivid picture of an affair that he may or may not have actually had outside of his marriage, recounting a fling with a girl who had a room decked out in Norwegian pine. Although Lennon thinks it’s going somewhere, he is ultimately jilted at the end when the girl leaves for work with him sleeping in the bathtub.
For all of the love songs that came before, Lennon takes things to a sinister ending, electing to burn her house down once he finds out he’s alone and leaves much more dejected than before. Although the message might have been about how even The Beatles can be hung out to dry, it’s clear that Lennon doesn’t take kindly to being led on by any of his romantic partners.
9. ‘And I Love Her’ – A Hard Day’s Night
At the beginning of their songwriting career, John Lennon and Paul McCartney always wanted to write some softer fare. From the looks of his solo career, Macca seemed to go down that direction, playing some jazz-style tunes when he was with Wings and making classical operas in his spare time, like Ocean’s Kingdom and Ecce Cor Meum. Then again, most fans probably saw this coming from his first steps into ballad territory.
While ‘Til There Was You’ is a fantastic cover of the old musical number from The Music Man, McCartney wrote one to call his own on ‘And I Love Her’. Dominated by dramatic minor chords, McCartney sings this with the same power as a happy boyfriend, ecstatic in his latest affair and knowing that nothing can go wrong as long as his missus is around him.
Although McCartney tends to get most of the credit for the song, the most effective part of the tune comes from George Harrison, whose gentle sliding riff on classical guitar adds drama to the final mix. McCartney would get much more poignant from here, but this is a good start on what was sure to be a lifetime’s worth of amazing melodies.
8. ‘She’s Leaving Home’ – Sgt Pepper
Most of the emotional songs from The Beatles’ canon tend to do with love. From the rave-ups they did back in their salad days to the final few seconds of Abbey Road, love has always been the dominating force in all of their music, reminding their fans time after time that that singular emotion is “all you need”. Not many of their songs dealt with the dysfunctional kind of love, and McCartney told a story ripped out of a soap opera on Sgt Pepper.
Inspired by a newspaper story about a girl who ran away from home, McCartney wrote a song detailing both sides of that problem, showing her slowly walking outside and leaving the only home she ever knew. For the chorus, Lennon plays the voice of the parents, wondering what they could have done differently and how much they sacrificed to see their baby grow up.
Although it’s heartwrenching hearing the story of these parents getting torn apart by their little girl leaving, this emotional powerhouse indicates where most of The Beatles’ listeners were at the time of release. The Summer of Love was about to get underway, and running away from home was bound to be the first thing on most rock and rollers’ minds.
7. ‘Blackbird’ – The White Album
From day one, none of The Beatles claimed to be the most technical musicians in the world. Even in the Get Back documentary, George Harrison can be heard being self-deprecating about his own playing ability, not thinking he has the same improvisational ability as someone like Eric Clapton. The Beatles knew how to use their skills, though, and ‘Blackbird’ may be one of the most advanced guitar songs that Paul McCartney would ever write.
Taking inspiration from his bastardisation of Bach’s ‘Bouree in E Minor’, McCartney wrote a song that he hoped would inspire comfort in the black community in America, who were going through the civil rights revolution. Combined with the sounds of the sliding guitar figure, McCartney’s voice sounds like the embodiment of that blackbird taking flight, looking to go to some place of peace far away from this world.
Although the song was perfect just how it was, this was the beginning of a certain rift between the group, with John Lennon saying that he was never a fan of when McCartney would knock out different songs without the involvement of the rest of the band. Lennon may have been upset, but there’s a good chance that any additions to the final track might hurt the simplicity of this tender ballad.
6. ‘Let It Be’ – Let It Be
Some of the greatest advice one can get sometimes comes from the other side of existence. As much as people might be having a hard time in their day-to-day lives, the lucid state often provides an opportunity for the mind to grant some comfort from the horrors that happen at every turn. The Beatles certainly had their share of troubles during the Get Back sessions, but McCartney found salvation through the help of his mother.
After passing away from breast cancer when McCartney was just a kid, his mother visited him in a dream during the sessions, telling him that everything would be alright if he were to just let it be. Taking that advice to heart, McCartney wrote this song as a gentle, calming tune to himself, knowing that light will still shine on him even when all the nights are dark.
Despite being written for himself, McCartney’s melody has been touching people worldwide, becoming a glorified anthem for anyone looking to find some spiritual utopia in their lifetime. While George Harrison was The Beatle known for his emergence in spiritual works, McCartney’s prayer for humanity could easily fit in among the thousands of religious hymns in any place of worship.
5. ‘Across the Universe’ – Let It Be
In the Lennon and McCartney partnership, Lennon was always concerned with his lyrics before anything else. Though plenty of songs were written to be disposable pop hits, Lennon’s knack for writing biting commentary tracks throughout his solo career came from refining his songcraft when with The Beatles. While songs like ‘Imagine’ would come later on, ‘Across the Universe’ is still the best piece of pure poetry he’s ever written.
Using a simple acoustic arrangement, Lennon seems to be singing as if he’s reached the other side of spiritual consciousness, speaking about how words fly out of his mouth like rain. While ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ had hinted at Lennon’s surrealist imagery in songs, this is the most accurate representation of how he sees the world, finally being in a place of spiritual bliss as he sings how nothing will ever change his world.
The only thing holding the song back for Lennon was the production. He never thought that he got the best performance out of himself, even discussing that he would love to redo some of The Beatles’ material when he started growing older. While fans will never hear what Lennon was trying to translate in his head, the ramshackle version has still touched hearts one generation at a time.
4. ‘Something’ – Abbey Road
Towards the end of The Beatles’ initial run, George Harrison was just getting started. Having played second fiddle to the Lennon/McCartney machine, Harrison was stockpiling some of his greatest tunes for his solo career, only giving The Beatles a taste of the really good stuff that he wanted to keep for himself. On Abbey Road, though, Harrison surpassed both songwriting bandmates for the first time on ‘Something’.
Inspired by his undying devotion to his wife Patti Boyd, Harrison was originally not confident in his songwriting, feeling that the tune came too easily. Once he began adding different sections to it, Harrison began creating one of the greatest love songs ever made, feeling fulfilled knowing that all he had to do to feel at ease was think of his wife.
As if the lyrics couldn’t do the song justice, the guitar solo is pure expression in a small package, giving the listener the sensation that comes with the butterflies that arise in one’s stomach when talking to their crush for the first time. Although Frank Sinatra would erroneously attribute the song to Lennon and McCartney when he covered it, ‘The Quiet Beatle’ walked away with one of the purest love songs that the group would ever make.
3. ‘Eleanor Rigby’ – Revolver
Most ballads from rock bands tend to revolve around some of the most open-hearted romances in the rock canon. It doesn’t necessarily take a rocket scientist to find out that songs like ‘Wild Horses’ by The Rolling Stones or ‘With Or Without You’ by U2 have some romantic seeds in them, even if they’re about being jilted by their lovers. Paul McCartney had already covered that territory, and one of his many masterpieces didn’t even need the rock format to get his point across.
As opposed to the usual love song, ‘Eleanor Rigby’ is a dark look at what it means to be a lonely person, detailing the lives of a church maid picking up rice after a wedding and the minister who ultimately oversees her burial. Although there is some biting work from the strings, the song isn’t necessarily about shaming the world’s lonely people for feeling this way.
If anything, McCartney is putting this song out as a bit of a cautionary tale for those who keep all their emotions bottled up, living their lives cold and alone while still keeping the face of makeup in a jar by the door, hoping for the ultimate someone to make their lives better. Lonely people might come from all walks of life, but it’s up to them to find out where they truly belong in the world.
2. ‘In My Life’ – Rubber Soul
John Lennon always carried himself like a man well beyond his years. Although he left The Beatles in his mid-20s, he seemed to have the intellect of someone much older, often making songs about existential crises like the one in ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’. Underneath some of that rough exterior was a gentle soul, though, and ‘In My Life’ is the clearest indication of what Lennon was like at his most genuine.
While Lennon tried to write the song to editorialise a day trip, the track is more of a dissection of how he sees his personal and romantic relationships, claiming to love all the people that have come and gone throughout his life. Then again, no one can compare to his lover back home, promising her that he would love her so much more than a thousand of his old friends ever could.
This perfect declaration of love was so special to the group that both Lennon and McCartney would disagree over who had a part in writing it. Although McCartney can claim to have helped out with a handful of the lyrics and a touch of the instrumentation here and there, this is a deep look into Lennon’s heart that happens to be trapped in a singular pop song.
1. ‘Yesterday’ – Help!
Some of the best songs that have ever been written often feel like they took no effort. While some writers might labour over a song repeatedly, there are often those lucky few that fall out of the sky, as if being presented on a silver platter by the songwriting gods. And one day in the early 1960s, those gods visited Paul McCartney to give him the melody to the ultimate breakup song.
Thinking he remembered a tune from when his father was a jazz pianist, McCartney fiddled with the song under the working title ‘Scrambled Eggs’ before the word ‘Yesterday’ fell into his head. From there, the song became a dejected lament about love lost, with McCartney playing solo with an acoustic guitar as he pines for his love that will probably never return after he said something wrong.
Although there aren’t many details that McCartney gives in the song, that’s half of the power behind why it works. Instead of having to know every single detail about what happened to this relationship, everyone has had their heart broken at some point in their lives, and this is the sad fallout when even words can’t make things better.
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