This is my idea for a 20 to 1. It is designed to look at The Beatles' 20 best songs they never released as singles. In order to save myself too much time deliberating over which 20 songs to include, I have not chosen any songs which were B sides, and I have not chosen any of The Beatles’ cover versions, as they always had a policy of only releasing original material on singles. Furthermore, I am looking only at songs which were not released as a single in Great Britain. Whilst America and Australia and several other countries released particular album tracks as additional Beatles singles, I am sticking with The Beatles’ British discography. I found it too difficult to arrange the songs in any particular ranking order, except the Top 3. It was so tricky whittling down all the tracks I had shortlisted to a mere 20.
Who knows whether all these songs would have been successful as singles, but it’s probably fair to say most artists would have loved to have these songs “just hanging around” in their catalogue.
20.
Oh Darling (1969, Abbey Road)
It is reported that Paul McCartney spent the best part of a week shouting and yelling in his house so his vocal chords could give the right sound and feel to the song.
This is one of McCartney’s songs John always had a fondness for. From his 1980 Playboy interview, Lennon stated, “That’s a great song of Paul’s that he didn’t sing too well. I always thought I could have sung it better. It was more my style than is. But he wrote it, so what the hell, he was going to sing it. If he had any sense, he would have let me sing it (Laughing).”
Listen to 10CC’s “Oh Donna” and you can hear some similarities.
Who knows whether all these songs would have been successful as singles, but it’s probably fair to say most artists would have loved to have these songs “just hanging around” in their catalogue.
20.
Oh Darling (1969, Abbey Road)
It is reported that Paul McCartney spent the best part of a week shouting and yelling in his house so his vocal chords could give the right sound and feel to the song.
This is one of McCartney’s songs John always had a fondness for. From his 1980 Playboy interview, Lennon stated, “That’s a great song of Paul’s that he didn’t sing too well. I always thought I could have sung it better. It was more my style than is. But he wrote it, so what the hell, he was going to sing it. If he had any sense, he would have let me sing it (Laughing).”
Listen to 10CC’s “Oh Donna” and you can hear some similarities.
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