Tuesday Top Ten: Songs Sung By John Lennon on Each Beatles Studio Album

Today is October 9.  In addition to being a good friend's 40th birthday, another friend's 41st birthday, and Mike Singletary's 60th birthday, it would have been John Lennon's 78th birthday.  Thanks, guns!

I was listening to the Sirius XM Beatles channel on Sunday, as I had slept late enough that I missed XRT's weekly Breakfast With The Beatles, which I generally listen to on Sunday mornings.  Anywho, in honor of John's birthday, the Sirius XM Beatles channel expanded its weekly "8 Songs a Week" listener poll to a countdown of the top 16 Beatles songs sung by John, as voted on by listeners.  I only heard part of the list, but it was a good one.  Unfortunately, I can't find it anywhere online, so you'll have to take my word for it.

But that list got me thinking about this week's Tuesday Top Ten, given that it's not only Lennon's birthday, but also that we are in the midst of a '60s-themed Rocktober.  I am a huge Beatles fan, and my love extends to all of their musical periods.  So, I am going to give you my favorite John-sung song from each of the Beatles' thirteen studio albums.  And just so we're all clear, I am referring to the official UK album releases, not the US releases, which were different up until Revolver.  It's also tough because, on many songs, both John and Paul shared lead vocal duties.  I'm going to try my best to pick songs where John handled lead vocals.

1.  "Anna (Go With Him)" (Please Please Me, 1963)
The Please Please Me album was a great combination of R&B covers and Beatles originals.  While Lennon's original compositions hadn't yet matched those that were mainly written by Paul (in my opinion anyway), Lennon kills it on his covers:  "Anna (Go to Him)," "Baby It's You," and, of course, "Twist and Shout."  For me, it's a toss up between "Anna" and "Twist and Shout," but since I'm assuming you've all heard The Beatles' version of "Twist and Shout" many times, I'm going with "Anna," an Arthur Alexander cover.


2.  "All I've Got to Do" (With the Beatles, 1963)
With the Beatles was released the day President Kennedy was assassinated.  How's that for a monumental day in history and culture?  Another album with a mix of original compositions and covers, John's songwriting began to develop on With The Beatles.  Out of the songs sung and/or principally written by John on the album, I like "All I've Got to Do" the best.  He was trying to imitate Smokey Robinson, and I think he did an admirable job.  Like so many of Robinson's songs, there's a bit of desperation in Lennon's lyrics.


3.  "Any Time at All" (A Hard Day's Night, 1964)
The Beatles released their first movie in 1964, A Hard Day's Night, and what's a movie without a soundtrack?  They had begun conquering the world by this point.  This album was John-heavy, so it's tough to choose my favorite.  I'm going with "Any Time At All," with "If I Fell" coming in a close second.


4.  "I'm a Loser" (Beatles For Sale, 1964)
This was the last of the Beatles' "half cover" albums, as six of the thirteen songs on the album are covers.  The originals were a harbinger of things to come, as John and Paul's songwriting was improving and evolving at a rate unseen before or since.  "I'm a Loser" stands out to me as the most important pre-Help! John song.  It's another Smokey Robinson-esque lyrical nod, with an introspective John declaring himself a loser because he lost his girlfriend and he's not who he appears to be.


5.  "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" (Help!, 1965)
Another year, another movie for The Beatles.  It was the last of what I would deem the "innocent" Beatles albums, as shit began to get real after this.  John's contributions to Help! were great -- the title track, "You're Going to Lose That Girl," "Ticket to Ride," It's Only Love," and the song I'm choosing, "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away."  What a song.  It was a game changer, which, with the Beatles, is redundant.


6.  "In My Life" (Rubber Soul, 1965)
"In My Life" is potentially my second-favorite Beatles song.  It's happy and sad at the same time.  You can play it at a wedding or at a funeral, and it would be equally as poignant.


7.  "And Your Bird Can Sing" (Revolver, 1966)
Revolver was when George started to come into his own as a songwriter and grab some more of the album tracks, but John had some great contributions to Revolver as well.  While "She Said She Said" and "Tomorrow Never Knows" are fantastic, my favorite on this album is "And Your Bird Can Sing," a short and energetic song.  It's also my favorite song off of the Anthology series because John and Paul cannot get through the song without laughing hysterically, presumably as a result of copious amounts of grass.  That's what they called it back then.



8.  "A Day in the Life" (Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, 1967)
While this was a song that combined both a John song and a Paul song, it's mostly John singing the verses, so I'm going with it.  "A Day in the Life" is a psychedelic masterpiece.


9.  "Strawberry Fields Forever" (Magical Mystery Tour, 1967)
Magical Mystery Tour is kind of a strange album that was meant to be a soundtrack, but kind of morphed into an album.  Anyway, I'm counting it, and I'm putting the classic "Strawberry Fields Forever" as my choice for this list, narrowly edging out "Baby You're a Rich Man."


10.  "Happiness is a Warm Gun" (The Beatles (aka, The White Album), 1968)
"Happiness is a Warm Gun" is my favorite Beatles song.  That's all I'm going to say about it.


11.  "Hey Bulldog" (Yellow Submarine, 1969)
Since the Yellow Submarine album is half Beatles songs and half orchestral songs from the movie, the choices are limited.  That said, "Hey Bulldog" is a great song.


12.  "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" (Abbey Road, 1969)
Everyone loves "Come Together," but I've never been a huge fan of the song.  It's not bad, but I just don't love it as much as I love other songs on Abbey Road.  "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" is a dark, gritty, heavy song that ends the first side of Abbey Road, eventually ending abruptly as the tape cut off during an amalgam of whirring white noise and doom-metal-eqsue guitars and drums.


13.  "Dig A Pony" (Let It Be, 1970)
While Let It Be was released in 1970, it was recorded in 1969 and was actually recorded before the band recorded Abbey Road, so I can still say it was made in the '60s.  "I've Got a Feeling" is my favorite song on the album, but it's really more of a Paul song.  Of the purely John songs, it was a close race between "Across the Universe" and "Dig A Pony," but I went with the latter.


14.  "This Boy" (non-album single, 1963)
I would be remiss if I didn't include a non-album single on the list, so I'm going with "This Boy" because it's one of my favorite John-sung songs.  It was the B-side to "I Want to Hold Your Hand" in the UK, and it was included on the Meet the Beatles! album in the U.S.  An ode to doo wop and Motown, John's double-tracked voice is magnificent on this one.