I know there are a few things going on right now but in the middle of the week when I've already voted for Survivor and the 80's poll is only once a month. I kind of want something else, but something easy and fun.

So, here's my thought...most of us are Beatles fans: Let's play Beatles songs Survivor. Same rules as artist survivor but we're playing with the Beatles catalog (including covers-excluding solo work). I'll roll it out on Thursday so when you are done voting on Survivor: Artists you can look forward to voting on Survivor: Beatles in a few days.

Any objections?

I would be interested. BUT! Covers??? That's a little extreme. I think they should not be entered. Just beatles songs!

I think by "covers" John means cover versions RECORDED by the Beatles (e.g., "Money", "Dizzy Miss Lizzy", etc.), not covers OF the Beatles.

Right. Anything recorded by the Beatles on original releases will be included. Nothing from Live at the BBC, the Anthologies or bootlegs. Singles will be included. Pretty much everything that was a major release. I don't see any objection so I'll roll it out Thursday!

It would take a long time if it was the same pace as survivor - there would be a couple of rounds a week right?

Sounds like fun. You could limit it to the 71 songs on the AM songs list (plus the bubbling under's) to keep it reasonably shorter.

Sounds good to me, although, like Midaso and Schwah, I'm wondering if you're really going to start with all 212 Beatles songs.

(For starters, there's an awful lot of muck on the first four albums.)

You might consider using the 71 Beatles songs on this site and fill out a field of 100 or so by looking at the "Best Beatles songs" lists Henrik has links to. They're here:

100 Best Beatles songs

101 Greatest Tracks by the Beatles

50 Greatest Beatles Tracks

But it's your show--I'll be voting no matter what format you use!

I really want to use all the songs...I could do twice a week I suppose, but I don't want to intrude on the original game. How about I make it Weds. and Sun.

There is quite alot of fluff on there first few years of song recordings. I would do the top 70 like he suggests, but hey its your game, its just gunna take a while.

I may be a minority here, but I think including Wings songs, John Lennon songs and George Harrision songs would be kinda fun. Maybe My Sweet Lord could be the George Mason of the competition.

Great idea, John!
I particularly prefer the use of all 212 Beatles songs, even if it makes the game too long. It's quite unfair to use some songs and retire others, and maybe making this we could be retiring some favorites of anybody here.
I am not so familiar with their early albums, so I think I will listen then again from today until thursday!

A lot of those early Beatles songs that weren't singles are some of my favorites so I'm not going to exclude anything since I'm sure others have the same feelings. I kind of get the feeling that almost all of us have heard the Beatles catalog or I'm sure Songza will have all of them. The German versions of She Loves You and I Want To Hold Your Hand will also be excluded.

I don't think enough of us are familiar with all of the solo work and it's a TON of music. I could only truthfully vote for the solo work up until about 78-79 and even some of those 70's records from Harrison and Ringo I haven't listened to more than a few times. Plus, none of it is representative of The Beatles. You can tell it's solo work and should be judged as that- not up against the Beatles catalog.

212? Is there really that many? I have 191 and I thought the only ones I didn't have were a couple of MMT tracks and a few off 'Yellow Submarine'

I'm with John 100% - if this is a Beatles competition, then it should be limited to songs released by the Beatles as a group. Solo songs would only clutter things up. John, are we also excluding stuff that's only found on the ANTHOLOGY sets (up to and including "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love")?

If I were running the game, the eligible songs would be those appearing on the following CDs:
PLEASE PLEASE ME
WITH THE BEATLES
A HARD DAY'S NIGHT
BEATLES FOR SALE
HELP!
RUBBER SOUL
REVOLVER
SGT. PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND
MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR
THE BEATLES
YELLOW SUBMARINE
ABBEY ROAD
LET IT BE
PAST MASTERS, Vols. 1 & 2

That covers every single track originally released by the Beatles during their lifetime as a band. That seems like a logical place to draw the line, I think.

"This isn't 'Nam, Smokey, this is bowling. There are -rules-!" -- John Goodman as Walter Sobchak, emphasizing a point of order in THE BIG LEBOWSKI

I agree--the solo work shouldn't be put up against the Beatles catalogue.

Just by way of whetting everyone's appetite, what's the worst cover of a Beatles song ever?

I think the list has to start with the Thompson Twins' version of "Revolution," but I'm sure some teenybopper fave has massacred a Beatles song in the last decade. And something tells me William Shatner might come into play as well...

Alright, here's the plan:

Every Tues. and Sat. (usually around 8-9pm CST) we will choose our 10 least favorite Beatles songs of the entire studio catalog (no early tapes or German tracks). You assign 5 points to two songs, 4 points to two songs, 3 points to two, 2 points to two and 1 point to two. The only songs you need to comment on are the two 5 pointers but you are free to comment on as many as you want.

At every new vote, 5 songs will be eliminated. That should make it about a 4-5 month process. Not bad considering we're dissecting the entire catalog of the most influential band ever!

Yes Harold, those are the albums that will be used. I forgot that the instrumentals on Yellow Submarine will also be excluded along with the instrumentals on the US release of Help.

'80s teen-tart Tiffany actually crawled into the Top Ten with a godawful cover of "I Saw Her [Him] Standing There". Following in those ignoble footsteps, AMERICAN IDOL just had two consecutive weeks of Beatles songs (yes, the Lennon-McCartney catalogue was finally made available for the show to use), and there were more than a few historically bad performances therein (along with some decent-or-better ones as well).

I'm looking forward to this game very much, Like many people, I prefer the later period Beatles, and am less familiar with the early albums.

Will the Christmas fan club discs be included or not?

Aww…no “Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand” or “Sie Liebt Dich”?

Schleuse, would you have any objection to me having one vote on Monday? It seems we could miss some people on weekends so if I did Mon and Thurs those who leave the internet behind for the weekend would still be able to vote. You o.k. with that?

No worries, John. Survivor's only once a week, and I think most people have a pretty good idea how they're gonna vote from here on out. Sounds good to me.

By the way, I'm putting together a list of songs, because there are 4 or 5 Beatles albums I haven't heard in over a decade, and I've got some cramming to do. Out of the 212 songs on the "canonical" CDs, I know you said you're leaving out the German singles...but I've noticed a few other issues:

Some songs appear in more than one version. There are the original and reprise versions of Sgt. Pepper's title track, different single and album versions of "Revolution," "Get Back," and "Let It Be," and two versions of "Across the Universe." (actually, if we count Let It Be...Naked, there are three versions of the last three songs mentioned, but I'll keep it simple and not get into the whole Spector/Let It Be debacle today.)

Anyhoo, my question is: will we be considering the different versions of these songs, or will each be on the big list only once (giving us a total of 205 songs instead of 212)? Please advise.

I think we might consider Sgt Pepper's, Sgt. Pepper's reprise, Revolution and Revolution 1 as 4 different tracks. About the others, we could count them only once, but without specifying which version each participant should think of while judging it.

Sgt. Peppers (reprise) stays because it's an album track written by the Beatles and not George Martin. That has to be included. The others I'm not so sure on. I think if we're excluding three do we have to exclude arguably the superior version of Revolution. I don't think so. They are very different and the same can't be said about the others. In fact, it even has a different name "Revolution 1".

So, Sgt. Peppers (reprise) stays because it's an album track, and Revolution 1 stays just because.

I'll be posting this in a seperate thread in awhile. I've gotta type all these songs out...what did I get myself into?

"what did I get myself into?"

Yeah, I've felt that way once or twice.

Thanks for the clarification. Sorry to pester.

And by the way, don't take my song total as the last word--I just counted again and got 213, and I think I may be missing a couple somewhere. Discographies...feh.

I have trouble getting into those Survivor/Hurt and Heal type forum games, because the winners tend to be the ones that get the least noticed rather than the ones that are most popular.

BillAdama - I'm with ya. (Wow, that's a first).

It seems to me that these types of games almost reward innocuousness - as if it's some sort of virtue. That said, I just might have to shelve my brash personality for a while and participate in this Beatles game. I'm up for some good Beatles discussion -- here's a taste:

"Piggies" - scathing commentary on the wealthy, or an ode to swine? Either way, one of my favorites.

(Hey John - a bit of wishful thinking here, but can you play dictator and disallow thoughtless voting?)

But, at the same time Bill it opens people up to an entire catalog or in the artist survivors case whole new artists.