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Your 70 Favourite John Lennon Songs

Today would have been John Lennon's 70th birthday.

I thought it would be neat if we would each rank our top 70 (or as many as we can) John Lennon songs (including Beatles and solo material, etc.)

Comments are welcome :)

I'll post mine soon!

Re: Your 70 Favourite John Lennon Songs

Work in progress.

Re: Your 70 Favourite John Lennon Songs

Great idea, Daniel, but this is probably going to be my last contribution to AMF of this size for a while. I’ll still try and keep up the weekly stuff like Survivor, Unacclaimed, Bracketology, maybe UMT next year, and the 90s Movie Poll (sorry, Honorio, probably no room for the 60s poll for now); but any major lists which require too much thought are beyond me. This was fun and only took a couple of hours, but I’ve just got too much work/other commitments to keep doing this.

She Loves You and I Want to Hold Your Hand (the latter would have been quite low anyway) are not on this list, because they are such collective efforts, particularly in the case of She Loves You, that it’s hard to pinpoint any special contribution that John made to them, songwriting or otherwise. In fact, they are among the very few examples where there is not even an incline as to whether it is Lennon or a McCartney song; She Loves You is supposed to be McCartney’s basic concept, so I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt, while I Want to Hold Your Hand was probably John’s idea but I don’t care for it much anyway.

1) A Day in the Life – Not my favourite Beatles song (that’s She Loves You) but, as I have intimated before, John’s parts are chillingly perceptive, even though it’s meant to be all psychedelic and that; here, Lennon produces the most moving moments in The Beatles’ catalogue by himself seeming completely unmoved.
2) Jealous Guy – Yeah, I am into Lennon’s realism. But this is just a beautiful melody as well.
3) In My Life – Not much to say about this really. A brilliant, slightly poignant song, which could have been even higher but for the commercial-minded tinkering that went into the finished product.
4) Help! – One of the most immediate Beatles songs, which wasn’t what Lennon wanted at all, but this adds to that sense of desperation that he could always convey so well.
5) Girl – Such an underrated classic. THE standard for any baroque pop song, and THE overlooked accomplishment of 60s folk-rock
6) Strawberry Fields Forever – Another one where real and surreal go hand in hand, demonstrating more than any other Lennon song that he didn’t yet see a place for himself in the world around him.
7)Tomorrow Never Knows – Essentially a throwaway (although Lennon took the concept and George Martin and co. the music very seriously at the time, both parts later lost relevance), you can do exactly that with the rigours of life while listening to it
8) Day Tripper – Among the greatest guitar hooks ever written, this one gets a bad rap for its simplicity but is nevertheless one of my favourite Lennon songs.
9) If I Fell – The best harmonies of any of John’s (or probably Paul’s), some weak lyrics do little to stop this sublime ballad.
10) Imagine – Putting the hyperbole, overuse and hypocrisy to one side (all silly criticisms anyway), you have to commend the ambition (although he was a bit self-worshipping by this stage) and its application in a succinct and poetic pop song.
11) I Am the Walrus – This one has slowing grown in one of my favourites, after initially hating it on first listen. Although the point is not to look into it, analysis shows some of Lennon’s most cutting lyrics.
12) Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) – A beautiful song which only Lennon could have written.
13) Happiness Is a Warm Gun – This probably outdoes A Day in the Life for complexity and transitions, and has both serenity and fun captured within it.
14) Come Together – This song appears to be about the break-up of The Beatles, but you don’t really notice with the exceptional arrangement
15) Revolution – Could easily have been done a year later as one of Lennon’s first solo singles. Then maybe it would receive closer to the amount of credit it deserves.
16) Please Please Me – Even if it was a ballad sped up, recorded long before From Me to You and She Loves You had even been dreamt of, this will always be the iconic sound of the early Beatles. It’s almost too good for the early Beatles.
17) Woman – About as Romantic as Lennon’s sentiments ever got, call me soft but this song really works for me.
18) Ticket to Ride – I have only recently grown to like this one a lot. I don’t know what I ever held against it.
19) Instant Karma! – You can get the sense that it was written and recorded in a day from Lennon’s urgency, making all the ideas tie in alongside a very good tune
20) You’re Going to Lose That Girl – This is the kind of song you might have heard The Zombies or the early Kinks trying to write to emulate The Beatles. It’s got all the hallmarks there, with not too much new ground covered, but it’s so well rounded that it deserves its place here.
21) Rain
22) Julia
23) A Hard Day’s Night
24) Because
25) Mother
26) Across the Universe
27) Dear Prudence
28) Working Class Hero
29) All You Need Is Love
30) God
31) Love
32) Don’t Let Me Down
33) Nowhere Man
34) It Won’t Be Long
35) She Said She Said
36) There’s a Place
37) I’m Only Sleeping
38) You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away
39) I’m So Tired
40) And Your Bird Can Sing
41) Cold Turkey
42) This Boy
43) Baby’s in Black
44) I Should Have Known Better
45) You Can’t Do That
46) (Just Like) Starting Over
47) I Feel Fine
48) Glass Onion
49) I Want You (She’s So Heavy)
50) Hold On, John
51) How Do You Sleep?
52) All I’ve Got to Do
53) Do You Want to Know a Secret
54) I’ll Be Back
55) Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds
56) Watching the Wheels
57) No Reply
58) Ask Me Why
59) Good Night
60) I’m Happy Just to Dance with You
61) #9 Dream
62) The Ballad of John and Yoko
63) The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill
64) I Don’t Want to Spoil the Party
65) Sexy Sadie
66) Not a Second Time
67) Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!
68) Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)
69) Yes It Is
70) It’s Only Love

Re: Your 70 Favourite John Lennon Songs

My favorite Beatles' song, my number 8 all time is Strawberyr Fields Forever. I love it. Unfortunately, I hate Solo Lennon and I hate Yoko.

Re: Your 70 Favourite John Lennon Songs

For those of you unaware these are John's Beatles/ Solo songs from AM ranked, with a few bublers at the bottom:

01. Strawberry Fields Forever
02. A Day in the Life
03. Imagine
04. Help!
05. In My Life
06. Tomorrow Never Knows
07. Instant Karma (We All Shine On)
08. Ticket to Ride
09. Revolution
10. Happiness is a Warm Gun
11. I Am the Walrus
12. A Hard Day’s Night
13. Rain
14. Come Together
15. Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
16. God
17. Jealous Guy
18. Please Please Me
19. Across the Universe
20. Working Class Hero
21. All You Need is Love
22. And Your Bird Can Sing
23. Cold Turkey
24. Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds
25. (Just Like) Starting Over
26. She Said She Said
27. Mother
28. I’m Only Sleeping
29. Don’t Let Me Down
30. Nowhere Man
31. Girl
32. Give Peace a Chance
33. I Feel Fine
34. I’m So Tired
35. Dear Prudence
36. I Found Out

Bubblers:

I Should've Known Better
You're Going to Lose That Girl
Run For Your Life
Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite!
Julia
Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey
Sexy Sadie
How Do You Sleep
Oh Yoko!
Happy Xmas (War is Over)
Watching the Wheels