10 Beatles Songs Not Written By The Beatles

You’d probably think that punk music would probably be the furthest thing away from the sound of the Beatles. With its no-frills attitude and minimalist approach, these bands seemed to be rebelling against all the artistic ingenuity that the ‘60s stood for. Then again, there is a bridge between these two disparate paths: pop punk.

For as much no nonsense is in punk rock, Green Day were not afraid to let their more pop-friendly tendencies loose from time to time. Though the band had taken a quantum leap from their original sound with American Idiot, 21st Century Breakdown gave us one of the greatest ballads of the modern age.

“Last Night on Earth” is one of the best songs of the operatic years of the band, but the chord progression has something more going for it. With its beautiful upward ascent, the entire track is a play on an old trick John Lennon would employ in his tunes. This entire song seems ripe for plagiarism, but the way that Billie Joe Armstrong puts an emotional spin on it makes any modicum of pretension fade away. 21st Century Breakdown is far from the best Green Day album, but for just this one moment, they were in tune with some of the greatest musical minds of all time.