The Beatles: Their Top 40 Tracks

22. Day Tripper

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwmtNk_Yb2Q Writer: Lennon-McCartney Album: Single Released as a double A-side with 'We Can Work It Out', and recorded during sessions for 'Rubber Soul', 'Day Tripper' opens with that very distinguishable guitar riff, which continues through the majority of the song. While 'Day Tripper' exhibits a lot of Beatles humour, what with Lennon writing about Hippies taking holidays, it is also an fantastically catchy and shows off what Lennon and McCartney could do together. There also appear to be some sneaky sexual references as well ('tried to please her/she only played one night stand') which captures the remnants of the group cheeky attitude. A hugely enjoyable song.

21. Revolution

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiR3atKPc_o Writer: Lennon-McCartney (Lennon) Album: Single While on The White Album you had to folky 'Revolution 1', on the single 'Hey Jude', you had the Hard Rock B-side 'Revolution'. Opening with McCartney's scream, and Lennon's fuzzy guitar driving the song along, with Starr's pumping drum beat excellently exhibited. The lyrics are fantastically political as well, putting down fighting and encouraging people to 'free your mind instead'. The song, along with a couple of others from The White Album, pushed The Beatles further into the political eye, almost being viewed as 'pro-Soviet'. Even without the political allegories, 'Revolution' remains a fantastic, hard rock song.

20. Penny Lane

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pN7eNSFXEY Writer: Lennon-McCartney (McCartney) Album: Single George Martin once called the double A-Side of 'Strawberry Fields Forever' and 'Penny Lane' the greatest single The Beatles ever released. One can see why he'd say that. The two songs complement each other very well, and 'Penny Lane' is perhaps the cheerier of the two. 'Penny Lane' is also a real place, and was on the bus routes McCartney would use, with accurate representations in the song of places along the route, giving some historical context to this peppy song.