Today, we tend to think of bands in terms of their albums – mainly thanks to The Beatles, in fact – but for those who lived through the 1960s, The Beatles were very much about their singles.
Here, we’ve ranked every single released during their active lifetime in a thankless task that divides opinion here at BBC Music Magazine, with the arguments set to continue long into the night.
For the case of simplicity, we used The Beatles’ UK Parlophone and Apple singles only, as they were the ones the band had control over, and we’ve quoted UK release dates and chart positions unless stated otherwise.
Every Beatles single ranked
22. 'Love Me Do'/'PS I Love You' (1962)
Their 1962 debut for Parlophone Records was a bluesy Lennon and McCartney original that hadn’t long been part of their live set. Lennon’s harmonica gave the song a distinctive hook that would be part of their signature sound in 1963, but would be largely absent thereafter.
‘Love Me Do’ reached a modest number 17 on the charts, with rumours that a great number of these sales came from NEMS record store in Liverpool, run by their manager, Brian Epstein.
21. 'From Me To You'/'Thank You Girl' (1963)
Written on the tour bus by Lennon and McCartney on the way to Shrewsbury, ‘From Me To You’ was the first song to hit number one on all UK charts (‘Please Please Me’ had topped most charts but not the Record Retailer one, which has since become the de facto UK singles chart).
Originally a bluesier arrangement than the finished version, ‘From Me To You’ features a delightful middle 8 section that McCartney was particularly proud of: "The opening chord of the middle section of that song heralded a new batch for me. That was a pivotal song. Our songwriting lifted a little with that song."
20. 'Yellow Submarine'/'Eleanor Rigby' (1966)
It was a Beatles policy not to issue singles from albums (there were exceptions in their debut album, and the two movie LPs, A Hard Day’s Night and Help!), but rather than risk losing out to a number of cover versions of ‘Eleanor Rigby’ in particular, this double A-side saw that song paired with ‘Yellow Submarine’ to make it the only Beatles single to feature Ringo Starr on lead vocals.
Released on the same day as parent album Revolver, it would be difficult to find two such vastly different songs on one single.
19. 'Hello Goodbye'/'I Am The Walrus' (1967)
For all its positive vibes and obvious radio-friendly demeanour, it would be hard to argue that ‘Hello Goodbye’ was the best song on this 1967 single, taken from the Magical Mystery Tour movie.
With its literary references, surreal visions and sinister undertones, Lennon’s ‘I Am The Walrus’ is one of The Beatles’ crowning glories, a song unlike anything anybody ever made – or even could make.
18. 'Get Back'/'Don't Let Me Down' (1969)
There’s a moment in Peter Jackson’s epic Get Back (2021) movie where Paul McCartney pounds away at his Hofner bass, and mutters a few sounds, and, as the piece plays out, ‘Get Back’ is seemingly plucked out of the ether while his bandmates busy themselves.
With hindsight, this is an extraordinary thing to witness, but at the time, it was just another Beatle writing yet another timeless classic.
17. 'Please Please Me'/'Ask Me Why' (1963)
While producer George Martin wanted them to record the Mitch Murray song ‘How Do You Do It?’, The Beatles weren’t keen, proposing instead a slow, bluesy number in the style of Roy Orbison’s ‘Only The Lonely’.
But Martin wasn’t convinced, and suggested they went back to the drawing board with it, and to try speeding it up. When they brought it back to the producer at full tempo, he told them, "Congratulations gentlemen, you’ve just made your first number one."
16. 'The Ballad Of John And Yoko'/'Old Brown Shoe' (1969)
Only two Beatles appear on ‘The Ballad Of John And Yoko’, with Paul taking care of drums, piano and bass, while John plays various guitars and joins in on percussion. It’s a touching recording, with one Beatle helping his long-time partner celebrate his new partnership.
Amid all the stresses, arguments and complications that were flying around Beatleworld in 1969, that this clear demonstration of love and support between two friends should emerge is testament that, contrary to the popular belief, John and Paul still very much loved each other.
15. 'Can't Buy Me Love'/'You Can't Do That' (1964)
With the phenomenal success of ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’, their US label Capitol was keen to get the follow up out as soon as possible, so McCartney wrote ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’ in their Paris hotel during a residency at the Olympia Theatre.
The group headed to EMI’s Paris studios to record it at the earliest opportunity – the only recording session in their entire career to take place outside of London.
14. 'A Hard Day's Night'/'Things We Said Today' (1964)
The title song from their first movie was written by John Lennon after he picked up on a Ringo Starr malapropism. "We went to do a job, and we'd worked all day and we happened to work all night. I came up still thinking it was day I suppose, and I said, 'It's been a hard day...' and I looked around and saw it was dark so I said, '.. night!'."
13. 'Something'/'Come Together' (1969)
Even when George Harrison finally got his one and only A-side writing credit, he still had to share it. This was also the only time they released a single that was already available on an album, with both tracks featuring on Abbey Road, released a fortnight earlier.
This would go a long way to explaining why it became only the second Beatles single since ‘Love Me Do’ not to top the UK charts. As songs, both ‘Something’ and ‘Come Together’ are masterpieces, but in a crowded marketplace, you can’t expect people to dish out shillings for things they already own.
12. 'Help'/'I'm Down' (1965)
This was the first Beatles single that wasn’t about love, and as such was a significant step forwards for them as songwriters. John would always be particularly proud of this song, which he’d originally written as a slow piano song, before speeding it up to make it rockier.
The title track from their second movie had its exclamation mark added by way of circumventing copyright rules: a film called Help already existed.
11. 'Lady Madonna'/'The Inner Light' (1968)
Wearing its Fats Domino-esque New Orleans influence proudly on its sleeve, ‘Lady Madonna’ uses a mix of ascending and descending patterns to tie the listener up dizzy in knots.
It was recorded in haste before the group headed to India for a course in Transcendental Meditation in the spring of 1968, and released around six weeks later to fill the gap until they returned. Its memorable B-side finds George Harrison exploring his new fascination with Indian music and philosophies.
10. 'All You Need Is Love'/'Baby You're A Rich Man' (1967)
With Sgt Pepper’s flying high as the soundtrack to the Summer of Love, the Beatles were approached to deliver something special for the first global satellite broadcast, Our World. With all the skill of an advertising copywriter, Lennon distilled their message into five neat words that could be understood on a global scale.
But while the chorus was a clear rallying call, the verses were less clear, as Paul McCartney recalled: "The chorus, ‘All you need is love’, is simple, but the verse is quite complex; in fact I never really understood it, the message is rather complex. It was a good song that we had handy that had an anthemic chorus."
9. 'I Feel Fine'/'She's A Woman' (1964)
With a riff inspired by Bobby Parker’s 'Watch Your Step', ‘I Feel Fine’ boasts what is generally credited as the first deliberate use of feedback on a rock record, after John’s Gibson semi-acoustic guitar was leant up against his amplifier. And with that, as George Harrison joked in the Anthology (1994), "We invented Jimi Hendrix."
8. 'Let It Be'/'You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)' (1970)
By the time ‘Let It Be’ was released, The Beatles had already effectively ceased to exist, even if the public didn’t yet know it. Released over a year after initial recording had taken place, their final single during their lifetime became the title track to their posthumously released documentary.
A deeply personal song in which Paul looks to a vision of his mother (Mary McCartney had died when Paul was 15 years old) who had appeared to him in a dream and told him to let it be.
That they chose to pair this with the absurd ‘You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)’ is a parting glimpse of the impish humour that had made the world fall in love with them in the first place. And it’s great.
7. 'Ticket To Ride'/'Yes It Is' (1965)
John Lennon later described their first single of 1965 as one of the first heavy metal songs, with its throbbing bass, pounding drum pattern and chiming 12-string Rickenbacker guitar lick.
An interesting feature is the ending, as Paul explained in his 1997 book Many Year From Now: "I think the interesting thing was a crazy ending; instead of ending like the previous verse, we changed the tempo. We picked up one of the lines, 'My baby don’t care,' but completely altered the melody.
"So, we almost invented the idea of a new bit of a song on the fade-out with this song; it was something specially written for the fade-out, which was very effective but it was quite cheeky and we did a fast ending. It was quite radical at the time."
6. 'Day Tripper'/'We Can Work It Out' (1965)
The 1965 Christmas number one was the first double A-side single to top the UK charts (The Beatles would also make the second, a year later).
John Lennon had wanted ‘Day Tripper’ to be the band’s next single, but with other Beatles and EMI all preferring ‘We Can Work It Out’, the decision to market both numbers as the band’s first double A-side was a neat piece of diplomacy.
As it turned out, Lennon was proved wrong – ‘We Can Work It Out’ was the one to be requested the most, and received the most airplay.
5. 'I Want To Hold Your Hand'/'This Boy' (1963)
Their fourth single of 1963 still sounds incredible today, packed with phenomenal energy, blistering harmonies, a chorus that won’t quit, and a driving arrangement that whipped the audience into a frenzy.
The record that finally burst open the floodgates Stateside for the Fab Four famously caught Bob Dylan’s ear after he heard it and thought they were singing ‘I get high, I get high’, where they were actually singing ‘I can’t hide, I can’t hide’.
This mishearing caused the young American to seek them out when they were in New York and introduce them to pot, something they became very fond of.
4. 'Paperback Writer'/'Rain' (1966)
One of the very few Beatles singles where a strong argument could be made that the B-side was at least as good as the A-side, the pairing of ‘Paperback Writer’ with ‘Rain’ was released at the end of May 1966, a gap of almost six months since ‘Day Tripper’/’We Can Work It Out’.
Naturally, as the months ticked along, anticipation grew about what they would do next, and the competition was hotting up: The Rolling Stones, Beach Boys, Kinks, Who, Walker Brothers, Hollies, Simon & Garfunkel, The Mamas & The Papas, Dusty Springfield and Bob Dylan were all releasing fabulous records by the armful.
But the blistering guitars, strange studio effects, catchy hooks and melodic basslines of this pairing eclipsed them all to create the defining sound of the summer of 1966.
3. 'She Loves You'/'I'll Get You' (1963)
With a flourish of drums, ‘She Loves You’ explodes into life with the full volleyed chorus that made it not just the band’s best-selling single but the best-selling single of the entire 1960s. That ‘yeah yeah yeah’ hook in the chorus was used endlessly in headlines and on merchandise.
But the idea to write from the third person reveals a fundamental difference between John and Paul, as Lennon later explained: "It was Paul's idea: instead of singing 'I love you' again, we'd have a third party. That kind of little detail is still in his work. He will write a story about someone. I'm more inclined to write about myself."
2. 'Hey Jude'/'Revolution' (1968)
In recent decades, ‘Hey Jude’ has become something of a second national anthem, being sung at football matches, and as a centre point at such national events as the London 2012 Olympics and Queen Elizabeth II’s Jubilee celebrations. And as such, it’s possible to take it for granted.
But to listen afresh is to discover a stunning triumph of a record, from the moment Starr’s drums appear, sounding like the kit has fallen down a spiral staircase before landing perfectly on the beat, right through Paul’s hidden F-bomb to the massed singalong that feels like it should never end.
To then group that together with Lennon’s scorching commentary on counter-culture politics (kicked off with the nastiest guitar sound in their catalogue), just feels like showing off.
The footage of them performing both songs debuted on the Frost On Saturday TV show, and makes for one of the best bits of later-period Beatles viewing. How much they enjoyed it is palpable – and was the inspiration behind their mildly ill-fated Get Back project a few months later.
1. 'Strawberry Fields Forever'/'Penny Lane' (1967)
There are many candidates for the best single of all time, but on a purely bang for buck ratio, surely nothing beats ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ and ‘Penny Lane’.
The two songs find their composers looking back to the Liverpool they left just a few long years ago, and their approaches speak volumes about their respective songwriter.
On ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’, John Lennon uses a childhood haunt as a route through introspection; by revisiting the place he first began to discover himself as a boy, he was now under the influence of LSD.
Paul McCartney, meanwhile, took a stroll down memory lane observing the quirks of the characters he found along the way, his wry observations packaged in a blazing sunshine piece of pop music that has never been bettered.
If this isn’t the greatest single ever made then we’d like to know what beats it.
All pics Getty Images
Top image The Beatles pose for a portrait in 1967
