Most overrated Beatles song...

I don't think there's such a thing as an overrated Beatle. You can prefer John or Paul, but to say one is overrated is just wrong. They're both giants and their 10 best Beatles songs apiece would tower over nearly anyone else's output in rock 'n roll.

Their solo careers are the battleground for the overrated-underrated debate. I think Paul is underrated and John is (slightly) overrated and both were very uneven.

 

Nor does George fit that description. He wrote a number of songs that many might put at or above anything from the Lennon-McCartney juggernaut: "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", "Here Comes the Sun", "Something".

In fact, if I was to a pick a best Beatles song, and best post-Beatles song, it would be a Harrison quinella: "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and "What is Life".

Think you could make a case Ringo is overvalued, if not overrated.

To answer the question of this thread: my vote would go to "Hey Jude", with " A Day in the Life" a close second.

 

The best solo Beatle record is George's All Thing's Must Pass.
My favorite solo Beatle's album is Ringo's Beaucoups of Blues, featuring the amazing song, "She's a Woman of the Night (And I love her)

 

I think, if anything, Ringo is undervalued in the history of R&R. He had a swing to his drum style that no one else had, due to him being left-handed but playing right-handed.
As a child he was forced to be right-handed by a grandmother who thought being left-handed was a sign of the devil (true story).

 

Ringo's drumming on Strawberry Fields Forever is marvelous.

 

This is well said.

I like 'Run for Your Life,' and I love 'And Your Bird Can Sing.'

A lot of my favorite stuff is the B sides and album cuts.

 

I can't take McCartney anymore.
Every time I see him, I hear Dana Carvey.

 

Hey Jude is like a baseball game. I still love it, mostly for nostalgic reasons, but it just goes on so freakin long who can stay with it for the whole thing?

 

"When the Beatles music was made available for download for the first time - on iTunes November 16, 2010 - "Hey Jude" was the most downloaded Beatles song that day."

http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=141

Reminds me of the McDonald's paradox: Nobody admits to going there, but everyone goes there.

Good analogy, though.

 

I don't think McCartney has ever really gone into song-by-song analysis of the Beatles stuff as John did in the 1980 interviews.

But if you read those interviews, it's pretty clear John doesn't necessarily remember some of the non-hit songs -- if they're deep cuts or B-sides and he didn't have much of an attachment for them, he tended just to kind of dismiss them -- "oh, that was a piece of shit we threw off for the White Album."

 

McCartney did a song-by-song analysis of the Lennon-Macca ouerve for the Miles book (mostly involving divvying up percentages of credit, granted)

 

Lennon's assessment isn't binding in anyway, but it's an interesting insight.
He may have softened a bit if he'd gotten older.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/perpetua/18-beatles-songs-that-john-lennon-totally-hated

Obviously, I disagree with him on several songs. 'Dig a Pony' is their greatest song. Whether it was 'nonsense,' has no bearing on its aesthetic merit.
Also, whether a song is 'personal' to the writer has no bearing on it's aesthetic merit.

Lennon's insight is interesting, but it's limited by his role as creator and/or performer. His response to the work is inherently different than the audience's response.