My 13 Favorite Final Beatles Songs

From The White Album to Abbey Road

Mar 12, 2023

My first two articles on the Beatles offered lists of my favorite “early” and “middle” Beatles songs. These were songs from their first album released on 1963 all the way through to Magical Mystery Tour. Their last two years together were 1968 and 1969, yet they had enough unreleased music left over to produce Let It Be in 1970, and Hey Jude in America.

Their last years started with the release of The Beatles (the two-disk set, "The White Album") in 1968. This marked a change in their album labeling where their four albums prior to this featured their photos with their name either absent or obscured on the cover. “The White Album” did the complete opposite. Only their name appeared on an otherwise totally blank, white fold-out album cover. If you bought the album and opened it, you got prints of their photos (also printed on the inside cover) and a list of the songs. You also received a fold-out poster with a collage of personal photos of the guys. These I found to be a bit strange—there was one of Paul submerged in a bathtub; other photos showing odd close ups and distorted views of the others. Not quite suitable for framing for your wall, I thought. No matter, I preferred to keep it folded inside the album. This imagery for me marked a new stage in their time as a band.

Regardless, the music inside was phenomenal. I loved the first three sides of the records, but generally petered out at side four. I found that songs like “Revolution 9” just gave me a weird feeling. Someone had told me that it if was played backwards, you could hear clues about Paul McCartney’s death. It was weird playing it forward and even weirder playing it backwards. Besides that, I do think that this album contains some of Lennon’s finest work. “Dear Prudence,” I think, is one of the coolest songs ever written, followed closely by “Sexy Sadie” and “Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey” (certainly the longest song name of their collection). I understand that several songs were inspired during their famous trip to India to meet the Maharishi. “Dear Prudence” was written about one of their fellow travelers, Prudence Farrow, who refused to come out of her room one day. “Sexy Sadie” was the girl who turned on (quite unintentionally, I’m sure) and then turned down the advances of the Maharishi and made fools of them all.

While I like most of Paul’s songs on this album, I don’t count any of them as my favorites overall. However, “Why Don’t We Do It In the Road” and “Wild Honey Pie” are not his finest hours. On the other hand, the album contains arguably George Harrison’s greatest song, “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” The lead guitar was performed by his good friend, Eric Clapton.

“The White Album” was followed up by Yellow Submarine, the soundtrack to the animated movie. The titular song had already appeared on Revolver, and was one of Ringo’s hits as a singer. My personal favorite song on the album, and one of my overall favorites is “Hey Bulldog.” It’s nothing more than a number of verbal assertions and imagery, with no overall meaning, but I’ve always loved the energy and pace of the song. It never fails to pump me up!

[Editor’s Note: I absolutely love “Hey Bulldog” too! And am so glad that in the newer edition of Yellow Submarine they re-inserted the hilarious sequence with it! Yeah, you can bet your ass I’m dropping in a version of it featuring some of the animation.]

While Let It Be came out in 1970, it was recorded in early 1969 as chronicled by the Let It Be documentary movie and the recent Get Back, where Peter Jackson of Lord of the Rings fame, went back through the unused Let it Be film tapes to produce a longer, more comprehensive look at the recording sessions. I found it fascinating to watch these guys, in fully restored film that looks like it could have been recorded yesterday, work on arranging these songs I had listened to for years. I highly recommend it!

This album contains some of my favorite Paul songs, including “Let It Be,” “I’ve Got a Feeling,” “The Long and Winding Road,” and “Get Back.” The album version was delayed until 1970 because, apparently, they could not decide how to put together all of the music from the recording sessions. They eventually hired Phil Spector, a then-famed music producer, who went through it and added his own touches to it. This is most evident in “The Long and Winding Road,” which started out as a simple piano piece. While Paul hated the additional instrumentation added, I cannot share his distain. This version has always been one of my favorites. The version of “Let It Be” on the album, rather than the single version, is also my favorite. I particularly love the dub of the guitar solo at the center of this version of the song. John’s best on this album, in my opinion, is “Across the Universe,” with its mystical imagery in a fascinating theme. George’s best is “I, Me, Mine.”

As a side note, they released “Let It Be Naked” in 2003, which contained the music recorded prior to Spector’s additions. While I own the CD and find it interesting to listen to, I cannot help but prefer the original.

Abbey Road was their final album, and they ended with a great one. John comes through again with several greats, including “Come Together” and “I Want You (She’s So Heavy).” George offers his other two finest songs, arguable his best “Something” and “Here Comes the Sun.” Paul offers some of his best here too, with “Oh! Darling” and “You Never Give Me Your Money.” Both Paul and John offer their great additions to the famous medley that makes up the last 16-minutes of the album.

After this album, Hey Jude came out in America. It contained several songs that had only come out as singles in America. Several other compilations came out later in the 70s, principally, the “Blue” and “Red” albums, The Beatles 1963 to 1966, and The Beatles 1967 to 1970.

As I mentioned repeatedly in my previous posts, I like the Beatles albums in their entirety. If pressed to give my list of favorites of their final albums, I give the following list:

1. Dear Prudence

2. Glass Onion

3. While My Guitar Gently Weeps

4. Everybody Has Something To Hide Except For Me And My Monkey

5. Sexy Sadie

6. Hey Bulldog

7. Let It Be

8. I’ve Got a Feeling

9. The Long and Winding Road

10. Come Together

(Another editor’s note: I just learned recently that this wonderful song was originally written at the request of Timothy Leary for an intended run he planned to do for governor! How weird is THAT? This is truly one of the great masterpieces of Abbey Road and the whole Beatles catalog.)

11. Something

12. I Want You (She’s So Heavy)

13. You Never Give Me Your Money

(OK, one last editor’s note. Please check out my previous write-up of my favorite White Album tracks. Alec and I have some similar tastes when it comes to Beatles songs of this period. Or perhaps the key masterworks just stand out so obviously!