Oh Darling

Another one of my favorites, released in1969 on the Abby Road album. McCartney’s wide vocal range and catchy melody skills really shine with this tune, which he wrote. The guitar work mixed to the left and right speakers along with the unusually simple bass runs, along with the drums and piano all  “come together” to form one of the standout songs on album. Once again the Beatles harmony backup singing ( McCartney also sings over-dubbed backup) adds greatly to this great song.

I Saw Her Standing There

 

Released in December of 1963 as the B side of “I Want To Hold Your Hand”, it’s hard not to tap your foot when listening to this great Rock and Roll song. McCartney handles the lead vocals while Lennon and Harrison provide harmony and backup vocals. The lyrics are typical “boy meets girl/boy falls in love”. This is just another one of their all around good rock songs. Listen in the background for more hand clapping, which they (and many others) use frequently in their songs.

The song also showed up on the first U.S. album “ Introducing The Beatles”, and made # 139 on a Rolling Stone Magazine top 500 song list.

And Your Bird Can Sing

 

Another song released in 1966 “And Your Bird Can Sing” features a magnificent dual lead guitar sequence played by Paul and George. The Allman Brothers used this technique in some of their hit songs. As I’ll frequently mention when posting about these songs, the harmonies and backup singing are first rate .Be sure to listen to Paul’s excellent base playing and listen closely for hand clapping in the background of some of the verses. There are a lot of theories floating around about the meaning of the lyrics, but according to Lennon it was a “throw-away song” or “filler”, just thrown together to complete the album. It’s not a throw-away song to me though, it’s one of my favorites!

Rain

One of my all time favorite Beatles songs. Released in 1966 as the "B" side of  "Paperback Writer" and later appearing on the U. S. compilation album "Beatles Again - Hey Jude" and "Past Masters Volume 2". John Lennon was the main writer and sang the lead vocal. The lyrics were reportedly inspired by people complaining about the weather, however to me, the music itself is where "Rain" really shines! This is a great rock song, with twanging guitars, drumming like there's no tomorrow and great vocal harmonies. Listen to McCartney's bass. He seldom uses a standard base pattern, and instead walks his fingers all along the frets, almost like a lead guitar riff. Towards the end you can hear what first sounds like John singing in a foreign language, but its actually him singing the line " When the rain comes they run and hide their heads" played backwards, and it fits right in. This is an all around great song!