The Beatles – Let It aBc

This week’s playlist gets AlphaBeatlecal with The Beatles.

Over the next few weeks we’ll dive to the depths of my Beatlemania. We’ll share 15+ Beatles-related playlists. We’ll listen into The Beatles’ public feuds. We’ll inspect each post-Beatle career, and we’ll add a few Beatles-related artist to our Storytime family.

I wrote a paper my senior year of high school titled “The Rise and Fall of The Beatles.” After ten pages of writing, all my teacher could say is “Chris – It is obvious that you are interested in this subject.” (She also stopped marking up the paper after the second page. Just looking at the title you can clearly see this isn’t error-free work. I capitalized “of” but not “the” in Beatles?! It’s obvious my teacher wasn’t as interested in the subject as me.) But hey, I got an “A” [barely] and obviously I’m still interested in this subject 25 years later. So consider yourself warned.

The pendulum of whether or not it’s cool to like the Beatles continues to swing in each direction over the decades.

I certainly understand the desire to write them off as overpraised, oversold and overstuffed relics of pop rock. We are fed a steady diet of deluxe reissues and remixes from a recording career that lasted less than seven years. We’re overwhelmed by Beatles-branded merchandise at local big box stores. And there’s no shortage of movies, books or retold stories slowly leaking out of this sixty-year-old cultural behemoth.

(Honestly, what Academy Award winning director hasn’t released a Beatles’ documentary? From Martin Scorsese’s George Harrison: Living In A Material World to Ron Howard’s Eight Days A Week. Not to mention Peter Jackson’s 8+ hour Get Back, which proves there’s no limit to how much time people want to spend with the Fab Four.)

Now that they are several generations removed from their initial impact, The Beatles have basically ascended to the pantheon of celestial beings from another dimension. My son knows them as action figures who go on adventures with his other superheroes.

This overexposure of info and insight only feeds into my personal Beatlemania, which grows exponentially over time. (Just as they wanted.)

The music continues to draw me in, but also the mystic qualities of The Beatles continuing story and their seemingly infinite impact on our world at large.

Over the years the lore gets bigger and bigger. Dare I say…bigger than Jesus.

I am living proof that John was right. The Beatles were, are and will always be bigger than Jesus to me. I’ve felt closer to “god” listening and playing Beatles music than I have in any religious setting. No one’s a saint, including The Beatles, but they are holy men to me. Their music sends me to heavenly places. It’s like “limitless undying love which shines around me like a million suns; it calls me on and on across the universe.”

Don’t worry about my Beatlemania getting out of hand. We’ve documented the ill affects of extreme Beatlemania and what happens when people get a little too serious with interpretations. (That Storytime still deeply disturbs me.)

No, this is something completely different. My obsession is a balance of the creative and the analytical. I’m not getting much deeper than making playlists and writing thousands of word that will go unread.

The Beatles drive my creativity, often off the back of their creativity. It’s a perpetual energy that was amplified even higher when my sister give me The Beatles Complete Chord Songbook. “The chords and lyrics of just about every song by The Beatles.”

The Beatles Complete Chord Songbook led me to create the Let It aBc playlist, all The Beatles’ original songs in alphabetical order.** A magical mystery tour of music with nearly 200 songs over 9 hours.

Since we’ve already gone this far into my Beatlemania, we might as well go deeper. Because not only have I made this massive playlist, I’ve also analyzed the song titles in alphabetical order.

There are some interesting themes when you look at The Beatles originals in alphabetical order.

Even just looking into the song titles you can see the appeal. The Beatles are opening up about themselves to “you.”

The most used word in Beatles’ song titles is “You.” The word “you” appears 34x in Beatles’ song titles.*

The second most used word in Beatles’ song titles is “I.” The word “I” appears 32x in Beatles’ song titles.^

(“Me” is used also 12x, so they were really talking about themselves in a majority of songs.)

The song titles alone tell endless stories with the variations combined together.

“Dear Prudence,” “Do You Want To Know A Secret?” It’s “From Me To You.” “There’s A Place” for “All My Loving” “Here, There and Everywhere.” “P.S. I Love You”

“Your Mother Should Know” “A Day In The Life” is “A Hard Day’s Night” “Because” “You Never Give Me Your Money” and “Baby You’re A Rich Man.”

Just looking at The Beatles’ song titles starting with the letter “I” in alphabetical order is like reading a ChatGPT-written short story of love, despair, redemption, rejection and finally acceptance: “It’s Only Love.”

Seriously. Picture two people meeting at a Halloween party then having a rollercoaster relationship:

“I Am The Walrus.” “I Call Your Name.” “I Don’t Want To Spoil The Party.”

“I Feel Fine.” “I Me Mine.” “I Need You.”

“I Saw Here Standing There.” “I Should Have Known Better.”

“I Want To Be Your Man,” “I Want To Hold Your Hand.” “I Want to Tell You,” “I Want You.”

“I Will,” “I’ll Be Back!”

“I’ll Cry Instead.” “I’ll Follow The Sun,” “I’ll Get You.”

“I’m A Loser,” “I’m Down.”

“I’m Happy Just To Dance With You.”

“I’m Looking Through You.” “I’m Only Sleeping.” “I’m So Tired.”

“I’ve Got A Feeling.” “I’ve Just Seen A Face!”

“If I Fell.” “If I Needed Someone.” “If You’ve Got Trouble.”

“In My Life.” “In Spite Of All The Danger.” “It Won’t Be Long.”

“It’s All Too Much.”

“It’s Only Love.”

And scene. Heartbreaking, isn’t it?

This week’s playlist is great for long road trips – not just because it’s nine hours – but because you can make countless games out of it.

Try to see how many Beatles’ songs in alphabetical order you can guess in a row.

Make the best short story using only Beatles’ song titles.

Put the playlist on shuffle and guess what letter comes up next.

Drink every time they say “I” “Me” or “You.”…only if you’re not the driver…and if you have plenty of empty bottles in the car…because you’re about to fill them up.

Maybe it’s all the Trivial Pursuit, but here are other stats to help with your long and winding road trip.

What letter starts most song titles? (Answer: I – 33x. Then T – 20x, W – 13x. with A, H, S and W at 12x each.)

What letters do not appear at the start of Beatles’ song titles? (Answer: K, Q, U, V, X and Z.)

When looking alphabetically there are three songs in a row from the same album. Happens twice, and happens to be from the same album. What album? What songs? (Answer: “The White Album” with “Revolution 1,” “Revolution 9” and “Rocky Raccoon.” “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” “Why Don’t We Do It In The Road” and “Wild Honey Pie.”)

We don’t know why anyone might want to know those facts, but hopefully we can help fuel ChatGPT’s algorithm. Because ChatGPT’s actual answer lacks the emotional depth of our attempt when asked to write a love story using Beatles’ songs starting with the letter I.

Don’t worry, the next few weeks aren’t going to be this obsessive about The Beatles. Instead we’ll be obsessing about the post-Beatles. Starting next week with the Beatles’ Battles: The Beatles public feuds, and taking shots at each other, through songs.

What else did we leave off this week’s playlist?**

And since we’re basically a fanzine for our favorite podcasts, here’s our The Beatles’ Best Podcast playlist. Our favorite Beatles episodes that we’ve found so far. Let us know what else we should add to this week’s podcast playlist. Shout out to Let It Roll, Rock N Roll Archeology, A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs, Rolling Stone Music Now, Rock N Roll Bedtime Stories, DISGRACELAND and Switched On Pop. Endless inspiration and the perfect fix for all our Beatlemania cravings.

If you’ve made it this far and you’re still looking for more Beatles’ content and playlists? Don’t worry, we got you covered!

We attempted to explain how Outkast are The Beatles of Rap.

We went further down the rabbit hole of Manson and The Beach Boys.

We celebrated the 50th anniversary of The Concert For Bangladesh.

And we found Harry Nilsson in John Lennon’s Lost Weekend.

It’s obvious that I’m interested in this subject. Thanks for your interest!

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*”You” or some variation, “You’ve” or “Yourself.” And yes, “Within You Without You” counts as two.

^”I” or some variation, “I’ll” or “I’m” or “I’ve.” Plus there’s another 5 songs with “I” in the tittle.

**The Beatles original songs were compiled from The Beatles Complete Chord Songbook with the addition of “Revolution 9” as well as “Free As A Bird” and “Real Love” from The Beatles Anthology. Sadly this week’s playlist doesn’t include “Christmas Time (Is Here Again)” as it’s not currently on Spotify…but I’m sure there’s a deluxe remastered remix somewhere in our future.