Greetings and salutations Hivers. Today let's go into another Evening Groove / Three Tune Tuesday post.

As always, thanks to @ablaze for making this series. Lots of people participate in it! Follow the tags to find a ton of good music recommendation.

Today I'm going to step away from Japanese jazz as I sometimes do and I'm going to take a look at that band of bands, the Beatles. If you missed it, the other day, I wrote about the Beatles' final song, Now and Then. Go read that post if you missed it. I gave some thoughts on the song and on the future of using AI to clean up and complete songs.

Anyway, writing that post put the Beatles in my head, those lads from Liverpool who happened into fame and then were able to seize the luck and keep our interest in a way that no other band has been able to, with not only amazing songwriting, but also personal drama as well.

I'm going to look at three of my favorite songs. I know, how can I narrow it down to just three? Well, obviously I can't. So you can think of this as three random picks from my favorites.

Where possible I'll try to link to my favorite version, which likely as not will be one of the recent remixes that cleaned them up so much and made them sound more like modern songs instead of oldies from the late 60s.

Sound fun? Let's go.

Something

Let's lead off with an unexpected one. You might expect me to dive into something by Paul or John, but no... we'll go with George. This is the best track on Abby Road. I might even go as far as saying it is both one of the best Beatles tracks and one of Harrison's best songs.

George originally said he wrote it for his then wife, Pattie Boyd, but he has changed that several times. At one time he even said it was written for Krishna. Whatever the case may be, he imagined it in a Ray Charles style. It has since been covered by a great many people, including Elvis, Frank Sinatra, James Brown, and Ray Charles. It really is a great song.

The 2019 mix of this is really amazing. If you haven't heard it, listen again. It sounds so much better than the older mixes! I know Giles Martin, who did the remix, has his critics, but in my opinion he knocked it out of the park here.

Hey Jude

I'm sure you all know the story here, that Paul write this for Julian to cheer him up as his parents, John and Cynthia, were going through a messy separation following John's affair with Yoko. According to Julian, Paul was more of a father to him than John ever was, and this song shows that affection. Interestingly, John always claimed the song was about him, that Paul was giving his blessing to John and Yoko's relationship. Either way, it's a great song!

Back in the USSR

Unlike the others, this is a pure rock song. Paul wrote it as a parody of Chuck Berry's Back in the USA, very much in the style of the Beach Boy's California Girls. The Beach Boys may have been played as the big Beatles rival in the media, but the Beatles very much admired the group, especially Paul who was (and still is) a huge Brian Wilson fanboy. It wasn't Wilson that triggered this song though, but rather was Mike Love, who suggested it to Paul at a meditation retreat they were both attending. As you can imagine, the song drew the ire of both the left and the right in American politics at the time, neither of which got the joke. Something that pisses off both sides is all the more reason to enjoy it now!

The 2018 remix by Giles Martin here is also amazing. Not quite as good as what he would do for Abby Road the next year, but still much improved over the original release.

Bonus: Come Together

For my bonus pick, another from Abby Road. Hey, that was a great album. Or maybe it's just on my mind after picking Something. At any rate, this was a drug inspired song, but not an actual drug song as some of their others were. John intended to write it for Timothy Leary when he ran for California governor in 1970. John was famously taking LSD nearly daily at that point so it's no surprise that he would want to support the LSD guru himself. For whatever reason, John and Leary never interacted again and the song ended up not being used for that campaign, but it turned into the last song all four Beatles did in the studio together. Ringo has called it his favorite Beatles song, and that's all we need right there.

So what's your favorite? Or did I miss your favorite Beatles song? Let me know in the comments.

❦

David LaSpina is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku. He blogs here and at laspina.org.