Late Night Music Part 23....................."Obscure Beatles Songs"

Ok everyone claims to be a Beatles "fan". However, these people only know the many hits that the greatest band ever had. Granted, that's alot of songs, but what about their full repertoire which showed their true musical talent? Lots of bands have unknown songs that only the true fans know, and that's always part of the music business, but the "other songs" by the Beatles are some of the best songs ever recorded, and you would like to think they could have reached #1 just as easy as the other TWENTY ONE #1 singles they had. In order to qualify for this list, the song had to be A- BY the Beatles, and B- NOT AN A SIDE SINGLE at any point in the Beatles career.

Also receiving votes in this category were- "Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except For Me And My Monkey", "The Fool On The Hill", "Don't Bother Me", "What Goes On", and "Octopus's Garden".

"The Inner Light"- The B Side of the 1968 single "Lady Madonna", this George Harrison song is a rare combination of his Indian side coming out with the sitar and his rock n roll roots. I would have liked to have seen this song performed live as I think the guitar and the sitar would make a great combo. Interesting fact- this song was the first Harrison composition to be featured on ANY side of a single (he wouldn't have an A Side until 1969's "Something").

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhHm-5lKkZ0

"It's Only a Northern Song"- Pretty good segue here, this song, also by Harrison recorded in 1967 during the "Sergeant Pepper" sessions, was featured on the soundtrack of the animated "Yellow Submarine". The song is an obvious shot at the Beatles publishing company "Northern Songs" which basically gave Ringo and George chump change while giving John and Paul nearly all of the songwriting money. George took out his frustration on them with this song. Just shows how powerful they were that they could actually record this song about their publishing company for their publishing company.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfeK-p3UhIg

"Your Mother Should Know"- Unless you were one of the few unfortunate souls who suffered through the Beatles made for TV movie "Magical Mystery Tour" which only aired in the UK, and was received with such bad reviews, the American silver screen release never happened. However, while it has become somewhat of a "cult classic", the soundtrack for the movie has become more and more obscure. This song here, with clips from the movie, is one of my favorite Paul compositions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euMCu5IRRHM

"You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)"- This song, which became part of Beatle's lore, was the penultimate B Side of all Beatles singles, being the B side of "Let It Be" released in 1970. According to John and Paul, the sillyness came from them throwing together alot of songs that were unfinished. This is obvious with the several changes in genre of the song. The best part is that it seriously took them 3 years to record this song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=on3XBTouSf0

"Yes It Is"- In 1965, while the Beatles were riding high on Beatlemania and behind the success of their blockbuster movie/album "Help!", the Beatles were desperate to show off their musicianship to find an even broader audience. For the B Side of "Ticket To Ride", they showed off their harmony skills in "Yes It Is". While it's always been one my favorites, John Lennon said more than once that this was one of his least favorite songs he ever wrote.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0t3-u1tv1W8

"Hey Bulldog"- Another song from the "Yellow Submarine" soundtrack, the original name of the song was "Hey Bullfrog" until Paul decided to bark in the studio. I would have liked to have seen this song be included on "Abbey Road" or even "Let It Be" just because it's that good. This is the ONLY Beatles song to feature a piano riff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaRz-3DYV7c

"I'll Be Back". One of the lesser known songs from "A Hard Day's Night!" which was also featured in the film, this song had the unfortunate luck of being stuck around many Beatles favorites. This song sounds pretty easy, but if you listen to the "Anthology" versions of the song, you would know that John Lennon had to change the meter of the song several times just because the bridge was so hard to sing and play in 3/4 time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9hO25z1Fu8

"Baby's In Black"- Beatles For Sale. This was always one of the Beatles favorite songs to play live, and while it was a concert favorite, many people forget about the song and the album "Beatles For Sale" just because of it's relative "dropping" in between "A Hard Day's Night" and "Help!". Interesting fact- John and Paul used this song as one of the first songs in recording history to have both lead vocals recorded in one microphone. Several years later, Paul was asked which one was the melody line. He answered "they both were".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SizmZmDYSfA

"Lovely Rita". Ok, it's hard to put a song arguably the most famous album of all time on any kind of "obscure" list, but for some reason, the "casual" Beatles fan that has all the "hits" down pat, seems to get lost when I talk about this song. Featured on "Sergeant Pepper" this song was actually inspired by Paul McCartney getting a parking ticket at Abbey Road during recording in 1966. He thought the meter maid was so hot, he wanted to take her on a date. Yes, I know the proper word now is "parking lot attendant".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asQbxyN-REs

"Savoy Truffle". Interesting observation. So many people talk about how great "The White Album" was, but no one seems to know the songs or their meanings. This George Harrison composition which featured a saxophone sextet was written about band friend Eric Clapton (who had played the guitar on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" on the same album) and his unhealthy addiction to chocolate. What he would have "all pulled out after the Savoy Truffle" are his teeth.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZ9Efb4C21E

"Rocky Raccoon". Another one of my White Album favorites, Paul wrote this song because he said he wanted to write a song "about a cowboy". The album version is featured here along with a hilarious "Anthology" take which features a huge screw up by Paul McCartney quickly turning the song into hilarity instead of the serious take that it was. Just think about how much studio time these guys burned up!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjFZ5ORMW3M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VG_Zwph1ivo

"One After 909". This song from "Let It Be" and also featured in the famous "Rooftop Concert" in 1969, was actually a song that was put off and put off and putt off all the way back as early as 1963 with the "With The Beatles" sessions. On an album filled with psychedelic hard rock, and big hit ballads, this was an interesting album filler going back to the Beatles roots.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54tURoPmZtE

"Rain"- this song from 1966 was featured on the B Side of "Paperback Writer", or as my mother so affectionately calls "Take a Back Right Turn", we see the Beatles begin to experiment with record engineering through distorted vocals. I still see this song as one of the turning points of the band.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwSUlgJ0css

Bonus Videos- It was only appropriate to put a NON obscure song on here. Also, I put 4 lesser known songs from each of the Beatles solo careers that can only be there to remind us how great they really are.

"Hey Jude". Like no one knows this one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BD3ovfZXO5Q

George Harrison- "All Things Must Pass". George actually recorded this song during the "Abbey Road" sessions, but it never made it album.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vm_N3bjqlr4

John Lennon- "Watching the Wheels". One of my favorite John Lennon songs that really wasn't that big. Great narrative song about his life.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp9dc9im3-M

Paul McCartney- "My Love". Wings 1973 ballad hit- for my money, it still doesn't get any better than Paul McCartney on the piano ballad.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SB3x6KtNi4

Ringo Starr- "La De Da". Ringo's hit from his 1995 album "Vertical Man". This song just makes you feel good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYMqUnzJOj0