Rolling Stone Presents the 100 Greatest Beatles Songs

Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and John Lennon of the Beatles.

Roger Viollet Collection/Getty Images

The Beatles have the most acclaimed and widely beloved catalog in the history of rock music, so any list counting down the group's best tunes is likely to stir up some controversy among fans. Rolling Stone's list of the Beatles' 100 Greatest Songs, though, isn't necessarily intended to upset anyone, though we welcome some friendly debate. This list is a celebration of the band's astonishing and varied body of work, and though it'd be nice if every song came in at Number One, that wouldn't be as fun, would it?

The list, which features an introduction by Beatles mega-fan Elvis Costello, includes a mix of songs from every phase of their career, from their early British Invasion days on through their psychedelic period and their return to straight-ahead rock music in their final months together. Each song is accompanied by a bit of commentary that puts the tune into context, and offers some insight into its greatness.

Click here to read the full list.

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Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

More Song Stories entries »

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