There’s always going to be debate as to who the best member of The Beatles was, and we’re never likely to have a definitive answer to the question.
If you were to create a poll, you can imagine that the unfortunate occupant of last place would be Ringo Starr; a man who has received far too much ridicule and scorn for a man of his talents but did undoubtedly contribute the least to the songwriting process of their songs.
As for John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison, the votes are likely to be relatively split.
Everyone’s got their arguments for who the most talented songwriter out of the three is, and while the number of Beatles songs attributed to Harrison is comparatively lower than the amount Lennon and McCartney can claim, their quality certainly stands up alongside his bandmates’ efforts. Not to mention, each of them had formidable solo careers after the Beatles split up, which did even more to showcase the variety of influences they were drawing from, and made them all more identifiable and distinguishable in their own right.
However, one thing that remains a sticking point with the band’s catalogue is the sheer volume of corny novelty songs that they used to pad out their records with. It’s difficult to go the whole way through a Beatles record without, unfortunately, hitting a stumbling block in the form of some music-hall pastiche or children’s singalong, and while Lennon and Harrison weren’t exempt from this, the vast majority of these throwaway curiosities were McCartney’s doing.
Even though one could argue that some of his solo albums or records released with Wings eclipse the solo efforts of the other two, with records like Ram and Band on the Run being two of the most stellar post-Beatles albums to exist, McCartney still couldn’t help himself when it came to writing gaudy pap. Harrison got most of his urges out of his system with songs like ‘Piggies’, which is still pretty commendable despite its novelty status, and Lennon seemingly went in the opposite direction, going so far up his own rear end that he thought releasing several albums of tape loops might be something his old fans would want to listen to.
But what was his worst songwriting sin? There are plenty from his post-Beatles career that certainly sit high in the ranking, with ‘We All Stand Together’, often erroneously referred to as ‘The Frog Chorus’, being one notable contender. Similarly, there are plenty of people who will rush to turn off the radio when ‘Wonderful Christmastime’ comes on, and are grateful that it only gets airtime for one month per year.
However, there are quite a few to choose from his Beatles career that ought to have never seen the light of day. ‘Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da’ is a redundant attempt at ska which should never have happened, and later in the same album we’ve got incredibly irritating picks in ‘Rocky Raccoon’ and ‘Honey Pie’, which, while showing off McCartney’s versatility, also demonstrate his inability to wind his neck in and keep his silly songs to himself.
But the biggest sin of all? Passing one of his worst efforts over to Ringo in the form of ‘Yellow Submarine’. As successful as it may have been for the band, heading to number one in charts around the world, it’s a complete outlier when placed alongside the 13 other masterpieces that appear on Revolver, and is ostensibly a disposable children’s song that balances out the number of tracks on each side. There’s nothing about it that showcases his talents, and instead grates on the listener with its chantable chorus.
Iconic it may be, but you can almost kind of see why McCartney was so happy to let another member of the band take on lead vocal duties for it, because if I’d had it as my own, I’d have been ashamed to attach my name to it. The song itself may be a sin to songwriting, but pawning it off onto Ringo and using him as a scapegoat for what’s arguably your most irritating song is even worse, and that’s exactly why we need to recognise it as McCartney’s most irritating song – so he can take back some of the responsibility for it.
