Nearly a Lifetime of Beatles Memories

beatles abbey road

By Rick Hiduk

Almost as soon as I began spending my allowance and newspaper delivery money on yard sale records, I learned to look for 45s with the yellow/orange yin-yang logo of 1960s Capitol records and the green apple of Apple Records that bore most of the Beatles’ later hits.

Those Capitol labels also led me to dozens of other talented artists on the Capitol label, and I discovered Badfinger on Apple when I thought I had unearthed some new Beatles records one day.

I was only a year and a half old when the Beatles stormed America in February 1964, creating fervor with their appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show and zooming to #1 for the first of 20 times as a group with “I Want to Hold Your Hand.”

I obviously don’t remember it, though my parents did watch Ed Sullivan and were likely home with me since I was so young. They never mentioned the Beatles when I was a kid, and both of them indicated that they were never very impressed by the group. My stepmother was raised on country and didn’t like them at all, and my stepfather was a Beach Boys fan.

I consider myself to be a genuine Beatles fan in the sense that there was no-one to influence me. But putting those records on the turntable the first time was pure magic. I genuinely loved their songs, from the innocent pop of “Do You Want to Know a Secret” to the psychedelic underpinnings of “Strawberry Fields Forever.”

With increased income as a dishwasher, I could buy a new Beatles album about once a month, starting with the red and blue collections, which was a great place to become familiar with the hits. From there, I moved on to their concept albums, like “Revolver” and “Sgt. Pepper,” and I was mesmerized.

I remember well the popular notion that there were Beatles fans and Rolling Stones fans – and that you weren’t supposed to like both. I collected records by both groups.

Looking back, The Stones were a fun rock band. In contrast the Beatles rocked on more levels simultaneously than any other group of their time, and the four members continued to shape the pop music scene with Top 40 hits that stretched into the 1990s.

I began to wonder what it would be like to take the entire Beatles library and meld it with all of the hits that individual members had from the beginning of the breakup of the Beatles in 1969, including collaborations with other pop artists. The Beatles shared credits on one of their biggest hits with Billy Preston, and Paul McCartney recorded with Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson.

In addition to records, I have collected chart research text books compiled by Joel Whitburn. The data in them is based almost entirely on the run the songs had on the Billboard charts. To pique my curiosity, I poured through two Top Pop Singles books and Top Rock Tracks and Top Adult Contemporary and manually transferred the peak position of all of the song titles by the Beatles in their various guises and the month and year of peak popularity.

The Beatles reached Number One 20 times as a group and another 16 times as solo artists – 19 if you count songs that reached Number One on one of the other charts. As friends, they also participated in recording sessions with their fellow solo artists. Paul McCartney played kazoo on Ringo Starr’s “You’re Sixteen,” for example, and Ringo and Paul and Linda McCarthy assisted on George Harrison’s “All Those Years Ago,” a tribute to their lost pal, John Lennon.

An astounding 39 Top 40 hits follow the number ones. Rounding out the Top 100 Beatles songs of all time are 24 songs that peaked between #11 and #25. Many of the mid-charters by the Beatles were b-sides of bigger hit singles, which was common for the time. The lower reaches of this colossal chart is also a nest of memories, with seldom-played smaller hits by the solo artists. Ties were broken by the number of weeks on the chart and at the peak position and other criteria.

Though based on reliable data, this unique list is meant to take you down memory lane while comparing the relative popularity of songs by the artists in various ensembles through the course of about 25 years. George Harrison had the last Number One hit with “Got My Mind Set On You.”

Top 100 Hits by The Beatles and Associates

  1. Beatles – Hey Jude 1 Oct 68
  2. Beatles – I Want to Hold Your Hand 1 Feb 64
  3. John Lennon – (Just Like) Starting Over 1 Dec 80
  4. Beatles & Billy Preston – Get Back 1 May 69
  5. Paul McCartney & Wings – Silly Love Songs 1 Jun 76
  6. Beatles – Can’t Buy Me Love 1 April 64
  7. Paul McCartney & Wings – My Love 1 Jun 73
  8. Beatles – Yesterday 1 Oct 65
  9. George Harrison – My Sweet Lord 1 Dec 70
  10. Paul McCartney & Wings – Coming Up 1 Jun 80
  11. Beatles – Help! 1 Sep 65
  12. Paul McCartney & Stevie Wonder – Ebony & Ivory 1 Mar 82
  13. Beatles – We Can Work It Out 1 Jan 66
  14. Beatles – Hello Goodbye 1 Dec 67
  15. Paul McCartney & Michael Jackson – Say Say Say 1 Dec 83
  16. Beatles – I Feel Fine 1 Dec 64
  17. Paul McCartney & Wings – With a Little Luck 1 May 78
  18. Beatles – She Loves You 1 Mar 64
  19. Beatles – Let It Be 1 Apr 70
  20. George Harrison – Got My Mind Set on You 1 Jan 88
  21. Beatles – A Hard Day’s Night 1 Aug 64
  22. Beatles – The Long and Winding Road 1 June 70
  23. Paul McCartney & Wings – Band on the Run 1 Jun 74
  24. Ringo Starr – Photograph 1 Nov 73
  25. Beatles – Paperback Writer 1 Jul 66
  26. Beatles – Eight Days a Week 1 Mar 65
  27. John Lennon – Whatever Gets You Through the Night 1 Nov 74
  28. Beatles – Come Together 1 Nov 69
  29. Ringo Starr – You’re Sixteen 1 Jan 74
  30. George Harrison – My Sweet Lord – (Give Me Peace on Earth) 1 Jun 73
  31. Beatles – Love Me Do 1 May 64
  32. Paul McCartney & Wings – Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey 1 Sep 71
  33. Paul McCartney & Wings – Listen to What the Man Said 1 Jul 75
  34. Beatles – All You Need Is Love 1 Aug 67
  35. Beatles – Ticket to Ride 1 May 65
  36. Beatles – Penny Lane 1 Mar 67
  37. Beatles – Twist & Shout 2 Apr 64 (re-chart 23 Sep 86)
  38. John Lennon – Woman 2 Mar 81
  39. Paul McCartney & Wings – Live & Let Die 2 Aug 73
  40. George Harrison – All Those Years Ago 2 Jul 81 1AC
  41. Beatles – Do You Want to Know a Secret 2 May 64
  42. Beatles – Yellow Submarine 2 9 Sep 66
  43. Michael Jackson & Paul McCartney – The Girl is Mine 2 Jan 83
  44. Paul McCartney & Wings – Let ‘Em In 3 Aug 76 1AC
  45. Beatles – Something 3 Nov 69
  46. Ringo Starr – No No Song 3 Apr 75
  47. Beatles – Please Please Me 3 Mar 64
  48. Paul McCartney & Wings – Junior’s Farm 3 Dec 72
  49. John Lennon & the Plastic Ono Band – Imagine 3 Nov 71
  50. Beatles – Nowhere Man 3 Mar 66
  51. Ringo Starr – It Don’t Come Easy 4 Jun 71
  52. Beatles – Lady Madonna 4 Apr 68
  53. Beatles – She’s a Woman 4 Dec 64
  54. Ringo Starr – Oh My My 5 Apr 74
  55. John Lennon – Nobody Told Me 5 Mar 84 2Rk
  56. Beatles – Day Tripper 5 Jan 66
  57. Paul McCartney & Wings – Goodnight Tonight 5 May 79
  58. Paul McCartney & Wings – Another Day 5 Apr 71
  59. Ringo Starr – Only You 6 Dec 74 1AC
  60. Beatles – Free as a Bird 6 Jan 96
  61. Beatles – Got to Get You Into My Life 7 Jul 76
  62. Paul McCartney – Spies Like Us 7 Jan 86
  63. Paul McCartney & Wings – Jet 7 Mar 74
  64. Beatles – Strawberry Fields Forever 8 Mar 67
  65. Beatles – Ballad of John & Yoko 8 Jul 69
  66. Paul McCartney & Wings – Take It Away 9 Sep 82
  67. John Lennon – #9 Dream 9 Feb 75
  68. Ringo Starr – Back Off Boogaloo 9 May 72
  69. John Lennon – Watching the Wheels 10 May 81 6AC
  70. Paul McCartney – Take it Away 10 Sep 82
  71. Beatles – P.S. I Love You 10 May 64
  72. Paul McCartney & Wings – Helen Wheels 10 Jan 74
  73. Paul McCartney & Wings – Maybe I’m Amazed 10 Mar 77
  74. George Harrison – What is Life 10 Mar 71
  75. Paul McCartney & Wings – Hi Hi Hi 10 Jun 73
  76. John Lennon & the Plastic Ono Band – Power to the People 11 May 71
  77. Beatles – Eleanor Rigby 11 Sep 66
  78. Beatles – Real Love 11 Apr 96
  79. Beatles – Revolution 12 Oct 68
  80. Paul McCartney & Wings – Venus & Mars Rock Show 12 Dec 75
  81. Beatles – And I Love Her 12 Aug 64
  82. Beatles – The Beatles Movie Medley 12 May 82
  83. John Lennon & the Plastic Ono Band – Give Peace a Chance 14 Sep 69
  84. Beatles – I Saw Her Standing There 14 Mar 64
  85. George Harrison – Dark Horse 15 Dec 74
  86. George Harrison – Blow Away 16 May 79 2AC
  87. Beatles – Matchbox 17 Oct 64
  88. John Lennon – Mind Games 18 Dec 73
  89. George Harrison – Crackerbox Palace 19 Mar 77
  90. Beatles – Ain’t She Sweet 19 Aug 64
  91. George Harrison – You 20 Oct 75
  92. John Lennon – Stand By Me 20 Apr 75
  93. Paul McCartney – Press 21 Sep 86
  94. Paul McCartney & Wings – Give Ireland Back to the Irish 21 Apr 72
  95. Paul McCartney – No More Lonely Nights 6 Dec 84
  96. Paul McCartney – So Bad 23 Feb 84
  97. George Harrison – When We Was Fab 23 Mar 88 10AC
  98. Beatles – Rain 23 Jul 66
  99. George Harrison – Bangla-Desh 23 Sep 71
  100. Paul McCartney & Wings – I’ve Had Enough 25 Aug 78

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *