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