We normally concentrate on ranking movies….but we thought it would be fun to do a Music Ranking Page. The first thing we did was do a quick mathematical equation that would help statistically rank songs. Parts in that equation included how many weeks the song stayed in the Top 40, what the songs peak position was and how long it stayed at that peak position. Our main sources of information came from Joel Whitburn and his many Top 40 Hits books.
This is actually the second musical page we have attempted. The first was on Elvis Presley. That has surprisingly turned out to be one of our most popular pages. Will lightning strike twice, probably not, but this musical page goes well with our Beatles movie page. So that was our process. The following table ranks 49 Top 40 Beatles songs.
Beatles Songs That Made The Billboard Top 40
The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies anyway you want.
- Sort Beatles Songs by our UMR rank
- Sort Beatles Songs by the title of the songs
- Sort Beatles by the date they reached the Billboard charts for the first time
- Sort Beatles by our Ultimate Movie Rankings Score
- Sort Beatles by the peak position on the Billboard charts
- Sort Elvis Presley Songs by the number of weeks on the Billboard Top 40
| Rank | Song | Debut on Charts | Peak Position | Number 1 Weeks | Top 40 Weeks | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hey Jude | 1968-09-14 | 1 | 9 | 19 | 98.21 | |
| I Want To Hold Your Hand | 1964-01-25 | 1 | 7 | 14 | 92.55 | |
| Get Back | 1969-05-10 | 1 | 5 | 12 | 88.45 | |
| Come Together | 1969-10-18 | 1 | 1 | 16 | 83.32 | |
| Something | 1969-10-18 | 1 | 1 | 16 | 83.32 | |
| She Loves You | 1964-02-01 | 1 | 2 | 14 | 80.03 | |
| Help! | 1965-08-14 | 1 | 3 | 12 | 79.86 | |
| Let It Be | 1970-03-21 | 1 | 2 | 13 | 79.02 | |
| Can't Buy Me Love | 1964-03-28 | 1 | 5 | 9 | 78.64 | |
| A Hard Day's Night | 1964-07-18 | 1 | 2 | 12 | 78.6 | |
| I Feel Fine | 1964-12-05 | 1 | 3 | 11 | 78.25 | |
| We Can Work It Out | 1965-12-18 | 1 | 3 | 11 | 78.25 | |
| Yesterday | 1965-10-02 | 1 | 4 | 9 | 77.21 | |
| Hello Goodbye | 1967-12-09 | 1 | 3 | 10 | 75.22 | |
| Love Me Do | 1964-05-02 | 1 | 1 | 11 | 74.22 | |
| Paperback Writer | 1966-06-11 | 1 | 2 | 10 | 73.87 | |
| The Long And Winding Road | 1970-05-23 | 1 | 2 | 10 | 73.87 | |
| Eight Days A Week | 1965-02-27 | 1 | 2 | 9 | 72.61 | |
| Ticket To Ride | 1965-05-01 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 71.99 | |
| Penny Lane | 1967-03-04 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 71.99 | |
| All You Need Is Love | 1967-07-29 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 71.99 | |
| Please Please Me | 1964-02-22 | 3 | 0 | 10 | 71.25 | |
| Twist and Shout | 1964-03-21 | 2 | 0 | 9 | 70.55 | |
| Do You Want To Know A Secret | 1964-04-11 | 2 | 0 | 9 | 70.55 | |
| Yellow Submarine | 1966-08-27 | 2 | 0 | 8 | 70.41 | |
| Nowhere Man | 1966-03-05 | 3 | 0 | 9 | 70.25 | |
| Lady Madonna | 1968-03-23 | 4 | 0 | 10 | 69.21 | |
| She's A Woman | 1964-12-12 | 4 | 0 | 8 | 68.45 | |
| Got To Get You Into My Life | 1976-06-19 | 7 | 0 | 11 | 64.55 | |
| Daytripper | 1965-12-25 | 5 | 0 | 8 | 62.61 | |
| The Ballad of John and Yoko | 1969-06-21 | 8 | 0 | 8 | 62.46 | |
| Strawberry Fields Forever | 1967-03-11 | 8 | 0 | 7 | 62.29 | |
| Revolution | 1968-09-14 | 12 | 0 | 11 | 61.33 | |
| P.S. I Love You | 1964-05-16 | 10 | 0 | 7 | 60.21 | |
| The Beatles' Movie Medley | 1982-04-10 | 12 | 0 | 8 | 59.34 | |
| And I Love Her | 1964-08-08 | 12 | 0 | 7 | 58.91 | |
| Eleanor Rigby | 1966-09-10 | 11 | 0 | 6 | 58.77 | |
| I Saw Her Standing There | 1964-01-25 | 14 | 0 | 8 | 54.32 | |
| Ain't She Sweet | 1964-08-01 | 19 | 0 | 7 | 51.42 | |
| Matchbox | 1964-09-19 | 17 | 0 | 5 | 51.25 | |
| Twist and Shout | 1986-08-30 | 23 | 0 | 7 | 43.98 | |
| Rain | 1966-06-25 | 23 | 0 | 5 | 43.26 | |
| I'll Cry Instead | 1964-08-15 | 25 | 0 | 5 | 40.88 | |
| Slow Down | 1964-09-26 | 25 | 0 | 4 | 40.13 | |
| My Bonnie | 1964-03-07 | 26 | 0 | 2 | 37.96 | |
| Baby You're A Rich Man | 1967-08-12 | 34 | 0 | 2 | 23.22 | |
| Thank You Girl | 1964-04-25 | 35 | 0 | 3 | 22.61 | |
| Don't Let Me Down | 1969-05-10 | 35 | 0 | 3 | 22.61 | |
| I Don't Want To Spoil The Party | 1965-03-20 | 39 | 0 | 1 | 19.56 |
I’m confused. I thought this was ultimate movie rankings. This seems like it’s ultimate music rankings. Actually very cool, I like seeing your views one of my all-time favorite musical groups.
I am a big Beatles fan. I often listen to their music. I am a bigger fan of my mother’s generation of music than my own. Unfortunately, when I was in senior high school grunge music was popular.
Lots of great songs on this list. My favourite song overall isn’t included – In My Life.
Favourites on or off the list in no order include Yesterday, Hey Jude, Hello Goodbye, We Can Work it Out, If I Fell, I Want to Hold Your Hand, Help!, Yellow Submarine, With a Little Help From My Friends, A Day in the Life, Hey Jude (my mother’s favourite), Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, Something and She Loves You.
An interesting page Bruce. I was a bit of a Beatles fan in my youth though I rarely listen to their songs in me dotage. 😉
Looking at the titles brings back memories, my parents would often tell me that as a child I was crazy about the song “She Loves You”, yeah yeah yeah! 🙂
Hey Jude at no.1 you won’t find many arguements there, it’s a very popular song.
My top favorites would include – Eleanor Rigby, Something, Yesterday, Strawberry Fields Forever, Penny Lane, Lady Madonna and missing from the chart – A Day in the Life.
I’ve seen A Day in the Life ranked at no.1 a few times including Rolling Stones Magazine, but I don’t think it was released as a single. Wikipedia says the song is “widely regarded as one of the finest and most important works in popular music history.”
Good stuff Bruce. Vote Up!
Now it’s time to let it be and get back to that long and winding road…
Excellent UMR Page
Running on empty. I thought I would complete the Beatles movie page afer this one, but so out of energy….headed to bed.