Top 5...

Underappreciated Beatles Tracks...

5. Money (That's What I Want). This barnstorming proto-metal cover of Barrett Strong's Motown standard was tagged onto the very end of sophomore album With The Beatles and featured some of Lennon's most ferocious vocals. Lennon apparently had trouble with his voice for some time after the recording of Twist and Shout, and it would be quite remarkable if he didn't do further damage during this recording.

4. Across The Universe. Not the version which featured on Let it Be in 1970, but instead the version which featured on a charity album which took its name from the chorus of this very song in 1968. The bridge of the song is in Sanskrit, and Lennon himself reckoned Across The Universe to be amongst the most poetic lyrics he ever wrote. [This version of Across The Universe is now available on Past Masters/Mono Masters Volume 2].

3. Good Morning Good Morning. Bizarre time signatures and a rampaging brass section with farmyard noises too squeezed onto the second side of Sgt. Pepper's. Studio engineer Geoff Emerick recalled that Lennon apparently requested that each animal noise was recorded in an order so that each animal would be scared by the one that precedes it. Insane.

2. Only A Northern Song. A leftover from the Sgt. Pepper sessions, Only A Northern Song found its way onto the soundtrack of Yellow Submarine a couple of years later in 1969. Only... contains some of the four's must unusual and uncoventional instrumentation, including a distorted trumpet, a glockenspiel and a heavily-reverbed organ. Certainly one of George Harrison's most underappreciated compositions.

1. The entire side 2 of Abbey Road. Has anyone ever mastered the art of the medley before? Certainly not to such an extent. The perfect pop ditty Here Comes The Sun kicks things off, followed by gorgeous ballad Because. Then, seemingly from nowhere, comes the medley. Starting with the scathing You Never Give Me Your Money (aimed squarely at Allen Klein), it morphs into the multi-lingual and downbeat Sun King, before launching into the fuzzy bass joy of Mean Mr. Mustard. Garage rocker Polythene Pam follows, with She Came In Through The Bathroom Window continuing the uptempo feel. Up next is sumptuous lullaby Golden Slumbers, and then into Carry That Weight, which features the vocals of all four Beatles on a singalong chorus. The End is quite literally the end of the medley, although the 23 second folkie Her Majesty rounds off the album. 16 minutes, 9 tracks and it's over. Definitely unsurpassed in the medley stakes, the genius of the Beatles heading towards a cliff edge with failing brakes still shines through. Just to think, it only became a medley because the songs were unfinished...

Dan