“You Really Got A Hold On Me” is one of the strongest cover versions on With The Beatles because it shows the group absorbing American rhythm and blues without flattening it into simple beat-pop. Drawn from Smokey Robinson and the…
“You Never Give Me Your Money” is one of the most important songs on Abbey Road because it opens the long side-two medley and turns the Beatles’ business collapse into art. Written mainly by Paul McCartney, it moves through several…
“You Like Me Too Much” is one of George Harrison’s most revealing early Beatles songs because it sits between promise and breakthrough. Released in 1965 on Help! in the UK and on Beatles VI in the US, it shows Harrison…
“You Know What To Do” is one of the Beatles’ most interesting lost recordings because it comes from 1964 but stayed unheard until Anthology 1 appeared in 1995. Written by George Harrison, it captures him still feeling his way as…
“You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)” is one of the strangest records ever released under the Beatles’ name. Issued in March 1970 as the B-side to “Let It Be”, it sounds less like a conventional song than a…
“You Can’t Do That” is the B-side to “Can’t Buy Me Love”, but it is far too strong to treat as a routine flip side. Released in March 1964, it gave John Lennon one of his fiercest early Beatles vocals…
“Yesterday” is a defining song of the Beatles’ catalogue and one of the clearest signs that Paul McCartney was moving beyond standard beat-group writing by mid-1965. Although credited to Lennon-McCartney, the ballad was written solely by McCartney and recorded without…
“Yes It Is” is the B-side to “Ticket To Ride”, but it is much more than a forgotten flip side. Released in April 1965, it gave John Lennon one of his most delicate early ballads and let the Beatles build…
“Yer Blues” is one of the rawest performances on the White Album and one of John Lennon’s bleakest Beatles songs. On the surface it sounds like a heavy blues workout, but underneath that racket sits something more complicated: a song…
“Yellow Submarine In Pepperland” closes side two of the Yellow Submarine album, where George Martin’s orchestral score takes over after the Beatles songs on side one. It is not a Beatles performance in the usual sense, but a George Martin…
