I just came up with an idea of one way to settle (I’m joking of course, I don’t expect anything to ever settle this debate) the age old John Lennon Vs. Paul McCartney debate about who contributed more to The Beatles music. Or at least who wrote more of their most popular songs.

I’ve been taking an album by album look at who contributed more to each album. So far I’ve got through just Please Please Me & With The Beatles but I plan on keeping up with until it’s finished. But this is a different idea, an overall look of who contributed more to The Beatles entire career.

So what is this idea? I’ll use the top 50 most played Beatles songs list (from the past 6 months) at Last.FM to come up with a points system which awards the principle songwriter for each song the credit for that song.

The most played song is worth 100 points, the 2nd most played 98, all the way down to the 50th which is worth 2 points. I’m using even numbers so that when both John & Paul contributed significantly to the writing of a particular song, the credit can be split equally without getting into fractions.

Without further ado, here it goes… (In parenthesis will be the running total: John-Paul)

01. “Let It Be” - Paul 100. (0-100)
02. “Come Together” - John 98. (98-100)
03. “Yesterday” - Paul 96. (98-196)
04. “Eleanor Rigby” - Paul 94. (98-290)
05. “All You Need Is Love” - John 92. (190-290)
06. “Hey Jude” - Paul 90. (190-380)
07. “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” - John 88. (278-380)
08. “Help!” - John 86. (364-380)
09. “Something” - George 84. (George 84)
10. “Here Comes the Sun” - George 82. (George 166)
11. “Yellow Submarine” - Paul 80. (364-460)
12. “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” - George 78. (George 244)
13. “Get Back” - Paul 76. (364-536)
14. “Penny Lane” - Paul 74. (364-610)
15. “A Day in the Life” - John + Paul 36 each. (400-646)
16. “I Want to Hold Your Hand” - John/Paul 35 each. (435-681)
17. “Strawberry Fields Forever” - John 68. (503-681)
18. “Can’t Buy Me Love” - Paul 66. (503-747)
19. “Love Me Do” - Paul 64. (503-811)
20. “A Hard Day’s Night” - John 62. (565-811)
21. “Ticket to Ride” - John 60. (625-811)
22. “Because” - John 58. (683-811)
23. “Blackbird” - Paul 56. (683-867)
24. “I Am The Walrus” - John 54. (737-867)
25. “Across The Universe” - John 52. (789-867)
26. “Octopus’s Garden” - Ringo 50. (Ringo 50!)
27. “With a Little Help From My Friends” - John/Paul 24. (813-881)
28. “Lady Madonna” - Paul 46. (813-927)
29. “She Loves You” - John/Paul 22 each. (855-949)
30. “Eight Days a Week” - John /Paul 21 each. (876-970)
31. “Oh! Darling” - Paul 40. (876-1010)
32. “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” - Paul 38. (876-1048)
33. “Glass Onion” - John 36. (912-1048)
34. “In My Life” - John 34. (946-1048)
35. “Happiness is a Warm Gun” - John 32. (978-1048.)
36. “Sgt. Pepper’s…” - Paul 30. (978-1078.)
37. “The Long and Winding Road” - Paul 28. (978-1106)
38. “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” - Paul 26. (978-1132)
39. “Dear Prudence” - John 24. (1002-1132)
40. “Michelle” - Paul 22. (1002-1154)
41. “Day Tripper” - John 20. (1022-1154)
42. “Getting Better” - Paul 18. (1022-1172)
43. “Girl” - John 16. (1038-1172)
44. “We Can Work It Out” - John/Paul 7 each. (1045-1179)
45. “I Feel Fine” - John 12. (1057-1179)
46. “Golden Slumbers” - Paul 10. (1057-1189)
47. “Back in the USSR” - Paul 8. (1057-1197)
48. “Fixing a Hole” - Paul 6. (1057-1203)
49. “You Never Give Me Your Money” - Paul 4. (1057-1207)
50. “Helter Skelter” - Paul 2. (1057-1209)

Final Results: Paul 1209 points, John 1057 points, George 244 points, & Ringo 50 points.

Paul wrote 23 of the 50 top songs, John wrote 17, John & Paul wrote 6 together, George wrote 3, and Ringo wrote 1.

So when it comes to who wrote more of The Beatles most popular songs, it looks like Paul is the winner. How about that? I bet you a lot of people who listen to more Paul songs than John songs on Last.FM would claim (without hesitation) that John is their favorite Beatle.

My point here isn’t that Paul was better than John or even that he contributed more. I think that “most popular” is definitely not the same as best. For example, “Love Me Do” is one of their weaker songs and it’s ranked #19 while an awesome song like “Dear Prudence” is only #39.

My point is that many people automatically assume that John is the Beatle they like most because of his mystique more than because they actually prefer his songs over Paul’s. Many people simply do not give Paul the credit he’s due for writing many of The Beatles greatest songs.

Note: I am aware that splitting “A Day in the Life” up the middle isn’t quite fair as it’s definitely more of a John song than a Paul song, but there were other “judgments” that went in John’s favor: “We Can Work It Out” is a bit more of a Paul song than a John, but it was split evenly. I gave John total credit for “Day Tripper” even though Paul did contribute to the verses. I also gave John total credit for “Ticket to Ride” even though Paul has claimed they actually wrote it together.

60s, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, The Beatles

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