Today (25 June) is Global Beatles Day - who knew, right? - this being the date on which, in 1967, the Fab Four took part in the BBC’s Our World show and performed All You Need Is Love to an international audience, harnessing the power of four communications satellites.
To celebrate this momentous/slightly random occasion, Muse Group - owner of Ultimate Guitar and MuseScore - has identified which Beatles songs guitarists, pianists and other instrumentalists most want to play, and the results are, if not surprising, certainly interesting.
It turns out that, among both guitarists and pianists, there’s a clear winner: Let It Be. It’s the piano, of course, that does a lot of the harmonic heavy lifting in this 1970 classic, but the guitar solo that kicks in after a couple of minutes is also noteworthy.
The remainder of the top 5 is the same for both guitar and piano, but the order is different. The next most-played Beatles song by guitarists is Yesterday, followed by Hey Jude, Blackbird and Here Comes The Sun. When it comes to viewed piano scores, though, Here Comes The Sun is right up there in second place, followed by Hey Jude, Yesterday and Blackbird.
Other songs to make both Top 10s include Something, In My Life and While My Guitar Gently Weeps. Guitarists are also fond of And I Love Her and Come Together, while pianists are keen to learn Eleanor Rigby and Penny Lane.
What of other instruments, though? Ukulele players, we learn, are desperate to play Here Comes The Sun - makes sense - and bassists, understandably, want to find their way around the classic sliding bassline from Come Together. When it comes to drum charts, it’s another win for Let It Be, while violinists want to get their fingers around Eleanor Rigby, so to speak.
Whatever instrument you’re talking about, what’s clear is that The Beatles remain a massive musical draw. On Ultimate Guitar, in fact, they’re still the most popular artist of all - not bad for a band that broke up more than 55 years ago.
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