The list of the Top 20 Beatles songs was published in the new issue of Mojo magazine, with the band’s 1967 Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band finale “A Day In The Life” coming in first.

Among the notable musicians polled for the list were Ozzy Osbourne, Tom Petty, David Crosby, Phil Collins, Roger McGuinn, Jackie DeShannon, John Cale, Paul Weller, the Rutles‘ Neil Innes, Chris Difford of Squeeze, Tori Amos, and many more.

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• The Top 20 Beatles songs as polled by Mojo magazine are:
• 1. “A Day In The Life”
  2. “Strawberry Fields Forever”
  3. “Yesterday”
  4. “Tomorrow Never Knows”
  5. “Something”
  6. “In My Life”
  7. “Happiness Is A Warm Gun”
  8. “Penny Lane”
  9. “She Loves You”
  10. “A Hard Day’s Night”
  11. “Eleanor Rigby”
  12. “Come Together”
  13. “Hey Jude”
  14. “I Want To Hold Your Hand”
  15. “With A Little Help From My Friends”
  16. “Revolution”
  17. “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”
  18. “Can’t Buy Me Love”
  19. “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)”
  20. “Rain”
• The writer breakdown of the list comes out to Lennon & McCartney scoring seven songs as a unit; seven songs primarily written by John Lennon; four songs primarily written by Paul McCartney; and two songs written by George Harrison.
• A handful of the tracks on the list represent the best from the band’s psychedelic era. Ringo Starrrecalls that although the “Fab Four” were known to party during their sessions, they always needed to keep it in check for the sake of the recording: ["We actually learned that years ago in the Beatles. Because we weren't saints and we would work late some nights and we'd make these (laughs) records -- it was like 'Oh wow! yeah, yeah, give me a cassette, let's take that home!' And every time we'd come in the next day to EMI (Studios) (and say), 'Well we'd better re-do that.' Because the next morning it was never so thrilling."] SOUNDCUE (:21 OC: . . . never so thrilling).

Here are some of the more interesting comments from the band’s superstar fans and poll voters:

• Roger McGuinn on “She Loves You”: “‘She Loves You’ is deceptively simple on first hearing. The lyrics are just about teenage love and capture that feeling well, but the real hook is the musical device the Beatles used — a descending line from G to E minor with ‘yeah, yeah. yeah’ on the choruses. Even the choice of chords in the verse is really cool, going from G to B minor. These were not chord choices heard previously in pop or rock music. They were folk music chord changes. Subconsciously the Beatles had combined folk music with rock.”
• David Crosby on “Eleanor Rigby”: “‘Eleanor Rigby’ appeals to me for a bunch of different reasons. One, who do you know that’s written a song like that, who noticed the loneliness of old people, of people seemingly unnoticed by the rest of us? These people were invisible to songwriters, too, but they weren’t invisible to Paul. You can tell that he really watches people, that he acknowledges their sad determination.”
• Tom Petty on “I Want To Hold Your Hand”: “Even today when I listen to it, it doesn’t really sound like people singing, it sounds like it could be Martians or something. I was just a kid when it came out. I went and bought the single with that picture of them on the cover in those great collarless suits, and then I immediately set out to get a guitar; I’ve read that guitar sales boomed after that.”
• Ozzy Osbourne on “In My Life”: “Lennon paints an incredible picture in just three minutes. It’s not a load of rubbish that rhymes. ‘In My Life’ is one of those beautiful songs. I did a version of it because the lyrics seem to really fit me… It’s like when sometimes you sit down and think back to when you were a five-year-old and you were frightened when you went to school. These things come flooding back. It’s those kind of memories that you get from the song.”
• Phil Collins on “A Hard Day’s Night”: Even now, every time I hear that opening chord, that is so indefinable, so distinctive of an era, I feel a warm glow. Also that killer Rickenbacker guitar solo, that incredible 12-string sound. I don’t even play guitar, but I collect Rickenbackers so that my guys can use them, all because of George…”