Words by Riley Fitzgerald
Graphic by Michael Putland

Talking with Radio 2 Beatles drummer David Grohl shared several of his favorite Beatles tracks.

The first was ‘Hey Bulldog‘, a song the band themselves did not regard in too high regard but allowed to be used in animated Beatles feature Yellow Submarine.

“The track I performed alongside ELO‘s Jeff Lynne at a Grammy celebration in 2014,” Grohl enthused. “Although it wasn’t one of the Beatles’ greatest hits, to me, it’s a quintessential Beatles rock ‘n’ roll song.”

Next came John Lennon‘s Abbey Road composition ‘I Want You’.

“Since it’s the 50th anniversary of Abbey Road,” the drummer commented, “The one that stands out to me the most, and has always been my favorite from that record, is called ‘I Want You (She’s So Heavy)’. I love heavy music, I love Black Sabbath, I love Motorhead, but I think that nothing is heavier, melodically darker and deeper than the riff in this song.”

“It’s one of my favorite riffs and rhythms of all Beatles songs,” says of next choice, Revolver opener ‘Taxman’. “I love the chords, I love the melody, I love the snare sound… I mean, you have to imagine that in 1966 they were inventing a lot of rock ‘n’ roll recording by figuring out new ways to engineer these sessions.”

His mind then returns to Abbey Road, specifically George Harrison‘s ‘Something’.

“There was something [George Harrison] that I almost preferred the most,” he continues, “I loved every single one of them for different reasons but I kind of connected to George Harrison’s sense of melody more than anyone.”

Grohl also listed a number of other Beatle tunes including ‘All My Loving’, ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’, ‘Hey Jude’ (the first Beatles tune he can recall hearing), ‘Eight Days a Week’, ‘I Am the Walrus’, ‘Because’, ‘Two of Us’, ‘Blackbird’, and ‘With a Little Help From My Friends’.

Last on his list was ‘In My Life‘ which the drummer notes was famously played at his Nirvana bandmate Kurt Cobain‘s funeral: “everyone got to celebrate Kurt’s love of The Beatles one last time together.”

he also praised Beatles drummer Ringo Starr.

“Beyond being one of the greatest drummers of all time,” Dave said of Starr, “he also sang some of the most memorable songs of all time.”

The full interview here.