Like everyone who subscribes to Spotify, at this time of the year, we receive the wrap of our listening for the year. I have posted on this topic in the past. It’s always interesting to see what I have listened to and what I listened to most.

There is always Springsteen with Born to Run, usually in my most listened to songs. In 2023, it was no different, however, it was my continued love of The Beatles and Paul McCartney that showed through. Band on the Run was among my most listened to songs; it’s the crashing guitars as the song breaks from its intro to the main song that I always notice, no matter how often I listen to it.

In 2023, The Beatles were my most listened to band.  On reflection, it was no surprise. I regularly pick one of their albums or songs to listen too. Often, I will listen to their albums from start to finish or from the start to Revolver or Sgt Peppers to Let it Be.

I remember Abbey Road as the first album I bought as I got into popular music. It was a birthday present from my grandparents. I had other music at that time, but that was before I started my passion for popular music. Abbey Road remains to this day one of my favourite Beatles albums, but there is no doubt that I keep returning to Let it Be. It’s an album I can listen to over and over again in one sitting.

Across the Universe along with You Got to Hide Your Love Away, remain my favourites, although really there are many. Here comes the Sun is right up there. It used to be the song I played as I tried out sound equipment.

I have all of their albums on vinyl. My children gave me remastered versions of both Abbey Road and Let it Be. Let it Be remains in its wrapper. I have the boxed set on CD as well as CDs of their albums and stream them from Spotify. These days, the CDs are put away, but I regularly get the vinyl out and play them.

I could write about the various songs, but there is so much written about them and, thankfully, numerous interviews and documentaries that give first hand accounts. Peter Jackson’s Get Back is stunning, and I am enjoying the latest podcast series, A Life in Lyrics, with Paul McCartney and Paul Muldoon. It’s so much better to hear the first hand accounts, and I am so glad we have them.

I’m thrilled that my eldest son considers The Beatles his favourite band and that my youngest grandson will happily go off the sleep to Golden Slumbers.

Yes, they broke up more than 50 years ago, but their music goes on. The pompos git who, when I was 12 or 13 years old, told me that their music wouldn’t last because it couldn’t be orchestrated couldn’t have been more wrong. Their music lives on orchestrated or in its original form, and we are the better for it.