Nine Songs We Want as The Beatles: Rock Band DLC (and Four We Don't)

We pick out the best and worst remaining songs we'd like to see added to the Beatles: Rock Band catalog.
9/8/2009 9:11 AM | 7 Comments | Page 1 of 3

Every so often you'll see some site pop up with a "Most Wanted" list of tracks it'd like to see playable in Rock Band. These lists are always fun, and a great way to get a discussion going, but they always had one major problem as far as I was concerned -- an overabundance of choice. When you're choosing from a pool of "every rock and pop song ever written," whittling it down to just a few choices is practically meaningless. There are literally thousands of songs that would be great in Rock Band, and picking out 10 or so based on your personal tastes is no tough feat.

It's different with The Beatles: Rock Band, though. Since the Fab Four only released 185 songs* in its short career, the potential space for downloadable songs is pretty limited. Take away the 45 songs included on the game disc and 31 more from "Abbey Road," "Rubber Soul" and "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" that have already been promised as downloads, and that leaves only a little more than 100 remaining Beatles songs as potential future downloads.

With such a small remaining set list, MTV Games could easily code every single one for the game, letting players purchase and play through the complete Beatles catalog. If it falls short of that ideal, though, which songs make the cut is going to be a matter of some debate. Here are our humble suggestions for nine songs that we really, really want to see as Beatles: Rock Band downloads, and four that we could easily do without. Your mileage may vary, of course, so be sure to share your thoughts in the comments.

* Give or take, depending on what you count as a "song."

Nine Songs We Want to See as DLC

1. "Revolution 1" -- The White Album


Sure, the high-octane, high-impact version of "Revolution" already appears on the Beatles: Rock Band game disc. But the slower, mellower version that appears on "The White Album" deserves its own place in the game among the lurid Dreamscapes of the Abbey Road recording sessions. The reduced pace lets the song's disparate parts flow together, and might be a bit more accessible for the hordes of new gamers Harmonix and MTV are trying to attract with The Beatles: Rock Band.

[Editor's note: The original version of this story failed to differentiate between the single version of the song, which is in the game, and the "White Album" version, which is not. We regret the error.]

2. "Glass Onion" -- The White Album


The Beatles: Rock Band is being sold as not just a Rock Band expansion pack, but also as a tour through the history and music of a seminal musical act. If that's the case, wouldn't a song that includes references to other Beatles hits -- including "Strawberry Fields Forever," "Lady Madonna," "The Fool on the Hill" and "I Am the Walrus" -- seem like a no-brainer for inclusion? Besides the historical import, the song's simple guitar and drum beats back a haunting vocal melody, building into a satisfying primal scream of rage during the bridge that's liable to get any party fired up.

3. "Ballad of John and Yoko" -- single


Again, a game that claims to be about showcasing the history of the Beatles really should include the songs where the Beatles themselves referenced their place in history. Chronicling the period of intense press scrutiny following John Lennon's marriage to Yoko Ono, "Ballad" immediately hooks the listener with catchy descending guitar riffs atop a driving drumbeat that pushes the procession forward. Lennon and McCartney's harmonies make this one a great showcase for the singers, too. Perhaps the inclusion of "Christ!" as a mild curse was too much for the risk-averse publishers? Or perhaps the song was too personal for Yoko to agree to its inclusion? In any case, we look forward to being able to download it in the future.

4. "She Said She Said" -- Revolver


From those first eight lonely guitar notes, this song never lets up over two minutes and thirty-seven seconds of pure pop perfection. The vocal harmonies let three singers come together into one heavenly voice, aided by a call-and-response guitar part that counterpoints the singing beautifully. It's all tied together by some heavy drums that are a bit more complex and satisfying than the standard Beatles beat-keeping. By the time the song finally breaks down into a wonderful fading disorder in the final seconds, you feel like you've put everything you have into the music. A perfect Rock Band track.