This story was originally published in the December 9, 2010 playlist issue of Rolling Stone.
“I feel so privileged to have been on this planet when the Beatles were born,” says Ozzy Osbourne. “They are and will forever be the greatest band in the world. I remember talking to Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols. He said, ‘I didn’t like the Beatles.’ I said, ‘There is something fucking wrong with you.”
1. “She Loves You” (1963)
This is the one that sucked me in. I was a 14-year-old kid with this blue transistor radio. I heard “She Loves You,” and it floored me. It was as if you knew all the colors in the world. Then someone shows you a brand-new color, and you go, “Fuckin’ hell, man.”
2. “I Want to Hold Your Hand” (1963)
3. “I Am the Walrus” (1967)
Lennon and McCartney were like sweet and sour. Paul would be the guy who said, “It’s getting better all the time.” John would say, “It couldn’t get much worse.” I loved Lennon’s plays on words. I love any song where you can go, “I don’t know what that means,” but you understand it anyway.
4. “A Day in My Life” (1967)
5. “Hey Jude” (1968)
6. “Help!” (1965)
When I hear this, I hear Lennon thinking, “You can’t get bigger than big.” But they did. They got beyond massive. And he just goes, “Help!” because they don’t know what they’ve done. They only know how they did it.
7. “Eleanor Rigby” (1966)
“Eleanor Rigby” is fucking phenomenal. I don’t know why. I just know that every time I heard something from the Beatles, it made me feel better that day.
8. “Something (1969)
Black Sabbath were doing a residency in a bar in Zurich. It was winter, and we were driving in the van to get home for Christmas. We were homesick and had no money, one cigarette between the four of us. This song reminds me of that time, because we kept hearing it as we were going over the Alps.
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9. “Strawberry Fields Forever” (1967)
I used to work in a slaughterhouse, and across the road was a meat-pie shop, and this was on the radio there all the time.
10. “The Long and Winding Road” (1970)
It reminds me of winter in England. It’s cold, you’ve got fingerless gloves on. And it makes me sad, because it was the end of the greatest movie I’d ever seen. You hear Paul going, “I’m out of steam. I can’t do this anymore.”
