By Robert Elms. Is this mere contrarianism or outright heresy?

And how can a truly great songwriter come up with something as ingratiatingly simplistic and syrupy as the awful 'All You Need Is Love'?

I've always read that song as ironic. Why else would it fade-out to a slow version of "She Loves You, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah?"

Perhaps the most annoying bit of the whole overblown Beatles myth is when people harp on about how 'Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' is the greatest, most profound, most important album of all time.

No it isn't. Have you actually listened to it all the way through lately? It's a dated, soulless, overblown exercise in studio trickery and trite musical tourism.

Supposedly The Beach Boys had them all beat, but couldn't seal the deal. In any event, while I approve of the shoutout to Blonde on Blonde, Sgt. Pepper is still pretty good too.

The worst song of all time, by a mile, is Lennon's dire 'Imagine'.

That mawkish, manipulative dirge, in which the multi-millionaire with one temperature controlled room in his Manhattan mansion just to keep his fur coats in, whimpers "Imagine No Possessions" is the most sickly and irritating song ever.

Heresy.

...well, maybe he's got a point about the whole fur coat thing, but still -- I love that song.