I think some of the comments above are a little harsh. I actually like this song and I'm grateful to those who've made the effort to finally bring it to us in a relatively clean state. Of course there's a sycophantic cheesiness to it but frankly, so what?!
I can without doubt, name at least one song on every ELO studio album (including the rest of
Secret Messages) that I think is inferior to
Beatles Forever. It certainly would have made
Discovery a better album - if it had surfaced from the studios three years or so earlier.
Sticking my neck out to a dangerous degree (!) I actually think that it
would have made a great single choice ahead of the
Secret Messages album - better than the
Hold On Tight re-run that was
Rock 'N' Roll Is King. It's all about the context of time (no pun intended). The revival of a consistent interest in the Beatles had just begun in the early eighties, very possibly generated by the aftermath of the tragically awful events in NYC in December 1980. George Harrison kind of reunited the other two on his hit
All Those Years Ago in May 1981 and in June 1982, the somewhat bizarre
Beatles Movie Medley single was an even bigger hit. Meanwhile, all of the Beatles singles were reissued again on picture disc and started invading the UK charts once more -
Love Me Do got to No.4, 13 places higher than when it came out 20 years previously! It was the era of
Starsound/
Stars on 45-type tribute medley hits and nostalgia was right up there with the latest synth-darlings. Even McCartney had four top ten hits and two No.1s between 1982 and 1984. And let's not forget ELO's own (slightly questionable) Beatles/Lennon medley being aired every night on the Time Tour of 1981/82.
So, against that backdrop was a small window for
Beatles Forever to make its mark. It would undoubtedly have taken some flack from most of the music journalists but then the
Secret Messages album would have eventually surfaced and shown that
BF was somewhat different to the rest of the band's output at that time - particularly if it had been the original double album of course.
So many 'what might have beens' and that's no different to many other bands who've enjoyed a long career. What's certain though is the fact that
Beatles Forever will continue to provide a talking point and divide opinion for years to come. Right up to it's eventual inclusion on the 50th anniversary edition of
Secret Messages in 2033?!! Well you never know....