Bobby Sutliff wrote:
<<<I haven't really got a clue which Fab 4 tunes were influential to others - I just know which ones influenced me - which would be pretty much all of them. I will mention my all time favorite - Strawberry Fields Forever, which when released sounded totally unlike any piece of popular music ever up to that point. I remember the first time I heard it on the local AM station. I
thought there was something seriously wrong with my radio...>>>

Ah yes. Somewhere I have a bootleg video of Dick Clark first playing "Strawberry Fields Forever" on American Bandstand and then getting feedback from the stunned audience.  The looks on the audience members faces as Clark sits amongst them are priceless, and the comments are great - if I recall correctly, one girl refers to them looking like old men with their facial hair.  Clark then plays "Penny Lane" and the audience is more forgiving, but there is a lingering sense of did the Beatles lose their minds.  As I said a priceless bit of video. 

On topic, the most influential Beatle song in America had to have been "I Want To Hold Your Hand" because it, and that first appearance on Ed Sullivan, started everything and spawned a million bands. 

Bill