There aren't that many accounts of John Lennon and Paul McCartney not agreeing on who wrote which parts of their songs. In fact, to a certain degree, it didn't matter — that's why the "Lennon-McCartney" songwriting name was established, since oftentimes it was hard to tell where one man's contribution ended and the other's began.

But for however synchronized Lennon and McCartney were, the reality is that two separate brains were at work when it came to their songwriting, and it did ultimately matter to each of them how those contributions were remembered.  "In My Life" from the Beatles' 1965 album Rubber Soul is a clear example of this.  One thing Lennon and McCartney did not disagree on was that "In My Life" originated with Lennon.

"'In My Life' started out as a bus journey from my house on 250 [sic] Menlove Avenue to town, mentioning every place I could remember," Lennon recalled to David Sheff in 1980. "And it was ridiculous. This is before even 'Penny Lane' was written and I had Penny Lane, Strawberry Fields, Tram Sheds – Tram Sheds are the depot just outside of Penny Lane – and it was the most boring sort of 'What I Did On My Holidays Bus Trip' song and it wasn't workin details

During a 1963 visit to St. Louis, George Harrison found a record he couldn't stop thinking about. He even imagined the Beatles recording it. But despite his enthusiasm, the song never made its way into the band's repertoire. Harrison would eventually get another chance with it — 24 years later.  It all stemmed from an early 1960s vacation.

“In 1963, the year before the Beatles first came to America, I took a trip to St. Louis to visit my sister, who was living there at the time,” Harrison wrote in The Beatles Anthology. “The whole Beatlemania thing had really begun in the U.K., and we’d had three or four hit singles.

“So while visiting my sister, I went around to all the music shops looking for new singles and especially albums that were really hard to find in Liverpool. And that’s where I finally found the James Ray album, If You’re Gonna Make a Fool of Somebody.”

In particular, the song that grabbed his attention most was “Got My Mind Set on You,” and Harrison thought it had the makings of a Beatles recording — despite one significant drawback.  All the latest guitar news, interviews, lessons, reviews, deal details

The Beatles owed a debt to R&B music, one of the genres that exerted the biggest influence on their music as they formulated their sound. It’s only fitting then that the group’s members repaid the debt with some of the songs they wrote, both with the band and after its breakup, that were covered by R&B artists.

We compiled a list of four of these cover versions. The Fab Four deserve credit for writing these outstanding tracks. And the artists also should be lauded for the way they reinvented the songs.
“Got To Get You Into My Life” by Earth, Wind & Fire

The Beatles never released “Got To Get You Into My Life” as a single, although the horn-drenched number certainly sounded like one. Paul McCartney wrote it as a clandestine ode to marijuana. The music was indebted to the Motown sound of the era. Earth, Wind & Fire recorded it on the soundtrack of the much-maligned Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band film that was released in 1978. They bravely reimagined the arrangement, turning the hook into a kind of jazzy scat. Al McKay brings some heft with a sizzling guitar solo, while Maurice White tears through the vocals of the verses. Released at the height details

“The Beatles – A Four-Film Cinematic Event” stars Barry Keoghan, Joseph Quinn and Harris Dickinson were spotted filming the iconic opening of the “A Hard Day’s Night” movie for the forthcoming film, per images via TMZ.

Directed by Richard Lester, the 1964 film followed the crew over two days as the band struggled to keep themselves and Paul McCartney’s mischievous grandfather in check while preparing for a live TV performance. One of the most notable moments — and the scene apparently being filmed — was a sequence of shots showing the three bandmembers running away from swarms of adoring fans.

Last month, the cast (plus Paul Mescal) were seen recreating the “Abbey Road” album cover for the multi-part biopic. Mescal stars as Paul McCartney, Quinn plays George Harrison, Barry Keoghan portrays Ringo Starr and Harris Dickinson plays John Lennon.

Each of the four films will focus on a different member of the band. “Each man has his own story, but together they are legendary,” reads the official logline.

In addition to the main bandmembners, other cast members include Saoirse Ronan as Linda McCartney, James Norton as Brian Ep details

Ringo Starr has shared a devastating update about a reunion of The Beatles, saying he believes the band would have made more music if John Lennon and George Harrison were still alive.

In an interview with Page Six, Starr opened up about the loss of his former bandmates and reminisced on the glory days of The Beatles.
The Beatles. To this day, the Beatles remain one of the biggest bands the world has ever seen. 

“I do think we possibly would have got together sometime from, you know, John leaving us to now, if we were all still around, you know,” he said. “And George, you know, I miss George.”

The band announced their split on April 10, 1970. Ten years later in 1980, Lennon was shot by a crazed fan in New York City. Harrison died of cancer in 2001. Starr and Paul McCartney remain in close contact as the last two surviving members of the band, speaking a couple of times a month.

“If he’s in England, we go to visit England, mainly to visit family, (if) we know, we’ll have dinner or we’ll go around and hang,” Starr said.

While a reunion of the remaining members isn’t on the cards, Starr shared he and McCartne details

George Harrison is the best Beatle. There, I said it. Perhaps the most underrated, too. He penned some of the Fab Four’s most iconic tracks, from “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” and “Here Comes the Sun” to “Within You Without You” and “I Me Mine.”

One of his songs, “Something,” from the Beatles’ eleventh studio album, Abbey Road, marked a noticeable shift for Harrison. He became a talented solo artist in his own right post-Beatles breakup, but “Something” was proof positive that he belonged in the same conversation as songwriting powerhouse duo John Lennon and Paul McCartney. It was also Harrison’s first A-side single.
George Harrison First Offered ‘Something’ to Joe Cocker

However, before recording “Something” for Abbey Road, Harrison first offered the beloved tune to Joe Cocker, who recorded a demo in March 1969. Harrison found it difficult to get more than two of his compositions onto any given Beatles record, and McCartney, Lennon, and producer George Martin were initially unimpressed by the tune.

But Harrison was able to get “Something” onto Abbey Road, and on May 2, 1969 details

The "I'm Looking Through You" we know from 1965's Rubber Soul is not the "I'm Looking Through You" the Beatles first put together at EMI Studios in London.

The version we know is bouncy and deceptively joyful-sounding for a song about feeling your partner slipping away. But at first, Paul McCartney's lament for his failing relationship with actress Jane Asher was slower, bluesier and didn't have a middle eight section at all.

This first version was recorded on Oct. 24, 1965. Another one was made on Nov. 6, but again the Beatles were not satisfied with the results and so did it once more on Nov. 10 with overdubs on Nov. 11. This was the version that made the final Rubber Soul cut. (The original version was eventually released into the world on the 1996 Anthology 2 compilation.)
Why Did Paul McCartney Write 'I'm Looking Through You'?

The thing to remember about McCartney's five-year relationship with Asher is that she was already a public figure and had her own very established career by the time they began dating — she started out as a child actress in the early '50s and only gained momentum from there. In other words: Asher had been famous for longer than McCartney.

Though they had muc details

It’s another day at the office for Time Lord Giles Martin. He takes in his stride the one true crossing outside Abbey Road Studios and then its stairs, laid by Alexander the Great in 320BC. He leans against the oak door hewn from the Ark of the Covenant and lowers his eye to the laser scanner. The airlock sighs and sucks him inside.

This, give or take some overexcited fictional details, is the daily grind for the son of the Beatles’ record producer George Martin: the man who helped design the world as we hear it with its vastly expanded pop vocabulary, its studio-as-instrument concept and album-as-art-form culture.  The Beatles’ greatest album of all (we think) is up for a remix. Art by Aresna Villanueva

Giles Martin’s digital remixes of Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Abbey Road, the White Album, Let It Be and Revolver are history now, too. This year, the mission he has chosen to accept leads him down these storied corridors to The Greatest Beatles Album Ever.

“I’m probably the wrong person for this job,” he demurs as we settle in to dissect my possibly spurious claim. “I don’t really think about the whole thing when I’m w details

On this day (September 16) in 1963, the Beatles released “She Loves You” as a single in the United States. They released it in the United Kingdom in late August, and it became a massive hit, launching them to national stardom. That wasn’t the case in the United States, though. It received positive press but very little airplay. As a result, it failed to chart upon its initial release. It only became a hit after the band found popularity with American listeners.

“She Loves You” was the Beatles’ second consecutive No. 1 in the United Kingdom. Moreover, it became the best-selling single of the 1960s in their homeland. The “yeah, yeah, yeah” hook made the third-person love song endlessly catchy and helped them dominate the English pop market. Many cite “She Loves You” as the song that ushered in Beatlemania. In America, though, few people were interested in what the Fab Four had to say.

According to the Beatles Bible, the song’s lack of success in the United States may have been partially due to the label that released it. Capitol Records, their label’s American counterpart, refused to release the single. Vee Jay Records, which had released &ldq details

When John Lennon was murdered outside his home in New York City in 1980, the shock and grief was felt worldwide. Sometimes, when a public figure is so large and universal, it's hard to remember that he was also a person with loved ones who mourned him even more that fans did around the world. Paul McCartney was one of them. When Lennon died, The Beatles had been broken up for ten years, and he and McCartney's bitter feud was fresh in people's minds. So, a lot of people speculated that there was no love lost between them.

But people didn't know everything that went on behind the scenes. In reality, the former bandmates had reconciled in the mid-'70s, and Lennon's tragic death was a huge blow for McCartney. No matter what happened between them, they had been best friends since they were teenagers, had created the greatest band in the world together, and their bond was one that transcended any argument or feud. And this song is proof of that. Paul McCartney's Love Song to John Lennon.

John Lennon died on December 8, 1980, and immediately after he heard the tragic news, Paul McCartney locked himself in his studio. By the time he came out, reporters were surrounding him, eager to get his reaction. They immediate details

While My Guitar Gently Weeps is one of the Beatles' most enduring classics, but it had a rocky start. Paul McCartney, John Lennon and Ringo Starr weren't all that keen on George Harrison's opus. It took a special guest to help get things off the ground.

Not only was it one of the best songs Harrison ever wrote, it was one of the greatest Beatles songs full stop, and a standout inclusion on the White Album.

During the record's studio sessions, though, Harrison's bandmates didn't care too much for the tune. It made tracking the song difficult. At one point, they abandoned the song altogether, only to later start over again.

In the February 2001 issue of Total Guitar, which featured a long-lost interview with Harrison conducted in the 1990s, the Beatle looked back on the frustrating experience.

"We'd be in a recording situation, churning through all this Lennon/McCartney, Lennon McCartney, Lennon/McCartney! Then I'd say, 'Can we do one of these?'" he said.

"When we actually started recording While My Guitar Gently Weeps it was just me playing the acoustic guitar and singing it and nobody was interested. Well, Ringo probably was, but John and Paul weren't.

"When I went home that night details

There’s a best and worst song on virtually every album out there. But picking the best and worst from a band like The Beatles is no easy task. If you don’t agree with my rankings of songs from the Fab Four’s “Beatlemania” era, you’re probably not alone. This list is extremely subjective to taste, forewarning!
Best Song on ‘Please Please Me’ (1963) — “I Saw Her Standing There”

This song is still so gorgeous after all these years. It’s pretty shocking that Paul McCartney and John Lennon wrote this rock and roll banger at such a young age. “I Want To Hold Your Hand” was just on the cusp of taking this spot, but I had to go with the former for nostalgia’s sake.
Worst Song on ‘Please Please Me’ (1963) — “There’s A Place”

This was an easy entry, considering how many people really don’t like this particular track. Lennon’s harmonica is just too shrill for me, personally.
Best Song on ‘With The Beatles’ (1963) — “All My Loving”

An obvious choice! “All My Loving” is an example of one of McCartney’s best early-career details

The Beatles released the 1963 hit song “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” which not only became one of the band’s defining songs but was also ranked among Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Based on the ranking released by the publication, the list celebrates songs widely regarded for their lasting impact and influence on music.

With this, The Beatles’ “I Want to Hold Your Hand” ranked at No. 15, which the publication described as “an irresistibly erotic come-on framed as a chaste, bashful request.”

Continuing the song’s legacy, Rolling Stone later released a separate list highlighting the 100 Greatest Beatles Songs, with “I Want to Hold Your Hand” landing at No. 2.

Written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, the duo created what would become one of the band’s most iconic songs at Jane Asher’s house, where McCartney’s then-girlfriend lived.

“We wrote a lot of stuff together, one on one, eyeball to eyeball,” the late John Lennon told Playboy magazine in 1980, as cited by Performing Songwriter, adding, “Like in ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand,’ I remember when we got the ch details

I like how completely baffled John Lennon is by the rules of American football here. It doesn’t make any sense to me either, and I’m American.

On December 9th, 1974, Lennon somehow found himself at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum watching the Los Angeles Rams play the Washington Redskins in front of something like 87,000 people. He hadn’t planned some grand promotional appearance, but Frank Gifford had bumped into him earlier that day at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, offered him tickets to the game and, much to Gifford’s surprise, Lennon actually showed up.

This being Monday Night Football in the 1970s, there were celebrities everywhere. California governor and future president Ronald Reagan was there too, and in one of those wonderfully strange combinations of famous people that could only have happened in the ’70s, Reagan apparently spent part of the evening explaining the rules of football to John Lennon.

I’d have paid good money to listen in on that conversation.

Eventually, Lennon was persuaded into the ABC commentary booth for a quick chat with Howard Cosell, whom he’d already met during a lengthy radio interview a couple of months earlier. Cosell a details

Although Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder’s most famous collaboration was the 1982 transatlantic #1 hit “Ebony and Ivory,” the relationship between two of music’s greatest ever minds spans nearly the entirety the length of their careers.

In February 1966, a 15-year-old Wonder, transitioning from the child prodigy label of “Little Stevie Wonder” to one of Motown’s most exciting pop acts, told NME that meeting McCartney, then a 23-year-old bassist and co-lead vocalist and songwriter for The Beatles, two years into the Fab Four’s cultural dominance of American and global music, was one of the highlights of his young career.

“When on tour, I have to write essays about the places I visit,” the teenage Wonder told the publication (via Beatle Radio). “In the essay I’ll be writing when I get back I’ll certainly include my meeting with Paul McCartney. I met him in the Scotch Of St James club. He’s a really swinging guy, the only Beatle I’ve met.”

For McCartney, the feeling was very much reciprocated, with a History article writing that during his time as a Beatle, and likely prior, and all the way through his early pos details

The Beatles have unveiled a previously unheard alternate take of “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)”.

Released today by UMG and Apple Corps Ltd., “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) (Second Version – Take 2)” features on the forthcoming expanded edition of the band’s 1965 album Rubber Soul, due on October 2.

The first version of what was then called ‘This Bird Has Flown’ was recorded during the first day of sessions for Rubber Soul and featured George Harrison’s new discovery, the sitar. The band were not happy with this version, so nine days later they taped three more performances.

On take two, track one featured John Lennon’s acoustic guitar, Paul McCartney’s bass, Ringo Starr on drums and George playing drone notes on sitar. George added more sitar on tracks two and three, with John and Paul’s vocals also recorded on track three. Rather than starting with an instrumental version of the verse melody, as the final version does, this arrangement opens with double-tracked sitar playing the tune of the bridge section.

The release follows the recent unveiling of “Michelle (Take 1)” and “Day Tripper (Songw details

The Beatles were professional music-makers, well-seasoned by the time they started making 1965's Rubber Soul, but they were also something simpler: boys who enjoyed being silly from time to time.

Especially at that time, when the Beatles were moving full steam ahead and continuing to work hard at their craft, it was fun to loosen up a little in the studio as they were recording the song "Girl."

"It was always amusing to see if we could get a naughty word on the record: 'fish and finger pie,' 'prick teaser,' 'tit tit tit tit,'" Paul McCartney recalled in Many Years From Now. "The Beach Boys had a song out where they'd done 'la la la la' and we loved the innocence of that and wanted to copy it, but not use the same phrase.

So we were looking around for another phrase, so it was 'dit dit dit dit,' which we decided to change in our waggishness to 'tit tit tit tit,' which is virtually indistinguishable from 'dit dit dit dit.' And it gave us a laugh. It was to get some light relief in the middle of this real big career that we were forging. If we could put in something that was a little bit subversive then we would. George Martin might say, 'Was that 'dit dit' or 'tit tit' you were singing?' 'Oh, 'dit dit,' Ge details

A seminal track from arguably the best rock band – if not the best band period – of all time included just one of the four Hall of Fame members.

The Beatles released “Yesterday” on this day 61 years ago, but it featured only Paul McCartney and a string quartet. The song was the first of its kind for the band as a solo performance, but sparked the “most covered” song of all time.

Eva Cassidy, Marvin Gaye, Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra all covered the song, which the Guinness Book of World Records claims has been covered over 4,000 times.

McCartney revealed the Beatles were “a little embarrassed about” the song because of their rock roots. The track initially came to the Beatles star upon waking one morning and he hammered it out over the piano where he wondered where he’d heard the song before.

“It was like a jazz melody,” he said. “My dad used to know a lot of old jazz tunes. I thought maybe I’d just remembered it from the past.”

Yesterday’ Named One of the Greatest Songs of All Time

Rolling Stone named “Yesterday” as the No. 13 greatest song of all time, which was the second-hi details

Mr. Moonlight: Brian Epstein and the Making of the Beatles by Philip Norman

Phillip Norman captures the zeitgeist and provides a compelling portrait ... This illuminating work ... brings to life the turbulent and exciting times of the 1960s, when uncommonly inspired innovation seemed commonplace, and nothing felt totally outside the realm of possibility.

Mr. Moonlight: Brian Epstein and the Making of the Beatles is the brainchild of columnist Philip Norman, former rock music critic for The Times and noted biographer of numerous acclaimed musicians and other public figures. Lauded for his first book, Shout!: The Beatles in Their Generation, published in 1981, his current book is a comprehensive biography of the man often referred to as “the fifth Beatle” for discovering the rock band then known as The Quarrymen.

Playing a lunchtime gig on November 9, 1961, at Liverpool’s Cavern Club, a small subterranean venue, the band had returned to Liverpool from working club gigs in Hamburg. Spruced up and renamed The Beatles, they signed a five-year management contract with Brian Epstein in October 1962. His determination, discipline and positive influence transmuted the regional favorite — f details

During their time together, the Beatles released over 200 studio-recorded songs. Out of all of those, Ringo Starr was officially credited with helping to write just five of them.

"I started writing songs and I would, like, tell John [Lennon] and Paul [McCartney] and George [Harrison], 'I've got this song I've written,'" Starr recalled in a 2025 interview for SiriusXM. "And they'd be rolling on the floor laughing because — I didn't know I was doing it — I would just rewrite someone else's song."

That's not to say the others didn't want to include Starr at all — in fact, Lennon and McCartney wrote several songs over the years meant specifically for Starr to sing, and the drummer had at least one lead vocal on most of their albums.

“When you think about it, how many people in rock and roll can sing?" McCartney said to Rolling Stone in 2015. "But Ringo can deliver a song.”

Starr had to start somewhere as far as songwriting went. The very first Beatles song he landed a composition credit on was "What Goes On," which appeared on 1965's Rubber Soul.
The Earlier Origins of 'What Goes On'

"What Goes On" actually dated back a few years in the Beatles' recording ca details

John Lennon once called the Beatles' Ticket to Ride "one of the earliest heavy metal records made."

Try to imagine that song pumping through the house speakers before a Morbid Angel show, and you might conclude that Lennon's statement was a bit of a stretch. Still, the song's lumbering groove and droning riff were unusually heavy for 1965, especially within a pop landscape dominated by tracks like Wooly Bully and Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter.

Ticket to Ride was groundbreaking for another reason, though; It was the first Beatles record to feature Paul McCartney on lead guitar. He'd quietly slipped some gentle acoustic strumming into I'll Follow the Sun the previous year, but Ticket to Ride was different.

His electric leads enthusiastically leaped across the divides between the song's bridges and verses, then returned to playfully bob and weave throughout the outro, introducing listeners to a side of McCartney most fans barely realized existed.

"I guess I think of myself as a guitar player, really," he said in 1990. "If I couldn't have any other instrument, I would have to have an acoustic guitar.

"To the general public, McCartney is, of course, all about that bass. Publications details

On this day (September 11) in 1962, the Beatles recorded the third version of “Love Me Do.” It was their debut single in the United Kingdom, where it peaked at No. 17. The song was also originally meant to be their debut single in the United States. However, the label balked and refused to release it until 1964, when it became their fourth consecutive chart-topper.

The Beatles recorded the first version of “Love Me Do” in June 1962 with Pete Best on drums. This recording didn’t see the light of day until it was included on Anthology 1 in 1995. Then, on September 4, they recorded it again, with Ringo Starr on drums. They released this version as their debut UK single in October 1962. Finally, on September 11, 1962, they cut the song a third time. This time, session musician Andy White played drums, and Starr played tambourine. The tambourine is an easy way to tell the two popular versions apart.

According to Songfacts, Parlophone Records issued “Love Me Do” as a single in the United Kingdom. Sales, especially in the Liverpool area, were good enough to take the song to No. 17. Capitol Records, Parlophone’s US partner, refused to release the single, fearing it would f details

On 26 September 1969, The Beatles released their eleventh studio album Abbey Road. It was the last album the band recorded together and is widely regarded as a masterpiece.

Abbey Road was a triumphal swan song for The Beatles’ astonishing recording career. It also captured them still in their prime, capable of creating music that left most of their contemporaries standing.

Across its 47:03 running time, Abbey Road spans a dizzying array of styles, yet it is a stunningly cohesive work. It is also bold and innovative, as demonstrated by the song that opens the album, Come Together.

Come Together is a strikingly raw and direct song, written by John Lennon. It opens with one of the most iconic bass lines in rock and melds surreal stream-of-consciousness lyrics with a mean and gritty swamp-infused groove.

The initial idea for Come Together was reportedly sparked when American psychologist, writer and early advocate for psychedelic drugs, Dr Timothy Leary, asked John Lennon to write a song. This was to be used for Leary’s campaign to become Governor of California in 1969.

Source: musicradar.com/Neil Crossley

details

One man's trash is another man's treasure, as the saying goes…or to put it in classic rock terms, a "throwaway" song for the Beatles was a breakthrough hit for the Rolling Stones.

"I Wanna Be Your Man" was originally released by the Stones as a single in 1963 and became the band's first Top 20 hit in the U.K., peaking at #12. But it was actually written for Ringo Starr to sing by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, who were walking down London's Charing Cross Road when Mick Jagger and Keith Richards passed them in a taxi.

"So they shouted from the taxi and we yelled, 'Hey, hey, give us a lift, give us a lift,' and we bummed a lift off them," McCartney recalled in Many Years From Now by Barry Miles.

"So there were the four of us sitting in a taxi and I think Mick said, 'Hey, we're recording. Got any songs?' And we said, 'Aaaah, yes, sure, we got one. How about Ringo's song? You could do it as a single,'" he added.

"We often used to say to people, the words don't really matter, people don't listen to words, it's the sound they listen to," McCartney continued.

"So 'I Wanna Be Your Man' was to try and give Ringo something like 'Boys'; an uptempo song he could sing from the drums. So again, details

The Beatles changed the face of popular music, releasing 13 studio albums and around 213 songs throughout their decade-long career. The prolific hitmakers also inspired entire subgenres of music, especially with their iconic 1966 record, Revolver. And on this day, 60 years ago, Revolver skyrocketed to No. 1 on the US Billboard 200 chart.
‘Revolver’ by the Beatles Hit No. 1 on Sept. 10, 1966

Released as the Beatles’ seventh studio album on Aug. 5, 1966, Revolver marked a musical shift for the four-piece rock outfit. They built on the artistry established on the preceding album, Rubber Soul, producing an innovative, genre-bending affair with influences from rock, pop, R&B, psychedelia, and Hindustani classical music, as heard in “Love You To.”

The Fab Four released a double A-sided single in promotion of the album: “Eleanor Rigby” and “Yellow Submarine.” The latter fared better than the former, chart-wise, peaking at No. 2 on the US Billboard Hot 100, while “Eleanor Rigby” climbed to the No. 11 spot on the same chart.

Revolver entered the Billboard 200 on Sept. 3, 1966, one week before taking the top spot. It reigned at No. 1 for si details