The Beatles

The band released Elanor Rigby. McCartney:

I was sitting at the piano when I thought of it. The first few bars just came to me, and I got this name in my head … “Daisy Hawkins picks up the rice in the church”. I don’t know why. I couldn’t think of much more so I put it away for a day. Then the name Father McCartney came to me, and all the lonely people. But I thought that people would think it was supposed to be about my Dad sitting knitting his socks. Dad’s a happy lad. So I went through the telephone book and I got the name “McKenzie”.

The band releases Paperback Writer. The background vocal harmonies at the beginning of the third chorus are provided by Lennon and George Harrison who sing the title of the French nursery rhyme Frère Jacques in several slow incantations. These harmonies occur at a little over one minute into the track. Lennon:

I think I might have helped with some of the lyrics. Yes, I did. But it was mainly Paul’s tune.

We Can Work It Out is the last of six number one singles in a row on the American charts, preceded by I Feel Fine, Eight Days a Week, Ticket to Ride, Help!, and Yesterday.  This is the first double A side released single for the group, with the other A side being Day Tripper. Spends five weeks at the top of the UK charts. McCartney writes the words and music to the verses and chorus then takes the song to Lennon.

I took it to John to finish it off, and we wrote the middle together. Which is nice: ‘Life is very short. There’s no time for fussing and fighting, my friend’

The band releases the single, Help! Lennon sings lead vocal and George Harrison plays a 12 string guitar on the track. Along with Yesterday, this is one of two Beatles US #1 hits with just one word in the title.

The band release Ticket To Ride. The song features a coda with a different tempo that extends the song’s length past three minutes.  Lennon says this double-time section (with the lyric “My baby don’t care”) was one of his “favourite bits” in the song. The single spends 3 weeks at the top of the UK charts. Harrison:

We are always worried with each record. With Ticket To Ride we were even more worried. There’s bound to be a time when we come in at 19 (on the charts). But this ‘number one’ business doesn’t seem to stop — great while it lasts — but now we’ll have to start all over again and people will start predicting funny things for the next one.

The band release I Feel Fine, the 8th British single for the band. I Feel Fine is one of the earliest examples of the use of feedback as a recording effect in popular music.  The song is the first Beatles single to be released almost concurrently in the US and the UK.  1.41 million copies are sold in the UK.

The group’s 5th No. 1 hit stays at the top of the charts for 3 weeks. The title is taken from an expression Ringo used to say. In a 1964 interview with DJ Dave Hull, Ringo explained:

We went to do a job, and we’d worked all day and we happened to work all night. I came up still thinking it was day I suppose, and I said, ‘It’s been a hard day…’ and I looked around and saw it was dark so I said, ‘Night!’ So we came to ‘A Hard Day’s Night.

The Beatles’ sixth British single, released with the b-side You Can’t Do That was written by Paul McCartney while the group were in Paris for a 19-date residency at the city’s Olympia Theatre. Can’t Buy Me Love is the first of the group’s singles to feature just one singer.  The record is no 1 in the UK for 3 weeks.

The band releases I Want To Hold Your Hand, the first track made using 4-track equipment. Lennon:

We wrote a lot of stuff together, one on one, eyeball to eyeball. Like in I Want to Hold Your Hand, I remember when we got the chord that made the song. We were in Jane Asher’s house, downstairs in the cellar playing on the piano at the same time. And we had, ‘Oh you-u-u/ got that something…’ And Paul hits this chord and I turn to him and say, ‘That’s it!’ I said, ‘Do that again!’ In those days, we really used to absolutely write like that — both playing into each other’s noses.

The band releases She Loves You. McCartney and Lennon were inspired to write this after a concert at the Majestic Ballroom in Newcastle when they were part of a tour with Roy Orbison and Gerry & the Pacemakers. The song is the Beatles best selling single of all time. McCartney:

We were in a van up in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. I’d planned the song where a couple of us would sing ‘She loves you’ and the other ones would answer ‘Yeah Yeah.’ We decided that was a crummy idea but at least we then had the idea of a song called She Loves You. So we sat in the hotel bedroom for a few hours and wrote it; John and I, sitting on twin beds with guitars.

The band earns its first No. 1 single in the United Kingdom with From Me to You.  The Lennon/McCartney composition stays at the top of the charts for seven weeks but fails to make an impact in the United States.