13 THE BEATLES SONGS YOU MUST HAVE ON YOUR PLAYLIST

The stories behind the music

You may know every chorus, but a song can still surprise you. A kindness offered to a child, an afternoon away from work, a little studio ingenuity: these stories bring us closer to the people behind 13 Beatles favorites. Press play and listen with fresh ears.

1 Hey Jude

1968 · Originally released as a single

Paul McCartney began this as ‘Hey Jules,’ a song of reassurance for Julian Lennon while his parents were separating. One line Paul planned to replace—‘the movement you need is on your shoulder’—survived because John Lennon told him it was the best line in the song. John later heard another meaning in it: he felt Paul might also be giving him permission to move forward with Yoko Ono. That mix of private comfort and open-ended encouragement helps explain why the four-minute ‘na-na-na’ coda still turns a crowd into a choir.

2 Let It Be

1970 · Let It Be

The ‘Mother Mary’ in the song began with Paul’s own mother, Mary, who died when he was 14. During a troubled period near The Beatles’ breakup, he dreamed that she reassured him: ‘Let it be.’ In the 2023 podcast McCartney: A Life in Lyrics, Paul added a revealing detail: ‘I called her “Mother Mary” rather than “my mom Mary.”’ He knew the phrase could also suggest the Virgin Mary, giving a private memory universal, spiritual resonance.

3 Here Comes the Sun

1969 · Abbey Road

George Harrison wrote this burst of relief after skipping one of The Beatles’ wearying business meetings and visiting Eric Clapton’s home. Walking through the garden with one of Clapton’s acoustic guitars as the sun finally appeared, he began the song almost at once. The finished recording quietly looks forward as well as back: George added an early Moog synthesizer, then a rare and futuristic sound. Movie fans may remember Bob Khaleel’s cover in The Parent Trap (1998), accompanying a mother-daughter walk across Abbey Road—a playful nod to the album that introduced the original.

4 Come Together

1969 · Abbey Road

John Lennon first sketched the song for Timothy Leary’s short-lived campaign for governor of California, built around the slogan ‘Come together, join the party.’ It was too strange for campaign use, but perfect raw material for The Beatles. Paul suggested slowing it into the ‘swampy’ groove we know, and his bass became part of the song’s swagger. There was a legal afterlife, too: the opening borrowed from Chuck Berry’s “You Can’t Catch Me,” leading to a settlement with publisher Morris Levy. A failed campaign jingle became one of rock’s most recognizable openings.

5 Something

1969 · Abbey Road

Pattie Boyd remembered George Harrison telling her he had written “Something” for her, but George later resisted tying it to one person and said he had imagined Ray Charles singing it. Both recollections belong to the song’s history; treating either as the single settled answer oversimplifies it. Charles eventually recorded it, and Frank Sinatra called it one of the finest love songs of its era. Harrison’s melody, restrained vocal, and beautifully answered guitar phrases made the point: George was now writing on equal terms with the band’s celebrated partnership.

6 Yesterday

1965 · Help! — UK album

Paul woke with the melody almost complete and worried he had unconsciously stolen it, so he played it for friends and musicians until he was convinced it was new. While searching for real lyrics, he used the famously unromantic placeholder ‘scrambled eggs.’ In 2024, Paul offered a more poignant possibility: the line about having ‘said something wrong’ may have carried an unconscious memory of correcting—and embarrassing—his mother before her early death. He presented that as a reflection, not a proven origin.

7 In My Life

1965 · Rubber Soul

The lyric is John Lennon’s reflection on people and places remembered, but the melody has one of the Beatles’ best-known authorship disputes. John said Paul helped with only part of it; Paul remembered setting John’s words to music from beginning to end. There is no surviving evidence that settles their conflicting memories, so the fairest label is disputed. The instrumental break is less mysterious: George Martin recorded his piano solo with the tape running at half speed. Played back normally, it became faster, higher, and almost harpsichord-like—a bit of studio ingenuity hidden inside an intimate song.

8 Eleanor Rigby

1966 · Revolver

Paul has linked the song’s emotional truth to an older woman he visited as a boy, listening to her stories and helping with her shopping. The character’s name, however, was assembled during the writing: ‘Eleanor’ was prompted by actress Eleanor Bron, while ‘Rigby’ came from a Bristol shop sign. Myth check: there really is an Eleanor Rigby gravestone in the Woolton churchyard Paul knew, but he has said he does not remember seeing it and believes the match was coincidence—or a name absorbed unconsciously. George Martin’s stark double string quartet gives this study of unnoticed lives its unforgettable edge.

9 A Day in the Life

1967 · Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

John Lennon’s dreamlike newspaper-inspired verses and Paul McCartney’s brisk morning memory were joined by a 24-bar gap. To fill it, 40 orchestral musicians were told to begin near the bottom of their ranges and climb toward the highest note, without moving in lockstep. The alarm clock marking the gap was meant only as a studio cue, but it fit Paul’s ‘woke up’ entrance so perfectly that it stayed. The ending required another feat: several people struck an E-major chord on multiple pianos at once, while the engineers kept raising the level as it faded into near-silence.

10 Strawberry Fields Forever

1967 · Single and US Magical Mystery Tour album

Strawberry Field was a real Salvation Army children’s home near John Lennon’s childhood house, but the record makes memory itself sound unstable. Its opening ‘flutes’ come from a Mellotron, a keyboard that played strips of prerecorded tape. Even more remarkably, producer George Martin and engineer Geoff Emerick joined two performances recorded in different keys and tempos, using tape speed to make them meet. Myth check: the murmur near the fade is not ‘I buried Paul.’ Lennon said he was saying ‘cranberry sauce’—clearer on the Anthology 2 outtake. The famous ‘clue’ belongs to the Paul-is-dead legend, not the session.

11 While My Guitar Gently Weeps

1968 · The Beatles — The White Album

George Harrison began the song as an experiment in meaningful chance. Influenced by the I Ching, he opened a book and resolved to write from the first words he saw: ‘gently weeps.’ When the band initially gave the song less attention than he wanted, George invited Eric Clapton to play lead guitar. Clapton hesitated because outsiders rarely appeared on Beatles records, but his presence sharpened everyone’s focus—and his uncredited solo became inseparable from the song. Its afterlife is just as extraordinary: Prince’s explosive solo at the 2004 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame tribute is essential viewing, while Regina Spektor’s version for Kubo and the Two Strings (2016) finds a haunting new color in Japanese instrumentation.

12 Blackbird

1968 · The Beatles — The White Album

Paul has repeatedly said the song’s message was inspired by the American civil rights struggle, particularly the courage of Black girls and women facing school desegregation. Its musical roots reach much further back: the guitar figure grew from the Bach Bourrée in E minor that Paul and George tried to learn as teenagers. A small studio myth is easier to settle: the steady click is not a metronome but Paul tapping his foot, captured during the solo performance. The sparse recording—voice, guitar, foot tap, and an added bird call—makes the song feel private, while its promise of flight reaches far beyond the room.

13 With a Little Help from My Friends

1967 · Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

John and Paul wrote this specifically for Ringo, carefully shaping it around his voice—then asking him to land on a challenging final high note. Ringo also vetoed an early joke lyric asking whether listeners would ‘throw ripe tomatoes’ if he sang out of tune; after years of fans pelting The Beatles with jelly sweets, he was not taking chances. Joe Cocker later rebuilt the friendly sing-along as a slow, gospel-rock eruption, performing it at Woodstock in 1969. His version became the theme to the original The Wonder Years, linking the song to another generation’s memories of growing up.

"With a Little Help from My Friends” Song Around The World

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