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Tucked away in the depths of side two of the first disc of The Beatles (1968) is “Blackbird”, a quiet, unassuming acoustic number that in truth ranks as one of the album’s best songs. Like many tracks on “The White Album”, “Blackbird” is a showcase for one Beatle instead of the entire group. In fact,…

Once upon a time, around 1958, the beginning of an odyssey in the art of songwriting! The Beatles’ first single, “Love Me Do,” was also one of the first songs Lennon and McCartney wrote together. They were just teenagers in 1958, scribbling songs in a school notebook, dreaming of stardom, always writing “Another Lennon-McCartney Original”…

Fats Domino had a lasting impact on a number of musicians. His music and the sound of New Orleans R&B made its way around the world, and artists took inspiration from his style and songs. One of the most influential groups to incorporate Domino’s style into their music was the Beatles. The song “Lady Madonna”…

On August 14th, 1964, The Beatles launched into “Mr. Moonlight” as a contender for Beatles For Sale album, the first cover song they chose to include. Four takes of the song were made on this evening, only two of which made it through to the end. The first didn’t get past John’s vocal introduction, John…

According to Beatles historian Kenneth Womack, McCartney drew his inspiration for the song from Robert Service’s poem The Shooting of Dan McGrew. The Old West-style honky-tonk piano was played by George Martin. “Rocky Raccoon” is also the last Beatles song to feature John Lennon’s harmonica playing. The lyrics describe a conflict over a love triangle,…

(Lennon/McCartney), 1967. John 1972: “Paul wrote it. I helped with some of the lyric.” John 1980: “Paul’s song. Maybe I did part of it, but it was his concept.” Paul circa-1994: “‘Magical Mystery Tour’ was co-written by John and I, very much in our fairground period. One of our great inspirations was always the barker:…