Curated playlist
Number-one singles in New Zealand
- Something (Beatles song)George Harrison began writing Something in September 1968 during a session for the Beatles' self-titled double album. He worked on the melody at a piano while Paul McCartney recorded overdubs in a neighboring studio at London's Abbey Road…
- Roar (song)"Roar" arrived on the 10th of August 2013, two days before Katy Perry's label had planned, after a digital leak forced Capitol Records to release it early. That accidental early debut did nothing to slow the song down. Within its first…
- Let It Be (song)"Let It Be" entered the Billboard Hot 100 at number 6 in the spring of 1970. At the time, no song had ever debuted that high on the chart. Within weeks, it climbed to number one and held that spot for two weeks in April. Yet the timing…
- Bohemian Rhapsody"Bohemian Rhapsody" arrived in 1975 as something British radio executives were fairly certain would never be played. Six minutes long, with no chorus, three distinct musical personalities crammed into a single track, and lyrics that swung…
- Eleanor RigbyEleanor Rigby is a 1966 song by the Beatles, and it arrived on the charts with none of the guitars, drums, or amplified roar the band had built its name on. In its place: eight strings, a minor key, and two characters nobody in a pop song…
- Paperback Writer"Paperback Writer" arrived in May 1966 as the A-side of the Beatles' eleventh single, and it came loaded with an unusual distinction: it was the first Beatles single since "Love Me Do" in 1962 to generate something less than universal…
- Get Back"Get Back" began not as a song but as an offhand riff played on a Höfner bass at Twickenham Studios on the 7th of January 1969. Paul McCartney was noodling, the cameras were rolling, and what came out of that unstructured jam would become…
- Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da"Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" is a song the Beatles nearly tore themselves apart making. Paul McCartney wrote it in Rishikesh, India, in early 1968, while he and his bandmates were studying Transcendental Meditation. Prudence Farrow, a fellow…
- Revolution (Beatles song)"Revolution" arrived in the summer of 1968 as one of the most argued-over pop songs ever released. John Lennon wrote it while the Beatles were studying Transcendental Meditation in Rishikesh, India, inspired by a wave of student uprisings,…
- Hey Jude"Hey Jude" began as a car journey and a father's absence. In June 1968, Paul McCartney drove out to Weybridge to visit a five-year-old boy named Julian Lennon, whose parents had just separated. By the time McCartney arrived at Kenwood, the…
- From Me to YouJohn Lennon and Paul McCartney began writing From Me to You while on a coach heading to Shrewsbury as part of the Beatles' tour with Helen Shapiro. The title was inspired by the name of the letters section of the New Musical Express, which…
- Love Me Do"Love Me Do" by the Beatles arrived in British record shops on the 5th of October 1962, a date that marks one of the more consequential releases in the history of popular music. Built on just three chords and a wailing harmonica, it…
- Mull of Kintyre (song)"Mull of Kintyre" was recorded outdoors on the 9th of August 1977, with Paul McCartney's vocals and acoustic guitar captured in the open air at High Park Farm in Scotland. The tapes nearly didn't survive. Insects threatened the recording,…
- Penny LanePenny Lane is a road in a south Liverpool suburb, and it is also one of the most celebrated songs the Beatles ever made. Released in February 1967 as a double A-side single alongside "Strawberry Fields Forever", it arrived at a moment when…