Curated category
Parlophone singles
- Please Please Me (song)"Please Please Me" began life as a slow, bluesy number that John Lennon wrote alone in a bedroom on Menlove Avenue in Liverpool, in June 1962.
- I Am the Walrus"I Am the Walrus" arrived in 1967 with a specific and mischievous mission: to break the minds of people who were trying too hard to understand the Beatles.
- She Loves YouJohn Lennon and Paul McCartney began composing She Loves You on the 26th of June 1963 after a concert at the Majestic Ballroom in Newcastle upon Tyne.
- Help! (song)"Help!" is a song that John Lennon would later call one of the most honest things he ever wrote. It arrived in the summer of 1965 dressed as a pop single…
- Ticket to Ride (song)"Ticket to Ride" arrived in April 1965 and sounded like nothing the Beatles had released before. Recorded at EMI Studios in London on the 15th of February…
- 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…
- P.S. I Love You (Beatles song)"P.S. I Love You" arrived on the 5th of October 1962 tucked onto the B-side of a debut single, and almost no one thought it would last.
- All You Need Is Love"All You Need Is Love" reached over 400 million people in 25 countries on the 25th of June 1967, making it one of the most witnessed moments in television…
- 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.
- 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…
- Strawberry Fields Forever"Strawberry Fields Forever" arrived on the 13th of February 1967, and almost nobody knew what to make of it. Derek Johnson of the NME confessed in print that…
- I Want to Hold Your Hand"I Want to Hold Your Hand" was recorded by the Beatles on the 17th of October 1963, and within weeks it had upended the American music industry in ways no…
- Back in the U.S.S.R.Paul McCartney began writing the song as "I'm Backing the UK" in January 1968. This title came from a national campaign that had gained wide support just…
- 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.
- Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (song)"Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" begins with the sound of an audience chattering and an orchestra tuning up, and within seconds the listener is…
- Act Naturally"Act Naturally" began as a throwaway line and became one of the most traveled songs in country music history. Johnny Russell was in Fresno, California, in…
- Baby, You're a Rich Man"Baby, You're a Rich Man" was born at midnight in May 1967, when the Beatles spent six hours at an independent studio in Barnes, south-west London, stitching…
- 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…
- Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) opens with one of rock music's most carefully evasive lines: "I once had a girl, or should I say, she once had me." John…
- 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.
- Rain (Beatles song)"Rain" by the Beatles arrived on the 30th of May 1966 as the B-side to "Paperback Writer", and it carried something listeners had never quite encountered…
- Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" began not with a guitar or a studio, but with a drawing made by a three-year-old boy. Julian Lennon came home from nursery…
- The Inner Light (song)"The Inner Light" arrived in record shops on the 15th of March 1968, tucked away as the B-side to "Lady Madonna", and most listeners probably flipped the…