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Curated category

UK singles chart number-one singles

  • 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.
  • Roar (song)Katy Perry released the song Roar on the 10th of August 2013. Capitol Records issued the track as the lead single from her fourth studio album Prism.
  • Help! (song)John Lennon wrote the lyrics to express his stress after the Beatles' quick rise to success. He told Playboy magazine in 1980 that he was subconsciously…
  • Let It Be (song)Paul McCartney dreamed of his mother Mary Patricia McCartney in 1956 after she had died of cancer. He was fourteen years old at the time.
  • Ticket to Ride (song)John Lennon claimed the song was three-quarters his own, yet Paul McCartney insisted they wrote it together during a full three-hour session.
  • Bohemian RhapsodyFreddie Mercury began developing the song in the late 1960s while playing parts of it on a piano. One early piece known as The Cowboy Song contained lyrics…
  • She's Leaving HomePaul McCartney read a newspaper article in 1963 about a seventeen-year-old named Melanie Coe. She ran away from her home on Stamford Hill and vanished into…
  • All You Need Is LoveOn the 25th of June 1967, the world watched as the Beatles performed from a London studio. The event was Our World, the first live global television link…
  • Eleanor RigbyPaul McCartney sat at a piano in 1966 and began experimenting with melodies that would eventually become Eleanor Rigby. He initially named the character Ola…
  • Paperback WriterPaul McCartney sat in his car driving from London to Surrey on a day in 1965. He thought about the words of his Aunt Lil who had asked him years ago why he…
  • The Long and Winding RoadPaul McCartney sat at a piano inside High Park Farm, his property near Campbeltown in Scotland. The year was 1968 when he began writing the melody that would…
  • Get BackOn the 7th of January 1969, Paul McCartney began shaping a melody during unstructured jamming sessions at Twickenham Studios.
  • Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-DaPaul McCartney wrote Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da during the Beatles' stay in Rishikesh, India, in early 1968. Prudence Farrow recalled McCartney, John Lennon and…
  • I Want to Hold Your HandJohn Lennon and Paul McCartney sat in the basement music room of 57 Wimpole Street during late 1963. Margaret Asher taught oboe there, but the small space…
  • Space OddityDavid Bowie released his self-titled debut album through Deram Records in 1967. The record failed to sell and did little to gain him notice.
  • Hey JudeIn May 1968, John Lennon and his wife Cynthia Lennon separated due to his affair with artist Yoko Ono. The following month, Paul McCartney drove out to visit…
  • 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.
  • I Will SurviveDino Fekaris stood in his room during the mid-1970s after losing his job at Motown Records. He had spent seven years as a staff writer there before being let…
  • Mull of Kintyre (song)Paul McCartney and Denny Laine wrote the song in 1974. Early versions appeared on a home demo recording bootleggers call The Piano Tape.
  • Now and Then (Beatles song)John Lennon recorded a five-minute piano demo of Now and Then around 1977 at his home in the Dakota building in New York City.