The American release of the "Eleanor Rigby"/" Yellow Submarine" single on Capitol Records. The single was released simultaneously with the album Revolver. - Eleanor Rigby is also the name of a novel by Douglas Coupland.
"Eleanor Rigby" is a song by the Beatles, originally released on the album Revolver by Apple Records. The songwriting credit is Lennon-McCartney, though it was originally written by just Paul McCartney and all the Beatles contributed bits of lyrics. It remains one of the Beatles' most recognizable songs, with an eight-man string section working from a score by George Martin and its striking lyrics about the loneliness of old age.
The story behind the song
Like many of McCartney's songs, the melody and first line of the song came to him as he was playing around on his piano. The name that came to him, though, was not Eleanor Rigby but Miss Daisy Hawkins. In 1966, McCartney recalled how he got the idea for his song:
- "I was sitting at the piano when I thought of it. The first few bars just came to me, and I got this name in my head... Daisy Hawkins picks up the rice in the church. I don't know why. I couldn't think of much more so I put it away for a day. Then the name Father McCartney came to me, and all the lonely people. But I thought that people would think it was supposed to be about my Dad sitting knitting his socks. Dad's a happy lad. So I went through the telephone book and I got the name McKenzie. I was in Bristol when I decided Daisy Hawkins wasn't a good name. I walked 'round looking at the shops, and I saw the name Rigby. Then I took the song down to John's house in Weybridge. We sat around, laughing, got stoned and finished it off."
He originally imagined Daisy as a young girl, but anyone who cleaned up in churches would probably be older. If she were older, she might have missed not only the wedding she cleans up after but also her own. Gradually, McCartney developed the theme of the loneliness of old age, morphing his song from the story of a young girl to a elderly woman whose loneliness is worsened by having to clean up after happy couples.
McCartney took a while to settle down on the name "Eleanor Rigby". His neighbor and fellow musician Donovan recalled that McCartney had played him a version of the song with the lyrics:
- "Ola Na Tungee/ Blowing his mind in the dark/ With a pipe full of clay."
"The words hadn't yet come out right for him," Donovan said.
McCartney said he came up the name Eleanor from actress Eleanor Bron, whom he had starred with in the film Help!. Rigby came from the name of a store in Bristol, Rigby & Evens Ltd, Wine & Spirit Shippers at 22 King Street, while seeing his then-girlfriend Jane Asher act in The Happiest Days Of Your Life. He recalled in 1984:
The "Eleanor Rigby"/" Yellow Submarine" single from the United Kingdom, released on Parlophone Records. "Eleanor Rigby" stayed at #1 for four weeks on the British pop charts. - "I got the name Rigby from a shop in Bristol. I was wandering round Bristol one day and saw a shop called Rigby. And I think Eleanor was from Eleanor Bron, the actress we worked with in the film 'Help!' But I just liked the name. I was looking for a name that sounded natural. Eleanor Rigby sounded natural."
Coincidentally, in the 1980s, a grave of an Eleanor Rigby was discovered in the graveyard of St. Peter's Parish Church in Woolton, Liverpool, a few feet from where McCartney and Lennon had met for the first time in 1957 [1] (http://www.sjsfiles.btinternet.co.uk/rogerrigbyc.htm).
The Beatles finished off the song in the music room of John Lennon's home at Kenwood. Lennon, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, and their friend Pete Shotton all listened to McCartney play his song through and contributed ideas. Someone suggested introducing a romance into the story, but this was rejected because it made the story too complicated. Starr suggested making "Father McCartney" darn up his socks, which McCartney liked, and Harrison came up with the line "Ah, look at all the lonely people". It was Shotton who suggested the change from Father McCartney.
McCartney couldn't decide how to end the song, and Shotton finally suggested that the two lonely people come together as Father McKenzie conducts Eleanor Rigby's funeral. At the time, Lennon rejected the idea out of hand, but McCartney said nothing and used the idea to finish off the song, later acknowledging Shotton's help.
Recording
"Eleanor Rigby" does not have a standard pop backing. In fact, it doesn't feature any of the Beatles playing any instruments at all. Instead, McCartney used a string octet of studio musicians, composed of four violins, two cellos, and two violas all working off a score written by producer George Martin. For the most part, the instruments "double up"—that is, they serve as two string quartets with two instruments playing each part in the quartet. Microphones were placed close to the instruments to produce a more vivid and raw sound. McCartney's choice of a string backing may have been influenced by his interest in the composer Vivaldi. Lennon recalled in 1980 that "Eleanor Rigby" was:
- "Paul's baby, and I helped with the education of the child... The violin backing was Paul's idea. Jane Asher had turned him on to Vivaldi, and it was very good."
Martin said that his score was influenced by composer Bernard Hermann's score for the film Fahrenheit 451.
It was recorded April 28, 1966 in Studio 2 at Abbey Road studios and completed in Studio 3 on the 29th and on 6 June. Take 15 was selected as the master.
Releases
"Eleanor Ribgy" was released simultaneously on August 5, 1966 on both the album Revolver and on a double A-side single with the song "Yellow Submarine" on Parlophone in the United Kingdom and Capitol in the United States. It spent four weeks at number one on the British charts, but in America in only reached the eleventh spot.
The song was nominated for three Grammies and won the 1966 Grammy for Best Contemporary Pop Vocal Performance, Male.
"Eleanor Rigby" was never performed live by the Beatles.
What's the song even about, anyway?
For all the hype generated by the song, "Eleanor Rigby" is quite simple. Like other McCartney songs (like "Penny Lane"), it involves two characters whose lives are somehow intertwined. Eleanor Rigby is a lonely old woman whose life is made worse by her own job—having to clean churches after weddings so she is constantly reminded of her own loneliness. Father McKenzie is the lonely priest of a small parish; no one comes and hears his sermons, and the most he has to do is darning his socks in the night. Finally, Eleanor Rigby dies, and Father McKenzie presides over a funeral that no one attends.
The "Eleanor Rigby"/" Yellow Submarine" single from Japan. The photo shows the Beatles onstage at Tokyo in 1966. References
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