The moment Paul McCartney released his first “important” song in 1966
Some people might think that it’s a bit overzealous to proclaim that The Beatles changed the face of pop music forever, but when you think about it, had they never existed, the entire landscape of the art form would look completely different.
Of course, their celebrity status was a significant thing that was unlike anything else that had been seen in the past. The levels of popularity that they achieved around the world set a precedent that has arguably allowed other acts in recent times to transcend simply being musicians, turning them into public figures that everyone is aware of, whether or not they’re paying attention to the music they’re making.
However, it wasn’t just down to the band being notorious in all circles that helped them change the landscape of music. Their approach to songwriting was entirely different as well, seemingly rejecting the norm, taking previously established styles such as rock and roll or skiffle, and developing newer iterations of them that felt modern. This would eventually lead to them expanding their sound and helping to develop early forms of psychedelic rock, as well as venturing into more experimental and progressive territory on their later albums.
Their first few albums produced a ridiculous amount of hits, which saw them reach number one in the UK charts a total of nine times from 1963 to 1965. This underlines just how much of a commercial powerhouse the Liverpudlian band were, but these early successes were only a small indication of what they were capable of producing.
You could argue that among these hits were some of the most important songs ever written, with the runaway success of tracks like ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’ and ‘She Loves You’ remaining as cultural landmarks to this day.
However, Paul McCartney, who was credited as a co-songwriter on all of these nine chart-toppers alongside John Lennon, actually believed that nothing he did was of any significance in those nascent years, and that there was far more that he did to prove himself as a songwriter further down the line.
During a 2009 interview with LA Weekly, McCartney was asked about what he saw as being the first major turning point for his songwriting, where his work became more than just entertainment and managed to be more moving and meaningful than pop music.
“It’s difficult to discuss this without sounding immodest, but I think I started to feel it around the time of ‘Eleanor Rigby’,” he argued. “Prior to that, I thought the music was very good, and I realised we were in a different league when we wrote ‘From Me To You’, because it had a middle eight in it and went somewhere we hadn’t been before, but you used the word ‘important’. For me, ‘Eleanor Rigby’ was the start of that.”
It’s definitely a turning point in their catalogue, and as the double A-side of ‘Yellow Submarine’, it represents an even greater change of pace for the band, moving away from jolly and carefree songs into something more emotionally resonant and cerebral in its composition.
‘Eleanor Rigby’ is not just one of the most unique songs in The Beatles’ catalogue, but arguably one of the most stylistically jarring and forward-thinking hits of all time, making listeners truly question the value of all other pop music and helping them realise that there was more to be appreciated than just a catchy hook.
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