"
Eleanor Rigby" is a song by
The BeatlesThe Beatles were an English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960 who became one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed bands in the history of popular music...
, originally released on the 1966
albumAn album or record album is a collection of related audio or music tracks distributed to the public. The most common way is through commercial distribution, although smaller artists will often distribute directly to the public by selling their albums at live concerts or on their websites.-...
RevolverRevolver is the seventh album by English rock group The Beatles, released on 5 August 1966. Many of the tracks on Revolver are marked by an electric guitar-rock sound, in contrast with their previous, folk rock inspired Rubber Soul. It reached #1 on both the UK chart and U.S...
. The song was primarily written by
Paul McCartneySir James Paul McCartney, MBE , is an English singer-songwriter, poet, composer, multi-instrumentalist, entrepreneur, record and film producer, painter, and animal rights and peace activist. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings, McCartney is the most successful songwriter in the history of popular music...
. With a double string quartet arrangement by
George MartinSir George Henry Martin CBE is a British record producer, arranger and composer. He is sometimes referred to as "the Fifth Beatle"—a title that he owes to his work as producer of all but one of The Beatles' original records, as well as playing piano on some of The Beatles tracks—and is...
, and striking lyrics about loneliness, the song continued the transformation of the group, started in
Rubber SoulRubber Soul is the sixth UK studio album and the eleventh US release by the British rock band The Beatles. Produced by George Martin and released in December 1965, Rubber Soul had been recorded in just over four weeks to make the Christmas market...
, from a mainly
popPop music is a music genre that developed from the mid-1950s as a softer alternative to rock 'n' roll and later to rock music. It has a focus on commercial recording, often orientated towards a youth market, usually through the medium of relatively short and simple love songs...
-oriented act to a more serious and experimental studio band.
Inspiration
As is true of 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:
Others believe that Father McKenzie refers to 'Father' Tommy McKenzie, who was the
compereA master of ceremonies, microphone controller or MC , sometimes called a compère or an MJ for "microphone jockey," is the host of an official public or private staged event or other performance. The MC usually presents performers, speaks to the audience, and generally keeps the event moving...
at
NorthwichNorthwich is a town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. It lies in the heart of the Cheshire Plain, at the confluence of the rivers Weaver and Dane...
Memorial HallMemorial Hall may refer to:in the United States* Memorial Hall , listed on the NRHP in Connecticut* Memorial Hall , listed on the NRHP in Delaware...
McCartney originally imagined Daisy as a pre-pubescent 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.
McCartney said he came up with the name Eleanor from actress
Eleanor BronEleanor Bron is a British stage, film and television actress and author.-Early life & family:Bron was born in Stanmore, London of Eastern European Jewish descent; her father shortened the surname to "Bron" from "Bronstein" when founding Bron's Orchestral Service...
, who had starred with the Beatles in the film
Help!Help! is a 1965 film starring John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr and featuring Leo McKern, Eleanor Bron, Victor Spinetti, John Bluthal, Roy Kinnear and Patrick Cargill. The soundtrack was released as an album, also called Help!.-Synopsis:An eastern cult is about to...
. Rigby came from the name of a store in Bristol, Rigby & Evens Ltd, Wine & Spirit Shippers, that he noticed while seeing his then-girlfriend
Jane AsherJane Asher is an English actress, who is well known in the United Kingdom for her numerous appearances in film and television dramas. She has also developed a second career as a cake decorator and cake shop proprietor. -Early life:...
act in
The Happiest Days Of Your Life. He recalled in 1984, "I just liked the name. I was looking for a name that sounded natural. Eleanor Rigby sounded natural."
The Beatles finished the song in the music room of John Lennon's home at
KenwoodKenwood is a house on the St. George's Hill estate, Weybridge, Surrey, England. It was built in 1913, by local developer Walter George Tarrant, and was originally called The Brown House. The estate was built around the Weybridge Golf Club, which was designed in 1912 by Harry Colt...
.
John LennonJohn Winston Ono Lennon, MBE was an English rock musician, singer-songwriter, author, and peace activist who gained worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles...
,
George HarrisonGeorge Harrison MBE was an English rock guitarist, singer-songwriter and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist in The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison embraced Indian mysticism, and helped broaden the horizons of the other Beatles, as well as...
,
Ringo StarrRichard Starkey, MBE , better known by his stage name Ringo Starr, is an English musician, singer-songwriter, and actor who gained worldwide fame as the drummer for the rock group The Beatles. When The Beatles formed in 1960, Starr belonged to another Liverpool band, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes....
, and their friend Pete Shotton all listened to McCartney play his song through and contributed ideas. Starr contributed the line "writing the words of a sermon that no one will hear " and suggested making "Father McCartney" darn his socks, which McCartney liked. Shotton then suggested that McCartney change the name of the priest, in case listeners mistook the fictional character in the song for McCartney's own father.
The song is often described as a lament for lonely people or a commentary on post-war life in Britain.
McCartney couldn't decide how to end the song, and Shotton finally suggested that the two lonely people come together too late 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; none of the Beatles played instruments on it, though John Lennon and George Harrison did contribute harmony vocals. Instead, McCartney used a string octet of studio musicians, composed of four violins, two cellos, and two violas, all performing a score composed 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. George Martin asked musicians to play without
vibratoVibrato is a musical effect, produced in singing and on musical instruments by a regular pulsating change of pitch, and is used to add expression and vocal-like qualities to instrumental music...
and recorded two versions, one with and one without, the latter of which was used. McCartney's choice of a string backing may have been influenced by his interest in the composer
Antonio VivaldiAntonio Lucio Vivaldi , nicknamed il Prete Rosso , was a baroque composer and Venetian priest, as well as a famous virtuoso violinist, born and raised in the Republic of Venice...
. 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."
The octet was recorded on 28 April 1966, in Studio 2 at
Abbey Road StudiosAbbey Road Studios, established in November of 1931 by EMI in London, England, is an iconic recording studio located at Abbey Road, in St John's Wood in the City of Westminster...
and completed in Studio 3 on 29 April and on 6 June. Take 15 was selected as the master.
George Martin, in his autobiography
All You Need Is Ears, takes credit for combining two of the vocal parts, having noticed that they would work together
contrapuntallyIn music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more voices that are independent in contour and rhythm and are harmonically interdependent. It has been most commonly identified in Western music, developing strongly during the Renaissance and in much of the common practice period,...
.
The original stereo mix had Paul's voice only in the right channel during the verses, with the string octet mixed to one channel, while the mono single and mono LP featured a more balanced mix. On the
Yellow Submarine SongtrackYellow Submarine Songtrack is a soundtrack album by The Beatles for the 1999 re-release of the 1968 film Yellow Submarine released on 13 September 1999 in the United Kingdom and the following day in the United States. It contains only The Beatles songs used in the film, including tracks absent from...
and
LoveLove is a Grammy Award-winning soundtrack remix album of music recorded by The Beatles, released in November 2006. It features music compiled and remixed for the Cirque du Soleil show of the same name...
versions, McCartney's voice is centered and the string octet appears in stereo in an attempt to create a more "modern" sounding mix.
Releases
"Eleanor Rigby" was released simultaneously on 5 August 1966 on both the album
RevolverRevolver is the seventh album by English rock group The Beatles, released on 5 August 1966. Many of the tracks on Revolver are marked by an electric guitar-rock sound, in contrast with their previous, folk rock inspired Rubber Soul. It reached #1 on both the UK chart and U.S...
and on a double A-side single with "
Yellow Submarine"Yellow Submarine" is a 1966 song by The Beatles , with lead vocals by Ringo Starr. Although it had previously been released on the Revolver album, it became the title song for the 1968 animated United Artists film, also called Yellow Submarine...
" on
ParlophoneParlophone is a record label, founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company. The ₤ trademark is a German L, for Lindström. It also resembles the British pound sign , which itself is derived from the letter L for Libra, meaning pound in Latin...
in the United Kingdom and
CapitolCapitol Records is a major United States-based record label owned by EMI and located in Los Angeles and New York City as part of Capitol Music Group...
in the United States. It spent four weeks at number one on the British charts, but in America it only reached the eleventh spot.
The song was nominated for three Grammys and won the 1966 Grammy for
Best Contemporary (R&R) Vocal Performance, Male or Female for McCartney. Thirty years later, George Martin's isolated string arrangement (without the vocal) was released on the Beatles'
Anthology 2Anthology 2 is a compilation album by The Beatles released in March 1996 by Apple Records as part of the The Beatles Anthology series. The album includes rare, live, and alternative tracks from the sessions for Help! through the sessions for Magical Mystery Tour and early 1968 sessions before the...
. A remixed version of the track was included in the 2006 album
LoveLove is a Grammy Award-winning soundtrack remix album of music recorded by The Beatles, released in November 2006. It features music compiled and remixed for the Cirque du Soleil show of the same name...
.
In 1984, a re-interpretation of the song was included in the film and album
Give My Regards to Broad StreetGive My Regards to Broad Street is the name of a film and soundtrack album, masterminded by Paul McCartney. They were both released in 1984, following the success of McCartney's previous albums Tug of War and Pipes of Peace. The film of Broad Street proved to be a financial disaster, but the...
, written by and starring McCartney. It segues into a symphonic extension, "Eleanor's Dream."
Personnel
- Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE , is an English singer-songwriter, poet, composer, multi-instrumentalist, entrepreneur, record and film producer, painter, and animal rights and peace activist. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings, McCartney is the most successful songwriter in the history of popular music...
– vocalSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. A person who sings is called a singer or vocalist...
- John Lennon
John Winston Ono Lennon, MBE was an English rock musician, singer-songwriter, author, and peace activist who gained worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles...
– harmony vocalA backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists...
- George Harrison
George Harrison MBE was an English rock guitarist, singer-songwriter and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist in The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison embraced Indian mysticism, and helped broaden the horizons of the other Beatles, as well as...
– harmony vocal
- Tony Gilbert – violin
- Sidney Sax
The late Sidney Sax was a leading violinist in London's session musician circles. In addition to being an eminent and influential orchestral leader he was also contractor, 'fixing' the personnel for recording sessions...
– violin
- John Sharpe – violin
- Juergen Hess – violin
- Stephen Shingles – viola
- John Underwood – viola
- Derek Simpson
Derek Simpson was an English cellist, known primarily from his work with the Aeolian Quartet.Simpson was born in Worksop, Nottinghamshire, to musician parents, and started playing the cello at 10 years old. At 19 he moved to London to study at the Royal Academy of Music...
– cello
- Norman Jones – cello
- George Martin
Sir George Henry Martin CBE is a British record producer, arranger and composer. He is sometimes referred to as "the Fifth Beatle"—a title that he owes to his work as producer of all but one of The Beatles' original records, as well as playing piano on some of The Beatles tracks—and is...
– producerIn the music industry, a record producer has many roles, among them controlling the recording sessions, coaching and guiding the musicians, organizing and scheduling production budget and resources, and supervising the recording, mixing and mastering processes...
, string arrangement
- Geoff Emerick
Geoffrey Emerick is a recording studio audio engineer, who is best known for his work with the Beatles' albums Revolver, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and Abbey Road.-Early Career at EMI:...
– engineerAudio engineering is a part of audio science dealing with the recording and reproduction of sound through mechanical and electronic means. The field draws on many disciplines, including electrical engineering, acoustics, psychoacoustics, and music. Unlike acoustical engineering, audio...
- Personnel per Ian MacDonald
Ian MacCormick , who wrote under the pseudonym Ian MacDonald, was a British music critic and author, best known for his detailed history of The Beatles and The New Shostakovich, a controversial study of the Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich.-Biography:He briefly attended King's College,...
Significance
Though "Eleanor Rigby" was not the first pop song to deal with death and loneliness, according to
Ian MacDonaldIan MacCormick , who wrote under the pseudonym Ian MacDonald, was a British music critic and author, best known for his detailed history of The Beatles and The New Shostakovich, a controversial study of the Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich.-Biography:He briefly attended King's College,...
it "came as a quite a shock to pop listeners in 1966."
The Shangri-LasThe Shangri-Las were an American pop girl group of the 1960s.Between 1964 and 1966 they charted with often heartbreaking teen melodramas, and remain known for "Leader of the Pack" and "Remember ".- Early career :...
' 1964 hit "
Leader of the Pack"Leader of the Pack" is a 1964 pop song recorded by girl group The Shangri-Las. It became number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on November 28, 1964.-Original Shangri-Las recording:...
" gave a rendition of star-crossed lovers ending in one of their deaths, but the subject matter was purely in a romantic vein and far from a serious look at loss. In fact, in the
mid-1960s-Events:*January 3 - Hullabaloo shows promotional videos of The Beatles songs "Day Tripper" and "We Can Work it Out".*January 8 - Shindig! airs for the last time on ABC, with musical guests the Kinks and the Who...
, the pop format hardly seemed the right vehicle for such a message; pop music consistently had a more rosy outlook on life. Nevertheless, "Eleanor Rigby" took a bleak message of
depressionIn psychology and psychiatry, depression is a state of low mood and aversion to activity. While most often described as a disease or dysfunction, there are also strong arguments for seeing depression as an adaptive defense mechanism....
and desolation, written by a famous pop band, with a sombre, almost funeral-like backing, to the number one spot of the pop charts.
"Eleanor Rigby" marks a midpoint of sorts in the Beatles' evolution from a pop, live-performance band to a more experimental, studio-oriented band though the track contains no obvious studio trickery. Whereas many of the other tracks on
Revolver lend themselves to a rock group, "Eleanor Rigby" in a sense is a precursor to the psychedelic tracks of
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club BandSgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is the eighth studio album by English rock band The Beatles. Released in the UK on 1 June 1967, it became a defining album in the emerging psychedelic rock style; it has since been recognised by prominent critics and publications as one of the most influential...
. The subject matter also reflects a band in transition. The bleak lyrics were not The Beatles' first deviation from love songs, but were some of the most explicit. Eleanor Rigby's lonely existence shares more in tone with the sense of detachment of "
A Day in the Life“A Day in the Life” is a song by the British rock band The Beatles, the final track on the group's 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Credited to Lennon/McCartney, the song comprises distinct portions originally authored independently by John Lennon and Paul McCartney—two...
" than with "
I Want to Hold Your Hand"I Want to Hold Your Hand" is a song by the English pop and rock band The Beatles. Written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, and recorded in October 1963, it was the first Beatles record to be made using four-track equipment. McCartney and Lennon did not have any particular inspiration for the song...
".
It is the second song to appear in the Beatles' 1968 animated film
Yellow SubmarineYellow Submarine is a 1968 animated feature film based on the music of the Beatles. It is also the title for the soundtrack album to the feature film, released as part of the Beatles' music catalogue. The film was directed by animation producer George Dunning, and produced by United Artists and...
. The first is "Yellow Submarine"; it and "Eleanor Rigby" are the only songs in the film which the animated Beatles are not seen to be singing. "Eleanor Rigby" is introduced just before the
LiverpoolLiverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
sequence of the film, and its poignancy ties in quite well with
Ringo StarrRichard Starkey, MBE , better known by his stage name Ringo Starr, is an English musician, singer-songwriter, and actor who gained worldwide fame as the drummer for the rock group The Beatles. When The Beatles formed in 1960, Starr belonged to another Liverpool band, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes....
(the first member of the group to encounter the submarine) who is represented as quietly bored and depressed.
"Compared with my life, Eleanor Rigby's was a gay, mad world."
In some reference books on classical music, "Eleanor Rigby" is included and considered comparable to
art songAn art song is a vocal music composition, usually written for one voice with piano or orchestral accompaniment. By extension, the term "art song" is used to refer to the genre of such songs....
s (lieder) by the great composers.
Howard Goodall210px|thumb|Howard Goodall at St. John the Baptist Church in Devon, United Kingdom, May 2009Howard Goodall is a British composer of musicals, choral music and music for television...
said that the Beatles' works are "a stunning roll-call of sublime melodies that perhaps only Mozart can match in European musical history" and that they "almost single-handedly rescued the Western musical system" from the "plague years of the
avant-gardeAvant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English, to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
". About "Eleanor Rigby", he said it is "an urban version of a tragic ballad in the
Dorian modeDue to historical confusion, Dorian mode or Doric mode can refer to two very different musical modes or diatonic scales.- Greek Dorian mode :...
.
In a 1967 interview
Pete TownshendPeter Dennis Blandford "Pete" Townshend is an English rock guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and author, known principally as the guitarist and songwriter for The Who, as well as for his own solo career...
of the
Who*Who is an English language interrogative pronoun.-In fiction:*Who? , a 1958 novel by science fiction author Algis Budrys, turned into a film with the same title in 1973*Doctor Who, a British science fiction television series...
commented "I think "Eleanor Rigby" was a very important musical move forward. It certainly inspired me to write and listen to things in that vein" Jerry Leiber said, "The Beatles are second to none in all departments. I don't think there has ever been a better song written than "Eleanor Rigby."
Historical artefacts
In the 1980s, a grave of an Eleanor Rigby was discovered in the graveyard of St. Peter's Parish Church in
WooltonWoolton is a suburb of Liverpool, Merseyside, England and a Liverpool City Council Ward. It is located to the south of the city, bordered by Gateacre, Hunts Cross, Allerton and Halewood. At the 2001 Census the population was recorded as 14,836.-History:...
,
LiverpoolLiverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
, and a few yards away from that, another tombstone with the last name McKenzie scrawled across it. During their teenage years, McCartney and Lennon spent time "sunbathing" there; within earshot distance of where the two had met for the first time during a
feteFête is a French word meaning festival, celebration or party, which has passed into English as a label that may be given to certain events.It is widely used in England and Australia in the context of a village fête,...
in 1957. Many years later McCartney stated that the strange coincidence between reality and lyric could be a product of his subconscious, rather than being a meaningless fluke. The actual Eleanor Rigby was born in 1895 and lived in
LiverpoolLiverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
, possibly in the suburb of
WooltonWoolton is a suburb of Liverpool, Merseyside, England and a Liverpool City Council Ward. It is located to the south of the city, bordered by Gateacre, Hunts Cross, Allerton and Halewood. At the 2001 Census the population was recorded as 14,836.-History:...
, where she married a man named Thomas Woods. She died on 10 October 1939 at age 44, which, because 1940 was a leap year, was exactly one year to the day before Lennon was born. Whether this Eleanor was the inspiration for the song or not, her tombstone has become a landmark to Beatles fans visiting Liverpool. A digitized version was added to the 1995
music videoA music video is a short film or video that accompanies a complete piece of music/song. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings. Although the origins of music videos go back much further, they came into their own in the...
for the Beatles' reunion song "Free as a Bird".
In June 1990, McCartney donated a document dating from 1911 which had been signed by the 16-year-old Eleanor Rigby to Sunbeams Music Trust, instantly attracted significant international interest from collectors because of the significance and provenance of the document. The nearly 100-year-old document was sold at auction in November 2008 for £115,000. The Daily Telegraph reported that the uncovered document "is a 97-year-old salary register from Liverpool City Hospital." The name E. Rigby is printed on the register, and she is identified as a
scullery maidthumb|right|300px|Oil painting of a scullery maid by Jean-Simèon ChardinIn great houses, scullery maids were the lowest-ranked and often the youngest of the female servants and acted as assistant to a kitchen maid. The scullery maid reported to the cook or chef...
. Her great grand-daughter is actress
Emma RigbyEmma Catherine Rigby is an English actress, best known for her role in Hollyoaks as Hannah Ashworth.-Biography:Born in St...
.
Studio versions
The following artists have recorded "Eleanor Rigby" in a variety of styles, at least 61 released on albums by one count:
- Doodles Weaver
Winstead Sheffield "Doodles" Weaver was an American comedian on radio and television. He was the brother of NBC-TV executive Sylvester "Pat" Weaver and the uncle of actress Sigourney Weaver.- Biography :...
recorded a comedic version for the record Feetlebaum Returns! that was also included on the album Doctor Demento's Delites.
- Vanilla Fudge
Vanilla Fudge is an American rock band. The band's original lineup - vocalist/organist Mark Stein, bassist/vocalist Tim Bogert, lead guitarist/vocalist Vince Martell, and drummer/vocalist Carmine Appice - recorded five albums during the years 1967-69, before disbanding in 1970...
covered the song on their debut album Vanilla FudgeVanilla Fudge is the first album by the American psychedelic rock band Vanilla Fudge. It was released in summer 1967 and consists entirely of covers of songs, which were slowed down to about half speed of the original recordings by their original artists. The album is dedicated to Mrs...
in 1967.
- Joan Baez
Joan Chandos Baez is a folk singer and songwriter known for her highly individual vocal style...
's 1967 version, included on her JoanJoan was a 1967 album by Joan Baez. Having exhausted the standard voice/guitar folksong format by 1967, Baez collaborated with composer Peter Schickele , on an album of orchestrated covers of mostly then-current pop and rock and roll songs...
album, was sung to classical orchestration.
- P.P. Arnold sang a cover of the song on her album First Cut.
- Ray Charles
Ray Charles Robinson , known by his stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He brought a soulful sound to country music and pop standards through his Modern Sounds recordings, as well as a rendition of "America the Beautiful" that Ed Bradley of 60 Minutes called the "definitive version of...
released a version as a single and on the album A Portrait of Ray (1968).
- Bobbie Gentry
Roberta Lee Streeter , professionally known as Bobbie Gentry, is a former American singer-songwriter notable as one of the first female country artists to write and produce her own material...
released a version on her 1968 album Local Gentry.
- Tony Bennett
Tony Bennett is an American singer of popular music, standards, show tunes, and jazz....
released a version on his January 1970 album Tony Sings the Great Hits of Today!Tony Sings the Great Hits of Today! is a 1970 album by American classic pop and jazz singer Tony Bennett. Done under pressure from his record company for more marketable material, it featured misguided attempts at Beatles and other current songs and a ludicrous psychedelic art cover...
. Bennett was dismayed by having to record contemporary, rock-influenced material under pressure from his record company. His partly-spoken take on the song was poorly received, with music writer Will FriedwaldWill Friedwald is an American author and music critic. He has written for such newspapers as The New York Times, The Village Voice, Newsday, The New York Observer, and The New York Sun, and for such magazines as Entertainment Weekly, Oxford American, New York, Mojo, BBC Music Magazine, Stereo...
saying it was recited as if it were Thomas GrayThomas Gray , was an English poet, classical scholar and professor at Cambridge University.- Early life and education :...
's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard and TimeTime is an American newsmagazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong. As of 2009, Time no longer publishes a Canadian advertiser edition...
magazine describing it as "Shatneresque", making reference to Star TrekStar Trek is an American science fiction entertainment series.The original Star Trek was an American television series, created by Gene Roddenberry, which debuted in 1966 and ran for three seasons, following the interstellar adventures of Captain James T. Kirk and the crew of the Federation...
actor William ShatnerWilliam Alan Shatner is a Canadian actor and novelist. He gained worldwide fame and became a cultural icon for his portrayal of Captain James T. Kirk, captain of the starship USS Enterprise, in the television series Star Trek from 1966 to 1969, Star Trek: The Animated Series and in seven of the...
's legendarily bad 1968 interpretationThe Transformed Man is actor William Shatner's debut album. It was released in 1968, while Shatner was still starring in the original Star Trek series, and began his musical career. The concept of the album was to juxtapose famous pieces of poetry with their modern counterparts, pop lyrics...
of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" is a song by English rock band The Beatles, written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney for the group's 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band....
".
- Aretha Franklin
Aretha Louise Franklin is an American singer, songwriter and pianist commonly referred to as "The Queen of Soul". Although renowned for her soul recordings, Franklin is also adept at jazz, rock, soul, blues, pop, R&B and Gospel music...
released a version on the album This Girl's In Love With YouThis Girl's In Love With You is a 1970 album by soul musician Aretha Franklin.-Track listing:#"Son of a Preacher Man" #"Share Your Love with Me"...
(1970) and as a single.
- Jazz musicians such as The Jazz Crusaders, Wes Montgomery
John Leslie "Wes" Montgomery was an American jazz guitarist. He is generally considered one of the major jazz guitarists, emerging after such seminal figures as Django Reinhardt and Charlie Christian and influencing countless others, including Pat Martino, George Benson, and Pat Metheny.-...
(on his 1967 album A Day in the Life), Stanley JordanStanley Jordan is an American jazz/jazz fusion guitarist, best known for his development of the touch technique for playing guitar....
(on the album Magic Touch, 1985) and John PizzarelliJohn Pizzarelli, Jr. is an American jazz guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and bandleader. He has had a lengthy career as a recording artist, performing for a variety of labels that include Telarc Records, RCA Records and Chesky Records, among others. He has recorded twenty-three albums of his own,...
recorded it as an instrumental, with lead-guitar taking over the vocal line.
- Australian band Zoot
Zoot was a four piece pop/rock band formed in Adelaide, South Australia in 1965.They played many clubs and discos around Adelaide, gradually gathering a strong following, and they backed rising singer John Farnham on demo recordings which secured him a contract with EMI Records.They renamed...
released a psychedelic rockPsychedelic rock is a style of rock music that is inspired or influenced by psychedelic culture and attempts to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among garage and folk rock bands in Britain and the United States...
version in 1970 that reached #4 on the Australian charts and went gold after its 1980 re-release.
- Jamaican musician, singer, songwriter and producer Harris "B.B." Seaton with the band The Gaylads
The Gaylads were one of the top rocksteady vocal groups active in Jamaica between 1963 and 1973. The group, formed in Kingston, originally consisted of singers Harris "B.B." Seaton, Winston Delano Stewart and Maurice Roberts; Seaton and Stewart had previously been successful as the duo Winston &...
recorded a reggaeReggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s.While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady. Reggae is based...
version of this song in 1972.
- Brazilian composer/singer Caetano Veloso
Caetano Emanuel Vianna Telles Velloso , better known as Caetano Veloso, is a composer, singer, guitarist, writer, and political activist. He has been called "one of the greatest songwriters of the century" and is sometimes considered to be the Bob Dylan of Brazil...
recorded it on the album Qualquer coisa (1975).
- In 1975, Belgo-English progressive rock
Progressive rock is a form of rock music that evolved in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility."...
band Esperanto covered the song on their album Last Tango.
- Wing And A Prayer Fife And Drum Corps
Wing and a Prayer Fife and Drum Corps was an American disco group. The "fife and drum corps" was actually an assemblage of studio musicians put together by Harold Wheeler; the group's vocalists were Linda November, Vivian Cherry, Arlene Martell, and Helen Miles....
recorded this song in their 1976 album Babyface.
- Ethel the Frog
Ethel the Frog was a heavy metal band formed in 1976 in Hull, England. They are notable for being a part of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal movement. The band's unusual name was taken from a Monty Python sketch about the "Piranha Brothers".-Career:...
covered this song on a single recorded for EMI in 1979.
- The Jerry Garcia Band
The Jerry Garcia Band was a San Francisco Bay Area rock band led by Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead. Garcia founded the band in 1975; it remained the most important of his various side-projects until his death in 1995...
played an instrumental version as part of a medley with "After Midnight"After Midnight" is a rock song written by J. J. Cale. The laidback boogie feel of "After Midnight" is a prime example of Cale's signature style. Cale had written the song and released a demo version in 1966. Several years later, when Eric Clapton was preparing for his first solo album, Tulsa...
".
- Realm
Realm is an American thrash/progressive metal band from Milwaukee, Wisconsin that formed in 1985.-History:Realm formed in 1985 in Milwaukee. They released two underground demo tapes at first; Perceptive Incentive in 1985 and the landmark Final Solution in 1986...
covered this song on their 1988 album Endless WarEndless War is the first full-length album recorded by the Thrash metal/Progressive metal band Realm. It was released in 1988 and re-released in CD and digipack form by Metal Mind Productions on January 16,2007 in US, and in late 2006 in Europe...
.
- Junior Reid
Delroy "Junior" Reid is a Jamaican reggae and dancehall musician, best known for the songs "One Blood" and "Funny Man", as well as being the man that replaced Michael Rose as lead vocalist for Black Uhuru....
released a dancehall version of the song on his 1990 album One Blood.
- The Violet Burning
The Violet Burning is an independent rock and roll band based in Nowhere, California, USA. The band was formed in 1990 in Orange County, California by Michael J. Pritzl....
released this song on their 1992 album, StrengthStrength may refer to:Physical ability:*Physical strength, as in people or animals*Superhuman strength, as in fictional characters*A common character attribute in role-playing games.Conflict between persons or groups:...
.
- Wayne Johnson
Wayne Johnson is an American jazz and acoustic guitarist based in Southern California. Johnson won a joint Grammy Award in 2004 for his contribution to the album Pink Guitar, which featured the songs of composer Henry Mancini....
recorded an acoustic version of this song for his 1995 acoustic album Kindred Spirits.
- Kansas
Kansas is an American rock band which became popular in the 1970s, with hit singles such as "Carry On Wayward Son" and "Dust in the Wind". They have remained a classic rock radio staple and a popular touring act in North America and Europe....
recorded this song on their 1998 album Always Never the SameAlways Never the Same is the 13th studio album, and 18th overall, by American rock band Kansas, released in 1998 .This album is a unique studio recording, as it consists of mostly covers of the band's previous work, re-recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra...
.
- Godhead
Godhead, occasionally typeset as gODHEAD, is an American alternative rock/metal band from Washington, D.C.. They are most often credited with being the only band signed to musician Marilyn Manson's short-lived vanity label, Posthuman Records.-History:...
recorded this song on their 2001 album 2000 Years of Human Error2000 Years of Human Error is the third studio album by American rock Godhead. It was released on January 23, 2001 by Posthuman Records. The album contains select songs that have been re-recorded by the band, which previously appeared on 1998's Power Tool Stigmata...
.
- Pain
Pain is an industrial metal musical project from Sweden. The project started out as a hobby project for front man Peter Tägtgren, whose idea was to fuse metal with techno influences. Tägtgren, who is also the vocalist/guitarist of Hypocrisy and producer of his own The Abyss studios, is the only...
recorded this song on their 2002 album Nothing Remains the SameNothing Remains The Same is the 3rd album by the Swedish metal band Pain. It was released in 2002 on the Swedish label Stockholm Records.-Track listing:#"It's Only Them" – 4:51#"Shut Your Mouth" – 3:13#"Close My Eyes" – 3:45#"Just Hate Me" – 3:55...
.
- Liane Carroll
Liane Carroll is an English pianist/vocalist.Carroll has worked with many artists ranging from Sir Paul McCartney, Gerry Rafferty to Ladysmith Black Mambazo. She has also performed as the lead vocalist and Wurlitzer keyboardist for the drum and bass band London Elektricity...
includes a version on her 2005 album Standard Issue
- Thrice
Thrice is an American rock band from Irvine, California, formed in 1998. The group was founded by guitarist/vocalist Dustin Kensrue and guitarist Teppei Teranishi while they were in high school....
included a cover of the song in their album If We Could Only See Us NowIf We Could Only See Us Now is the first complete retrospective of the band Thrice, and has been certified Gold by the RIAA.-Track listing:# "Eclipse" – 3:21# "Motion Isn't Meaning" – 1:53...
in 2005.
- Twisted Sister
Twisted Sister is an American heavy metal band from New York City. Their work fuses the shock tactics of Alice Cooper, the rebellious mood of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, and the extravagant image of glam rock bands such as New York Dolls notably for the makeup...
guitarist Eddie OjedaEddie "Fingers" Ojeda is one of the two guitarists of the American heavy metal band Twisted Sister....
recorded a cover version of the song for his 2006 solo album Axes 2 Axes. Dee SniderDavid Daniel "Dee" Snider is an American singer-songwriter, screenwriter, radio personality, and actor. Snider is most famous for his role as the frontman of the heavy metal band Twisted Sister...
performed the vocals.
- A cover of the song by David Schommer (feat. David Jensen
David "Kid" Jensen , is a Canadian-born British radio DJ.-Early career:Born in Victoria, British Columbia, Jensen began his career in his home country at the age of sixteen playing jazz and classical music. He then joined Radio Luxembourg at the age of eighteen in 1968...
) can be found on the soundtrack for the 2006 movie AcceptedAccepted is a comedy film centered around would-be college freshmen, who after being rejected from all the colleges and universities to which they had applied, proceed to "create" their own "college"....
.
- Elevator Suite
Elevator Suite is a three piece electronic pop group. They were formed in January 1999 by the English DJ Andy Childs, his friend DJ Paul "Robbo" Roberts, and Steve Grainger, who was working as a record producer of a small recording studio in Totnes, Devon....
included a cover in their 2007 self-titled album.
- In 2008, David Cook
David Roland Cook is an American rock singer-songwriter, who rose to fame after winning the seventh season of the reality television show American Idol...
, winner of the seventh seasonThe seventh season of American Idol, the annual reality show and singing competition, began on January 15, 2008 and concluded on May 21, 2008. Ryan Seacrest continued to host the show with Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul, and Randy Jackson returning as judges...
of American IdolAmerican Idol is a reality competition to find new solo musical talent, created by Simon Fuller. It debuted on June 11, 2002 on the Fox network, and has since become one of the most popular shows on American television...
, sang the song on the show and later released a single via iTunesThe iTunes Store is a software-based online digital media store operated by Apple Inc. Opening as the iTunes Music Store on April 28, 2003, it was as of April 2008 the number-one music vendor in the United States. As of January 2009, the store has sold 6 billion songs, accounting for 70% of...
.
- In 1982, Twelfth Night
Twelfth Night are an English neo-progressive rock band of the 1980s, reformed in 2007.For other uses of Twelfth Night, see Twelfth Night .-Formation:...
recorded a 80s-style cover of this song for a single, and later included it as one of the bonus tracks on an extended edition of their Fact and FictionFact and Fiction is a studio album released by UK neo-progressive band Twelfth Night in 1982.-Details:Recorded during down-time at Revolution Studios, Cheadle Hulme, Fact and Fiction was engineered by Stuart Rickering, Johnny Gluck, and Pablo, and produced by Twelfth Night and Andy MacPherson...
album.
- The John LaBarbera
John LaBarbera is a trumpet player and arranger. LaBarbera was in the great Buddy Rich Orchestra in the late 1960s, and has lead his own big band in recent years....
Big Band recorded a version of this song on their CD On the Wild Side.
- Mark Wood
Mark Wood may refer to:*Mark Wood , electric violinist and former string master of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra*Mark Wood, Chairman and CEO of Independent Television News*Mark Wood, trumpeter, and former member of ska-punk band Lightyear...
released a version of this song on his 2003 album These Are a Few of My Favorite Things with his wife, Laura Kaye, on vocals.
- Ilan Rubin
Ilan Rubin is an American drummer currently touring with industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails.-Childhood and early life:...
covered this song during his CoupCoup is the debut album by The New Regime, which is a solo project by Ilan Rubin, the previous drummer of Welsh band Lostprophets and current drummer of Nine Inch Nails. Ilan recorded all 10 tracks himself on all instruments, including vocals. In addition to the songs found over the last few months...
recording sessions and released it as a free download.
- Chick Corea
Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea is a multiple Grammy Award winning American jazz pianist, keyboardist, drummer, and composer.He is known for his work during the 1970s in the genre of jazz fusion...
performed a cover of the song on the 1995 GRP-Biochemistry:* Gastrin Releasing Peptide* glucose-regulated protein* Good Research Practice-Other:* Gross Regional Product* Gibraltar Reform Party* Glass-reinforced plastic* Good Recruitment Practice* Gross Rating Point in television...
tribute album (I Got No Kick Against) Modern Jazz Modern Jazz is a 1995 tribute album by various jazz artists and bands. It consists of jazz cover versions of songs originally by The Beatles...
.
- Charlotte Perrelli
Charlotte Perrelli is a Swedish singer and occasional television host, perhaps most famous for winning the 1999 Melodifestivalen and subsequently that year's Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Take Me to Your Heaven."Since then she has released six singles and five albums...
included a Swedish version of Eleanor Rigby on her 2006 album I din röstI din röst is an album by the Swedish singer Charlotte Perrelli, released July 5 2006. It peaked at 29th place on the Swedish music charts. It is a tribute album to Monica Zetterlund...
entitled Elinor Rydholm.
- Father (band)
Father is an Alternative rock band from Rijeka, Croatia. The band was assembled in March, 2000 under the name Easyman, later changing their name to Father. They released their debut album Inspirita on Dallas Records in October 2005 to critical and commercial acclaim...
released a cover version in 2009 as a pre-single to their untitled second album.
Live performances
- The Four Tops recorded this song for their 1969 album The Four Tops Now!.
- The Supremes
The Supremes, an American female singing group, were the premier act of Motown Records during the 1960s.Originally founded as The Primettes in Detroit, Michigan, in 1959, The Supremes' repertoire included doo-wop, pop, soul, Broadway show tunes, psychedelic soul, and disco...
recorded this song in a live medley, together with The TemptationsThe Temptations are an American vocal group that achieved fame as one of the most successful acts to record for Motown Records. The group's repertoire has included, at various times during its five-decade career, R&B, doo-wop, funk, disco, soul, and adult contemporary music.Formed in Detroit,...
.
- Joe Jackson
Joe Jackson is an English musician and singer–songwriter, now living in Berlin, whose five Grammy Award nominations span from 1979 to 2001...
covered the track on his 2000 live album Summer in the City: Live in New YorkSummer in the City: Live in New York is a live album, produced by Joe Jackson and Sheldon Steiger.With semi-classical pieces on his previous three recordings, Jackson proved he had not abandoned pop altogether in June 2000, with this issue, an album drawn from an August 1999 concert...
- Panic at the Disco has covered the track live, but it was never studio recorded.
- Acceptance
Acceptance was an alternative rock band from Seattle, Washington, formed in 1998, but only industrially active from 2000 onwards. They released their first album, Lost for Words, in 2000, followed by Black Lines to Battlefields in 2003...
played a live version of the song alongside Yellowcard'sYellowcard is a band formed in Jacksonville, Florida in 1997, and based in Los Angeles, California since 2000. Their music features the use of a violin, unusual for the genre...
violinist Sean MackinSean/Seán Mackin may refer to:*Seán Mackin , Northern Irish activist, fundraiser for the Friends of Sinn Féin*Sean Mackin , American musician...
when Acceptance and Yellowcard toured in late 2005.
- Australian a cappella
A cappella music is vocal music or singing without instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato style...
group The Idea of NorthThe Idea of North is an Australian a cappella vocal ensemble, founded in Canberra in 1996.They are generally referred to as a jazz quartet, but sing a wide variety of styles, including but not limited to: jazz, pop, R&B, classical, folk, soul and gospel....
sing a jazz version of Eleanor Rigby on their Live at the Powerhouse album.
- An electronic version appears on the Tangerine Dream
Tangerine Dream is a German electronic music group founded in 1967 by Edgar Froese. The band has undergone many personnel changes over the years, with Froese being the only continuous member...
album Dream Encores.
- During their 2008 US summer tour, the Dave Matthews Band
Dave Matthews Band, sometimes shortened to DMB, is an American band formed in Charlottesville, Virginia in 1991. Founding members include singer-songwriter and guitarist Dave Matthews, bassist Stefan Lessard, violinist Boyd Tinsley, and drummer Carter Beauford. Founding-member saxophonist LeRoi...
inserted "Eleanor Rigby" into a jam in their song The Dreaming Tree.
Samples
- In 1994, Irish singer Sinéad O'Connor
Sinéad Marie Bernadette O'Connor is an Irish singer-songwriter.-Early life:Sinéad O'Connor was born in Glenageary Dublin and was named after Sinéad de Valera, wife of Irish President Éamon de Valera and mother of the doctor presiding over the delivery, and Saint Bernadette of Lourdes...
sampled the song's chorus for her song, "FamineA famine is a widespread scarcity of food that may apply to any faunal species, which phenomenon is usually accompanied by regional malnutrition, starvation, epidemic, and increased mortality...
" which appears on Universal MotherUniversal Mother is the fourth album by Irish singer Sinéad O'Connor. It was released in 1994, and sold 1.5 million copies worldwide.-Track listing:# "Germaine" – 0:38...
. The song was later remixed and released as a single in 1995, and was a Top 40 UK hit.
- In 2004, Brooklyn rapper Talib Kweli
Talib Kweli Greene , better known as Talib Kweli, is an American MC from Brooklyn, New York. He is one of the most critically, if not commercially, successful rappers in Hip hop music. His first name in Arabic means "student" or "seeker"; his middle name in Swahili means "true"...
released "Lonely People", using "Eleanor Rigby" as the main sample.
- In 2006, mashup artist team9
Team9 is the work of English-Australian producer Neil Mason.Team9 formed in 1997 as a five piece band and released two albums, 'Gas and Air' in 1999 and 'My Tape Machine' in 2002. Originally playing guitar based pop, by 2002 Team9 were incorporating samples, loops and synths into their production...
created a remix of "Eleanor Rigby" using Queens of the Stone AgeQueens of the Stone Age is an American Grammy Award-nominated rock band from Palm Desert, California, United States, formed in 1997. Originally formed under the name Gamma Ray by guitarist Josh Homme, following the breakup of his previous band, Kyuss, Queens of the Stone Age developed a style of...
's "In My Head".
- B.o.B sampled "Eleanor Rigby" as the main sample for his song "Lonely People" in 2008.
Charts
| Chart (1966) |
Peak
position |
| UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record industry. The full chart contains the top 200 singles based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 of this list...
|
1 |
| Canadian CHUM Chart The CHUM Chart was a ranking of top 30 songs on Toronto, Canada, radio station CHUM 1050 AM, from 1957 to 1986, and was the longest-running Top 40 chart in the world produced by an individual radio station...
|
1 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday; while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
|
11 |
| Chart (1986) |
Peak
position |
| UK Singles Chart |
63 |
- UK, starting 11 August 1966: 8-1-1-1-1-3-5-9-18-26-30-33-42
- UK, starting 30 August 1986: 63-81
External links