18 AUGUST 1966
The Beatles' double-A side of 'Yellow Submarine'/'Eleanor Rigby' reached #1 in the UK, where it stayed for four weeks. It peaked at #11 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart.
'Eleanor Rigby' was a very sharp bit of lyrical work from McCartney, who painted vivid character portraits with just a line or two. There's Father McKenzie, 'writing the words of a sermon that no one will hear', and Eleanor Rigby, who 'picks up the rice in the church where a wedding has been, lives in a dream'. George Martin provided another fine piece of understated arranging with a string quartet, and the result is one of those songs that sometimes in life you are a bit bored with for a few years, and then you appreciate it all over again.
A-side: 'Yellow Submarine'
Released: 5 August 1966
Recorded: 28–29 April and 6 June 1966, EMI Studios, London
Length: 2:08
Label: Parlophone; Capitol
Writers: Lennon–McCartney
Producer: George Martin
