The Great Beatles Songs: Here, There and Everywhere / Eleanor Rigby

Time for #7 AND #6 on the list of the Great Beatles Songs. These are straight up Paul McCartney and one of his finest, if not THE finest, silly love songs and his second masterpiece.

Here There and Everywhere
John outwardly hated Paul's penchant for writing "smoochy" material but confessed later to really admiring Here, There and Everywhere. Paul would write some of the greatest songs of all time but this was, in his own words, his "first complete song." He broke each verse down to start with the words here, there and everywhere. Brian Wilson himself has confessed that this is one of his favorite songs (with Paul returning the favor for God Only Knows).

This is classic McCartney and every cover pales in comparison. Paul faithfully performs this classic live every tour since 1989. Many songs John would help Paul touch up. HTE is all Paul.
George provides the interesting off play with the guitar. Just a great song that is often overlooked in the rundown of Revolver.

Eleanor Rigby
I have heard musical theorists say that this is the only perfect pop song ever written. The lyrics synch up and fit perfectly with the music. It started as an achingly haunting line of melody with Paul vamping on an E minor chord. "Ola Na Tungee / Blowing his mind in the dark / with a pipeful of clay" were the earliest lyrics that friend and fellow pop star Donovan remembers hearing when Paul showed up at his flat a few days later after first starting work on the song.

The lyric evolved to "Dazzie-de-da-zu/Picks up the rice in a church where a wedding has been."
It officially became Eleanor Rigby in March of 1966. Paul borrowed Eleanor from Eleanor Bron, their comely HELP! costar, with whom John had a fling, and paired it with Rigby from an old shop named Rigby and Amp in the Bristol dock area. He then took his nearly finished masterpiece to John for help polishing things and even Ringo contributed "darning his socks in the night." But George Martin would make the most significant contribution by scoring the song for a double string quartet: four violins, two violas and two cellos.

Both songs appear on Revolver, the album many consider to be the greatest album ever (check out VH-1's list of the 100 greatest albums of all time and it is #1 there). Revolver is great because it showcases Paul's musical daring and versatility. Paul provides the scorching guitar solo in George's place on Taxman to start the album off. John's drug-induced mantra Tomorrow Never Knows (Paul provided the tape loops that sound like birds and freaky guitar riffs on it - again, Paul proves his mettle doing something in the studio that had never been done before) closes the album. And in between those two great songs, Paul's finest collection of material appears. He may have had bigger hits but Revolver would prove to be his most complete and impressive collection of songs on any Beatles record. And the two highlights of the album? Here, There and Everywhere and Eleanor Rigby.