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ELEANOR RIGBY

The Beatles

Proto-Prog


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The Beatles Eleanor Rigby album cover
3.90 | 33 ratings | 4 reviews | 45% 5 stars

Excellent addition to any
rock music collection

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Singles/EPs/Fan Club/Promo, released in 1966

Songs / Tracks Listing


1. Eleanor Rigby (2:07)
2. Yellow Submarine (2:40)

Total Time 4:47

Line-up / Musicians


- Paul McCartney / bass, vocals
- John Lennon / guitar, vocals
- George Harrison / guitars, vocals
- Ringo Starr / drums, vocals

Releases information

Label Parlophone, UK
Catalogue No. R 5493
Country of Origin England
Recording Details Eleanor Rigby : 15 Takes on 28th April 1966
Yellow Submarine : 5 Takes on 26th May 1966
Release Date 5th August 1966
U.K. Chart Detail :
Entry Date : 11th August 1966
Highest Position : 1 ... for 4 weeks from 18th August
Weeks in Chart : 13 Weeks

Thanks to mogorva for the addition
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THE BEATLES Eleanor Rigby ratings distribution


3.90
(33 ratings)
Essential: a masterpiece of rock music(45%)
45%
Excellent addition to any rock music collection(42%)
42%
Good, but non-essential (9%)
9%
Collectors/fans only (3%)
3%
Poor. Only for completionists (0%)
0%

THE BEATLES Eleanor Rigby reviews


Showing all collaborators reviews and last reviews preview | Show all reviews/ratings

Collaborators/Experts Reviews

Review by UMUR
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Honorary Collaborator
3 stars "Yellow Submarine/Eleanor Rigby" is a single release by British pop/rock act The Beatles. The single was released through Parlophone Records (EMI) on the 5th of August 1966 which is the exact same day that the "Revolver (1966)" album was released. Both single tracks are culled from "Revolver (1966)".

While the rather silly "Yellow Submarine", which features drummer Ringo Starr on vocals, displays the more humourous side of The Beatles, "Eleanor Rigby" is a string driven track featuring a beautiful melody, a melancholic atmosphere, and sad lyrics about loneliness to boot. The track is sung by Paul McCartney. While the tracks were credited to the Lennon/McCartney songwriting team, both tracks were in reality written by Paul McCartney.

Singles are always a bit hard to rate, as you might enjoy one track and not appreciate the other as much. It will almost always be a very subjective rating, and thatīs pretty much the case for me with "Yellow Submarine/Eleanor Rigby", as Iīve always found "Eleanor Rigby" to be a wonderful high quality track, and "Yellow Submarine" to be itīs silly and quite tedious counterpart. So take my 3 star (60%) rating with a grain of salt, as itīs probably an aquired taste if you find "Yellow Submarine" worth the price of admission. You can add an extra star if you do.

Review by Guillermo
PROG REVIEWER
4 stars Fifty years (to this day) have passed since the "Revolver" album was released in 5-August-1966. This single was also released in that day. And both things were remembered today in Facebook by the band's official page there and also by other Beatles-related pages. That gave me the idea to write a review for this single, as I wrote a review for the full album some years ago.

"Revolver" still is one of the best albums that the band recorded. And it marked a change in their music, with it sounding more "matured" and more influential for other bands of the same period. It also reflected that the band wanted to be taken more "seriously" as musicians by the critics and by the fans. It also was released when the band was doing their last tours before deciding in late August 1966 that it was enough because they were tired of touring then at a time when the fans didn't care very much to listen to their music in the concerts, because they were always screaming! The 1966 tours were problematic for them due to several things. And it seemed that they really didn't care very much about their concerts then much because they didn't play a song from "Revolver" in concert, despite they could have played at least some songs like "Here, There and Everywhere" and "Taxman", which were only originally recorded with guitars, bass, drums and vocals. They were tired and they only wanted to stop touring to concentrate in recording studio albums. A thing that they did since late 1966. Despite some changes in their music could be anticipated in their "Rubber Soul" album from 1965, I think that it was with "Revolver" that the band made the final "leap" that led them to their most interesting period (at least for me): the so-called "studio years". Their music became more interesting, with them (and producer George Martin) taking even more musical risks and doing more experiments in the recording studio.

Both songs of this single were taken from the "Revolver" album. This single was released with both songs as "Side A", so both songs were considered as important to be played in the radio.

"Eleanor Rigby" shows Paul McCartney (the composer of the song) accompanied by a string section arranged by George Martin and by backing vocals from John Lennon and George Harrison. With serious lyrics about lonely people, it marked a change from the love songs that the band very often released as singles in the previous years. Thanks to having a producer like George Martin the band could develop better the musical ideas that they couldn't develop alone due to not having the same formal musical knowledge that Martin had. They were very lucky to have met Martin and to have him as producer. He had an "open mind" for their ideas and also contributed his very good music ideas to their songs.

"Yellow Submarine", composed by McCartney and sung by Ringo Starr, is more a song for children, full of sound effects, and almost psychedelic in content. If I remember well, it was even included in some children TV programmes to be sung by children (like in "Sesame Street" in the early seventies, I think).

Latest members reviews

4 stars Eleanor Rigby is the song that created one of the greatest currents to have surpassed the second half of the 20th century. In the midst of all the soulless square rock that was being created during the mid-1960s, there is a song (on a rock/pop record!) with only violins that tells us about a certain ... (read more)

Report this review (#2605114) | Posted by Argentinfonico | Monday, October 18, 2021 | Review Permanlink

4 stars I am sadly prohibited from enclosing the lyrics due to the copyright infringement rules. Sadly because it is one of the best piece of lyrics ever written in a pop song. But please find the lyrics yourself and read it. What possess a human being to write lyrics like these ? Brilliance. ... (read more)

Report this review (#273848) | Posted by toroddfuglesteg | Wednesday, March 24, 2010 | Review Permanlink

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