“Paperback Writer” by The Beatles

"Paperback Writer" came out as the Beatles' eleventh single in May 1966, a Lennon-McCartney credit that was mostly Paul McCartney's doing, and it's the sound of the band going loud. McCartney sings lead and throws his bass right up front, trading electric guitar parts with George Harrison, while Harrison and John Lennon stack the backing vocals, Lennon rattles a tambourine and Ringo Starr hammers away. George Martin produced and Geoff Emerick engineered, and the whole thing is tight, bright and heavy.

It went to number one at home, in the United States, and in Ireland, West Germany, Australia, New Zealand and Norway; on the Hot 100 it had to share the top spot with Frank Sinatra's "Strangers in the Night", trading weeks. It was also the last new song they added to their final tour that year.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.