“Why Don't We Do It in the Road” by The Beatles

Paul McCartney wrote and sang "Why Don't We Do It in the Road," though the credit reads Lennon–McCartney, and it landed on the Beatles' 1968 double album, the one everybody calls the White Album. The idea hit him on retreat with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in Rishikesh, India, when he watched two monkeys mating in the street and marveled at how simple it all was next to the emotional knots of human relationships.

The record is every bit as blunt, short and simple: 34 bars of twelve-bar blues in one minute and 42 seconds, opening on three kinds of percussion, a palm slapping the body of an acoustic guitar, clapping hands and Ringo Starr's drums, with McCartney on piano, bass and electric guitar, getting rowdier each time he comes back around to his two lines.

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