"Paperback Writer"

Song: “Paperback Writer”

Album: (Not released on LP)

Written primarily by McCartney (supposedly from a request of an aunt of Paul’s that he write a single that wasn’t about love), “Paperback Writer was recorded in April of 1966 and released as the A-side of their eleventh single, reaching number one in the U.S., U.k., Ireland, (West) Germany, Australia, New Zealand, and Norway. It was their only number one single that year. The photograph used for the original (British) single was the same as the infamous “Butcher Cover” of Yesterday and Today. The American release, however, is simply a (non-controversial) photograph of the band playing live.

If you listen closely, starting at around the 1:00 mark, you can hear that John and George’s backing vocals are actually a slow-sung rendition of "Frère Jacques.”

And over a decade before MTV, you can see in this promotional piece that the Beatles were trailblazers in the art of the music video.