Music Analysis: Eleanor Rigby By Paul Mccartney

Eleanor Rigby was written by Paul McCartney in 1966 and is in 4/4 time in the key of E minor. It was released on the Beatles album Revolver and is heard in the following form: Intro, Verse, Refrain, Bridge (intro), Verse, Refrain, and Outro. Paul wrote the melody for Eleanor Rigby in the music room basement of his girlfriend’s house Jane Asher and claims that “I wrote it at the piano, just vamping an E minor chord, letting that stay as a vamp and putting a melody over it, just danced over the top of it. It has almost Asian Indian rhythms”. (Miles, B. 1997, pg. 281). McCartney couldn’t find a name suitable for this song and was uncomfortable with the original name “Miss Daisy Hawkins” (Turner 2010 pg.162) due to its lack of realism and therefore he settled on the name Eleanor because of Eleanor Bron, the leading actress in Help!, whilst the last name Rigby derived from a local sign he seen in 1966 of a local Wine and Spirts shop named “Rigby and Evans Ltd. Wine & spirit Shippers” (Turner 2010, pg. 163).

However McCartney sings the double-tracked lead vocal, and Lennon and Harrison sing the harmonies, while the music is performed throughout by a pair of string quartets, arranged by George Martin. In which “Paul was not immediately crazy about this type of idea” (Costello, 2011), claims engineer Geoff Emerick. “He was afraid of it sounding too cheesy” (Costello, 2011). When he agreed to the idea, McCartney said he wanted the strings to sound sharp. Instead of recording the octet on a single microphone, each instrument would have an individual mike. The end product of the track was seen as a breakthrough moment for McCartney as a