Paul McCartney felt the Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby" could chart a course for the songs he would write as he grew up. He performed "Eleanor Rigby" for Marianne Faithfull and Mick Jagger. Subsequently, he would not give the song to Faithfull.
Paul recalled playing two of his compositions for Marianne Faithfull and Mick Jagger: 'Etcetera' and 'Eleanor Rigby.' One of the rarest of all Beatles-era recordings, ‘Etcetera’ was an early version of ‘Thingumybob’, written by Paul McCartney and later recorded by the Black Dyke Mills Band for Apple Records.
"I knew Marianne so it was natural that I would be asked to write a song at some point, Paul says. I did write a song but it was not a very good one. It was called ‘Etcetera’ and it’s a bad song. I think it’s a good job that it’s died a death in some tape bin. Even then I seem to remember thinking it wasn’t very good. There was always the temptation to keep your better songs for yourself and then give your next-best songs to other established people, so when it was someone like Marianne, who at the time was a newcomer, those people would tend to end up with fairly dreadful offerings of mine."
"Faithfull was more interested in the latter song and she wanted to record it herself. Ultimately, I decided to keep the song for the Beatles.
"It makes sense why Faithfull would be drawn to “Eleanor Rigby.” It’s a sad, baroque ballad about a woman. Faithfull’s biggest hit, “As Tears Go By,” was also a sad, baroque ballad about a woman."
While Faithfull never recorded “Eleanor Rigby,” she put her own spin on another Beatles ballad: 'Yesterday.'
'I knew Marianne directly she came out of the convent' Paul McCartney recalls. I'd met her at the Ashers' house so I'd see her there socially. She was such a pretty, virginal little thing. Then I remember reading an interview with her and she said, "I want to experience anything and everything," and I remember thinking, Ooh, hold on now, Marianne. Come on, girl - straight out of the convent to anything and everything?'
But Marianne was to get her dreams; and it was Andrew Loog Oldham, the manager of the Rolling Stones, who got them for her. He recognised that her looks would go a long way in establishing her as a sixties pop icon and had enough experience in record production to know that echo chambers and double-tracking could build even the most imperfect voice into something good enough for a pop record. '
“Visits to Paul and Jane Asher weren’t quite as relaxed,” Marianne says. “They were a bit uptight, and there were constant little frictions, but that’s what happens when couples start to come apart.”
She recalled one particularly tense visit.
“I love watching people living their domestic life and seeing how that goes,” she explained, adding, “I always thought Jane and Paul were very tense. I do remember very clearly an evening at Cavendish Avenue where she wanted the window shut and he wanted the window open. That was really like Joe Orton play. It was f***ing great.”
She explained that the argument was so captivating because they didn’t have to use words to convey their feelings.
“I sat there all night watching Jane get up and close it, and Paul open it, and it was just like, nothing was said,” she explained. “And quite soon after that they split up, which of course I could have told anyone they would.”
The Beatles‘ “Yesterday” has an interesting backstory. Paul McCartney said he’s surprised he’s had to tell that story repeatedly. In addition, he said he’s had to tell one anecdote about John Lennon again and again.
Music producer Rick Rubin was surprised at how many Beatles footage exists.
Rubin said it was amazing how much footage of the Beatles existed, especially since the band predated camera phones. "There's so much stuff out there," Paul said. "But I think that's one of the reasons the Beatles keep going, because you keep discovering one more little thing."
Paul McCartney assumes everyone knows the backstory of The Beatles’ ‘Yesterday’
Paul discussed telling certain anecdotes over and over. “I always think everyone’s heard all the stories,” he said. “As you get older, you think, ‘Am I just repeating all my stories?’ But I rationalize, well, there’s only one answer to the question, ‘How did you meet John?'”‘ I can’t make another meeting up. I can maybe try and explain how we met in a slightly different way.” Cheatsheet reports.
Paul said he’s talked about “Yesterday” repeatedly. “But I’ll still talk to someone and they say, ‘What? You dreamed ‘Yesterday?’ And so I’ll tell the story again, but it’s like, ‘You sure you haven’t heard this?’ But not everyone has.”
Paul praised his then-recent documentary McCartney 3, 2, 1. “As we go on and the young people come onboard, there’s a lot of stuff they haven’t heard,” he said. “And I think that’s one of the things about 3, 2, 1.”
