Who wrote Beatles’ top tracks? We can work it out (with AI)
THey were two enormous musical talents – and always shared their songwriting credits... officially, at least.
In interviews, however, either John Lennon or Paul McCartney would sometimes claim they had done more of the work.
Over the decades debate has raged among Beatles fans over which musician really composed some of the disputed tracks. Now experts from Harvard University and Dalhousie University in Canada have joined forces to try to end the squabbles.
They have developed a computer program that uses artificial intelligence to listen to songs by the band and work out which Beatle – John or Paul – had the most input on some of their best-known songs.
The software looks for repetitive patterns in the harmonies and melodies that are characteristic of each musician.
The pair, one of the most successful songwriting duos of all time, mainly appeared on credits as ‘Lennon-McCartney’.
Keen-eared fans of the moptop four-piece have noted that songs with indisputable major input by either John or Paul differ in many ways.
For example, Lennon songs – such as I Am the Walrus and Across the Universe – tend not to vary too much in pitch, whereas McCartney songs such as Hey Jude and Oh! Darling have larger pitch changes.
The software was ‘trained’ by listening to compositions by the pair between 1962 and 1966.
The computer then focused on songs indisputably by either Lennon or McCartney, to learn to pick up on certain tropes particular to each musician’s style. Then, the program was let loose on eight Beatles songs where the artist who had the most input was disputed. The authors identified In My Life – from the band’s 1965 album Rubber Soul – as the Beatles song over which there had been most speculation.
Sir Paul has long claimed that he played a key role in writing it, despite the track being mainly attributed to Lennon.
The computer predicted the song’s verse was 81 per cent likely to have been written by Lennon – but only 18.9 per cent likely to be a McCartney creation.
But when it came to the song’s bridge the computer said it was 43.5 per cent likely to have been penned by McCartney.
And it seems the computer sided with Lennon’s original comments on the contested song – that McCartney helped with the bridge, ‘but that that was the extent of his contribution’.
The full findings of the study, titled (A) Data in the Life, are published in the Harvard Data Science Review.