10 Best Non-Rock Songs By Rock Artists

The Beatles really could have wrapped up their recording career after 1965 if they wanted to. After sweeping both sides of the Atlantic with albums like A Hard Day's Night, these lovable moptops had become kings of the music industry, with blockbuster films and classic songs popping up left and right. Instead of packing it in though, the Fab Four blasted the hinges off the door with Revolver.

From one track to the next, every song on this record had creative ingenuity around it, whether it be backwards guitar on I'm Only Sleeping or just hard rock on Taxman. However, the real song that signaled a sea change for the group was Eleanor Rigby, which showed Paul McCartney rising to the challenge as a balladeer. While Paul wasn't a stranger to the softer material in the past on songs like Yesterday, this is one of the few Beatles songs where none of the Beatles actually pick up an instrument.

Scored by producer George Martin, McCartney's tale of loneliness is hammered out by a string ensemble, which provides the perfect backdrop for the song's melancholy haze. The shaggy hair of days gone by may have been fading from view at this point, but songs like this showed that the Fabs were hinting at even greater material on the horizon.