Eight Days a Week

The story behind

The Beatles recorded "Eight Days a Week" at EMI Studios in London in October 1964. The song opened with a fade-in, something that wasn't used much in pop recordings of that time. The idea came from a driver who took John Lennon home to Weybridge. He asked how he was, and he replied that he worked eight days a week. Paul McCartney liked the line, told John about it, and they soon started writing. It was the first song they recorded without finishing, to try out different arrangement ideas. The final version appeared on the album Beatles for Sale, but in the United States and Canada it was released earlier as a single. It was their seventh number one on the Billboard Hot 100, and also reached the top in Canada, Belgium, and the Netherlands.