And in light of its appearance, not only on the B-side of “Hello Goodbye” but also as one of the six tracks on the Magical Mystery Tour E.P., “I Am The Walrus” does retain the unique position of being the only recording to appear simultaneously on the number one and number two records in the singles chart in the same week.

As for what’s Beatlesque, Brian’s right, there were distinct Beatles sounds; but I think the biggest difference would have been early Beatles tracks like “Cathy’s Clown” “Not A Second Time” and “No Reply” etc. as imitated by the Yardbirds in “Mister You’re a Better Man Than I” and the Kinks in “You Shouldn’t Be Sad” (and I think there’s an influence on Marley too, and I wouldn’t be surprised if spirituals and folk music are in the ancestry, as well as the Everly Bros. and the girl groups); I don’t have the music theory to explain it; something about melodies that circle up and down, often landing on a minor key. And something about the harmonies… I’d think the later “Beatlesque” has its rousing elements (stuff like “Baby You’re a Rich Man” and “Hello Goodbye”) but is most typified by the ethereal “aahs” during the break in “A Day in the Life,” right after Paul has a smoke and goes into a dream (which follows the chord pattern to “Hey Joe,” and was lifted whole by Deep Purple at the start of “Hush”).

There’s other stuff too, of course.

I was born in North London, so when I was that kid driving through France I had no idea there was such a word as “Aloha”. I just thought they were saying “Hello-Ah” (add your own Mark E. Smith joke).

According to Mark Lewisohn’s book, they did a mix without the violas in the hope that the video could be shown on British TV without the Musicians’ Union objecting. It didn’t work.

No, nothing profound here. Did anyone really expect that from McCartney? But here, with the other Beatles making their contributions to the mix, the recording is free from that twerpy cloyingness that made the lack of profundity more readily evident in McC’s solo work and with Wings.

So the Beatles gave the people what they wanted with “Hello Goodbye.” They wouldn’t do that too many more times afterwards.

Still, I retain a lot of fondness for the song. It has its quirky charm. I always appreciated the intricate backing vocals that John and George did here and elsewhere, and, yes, I agree that the song is a definitive example of what being “Beatlesesque” was all about.

Having been born in Honolulu, I’m always amused, too, at the weird mispronunciation of “aloha.” The only way I figured out what “hey-la hey-a-hey-lo-ah” meant was when I saw the video with the hula dancers wiggling about at the end. Ah, that tropical rhythm that Ringo puts down in the closing seconds– Mahalo, Beatles!

I still like it now, but I always have in mind that if people dislike the Beatles, this is precisely the sort of thing they have in mind. I find it hard to imagine that this is any adult’s favourite, for all that it had their longest continuous run at the top of the charts since ‘From Me To You’.
On a historical note, the flipside of this was ‘I Am The Walrus’ - another John song of course and also featured on the Magical Mystery Tour EP set which was at 2 for much of this time.

Almost every Beatle album had its shift in writing and recording that gave each phase of their musical progression a signature sound. From ” Love Me Do’ to “Hard Days Night ” to “Help” to ” Norwegian Wood” to ” Elebnor RIgby ” to ‘Sgt. Pepper”….they all have readily indentifiable parts that immediately lets you know that it is The Beatles.

So it gives a lot for other bands to drawn on from folkies to rockers, that they can probably find something in the Beatle catalougue that will float their boat….at the risk of soundiung Beatleesque - but all in all, not a bad aspiration.

As for “Hello, Goodbye” - I only just realized that this is a Paul song. Because of the lyrical word play, I always thought of it as a John song. No wonder he didn’t like it much if the above quote is true.

But I like this song. It’s like two songs going in different directions at once and has that effect from the background vocals singing a separate melody and lyric.

You got yes coming and goodbye going. All ending up in one big ” aloha ” , which means hello and goodbye in Hawaiian.

Crafty beggars…..

Re “Beatlesqueness” (great word) what sums it up for me is not the oom-pah stuff they could put out on an off-day, but the more driving rhythms and guitar sound of something like “And Your Bird Can Sing” from Revolver.