Eleanor Rigby

Trivia:

• The mix of "Eleanor Rigby," oddly enough, has long been considered one of the band's worst: as with other Beatles songs of this period, the vocals and instruments are mixed far, far apart from each other, and there are several sloppy errors where the chorus' double-tracking bleeds into the single-tracked verse. This is not present in the new mixes found on the Yellow Submarine "songtrack" and on the experimental Love CD.
• In 1982, a gravestone for a real-life Eleanor Rigby was found in St. Peter's Parish Church in Woolton, Liverpool. This is significant because the Beatles grew up in Liverpool and often played in the graveyard; the Church itself is the site of many major community gatherings, including the one where John met Paul in 1957. Paul has denied any direct connection, but allows that the influence may have been subconscious; in any event, the gravesite is now a shrine for Beatles fans. Unlike the character, the real life Eleanor did indeed marry. (It is said that a "McKenzie" gravestone also exists nearby!)
• On December 3rd, 1982, a commemorative statue of the fictional Eleanor was unveiled in Liverpool. Sculpted by singer and London native Tommy Steele -- England's first rock idol, groomed as the "British Elvis" -- it was created as a thank you to the city and paid for by the Liverpool Echo newspaper. Dedicated to "all the lonely people," it depicts a lonely Eleanor sitting on a wide park bench that allows lonely (or not so lonely) visitors to sit with her a while. Steele also decided to give his creation several "magical properties" by inserting several unseen objects into the body of the statue: a four leaf clover (for Good Luck), a page of the Bible (for Spiritual Guidance), soccer cleats (for Fun and Sport), a comic book (for Comedy and Adventure) and a sonnet (for Love). It can be found near the corner of Matthew and Stanley Streets.

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