Lennon–McCartney

Lennon–McCartney is the songwriting partnership between the English musicians John Lennon (1940–1980) and Paul McCartney (born 1942) of the Beatles. It is widely considered one of the greatest, best known, and most successful musical collaborations ever by records sold, with the Beatles selling more than 600 million records worldwide as of 2004.^[1] Between 5 October 1962 and 8 May 1970, the partnership published approximately 180 jointly credited songs, of which the vast majority were recorded by the Beatles, forming the bulk of their catalogue.

Unlike many songwriting partnerships that comprise a separate composer and lyricist, such as George and Ira Gershwin, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, John Kander and Fred Ebb, or Elton John and Bernie Taupin, both Lennon and McCartney wrote music and lyrics. Sometimes, especially early on, they would collaborate extensively when writing songs, working "eyeball to eyeball" as Lennon phrased it.^[2] During the latter half of their partnership, it became more common for either of them to write most of a song on their own with minimal input from the other, and sometimes none at all. By an agreement made before the Beatles became famous, Lennon and McCartney were credited equally with songs that either one of them wrote while their partnership lasted.

Lennon–McCartney compositions have been the subject of numerous cover versions. According to Guinness World Records, "Yesterday" has been recorded by more musicians than any other song.^[3]