Rhyming Still More With the Fabulous Four Quiz

Answer: By making his world a little colder

Paul McCartney wrote "Hey Jude" as a means of comforting John's son Julian at a time John and Cynthia Lennon were divorcing ("Hey Jules" was the original wording). The song debuted on Britain's David Frost show with a video including an audience singalong in the long fadeout final half.

In the United States, it was the longest-playing single (in excess of seven minutes) to top the charts to that point, and it enjoyed a run of nine consecutive weeks at #1, the longest stay by a Beatles single. This was the first music released by the Beatles on their new Apple label, and featured a plain white sleeve with a hole in the middle to display the Apple logo on the disk.

Answer: Come and keep your comrade warm

With "Back in the USSR," the Beatles paid dual homage to Chuck Berry's "Back in the USA" and the Beach Boys' "California Girls." Paul McCartney plays drums on the song because Ringo, disillusioned with the festering ill will between McCartney and Lennon at the time (the beginnings of the eventual breakup of the group, which occurred 18 months after the song was recorded), had walked out and quit the group for a few days. He was quickly persuaded to rejoin.

A Balalaika, by the way, is a three- or six-stringed Russian instrument that looks like a cross between a guitar and a ukulele, with a triangular body.

Answer: You can see them out for dinner, with their piggy wives

George, "the spiritual Beatle," again fell off the peace and love wagon with "Piggies," a vicious ditty from 1968's "The Beatles" (better known as the "White Album" for its plain white cover). The song disparaged "piggies," advocating a severe "whacking" as an appropriate comeuppance for them.

Unfortunately, one of the song's biggest fans was Charles Manson. Driven by his teachings, members of the Manson crime family wrote variations on the "Piggy" theme in the blood of their murder victims at several crime scenes.

Answer: You may be a lover but you ain't no dancer

"Helter Skelter" - the name comes from a British slang term for an amusement park slide - was written by Paul McCartney after reading a review of The Who's "I Can See For Miles" that called it the wildest and loudest song ever recorded. He wanted to write a wilder one. Ringo was told to pound the drums louder and harder than he'd ever done before, and after numerous painful takes, the drummer flung his sticks and screamed "I got blisters on my fingers" - an outburst that made it onto the finished recording. Charles Manson used the term "Helter Skelter" to describe a race war he hoped to start, that would end with him ruling the world, and drew considerable inspiration for his crimes from this and other songs on the Beatles' "White Album."

Answer: You can get married in Gibraltar near Spain

"The Ballad of John and Yoko" is just that, a chronicle set to music of John Lennon's life with Yoko Ono and his frustrations with the hurdles he needed to clear to marry her. Because of both of them being divorced, and drug-related legal troubles he'd had, there was some difficulty in finding a place that would allow them to marry in the quick time frame they sought. Peter Brown, the band's personal assistant, finally was able to get them into Gibraltar where they could marry with minimal wait for a marriage license. Lennon wanted to cut the song quickly after he wrote it, and George and Ringo were unavailable at the time, so he and Paul recorded it together with Paul playing drums.

The "Christ you know it ain't easy" chorus of the song, coming less than three years after Lennon's "We're bigger than Jesus" flap, got the song banned in several US markets, and it only made it to #8 on the US singles chart, the lowest peak of a Beatles single on the American charts between 1965 and 1970.

Answer: Got to be good-looking 'cause he's so hard to see

This is from "Come Together," the opening song from 1969's "Abbey Road." Lennon's use of the line "Here come old flat-top" as the first line resulted in him getting sued by Morris Levy, the owner of the rights to Chuck Berry's "You Can't Catch Me" song, which has a similar lyric.

The settlement to the suit involved Lennon recording the "Rock and Roll" album as a solo artist - Lennon had long wanted to make a record of rock standards, and his inclusion of several songs owned by Levy helped Levy both through royalties, and the increased market value of the song rights.

Answer: But now she sucks her thumb and wanders, by the banks of her own lagoon

Paul McCartney wrote "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window" about an incident in which a groupie came entered someone's residence through a bathroom window (different tellings have it happening to McCartney, or to a member of the Moody Blues). On "Abbey Road," it is part of a medley that takes up much of the second side of the record. Joe Cocker later did a memorable cover of the song.

Answer: Not arriving, on our way back home

"Two of Us," which opens the "Let It Be" album, is one of the prettiest and most under appreciated Beatles songs. Paul wrote it for his new wife Linda, but the fact that the group broke up just prior to its release, and that it's a rare Beatles song in which both Paul and John sing the verses, made many think that it was John for whom it was written.

Answer: They make their way across the universe

John Lennon wrote "Across the Universe" in 1967, when the group was exploring transcendental meditation. The "Jai guru deva om" chorus is derived from a meditation mantra. The song has been covered several times, including an all-star version of it done at the Grammy awards in 2005, that was sold online to raise money for the victims of the December 2004 Indonesian tsunami.

Answer: But she gets it while she can

"Get Back" is a rocking song written by Paul McCartney and featuring John Lennon playing slide guitar and Billy Preston on keyboards (and giving Preston the distinct honor of being the only person to both record and perform with both the Beatles and Rolling Stones).

This was the song that the Beatles were playing when their famous January 30, 1969 rooftop concert was stopped by the police. At the end of the recording, Paul McCartney can be heard saying "Thanks Mo" in appreciation for Ringo's wife applauding, and Lennon quips to the crowd "I would like to say thank you on behalf of the group and ourselves and I hope we've passed the audition."