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Song Stories

“Eight Days a Week”

The Beatles | 1964

Originally released on the U.K. album Beatles for Sale, this song was issued as a U.S.-only single, as well as on the American LP Beatles VI, in 1965. And although its reaching Number One marks its classic status, co-writer John Lennon did not share that assessment of the track. "We struggled to record it and struggled to make it into a song," he said in 1980. "It was [Paul McCartney's] original effort, but I think we both worked on it. But it was lousy anyway." McCartney has given two explanations for the title at different times: The first is that it was an overworked chauffeur’s response to Paul's question about how many days he'd been driving; the second is that it was one of the many elliptical "Ringo-isms" Ringo Starr would come up with, alongside "a hard day's night" and "tomorrow never knows."

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Song Stories

“I'm Yours”

Jason Mraz | 2008

Jason Mraz re-emerged after his disappointing second album with this lead single, a Jack Johnson-esque ditty about giving yourself fully to someone else. The success of the reggae-tinged song (it earned two Grammy nods and a spot on the Billboard singles chart for well over a year) was something the folk-pop singer never predicted when he wrote it in 15 minutes at home. "I played a happy-hippie chord progression that would probably work without 50 different Bob Marley songs," he told Rolling Stone. "I thought, 'It's too novelty. This is a nursery rhyme,'" concluding that "you can never guess what's gonna be a hit."

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