Now we have possibly the two biggest groups of the Sixties, back to back at the top of the chart: The Rolling Stones and now, The Beatles. “Paperback Writer was the 12th number one in America for the Beatles and comes in second place as the song that came from off the Hot 100 all together to reaching number one in the least number of weeks. The song in first place was also a Beatles song, “Can’t Buy Me Love.” “Paperback Writer” took just three weeks from entering the charts at number 28 to getting to number one.

The story as to why this song was written goes as follows: Paul McCartney’s aunt asked Paul one day if he could write a song that was not about love. Paul thought about it and was wandering about the room where the four of them were one day and he noticed Ringo reading a book. I don’t know which book it was, but Paul thought to himself, “I’ll write about a book.” and so, he did. Paul wrote most of “Paperback Writer” although John Lennon may have contributed a little to the song. So it, like most Beatles songs, is attributed to Lennon-McCartney as the writers.

“Paperback Writer” tells the story of an author who has written a paperback book and wishes it to be published. He is sending a letter to a publisher asking him if he would please take a look at his manuscript. After all, it took him a year to write. We are never told if he sells the book or if it is published.

It was during this time that John Lennon made the famous statement that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus. This resulted in many radio stations, particularly in the south, banning all Beatles records. They would not play them on the air for several weeks. A station in Longview, Texas organized a public burning and people could bring their Beatles records and throw them on the fire. A KKK group in South Carolina, nailed a Beatles record to a cross and set it on fire.

What’s remarkable about this is that the comment made by John was taken completely out of context and that is not what he meant. John, under some pressure from his record company publicly apologized for the remark, saying he himself did believe in God and the whole thing was just a big misunderstanding. As in most controversy, it gradually settled down and people went back to buying Beatles records, just as before.

“Paperback Writer” debuted on the American pop chart on June 11, 1966 and, as I said before, took three weeks to reach number one where it stayed for two weeks.