Elvis Costello lifting Paul McCartney's You Never Give Me Your Money riff in his song, Party Girl

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Listen to Costello's "Party Girl."

The "GIVE YOU ANYTHING BUT TIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIME" fade out lifts the riff from The Beatles' "You Never Give Me Your Money," specifically the "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, all good children go to Heaven" part.

Whatever the case, McCartney enlisted Elvis as a collaborator on "Flowers In The Dirt," which was one of his best solo albums to date, so I guess the debt was repaid.

:toast:

[LTR]

1. Everybody stole from the Beatles

And the McCartney/MacManus tracks can be found on two each of their albums. And it was Costello who initially called him up to collaborate back in '87 or so. They had already known each other for years prior.

When writing songs together, Costello claimed that McCartney was writing more in his style, while he working in more Beatle-y melodies. It's kind of ironic that McCartney's "My Brave Face" sounds like a Costello song, and Costello's "Veronica" sounds like McCartney. That's pretty cool.

[WCGreen]

2. Veronica touched me like no other pop song since I had an aunt sinking

in on herself with al's hammer...

[unpossibles]

4. and the Beatles (and everyone else) stole from everyone before them

love the Beatles and music in general, but it's always a combination of ripping off those before you and rejecting some of what came before you as well. The Beatles (and Stones, the Who, etc.) ALL ripped off lots of American blues, R&B, skiffle, and other forms of music left and right, but they did it well.

[LTR]

5. And they were the first to admit that

They have always been open about their influences.

[Captain Hilts]

7. Absolutely. LOVE the "Don't Be Cruel" baseline in "The Ballad of John and Yoko." nt

[cherish44]

3. I thought Paul was the bass player

Does the bass do riffs? Someone edumacate me please.

[LTR]

6. Well, he wrote a lot of the melodies

And played guitar, piano, etc. on quite a few tracks. Bass, however, was his primary instrument.

Most interesting example is "Taxman," a George Harrison song. Did you know McCartney played lead guitar and the solo on that song?