'Eleanor Rigby' was a Beatles song was released in August 1966.
He said that he originally intended to use 'Father McCartney' but figured it was inappropriate to use his fathers name, so looked in the phone book and came up with the name 'Father McKenzie' which was used in the song's lyrics. In an interview Paul McCartney gave regarding how he put together the songs lyrics.
The cemetery is near to where Lennon and McCartney first met as lads, they apparently spent a lot of time playing at and around the cemetery as teenagers.
The ditty climbed to number one. Eleanor Rigby was a dark song of desolation, despair and loneliness, unlike most of the Beatles previous hits which were upbeat and bright.
Ah, look at all the lonely people Ah, look at all the lonely people
Eleanor Rigby picks up the rice in the church where a wedding has been Lives in a dream
Waits at the window, wearing the face that she keeps in a jar by the door Who is it for?
All the lonely people Where do they all come from?
All the lonely people Where do they all belong?
The real life Eleanor Rigby was born on August 29 1895. Some records of her life have been found. One was a 1911 salary ledger when she was a 14 year old maid bearing her signature, another was a school textbook found in a coal bin at a house her family had once occupied.
The Rigby tombstone was used in a promotional video for the bands 1995 reunion single, Free As A Bird. The Daily Mail conducted an investigation into the life of the real Eleanor Rigby and apparently her life was as described in the song. The last surviving member of her family, Thomas Rigby her cousin, was located from whom much of their information was obtained.
There are no surviving pictures of Eleanor, who was born on August 29, 1895, at 8 Vale Road in Woolton which is a block away from John Lenons childhood home on Menlove Avenue.
Eleanor was actually Eleanor Rigby Whitfield, but used the name Rigby at the insistance of her maternal Grandfather as the Rigby family name was near to dying out.
She was old when she finally married, 35 in her days was considered an old maid, but alas poor Eleanor proved to be infertile and incapable of bearing children.
On October 9, 1939, she suffered a massive brain hemorrhage and passed away the following day at the age of 44. On October 9, 1940 John Lennon was born. On October 9, 2011 Paul Mccartney married Nancy Shevell who bears a eery resemblance to the actress he claims to have taken the name 'Eleanor' from.
On August 29, 1966 what would have been Eleanor Rigbys 71st birthday The Beatles' final live concert took place at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.
