The Beatles’ Eleanor Rigby inspired by Psycho soundtrack

The edgy orchestration of the Beatles’ Eleanor Rigby hit was inspired by the suspenseful soundtrack of classic Alfred Hitchcock movie Psycho.
After initially sneering at the idea of adding strings to Yesterday, because he wasn’t a fan of classical music, Paul McCartney actually suggested an orchestration for Eleanor Rigby to Fab Four producer George Martin.
And in an interview recorded before his death in March (16) for new TV docu-series Soundbreaking, Sir George recalled his inspiration for the song.
“He (Paul) came to me with Eleanor Rigby, which cried out for strings; not the smooth, legato stuff of Yesterday, but something very biting… (and) very edgy,” he said.
“It suggested to me the stuff that Bernard Herrmann had been writing for Psycho…”
Martin’s producer son Giles reveals the song was groundbreaking for the Beatles because it marked the first time the group didn’t play any instruments on a song, revealing, “It was just a string octet.”
Soundbreaking chronicles the work of the great music producers, including Sam Phillips, Tony Visconti, Don Was, Phil Spector, and Nigel Godrich.