3 Classic Beatles Songs That Foreshadowed Their Breakup (In One Way or Another)

For Beatles fans in 1969, their breakup might have come as a shock. For those of us in modern times who have access to all the facts and figures, it was an inevitability. However, they did leave breadcrumbs pointing to the end of their days as a band. The three songs below foreshadowed the Beatles’ breakup.

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“Help!”

While the Beatles had their fair share of infighting, it wasn’t the only reason they struggled toward the end of their career. Exhaustion from a relentless tour schedule left the band a shadow of its former self. It was so exhausting that they eventually hung up their touring hat altogether. Although they would continue to make music in seclusion for several years after that decision, it marked the beginning of the end for this powerhouse band.

If any song sums up their struggles with fame and the expectations put on them, it’s “Help!” Written by John Lennon, this Beatles song was a desperate plea.

“The lyric is as good now as it was then; it’s no different, you know,” Lennon once said. “It makes me feel secure to know that I was that sensible or whatever–well, not sensible, but aware of myself. It was just me singing ‘help,’ and I meant it, you know.”

Why Don’t We Do It In The Road?

You know the relationship between band members is bad when they take to recording songs on their own. Paul McCartney reportedly did this often in the Beatles’ later days, but one of the most famous examples is “Why Don’t We Do It In The Road?”

“He even recorded it by himself in another room,” Lennon once explained of “Why Don’t We Do It In The Road.” “That’s how it was getting in those days. We came in and he’d made the whole record. Him drumming. Him playing the piano. Him singing. I can’t speak for George, but I was always hurt when Paul would knock something off without involving us. But that’s just the way it was then.”

“Wah-Wah” (George Harrison)

Although this song isn’t a Beatles track, it serves as a prescient sign of their impending breakup. George Harrison penned “Wah-Wah” on the day he left the Beatles. In the middle of the Get Back sessions, Harrison got fed up with his bandmates discrediting his songwriting. He broke up with the band rather nonchalantly and suggested he would “see them around the clubs.”

When he got home, he penned this song. The lyrics don’t beat around the bush. Harrison was all but done with his bandmates. Oh, you don’t see me crying / Oh, you don’t hear me sighing, he sings.

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