Even at the peak of their fame, everyone had their favourite members of The Beatles. While the popularity often centred around Paul McCartney and John Lennon’s lyrical partnership, many fans also appreciated the contributions of George Harrison and Ringo Starr, highlighting the unique elements each member brought to the band, even if it seemed rare that they all collaborated fully.
Much of the band’s success stems from its musical unity, both in terms of delivering a formula that works and executing an endearing dynamic on stage. However, the creative process was often far from democratic. What’s perhaps most interesting is that, despite the frictions and arguments that might have happened behind the scenes, the setup worked.
This approach proved effective for a long period. Lennon and McCartney’s leadership shaped almost their entire careers, with the other members stepping in as needed. This explains why there are few songs credited to all four members for writing, composing, or vocals. When such collaboration did occur, it often wasn’t for the reasons one might expect.
‘Flying’ first emerged on the band’s 1967 album Magical Mystery Tour, marking their first instrumental track since 1965’s ’12 Bar Instrumental’. This time, however, the group intended to make a track that would soundtrack a montage of scenes from Iceland shot from an aeroplane, ones that were incidentally unused shots from Stanley Kubrick’s Dr Strangelove.
Knowing that they needed to create something relatively straightforward to accompany the scenes, each band member got involved in making the most fitting instrumental. “‘Flying’ was an instrumental that we needed for Magical Mystery Tour so in the studio one night I suggested to the guys that we made something up,” McCartney revealed in Many Years From Now. “I said, ‘We can keep it very, very simple, we can make it a twelve-bar blues.”
After writing the melody, McCartney required the rest of the members to contribute “a little bit of backing”. He said: “I wrote the melody. The only thing to warrant it as a song is basically the melody. Otherwise, it’s just a nice twelve-bar backing thing.”
Macca concluded: “It’s played on the Mellotron, on a trombone setting. It’s credited to all four, which is how you would credit a non-song.”
Although a handful of songs would be credited to all four members in the following years, including the band’s 1967 record ‘Christmas Time (Is Here Again)’ and Let It Be’s ‘Dig It’, ‘Flying’ marked the first time composer credits were shared among the whole group. It was also one of the few Beatles songs to include Lennon playing the Mellotron.
