George Martin, one of the many nominees for the title of "fifth Beatle," produced their albums including the string arrangements for the more lavishly orchestrated studio tracks, including for "Eleanor Rigby," off the Revolver album in 1966. Martin was strongly influenced by film score giant Bernard Herrmann, including his jerky, agitated, strings-only score for Hitchcock's "Psycho" from 1960.
Compare Herrmann's main title theme--
--with the string arrangement in the McCartney standard:
"Eleanor Rigby" was always sort of melancholy, of course, but it wasn't until I made the Herrmann connection that it began to slightly creep me out.
Ah well.
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