Network Analysis

A network analysis is a graph that uses nodes, the circles, to represent people, places organizations, or some other thing. The lines connecting them, known as edges indicate a relationship between them. In this instance, the nodes are the beatles and those who have written songs with them. The width of the edges represent how many times they have written songs together. As you can see, the strongest cowriting relationship by far is between John Lennon and Paul McCartney. The size of each node indicates the number of songs written by that person in total, whether in collaboration with others or writing alone.

Harrison (39) Lennon (139) McCartney (138) Starr (13) Lee Montogue Jean Nicolas Heinz Hellmer Donovan Yoko Ono Covers (71) 9 11 8 73 9 9

First let’s look at the four actual members of the band. John Lennon and Paul McCartney did most of the song writing, being listed as a writer on 139 tracks and 138 respectively. This is illustrated by the size of their circles. George Harrison had 39 songs to his name while Ringo Starr only had 13. In the entire discography there are only 8 songs that list all of the members as writers.

In addition to the four Beatles there are 5 other people listed. George Harrison and John Lennon released 1 song under the Beatles name with Yoko Ono listed as a cowriter. This graph excludes the songs that would be released under either of their names. The same thing occurred between singer Donovan and Lennon and McCartney.

Nicolas, Hellmer and Montogue are all listed as writers due to their work translating two tracks into German: Nicolas and Hellmer on Komm, gib mir deine Hand (I Want to Hold Your Hand) with Montogue, and Nicolas listed for Sie Liebt dich (She loves you).

List of Cover Song Writers