An American Songwriter feature revisits three well-known 1960s songs, showing how each was rooted in the songwriters' real romantic relationships rather than pure invention. It highlights how personal heartbreak and complicated unions became creative material for some of the era's most influential musicians, offering fans insight into the true stories behind familiar lyrics.

The Beatles' "For No One" drew on Paul McCartney's five-year relationship with Jane Asher, which ended without marriage; McCartney described it as a song about rejection. Bob Dylan wrote "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" after his girlfriend Suze Rotolo moved to Italy to study, though he insisted it wasn't a conventional love song. Joni Mitchell's "I Had a King" reflects on her first marriage to Chuck Mitchell, which she called a "marriage of convenience," with the lyrics capturing the incompatibility between the couple.