An article from American Songwriter looks at four Beatles songs whose lyrics were borrowed, at least in part, from earlier tracks by other artists. It highlights how widely the band drew on outside influences, from 1950s pop standards to contemporaries such as Chuck Berry and James Taylor, even as they themselves shaped the sound of a generation of musicians who followed them.

The examples range from subtle wordplay to more direct lifts. John Lennon based "Please Please Me" partly on a line from Bing Crosby's "Please", while George Harrison echoed The Merseys' 1966 hit "Sorrow" in "It's All Too Much" and took inspiration from James Taylor's "Something In The Way She Moves" for the opening line of "Something". Most notably, "Come Together" borrowed directly from Chuck Berry's "You Can't Catch Me", a debt that led to legal trouble for Lennon and was eventually repaid when he covered Berry's song on his 1975 album Rock 'N' Roll.

– "Please Please Me" nodded to Bing Crosby's "Please" and a Roy Orbison musical motif
– "It's All Too Much" quoted a line from The Merseys' 1966 hit "Sorrow"
– "Something" took its opening line from James Taylor's "Something In The Way She Moves"
– "Come Together" borrowed lyrics from Chuck Berry, prompting a legal dispute later settled by Lennon's cover album