An American Songwriter article revisits the notorious "Paul Is Dead" conspiracy theory, which claimed Paul McCartney secretly died in a 1966 car crash and was replaced by a lookalike, with fans insisting The Beatles hid confirming clues throughout their music. The piece debunks four of the most commonly cited "clues" found in the band's songs, showing how each was actually explained by mundane or coincidental factors rather than a hidden confession, illustrating how far believers stretched the evidence to sustain the myth.

The article examines "A Day in the Life," where John Lennon's lyrics about a car crash were actually inspired by the real death of Guinness heir Tara Browne, not McCartney. It also looks at "I Am the Walrus," where a fade-out voice asking "Is he dead?" is simply a sampled radio broadcast of Shakespeare's King Lear, and "Glass Onion," where the line "the Walrus was Paul" was Lennon correcting an earlier literary reference rather than signalling death symbolism. Finally, Ringo Starr's "Don't Pass Me By" is addressed, its line about a car crash predating the theory entirely, since Starr wrote it as early as 1964, years before the rumour began.