Editing Hello, Goodbye (section)

==Background==
{{quote box|quote=The answer to everything is simple. It's a song about everything and nothing&nbsp;... If you have black you have to have white. That's the amazing thing about life.{{sfn|Turner|1999|p=140}}|source= – Paul McCartney, discussing "Hello, Goodbye" in a 1967 interview with ''[[Disc (magazine)|Disc]]'' magazine|width=25%|align=left|style=padding:8px;}}
Although "Hello, Goodbye" is credited to [[Lennon–McCartney]], the song was written solely by [[Paul McCartney]].{{sfn|Womack|2014|p=370}} The composition came about through an exercise in [[Word Association|word association]] between McCartney and [[Alistair Taylor]],{{sfn|Everett|1999|p=142}} an assistant of [[the Beatles]]' manager, [[Brian Epstein]].{{sfn|Turner|1999|pp=125, 139}} It originated during a period when, following the completion of their album ''[[Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band]]'' in April 1967, the Beatles typically embraced [[randomness]] and simplicity as part of the creative process.{{sfn|MacDonald|1998|pp=223, 227, 238}}

According to Taylor's recollection, he was visiting McCartney at his home in [[St John's Wood]], London, and asked the Beatle how he went about writing a song. In response, McCartney took Taylor into the dining room, where they both sat at a [[Pump organ|harmonium]]; McCartney then began playing the instrument and asked Taylor to call out the opposite to each word he happened to sing.{{sfn|Turner|1999|p=139}} Author [[Steve Turner (writer)|Steve Turner]] writes of the result: "And so it went – black and white, yes and no, stop and go, hello and goodbye."{{sfn|Turner|1999|p=139}} Taylor later reflected: "I've no memory at all of the tune&nbsp;... I wonder whether Paul really made up [the melody to] that song as he went along or whether it was running through his head already."{{sfn|Turner|1999|p=139}}

Talking in the 1990s to his official biographer, [[Barry Miles]], McCartney said that the lyrics address duality, reflecting his astrological sign of [[Gemini (astrology)|Gemini]].{{sfn|Guesdon|Margotin|2013|pp=440, 441}} He added: "It's such a deep theme in the universe, duality – man woman, black white, ebony ivory, high low, right wrong, up down, hello goodbye – that it was a very easy song to write." McCartney also said that, in "Hello, Goodbye", he was promoting "the more positive side of the duality".{{sfn|Guesdon|Margotin|2013|p=440}}

Among Beatles biographers, [[Ian MacDonald]] dates the composition to late September 1967,{{sfn|MacDonald|1998|p=238fn}} while [[Bob Spitz]] says it was written in time for the ''[[Our World (TV special)|Our World]]'' international television broadcast, in June that year.{{sfn|Womack|2014|p=31}} According to Spitz, McCartney suggested "Hello, Goodbye" as the Beatles' contribution to ''Our World'',{{sfn|Womack|2014|p=31}} an honour that instead went to the [[John Lennon]]-composed "[[All You Need Is Love]]".{{sfn|MacDonald|1998|p=229}}{{refn|group=nb|Spitz's claim contradicts the more widely held view that McCartney submitted "[[Your Mother Should Know]]" for the broadcast.{{sfn|Womack|2014|p=31}} }}