The tune

"The Long and Winding Road" is a 1970 song by the Beatles, credited to Lennon-McCartney but written by Paul McCartney in 1968. It was first recorded on 26 January 1969 at Apple Studio during the Get Back project and was released on the album Let It Be. In January 1970 Phil Spector added orchestral and choral overdubs, a treatment that divided critics. Released as a single on 11 May 1970 with "For You Blue" on the B-side, it reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks in June 1970. McCartney describes it as a piano ballad in E-flat major with no traditional chorus. Ian MacDonald called it one of the most beautiful things McCartney ever wrote, and Brian Wilson named it his favourite Beatles song. McCartney re-recorded it for Give My Regards to Broad Street (1984) and performed it on the 1989-90 tour. Notable covers include versions by Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, and Will Young and Gareth Gates, whose 2002 recording reached number one in the UK.

What the song is about

Paul McCartney described the song as a sad one, all about the unattainable, and that is the only account of its subject available. The facts do not name a particular person, event or experience that inspired it, and McCartney did not explain its words line by line. The sadness he pointed to is carried by the piano ballad form itself, which he characterised as having no traditional chorus. Any further reading of the lyrics would go beyond what he said about the song.