The Beatles

Released: October 28, 1996

Songwriter: Ringo Starr

Producer: George Martin

[Verse 1]
I listen for your footsteps coming up the drive
Listen for your footsteps, but they don't arrive
Waiting for your knock, dear, on my old front door
I don't hear it--does it mean you don't love me any more?

[Verse 2]
I hear the clock a'ticking on the mantel shelf
See the hands a'moving, but I'm by myself
I wonder where you are tonight, and why I'm by myself
I don't see you, does it mean you don't love me any more?

[Chorus]
Don't pass me by, don't make me cry, don't make me blue
'Cause you know, darling, I love only you
You'll never know it hurt me so, how I hate to see you go
Don't pass me by
Don't make me cry

[Verse 3]
I'm sorry that I doubted you, I was so unfair
You were in a car crash, and you lost your hair
You said that you would be late, about an hour or two
I said that's alright, I'm waiting here, just waiting to hear from you

[Chorus]
Don't pass me by, don't make me cry, don't make me blue
'Cause you know, darling, I love only you
You'll never know it hurt me so, I'll hate to see you go
Don't pass me by
Don't make me cry

I'm waiting for you honey
Hurry up to me
I don't want you to pass me by, don't need to make me cry
I want you to make me

The Beatles are arguably the most famous, critically-acclaimed, and successful rock band of all time—certainly the preeminent group of the 20th century. They started out as four teenagers playing grimy basement clubs in Liverpool and Hamburg, but they progressed to become world-beating rock stars who are still influential to this day.

John Lennon first formed a skiffle group called The Quarrymen in March 1957. A fifteen-year-old Paul McCartney joined shortly thereafter, eventually inviting his friend George Harrison to audition for the band. After finally impressing John with his guitar skills, George was asked to join—but this juncture would be short-lived as John’s departure to college signaled the other quarrymen to go their separate ways.

By 1960, Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison had re-branded from ‘Johnny & the Moondogs’ to ‘The Silver Beetles’ at the behest of their new bass player, Stuart Sutcliffe. The name would eventually evolve into ‘The Silver Beatles’ by July of that year, before settling on ‘The Beatles’ come August—just in time for their trip to Hamburg with new drummer, Pete Best. Though club residencies in Germany would prove fundamental to the group’s progress as a whole, the tour turned out to be a blessing and a curse, following the deportation of a then-seventeen-year-old George Harrison, and the eventual tragic death of Stuart Sutcliffe.

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