"In My Life" is a song by The Beatles written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. The song originated with Lennon, and while McCartney contributed to the final version, the extent of his contribution is in dispute. Released on the 1965 album Rubber Soul, it is ranked 23rd on the Rolling Stone article "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" as well as fifth on their list of The Beatles 100 Greatest Songs. The song placed second on CBC's 50 Tracks. Mojo magazine named it the best song of all time in 2000.
According to Lennon, the song's origins can be found when English journalist Kenneth Allsop made a remark that Lennon should write songs about his childhood. Afterwards, Lennon wrote a song in the form of a long poem reminiscing on his childhood years. The original version of the lyrics was based on a bus route he used to take in Liverpool, naming various sites seen along the way, including Penny Lane and Strawberry Field.
However, Lennon found it to be "ridiculous", calling it "the most boring sort of 'What I Did On My Holidays Bus Trip' song"; he reworked the words, replacing the specific memories with a generalized meditation on his past. "Very few lines" of the original version remained in the finished song.[4] According to Lennon's friend and biographer Peter Shotton, the lines "Some [friends] are dead and some are living/In my life I've loved them all" referred to Stuart Sutcliffe who died in 1962.
