Britain loved The Beatles because they sang about the weather
Out of 308 songs penned by the Fab Four, 48 (16 per cent) make reference to the weather, researchers found
by Sarah Knapton July 7, 2015
Britain may have become obsessed with The Beatles because they bombarded the public with songs about the weather, a new study suggests.
Brits love nothing more than moaning about the weather and it seems a spell of bad weather is an inspiration for songwriters too.
Over 900 songwriters or singers have written or sung about weather - and The Beatles are among the most prolific, researchers from Oxford and Southampton Universities found.
Dr Sally Brown, of Southampton University, said: "We were all surprised how often weather is communicated in popular music whether as a simple analogy or a major theme of a song.
"These examples indicate discussing weather - often seen as a British obsession - is a popular pastime, and much can be learnt from how society portrays weather in music and the types of weather that inspire musicians.
"Thousands of popular songs have been written, many hundreds of which contain references to weather.”
Rain was a frequent theme employed by The Beatles
The findings published in the journal Weather were based on an analysis of lyrics, musical genre, keys and links to specific meteorological events.
Songs often mentioned more than one weather type - indicating a range of emotions involving weather issues within a single piece with Cobb and Buie's 1968 hit 'Stormy' by Cobb and Buie getting through six.
Weather-related songs are also very popular with seven per cent of them appearing in Rolling Stone's (2011) top 500 list of the Greatest Songs Of All Time.
The study also found musicians were inspired by specific weather events.
The Beatles classic 'Here Comes the Sun' was written by George Harrison to mark a significant upturn in temperatures after the particularly cold winter of 1969, scientists said.
