Researchers at Harvard and at Halifax’s Dalhousie University have concluded that there is less than a one in 50 chance Paul McCartney wrote the music for The Beatles’ “In My Life.”
The song, which appears on the band’s 1965 Rubber Soul album, is more likely the work of John Lennon.
McCartney has previously said of the track: “Those were the words John wrote, and I wrote the tune to it.” But, Lennon was on record as saying McCartney only wrote the middle-eight and harmonies.
A joint study led by Harvard University senior lecturer in statistics Mark Glickman and Dalhousie University math professor Jason Brown, found that McCartney probably “misremembers” writing “In My Life.”
The study looked at frequency of chords, chord transitions, and melodic notes of Beatles songs written between 1962 and 1966. The result was that the probability that “In My Life” was written by McCartney is 0.18.
A rep for McCartney has said that the rock icon will not be commenting on the study results.