Paul McCartney and composer Bernard Herrmann were friends.

In fact, the staccato cello in the Beatles song “Eleanor Rigby” came directly from Herrmann’s scores for the movies Psycho and Fahrenheit 451. This is according to several interviews with McCartney and the Beatles’ producer, Sir George Martin. Then when McCartney was asked to score a movie he called Bernard Herrmann for help. As a thank you, Paul McCartney gave Herrmann a painting by Marc Chagall.