Without a doubt, The Beatles are the most important rock n’ roll band to come out of Liverpool in the mid-20th century (at least in terms of quartets). As such, their entire catalog and history have been gone over with a fine-tooth comb by historians, looking for the tiniest tidbits that might give us a little more insight into what those lovable moptops were thinking when they recorded classic albums like “A Hard Day’s Night” and “Revolver.”

And while we all know classic bits of Beatles lore like the fact that Ringo liked octopuses and John was constantly having kids, did you know that in a lot of their songs, you can clearly catch background audio if you listen real hard? That’s right, we have discovered, buried deep in the mix of these classic hits, The Beatles themselves discussing the order in which they plan to die!

“Love Me Do” The band’s very first single! While the actual writing of the song (primarily by Paul McCartney) predated the formation of The Beatles, the first recording laid down in 1962 features Pete Best on the drums before he was fired in favor of bringing in Ringo Starr. Listen for John Lennon’s harmonica on the bridge, because just before and after, you can hear Paul and George Harrison discussing that they think it would be best for the band for John to die first, since he was the acknowledged leader of the band at the time.

“You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away” This track off of their 1965 album Help! marked a shift in John’s songwriting from standard pop to more introspective, Bob Dylan-influenced lyrics. Although it has one of John’s finest vocal performances of the time period, some critics feel his 23-second pause to debate whether George or Paul should die first, and if they should have a conspiracy about it, makes it one of their lesser ballads of the period.

“Taxman” Beatles fanatics generally agree that 1966 was when George’s songwriting really began to come of age. Although the Lennon-McCartney partnership still dominated their output (and increasingly rankled their lead guitarist), they were impressed enough by “Taxman” to open their Revolver album with it, and to be caught on tape during the outro saying that George would definitely die second, even if it took a couple of tries.

“Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!” LSD is a very potent psychedelic and John was eating it by the spoonful around the recording of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. This musically complex, Hammond organ-driven song epitomizes the wild creative swings the band was taking at the time, as does their free-associative conversation agreeing that Paul would die next, sometime after making a documentary with Rick Rubin but before Ken Burns got his greasy little hands on him.

“Get Back” By 1969, The Beatles partnership had irrevocably broken and it was only a matter of time before the band split up. The Let It Be recording sessions show the strain between the once-close friends is particularly tense in a back and forth between Paul and George that was mixed into the finished track, in which George passive-aggressively says he just wants to be stabbed in the throat however Paul wants it, because he’s the boss and he just wants to make him happy.

Happily, in all of The Beatles recorded output, there is never any mention of the death of drummer Richard “Ringo Starr” Starkey. It is believed by fans that Ringo will never die and will one day reign as the one true Beatle, who will bring us all peace and love.

Rock on, Ringo!