In 1969, a rumor spread that Beatles singer Paul McCartney had died in a car accident three years earlier. The producers allegedly didn’t want to make a fuss of it and replaced Paul with a double, while the other band members, unable to speak openly, began inserting “clues“ into album covers and song lyrics.

A couple of examples:

On The Beatles Yesterday and Today (1) cover, Paul sits inside an open suitcase that resembles a coffin.

On the cover of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (2), the flowerbed looks like a grave, and yellow hyacinths (a symbol of death) make up a left-handed bass guitar (Paul’s one).

Played backward, the refrain of It’s Getting Better sounds like, ”After all Paul is dead, he lost his hairs, he lost his head."

On the Abbey Road cover (3), Paul is the only one who’s bare-footed (the deceased are buried without shoes in many countries) and isn’t keeping pace with the others.

On the cover of Magical Mystery Tour (4), the band wears animal costumes, one of which is a black walrus: allegedly a symbol of death.

As for McCartney himself, he finds the whole theory funny. And, of course...