The theme for Song Lyric Sunday this week, as set out by Jim in his post Collaborating Songwriting Partners,  is to play a song written by a duo. There is plenty of scope in this one, as there are many famous composing duos over the years, and Jim has provided us with a pretty detailed list. I thought about going for the obvious for a Brit of my era – the Beatles – but the Lennon/McCartney writing partnership was never really a true joint effort, in my eyes. They agreed at the outset to credit all songs jointly, and whilst they may have contributed to each other’s songs, more often than not the writing was the effort of just one of them. Anyone familiar with them can tell a Paul song from a John song.

Others crossed my mind, such as Elton John and Bernie Taupin, but when it came down to it there was only one duo I could really choose: the two guys behind the songwriting for a huge part of the music of one of my favourite bands. Not only did they write the songs for the band but later teamed up as a duo to play some of them, making them a perfect fit for Jim’s theme – and he included them in his list, too. I’m playing you two of their songs from that later incarnation, starting with what is still my favourite of all of theirs:

And the lyrics to one of the most beautiful love songs ever written: