Today marks the anniversary of the day in 1957 that John Lennon met Paul McCartney, when Paul happened to take in John’s pre-Beatles band, the Quarrymen, at a Liverpool church picnic. Exactly seven years later came the London premiere of A Hard Day’s Night, the manic movie whose soundtrack cemented Lennon & McCartney as one of the greatest songwriting duos of all time.

Here’s a look at some other great songwriting duos who got by with a little help from… each other, we suppose.

This article appears in Jul 2-8, 2009.