The Beatles song Billie Eilish would have liked to have written

Have you ever heard a song on the radio and thought: “If only I wrote this masterpiece’? Well, you might take comfort in knowing that even your chart-topping, Grammy-winning songwriting idols are not immune to such moments.

In a new interview with BBC Radio 1Billie Eilish – her new album Hit me hard and soft released last month – takes us through her personal list of “songs that saved me.”

Among those who made it into the selection were Avril Lavigne’s Complicated – what Eilish says was “always playing in the car when I was a little girl,” Spooky Blacks Take the blame so I don’t have to, run away by Aurora, Sexy Boy’s Air and Sufjan Stevens’ Fourth of July.

The singer-songwriter also mentions the Beatles song Juliefrom the White Album as the song she would have liked to have written.

“The Beatles are my biggest inspiration and the most important thing that I heard growing up,” Eilish explains. “And this song is just incredible.”

Eilish also looks back on the creation of the track in the chat Lunch on her latest record. When asked about the origin of the song, the musician admits: “It’s hard to even remember it.”

“I think it started with the little beat. It’s fun to think about how a song came about – you don’t even remember; it just ‘happened.'”

She adds that one of the first steps was when her brother and producer FINNEAS got out the electric guitar and did “a lot of crazy stuff” on it.

“He put so much effort into it. He rocked it with the guitar,” Eilish says. “I remember one time I came home and he just sent me this little final part where it’s like (sings) ‘feels like she’s the one,’ and I was like ‘did you do that without me?!’ But I think he felt like he had to – he was like ‘no, no, no – I have to compete with your funny lyrics.’ I mean, he wrote the lyrics with me too, but yeah, he was very involved in the production.”