The Beatles song “Eleanor Rigby” is a poignant vignette of loneliness in later adulthood. (“All the lonely people,” the singers lament. “Where do they all come from?”) In surveys, about a third of ...

Its message turns loneliness into an invitation to keep going, one that still feels personal half a century later.

Just like so many others, singer-songwriter Dan Peek of the band America couldn't help but feel a bit heartbroken when he first heard "Eleanor Rigby" by the Beatles. Peek, however, was so troubled by ...