Beatles-iTunes news brings bad puns galore

It sure hasn't been a hard day's night for reporters covering today's Beatles-iTunes news.

Several journalists chose to lead their Beatles-iTunes stories with bad Beatles-related puns and references, like I just did. Here's a sampling of these Beatles-iTunes ledes:

• Doug Gross, CNN.com: "It's been a long and winding road, this relationship between Apple and the Beatles."
• Ethan Smith, The Wall Street Journal: "Steve Jobs is nearing the end of his long and winding pursuit of the Beatles catalog."
• Jessica Mintz, Associated Press: "'Beatles for Sale' is finally for sale on iTunes -- along with the rest of the Fab Four's albums, from 'Please Please Me' to 'Revolver' to 'Abbey Road.'"
• David Sapsted, The National: "The Beatles – with a little help from their friends at EMI –- have finally made it on to iTunes."
• Neil McCormick, the Daily Telegraph: "It has been a long and winding road but they have finally come together."

These Beatles-iTunes references are all bad, but ones about "The Long and Winding Road" represent an even higher level of laziness, because it's the same pun Steve Jobs used in Apple's Beatles-iTunes press release. Way to be original, mass media!