The beginnings of this song actually began in late August 1966. The Beatles had a quick break between touring & recording and Brian Epstein decided to rent them a house in Beverly Hills so they could relax and unwind before embarking on another long period of working. This was a pretty smart idea, but it didn’t turn out as relaxing as planned. Very quickly, the address for the band got out to the adoring public who, of course, had nothing better to do but stalk the Fab Four. 2850 Benedict Canyon Drive (still easy to find) found The Beatles holed up in the house surrounded by security while fans tried to climb up the canyon or rent helicopters just to get a glimpse of their favorite band. They made the best of a bad situation though and began inviting guest after guest to party with them throughout the night at the mansion. Peggy Litpon, Joan Baez, and Roger McGuinn & David Crosby of The Byrds were just some of the people who showed up and it was an acquaintance of The Byrds that would shape this song. Peter Fonda, son of the legendary actor Henry Fonda, was close friends with The Byrds who brought him around for the trip. He had not yet made Easy Rider and actually had a hard time finding work in Hollywood due to his status in the counterculture movement at the time. His views though made him an instant hit in the music world which was at the forefront of that movement. While the band, Fonda, and most of the guests experimented with LSD, Fonda found a very frightened George Harrison in the corner shivering. Apparently, the quiet one thought he was slowly dying due to the effects of the LSD and Fonda tried to comfort him. Having nearly died by shooting himself in the stomach at age 10, Fonda uttered the now-famous line to George Harrison: “I know what it’s like to be dead.” Over-hearing this, Lennon took it as a buzz-kill and retorted with another famous line: “You’re making me feel like I’ve never been born.” Though bothered by the buzz-kill, he would later cultivate the phrases & conversations into a song, with help from Harrison as well, titled “He Said, He Said.” Not sounding a bit right, John changed it to She instead of He and you know the rest…

…or do you? Like I said, the song was a late addition to the album, only added when the band realized they were one song short for the new album. The band then spent the next nine straight hours rehearsing, recording, and adding overdubs to the song in order to finish the album. The process wore them all out so much that producer George Martin announced proudly that he was “going for a lie-down” now. Surprisingly though, Paul McCartney is not featured on the song. No one remembered where Paul was during this nine hour window, but in the end, Harrison picked up the bass and the remaining three laid down the track. One of the few songs to feature John, Ringo, and George alone, Paul recalled a possible playful fight that resulted in the band just doing it themselves. While some people showed this as early signs of turmoil for the bands, it could have just been a playful fight that no one really remembers after spending the majority of eight years together with one another. Though it did not feature Paul’s bass playing, the song did feature some of Ringo Starr’s best drumming during a period that Ringo himself was extremely proud with. A very heavy song for the time period, Ringo’s circular drumming (alternating between 4/4 and 3/4 time) made the canvas for Lennon’s trippy song to lay on and was later compared to other great drummers of the time such as Mitch Mitchell (The Jimi Hendrix Experience), Elvin Jones (John Coltrane Quartet), and Ginger Baker (Cream). Some would even say it was the greatest drumming in popular music up until that point in time. Not bad for someone deemed not even the best drummer in the band, huh? While not actually about LSD, the drug obviously shaped the song and became one of the first psychedelic hits for the band. Listen to it below, turn it up real loud, and see how the drumming, heavy guitar part, and deeply weird lyrics like “you’re making me feel like I’ve never been born” begin to mess with your head a little.

Song: She Said, She Said
Album: Revolver
Year: 1966

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The song showing up this high is a surprise for me, but Lennon’s memorable performance in the film was probably a very good reason for it. With the band playing cards, Lennon sings & croons in a train’s back-room while star-studded girls gaze on. One of those girls happened to be Pattie Boyd, a young actress that Harrison would take an extreme liking to. She would ultimately become one of rock’s finest muses with “Something, Layla, Wonderful Tonight,” and many more written about her. Fun fact interruption done! Back on topic, the scene in the movie seemed to be a natural moment of ease for the band, but in the studio, that ease ended up taking 22 takes just to lie down in some much needed frivolity for the band. Lennon going off on harmonica rants that had him falling over laughing, completely re-working the song, and I’m sure having a few moments of just lost immaturity. The song didn’t seem to be as natural in the studio, but by the time it came time for the movie, the band obviously delivered. It remains one of the more beloved scenes from their movies to this day.

Shortly before his death, Lennon had this to say about the song: “That’s me. It’s just a song. It doesn’t mean a damn thing.” Was it him though? The clearly Bob Dylan-influenced song was written in January 1964, the same month George Harrison bought a copy of The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan which the band began to obsess over. Don’t believe the influence? Well, around this time, Lennon himself even started wearing a copycat Huck Finn cap. Not like Dylan? Sure. It even opened with a harmonica part akin to Dylan’s style, but that harmonica intro was more important as one of the signals to the end of The Beatles’ early career. Up until that point, the harmonica had been used several times as intro to songs such as “Love Me Do” and “Please Please Me.” But this song would mark the last time a harmonica started up a song and the instrument actually became sparser in later years with the band (there was a memorable solo on “I’m A Loser” though). Clearly there were a bunch of turning points in their career, but the loss of one of their most pivotal sounds on an otherwise random song seems to be up there with the rest of them. Lennon’s studio playing may have started here as well as he double-tracked his vocal and overdubbed his harmonica parts just to make each stand out a bit more. It would be a while before “Strawberry Fields Forever,” but Lennon was obviously going off down a different path. Whether or not the song was a turning point, it’s still a great Lennon composition from his early career. Why not enjoy that train scene just one more time below?

Song: I Should Have Known Better
Album: A Hard Day’s Night
Year: 1964

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Man, where to start with this song? Well, let’s start with just how did the song come about? Honestly, depends on who you ask! Paul McCartney mostly wrote the song at the age of 16 in 1958 about his then-girlfriend, Iris Caldwell. Paul takes credit for most of the song, but insists that John actually wrote the middle eight…when John himself denied writing any part of it. Literally the only song in The Beatles’ catalogue where Paul tried to give credit to John who wouldn’t take it! Songwriting credit aside, it would be a good four years before the band decided to re-visit what Paul would later call “their most philosophical song.” By this point in ’62, they were playing the clubs in Hamburg, Germany doing mostly rock covers of Little Richard, Ray Charles, and whatever other popular act the audience wanted to hear. “Love Me Do” was the first song the band decided to play as an original and despite some much shaken confidence prior to playing, the audience reacted overly positive to it leading to the band starting to write & perform more of their own hits. Later, the band would ultimately choose this song as their audition for EMI’s Paralophone label in front of then-producer & future-fifth Beatle George Martin. Martin took a hands-on approach from the get-go (earning the fifth-Beatle moniker) with the band suggesting the harmonica part that would ultimately go to John Lennon. Only problem was that John was the lead vocalist on the song, but with the harmonica handed to him, the part was passed off to Paul McCartney who swears you can still hear the fear in his voice from singing it. John didn’t get off much better. John actually stole the harmonica in the song from a little Dutch town on the way to Hamburg. Karma would get him back though as he tried to sound so much like Delbert McClinton that his lips eventually became numb. Lennon’s in-studio injuries would continue on, but we’ll cover those later…

While it was their first single, hit, and a defining moment of their early career; the song is very memorable for its share of controversy even almost fifty years later. For starter’s, the drummer saga. The band actually tried out for EMI with this song featuring original drummer Pete Best on drums. Pete Best would soon after get fired for the more charismatic Ringo Starr that fit in more with the band’s projected image. Despite the band being on the same page about Ringo’s placement in the band though, George Martin had his skepticism. When it came time to cut the record for their first single, Martin actually hired a session drummer named Andy White to pick up the drum part leaving Ringo only to play tambourine. Let that sink in. On The Beatles’ first single release, the drummer is not Ringo Starr or anyone really part of The Beatles’ early history. It’s a random dude banging the drums while Ringo does the job a 15-year old groupie could do. Seriously! This of course devastated Ringo and he actually kept somewhat of a grudge (some say serious, whereas Ringo says jokingly) over Martin for years. Ringo’s drumming on the song would eventually show up on future rare compilations and the like, but when the song first came out, the man drumming had no affiliation with the band anymore leaving Ringo as a footnote to the band’s first single. Bad enough for the new kid to the show huh? And it ends there for the drummer, but not for the rest of the song: it wasn’t even planned to be the band’s first single!

“How Do You Do It?,” a song written by Mitch Murray (and later the debut single for Gerry & The Pacemakers that did hit number one in the UK), was originally pegged by George Martin as their first release. The band wasn’t too thrilled and after too many lackluster recordings, Martin caved in and “Love Me Do” stepped up to the plate to deliver. Did it deliver? Well, that’s subjective I guess. Execs at Parolphone were reportedly not too impressed over the song, actually thinking it was a comedy effort from Spike Mulligan. After getting it released, it was not the sudden monumental hit you would think. In fact, rumors persisted that manager Brian Epstein purchased 10,000 copies of the single for his store in order to get it up the charts in the first place, though they remain unconfirmed even fifty years later. The song would peak at number seventeen in the UK which doesn’t seem impressive for The Fab Four (especially since The Pacemakers nabbed number one), but it got the band the respect from the label they needed as well as a sense of fame & confidence for the young quartet. The United States was another story though. The band tried to get Capitol in America to pick it up who refused saying it would fail. Two years later at the height of Beatlemania, the band would get the smaller label Tollie to release it with it hitting number one allowing Capitol to finally pay attention to the song leading the way to Capitol releasing all the Beatles American releases. A lot of weird controversy and back history for the Beatles first hit, right? Sorry the recording and writing of this one can’t be as pleasant as “Yellow Submarine,” but the song definitely does still send millions to that special happy place as soon as the harmonica hits followed shortly by Paul’s voice chiming in. Join them, won’t you?

Song: Love Me Do
Album: “Love Me Do” Single
Year: 1962

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Written about a man unable to get in touch with his unfaithful girlfriend & the pain that follows, “No Reply” would be John Lennon’s version of “Silhouettes,” a 1957 hit by The Rays with a similar topic. John had originally written the song for Tommy Quickly, one of Brian Epstein’s artists, but John realized the potential of the song & saved it from becoming one of “The Songs Lennon And McCartney Gave Away.” The song would become John’s first complete story and their music publisher Dick James commented on how Lennon was improving in his songwriting seeing as this song actually resolved itself. Before that, John (and apparently Dick James) had thought that his stories drifted off from the subject matter in a vague open-ending way instead of finishing the story. Lennon would go on to write a bunch of timeless stories with the absence of his songwriting-ADD (i.e. “The Ballad Of John And Yoko”), but “No Reply” definitely started him down that style of songwriting. While it was primarily a Lennon song, Paul would claim that he helped with a few missing elements to the song which was the custom for the duo at the time. John never spoke out against this and his silence must be his concurrence; the two really only disagreed on the credit for three songs in their whole career. Three out of hundreds! More on that later and back to the song…

Like the rest of the album, the song was written & recorded in haste as the band was fast-approaching a deadline. Knowing that, it’s amazing to see how well the song turned out given that it’s definitely a great start to the album to differentiate from their past three works. Despite being a fairly plain song musically (key of C, AABA song format, et cetera), the song did feature some great lyrical work such as the line “If I were you I’d realize that I love you more than any other guy; and I’d forgive the lies that I heard before when you gave me no reply.” Sure, The Beatles have had a ton of memorable lines (I passed one the other day painted onto a day care while on vacation in Colorado Springs); but this one definitely has to be an overlooked lyrical gem from the band. The singing has to be commended here too and it’s interesting to note that Lennon had originally intended to sing the higher harmony part, but after wasting his voice on other tracks, McCartney had to take over the duties. Normally, Lennon would have done it regardless like in “Twist And Shout,” but like everything, I’m sure the stress & fatigue the band was facing at the time of Beatles For Sale affected their singing as well. Despite that fatigue, the album still started with a big bang in “No Reply.”

Song: No Reply
Album: Beatles For Sale
Year: 1964

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This song is a prime example of The Beatles’ early work. It features distinctive “call and response” singing as John will sing “It Won’t Be Long” followed by George & Paul singing some “yeahs” in the background. The “yeahs” would also be a staple of early Beatles’ work like in “She Loves You” and this one was no exception with the four-letter word being repeated fifty-six times! Even more, the song would feature a descending guitar riff similar to the scaling work Harrison did at the time and also had a pause break near the end to set up a dramatic vocal ending. Clocking in at a little over two minutes as well, the song perfectly portrays the style of songwriting the band had at the time. It also features a bit of world play that Paul & John were enamored with at the time like in “Please Please Me.” While primarily a Lennon composition, Paul helped a bit and was marveled at their chance to do word play as he would later marvel at the line “It won’t be long ’til I belong to you!” So with all the musical characteristics and even a similar word play, it’s pretty apparent that this might be the template for their early works.

Early work aside, the song was Lennon’s attempt at a single which in hindsight seems kind of sad. The song is not a failure by any means, but when compared to later Lennon singles, this one definitely would rank lower. I would say that I enjoy this piece better than his first actual single “Please Please Me,” but like I said; when compared to works even in his early stage like “A Hard Day’s Night” & “I Feel Fine,” the song definitely doesn’t have the same appeal. Then when compared with his later songs like “Across The Universe” & “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds,” it definitely pales in comparision. But like Lennon said, it was his attempt at writing a single so even he must have known the song wasn’t as good as it could have been. I’m not trying to downplay the quality of the song though; I do hold it in high regard & have always enjoyed it. But for Lennon to actively try to make a hit song, it definitely didn’t reach his goal. The song still made it into the top hundred though which says a lot for what a “lesser” John Lennon song. Hell, the song was the first one Neil Young ever played for an audience. To inspire a true Hall Of Famer, obviously John did something right with the song.

Song: It Won’t Be Long
Album: With The Beatles
Year: 1963

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“Lovely Rita…meter maid!” The opening words of the song set the pace for the song with its great melody. You can’t hear those words and not enjoy singing along to one of the best tracks on one of the best albums of all time. Written originally as an anti-authority song, Paul changed it to a love song about a meter maid. At the time, the English simply knew the maids as “traffic wardens” and Paul himself learned of the term by reading a newspaper article about a retired meter maid named “Lovely Rita.” The phrase struck him as overtly sexual and he would later say in the Anthology “…to me a ‘maid’ was always a little sexy thing: ‘Meter maid. Hey, come and check my meter, baby.’” Later, a meter maid named Meta Davies would claim Paul wrote this song for her after giving him a traffic ticket, but Paul would dismiss that claim like many others. Another possible meaning of the song was as part of the infamous Paul Is Dead hoax which states that Paul was distracted by Rita while driving which led him to speed off to his death. It’s a shock the “hoax” got so much attention and momentum as it did. The song might have had another meaning as well, but let’s look at the music itself first.

The music itself is a sprightly number with a bunch of memorable musical ideas. Besides a bouncy piano solo by George Martin, the song also features a very unique “kazoo orchestra”. John, Paul, & George all grabbed some combs, put toilet paper (that was stamped with the words “PROPERTY OF EMI”) over it, and blew through the comb to imitate the whizzing sound of a kazoo. Cool, huh? Another cool musical idea in the song has to be the outro that follows the line: “give us a wink and make me think of you.” What follows is a bunch of groans, heavy breathing, and wails most likely by John. While it’s definitely weird to hear, does it fit the song? Well, here is where the other meaning of the song comes into play though I will preface it by saying this is just a theory by myself & a small amount of other fans. Could the song be about masturbation? Think about it for a second. Paul himself said it was “sexy & sultry” and the last line before the section does say “give us a wink and make me think of you.” Starting to make a little sense or did I just upset a whole slew of people fond of the simple love song? Well, think about this then. Paul himself might not have written it about it as he’s never said it despite being very open about his song meanings. However, John himself might have had the thought in his mind when recording his part in the outro. John had an infamously sick sense of humor at time and liked to include random sex references into songs (the “wet dream” reference in “I’ve Got A Feeling” being a prime culprit). So maybe Paul wrote it about masturbation & told John or maybe John took it upon himself to make it that; either way, the outro gives an auditory image of someone having a fun time thinking of Rita. Why don’t you take a listen and make your own conclusion? I assure you that weird outro aside, the song is a great one that is overlooked on a jam-packed album so it’s great to see it show up here.

Song: Lovely Rita
Album: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
Year: 1968

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Though later called “a McCartney song through-and-through,” Paul would himself say that John wrote the song with him. While Paul handled most of the composition, John would add the lyrics to the chorus as well as sustained notes to the music which Paul later said made the song what it is. Paul said he drew his inspiration from a newspaper article about a girl who had run away from home in February 1967 without any of her belongings. The girl was Melanie Coe who, in an ironic (or not) fashion, had actually met the band in 1963 on the TV Show Ready Set Go after winning a competition. Paul himself was the one to award her for her miming skills! At first, Melanie didn’t realize the song was about her though she could see the similarities. After hearing Paul talk about the song in an interview, she was able to piece it together that she was the inspiration to the song. Coincidentally, Melanie said Paul even got most of her life right as she did feel like she was living alone for so many years and her parents had given her everything that money could buy. Kind of weird, huh?

The song itself was one of few that The Beatles didn’t play on such as “The Inner Light” which we already covered here. It doesn’t feature George or Ringo at all sadly and didn’t even feature the Fifth Beatle George Martin. Paul had called George up to do the arrangements for the song like he had done for most of their other work like “Eleanor Rigby,” but George was busy at the time. Impatient as always, Paul quickly snagged arranger Mike Leander to handle the song. Having been used for all their songs up to that moment, George Martin was understandably a little upset over this, but still produced the song. In an interesting bit of trivia, this would be the only song to feature authorized arrangements other than George Martin. I say authorized as the infamous Let It Be album featured arrangements by Phil Spector, though Paul McCartney has famously said he did not agree to those arrangements at all. Even without using Martin, The Beatles still turned out a wonderful song that was even respected by classical composers with Ned Rorem saying the song was “equal to any song that [Franz] Schubert ever wrote.” Not bad for a rock band.

Song: She’s Leaving Home
Album: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
Year: 1967

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