Who Wrote the Beatle Songs

by Todd M Compton

  In his comments after the breakup, John claimed “Hello Little Girl” and referred to it as his first good song. In 1971, an interviewer wrote, “The first satisfactory tune he remembers writing was ‘Hello Little Girl.’” [55] John said, “Me — this was another very early song of mine.” [56] At about the same time, he said, “This was one of the first songs I ever finished. I was then about eighteen . . . I think it was the first song of my own that I ever attempted to do with the group.” [57]

  However, in John’s earliest mention of the song, in 1964, he seemed to put it in a list of collaborative songs. “It [Lennon-McCartney collaboration] started in school holidays. I was about 15. . .We did ‘Like Dreamers Do’ . . . ‘Hello Little Girl’. . . ‘Love of the Loved’ and ‘Please Please Me.’” [58] This reference is impressively early. So “Hello Little Girl” was probably a John song, finished up with collaboration. [59] In 1995, Miles, working with McCartney interviews, referred to “Hello Little Girl” and another song given to the Fourmost as “Lennon-McCartney compositions.” [60]

  The Fourmost were another Liverpool band managed by Brian Epstein, and this song was produced by George Martin. [61]

  Just In Case (Boudleaux and Felice Bryant)

  “Love of the Loved / Shy Of Love” single — Cilla Black, September 27, 1963

  Love of the Loved — (McCartney-Lennon)

  This was written by Paul as a teen, but was apparently polished with the help of John. According to Lewisohn, Paul wrote it on his Zenith one night as he walked home to Allerton. [62] Paul’s girlfriend at the time, Dorothy “Dot” Rhone, said that Paul told her that he had written the song for her. [63] The Beatles recorded this at the Decca Audition, but it was not released in the Beatles Anthology , unlike the other two Lennon-McCartney Decca audition songs.

  John post-breakup definitely ascribed “Love of the Loved” to Paul. In 1971, he said, “Paul. One of his very early songs, but I think he changed the words later for Cilla.” [64] However, in his earliest comment on the song, in 1964, he seemed to remember collaboration. [65]

  As the earlier testimony is preferable, I see this as a Paul song polished with some collaboration.

  Cilla Black, ironically born Priscilla Maria Veronica White, sang with a number of Liverpool groups; she worked as a cloak room attendant at the Cavern when the Beatles met her. Brian Epstein became her manager in 1963. “Love of the Loved” only reached 35 on the charts, but her second single, Bacharach and David’s “Anyone Who Had a Heart,” was a solid success, and she went on to a successful career as singer, actress and TV personality. [66]

  Shy Of Love (Bobby Willis)

  “I’ll Keep You Satisfied / I Know” single — Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas, November 1, 1963

  I’ll Keep You Satisfied — (McCartney-Lennon)

  (recorded on October 14, 1963)

  This was another “commissioned song.” Apparently, Paul had the beginnings of it, then he and John sat down in a songwriting session and developed it into its final form. I say apparently, as Paul and John supply contradictory evidence here. John, after the breakup, twice ascribed it to Paul alone. [67] But in Paul’s only description of writing this song (in the 1990s), he remembered collaboration: “It was pretty much co-written: John and I sat down and purposely wrote it for Billy J. in a couple of hours.” [68]

  Though Paul hated some of the “given away” songs from this period, he continued to have a fondness for “I’ll Keep You Satisfied.” “This is one I still like. I find myself whistling it in the garden,” he said. [69]

  I Know (George Martin, Bob Wooller)

  “I Wanna Be Your Man / Stoned” single, Rolling Stones, November 1, 1963

  I Wanna Be Your Man — (McCartney-Lennon)

  See With the Beatles album, below.

  Stoned (Nanker Phelge: a pseudonym for the Rolling Stones)

  “I’m In Love / Respectable” single — The Fourmost, November 15, 1963

  I’m In Love — (Lennon-McCartney)

  (recorded a few days after October 14, 1963)

  In 1971 John claimed this: “Me — I wrote it for the Fourmost.” [70] But in 1980, he couldn’t remember anything about writing it (though the song sounded like his style, he thought). [71] In 1995, Miles, working with McCartney interviews, referred to it and “Hello Little Girl” as “Lennon-McCartney compositions,” and Paul talked about the limitations of those songs. [72]

  It was probably a Lennon song finished with collaboration.

  Though the song was written for The Fourmost, apparently the Beatles offered it to Billy J. Kramer first, and he recorded it on October 14, 1963. [73] He decided not to release the song, so the Fourmost recorded it a few days later. A Beatles-era demo of the song, sung by John, has been released on The Beatles Bootleg Recordings 1963 , see below.

  Respectable (O’Kelly Isley, Ronald Isley, Rudolph Isley)

  With the Beatles album, November 22, 1963

  After this remarkable series of songs written for other artists, the Beatles released their second album. This was not as revolutionary as Please Please Me , but like that album, it was a marvelous offering of solid Beatle originals mixed with great covers. In the live-show album tradition so typical of the early Beatles albums, it ends with a screamer, “Money (That's What I Want).”

  It Won’t Be Long — (Lennon-McCartney)

  (lead vocals: John) (recorded on July 30, 1963)

  This was probably a song begun by John, then developed in a songwriting session. Once again, in post-breakup interviews, John emphasizes separate authorship, while Paul emphasizes collaboration. “Me. I wrote this on the second album,” John said in 1971. [74] And in 1980, he asserted that the song was “mine. It was my attempt at writing another single.” [75] But Paul remembered a writing session, possibly from an idea by John: “John mainly sang it so I expect that it was his original idea but we both sat down and wrote it together.” [76]

  All I’ve Got to Do — (Lennon)

  (lead vocals: John) (recorded on September 11, 1963)

  John claimed “All I’ve Got to Do.” “That’s me trying to do Smokey Robinson,” he said in 1980. [77] Paul seems to agree — he said that he heard it first in the studio, just before it was recorded. [78]

  All My Loving — (McCartney)

  (lead vocals: Paul) (recorded on July 30, 1963)

  Paul wrote the words to this one day on a tour bus during the tour with Roy Orbison (and thus in the period May 18 to June 19, 1963), then, after getting off the bus, worked out the melody on a piano in a backstage area. [79] Since he wrote most of his songs with the music first, he called this “working backwards.” Paul was so focused on music that getting the words for a song first was a remarkable event. “The first time I’ve ever worked upside down,” he said in 1984. [80]

  Both John and Paul agreed that Paul wrote this song. In 1965, Paul gave it as an example of a song he wrote on his own. [81] John said, in 1971: “Paul. This was one of his first biggies.” And in 1980, he praised it: “‘All My Loving’ is Paul. I regret to say. Ha-ha-ha. Q: Why? Because it’s a damn good piece.” [82]

  Don’t Bother Me (Harrison)

  (lead vocals: George) (recorded on September 11–12, 1963)

  This was George’s first Beatles song, written in August 1963, in a hotel in Bournemouth, on the south coast of England. He was sick in bed as he wrote it: “maybe that’s why it turned out to be ‘Don’t Bother Me.’” [83] Not as much a songwriter as his two bandmates, he wrote it just to see if he could write a song. [84]

  Journalist Bill Harry tells a different story, asserting that he was badgering George to write some songs, and George, annoyed, wrote “Don’t Bother Me” in response. [85]

  Little Child — (collaboration)

  (lead vocals: John, Paul) (recorded on September 11–12 and October 3, 1963)

  Paul referred to “Little Child” as a “work job,” written in a couple of hours with John to get a song for Ringo to sing. Certain songs were “inspirational�
� but this wasn’t one of them. [86] As it turned out, John and Paul, not Ringo, sang the song. John also remembered it as a jointly-written song. “Both of us. This was a knock-off between Paul and me for Ringo,” he said in 1971. [87]

  Paul’s contrast of “work” songs with “inspirational” songs shows how he and John had begun to learn the craft of songwriting. Just as the Beatles had learned to play eight-hour sets in Germany, the two songwriters were learning to produce songs quickly, on order.

  Till There Was You (COVER) (Meredith Willson)

  (lead vocals: Paul)

  Paul had heard this song from Music Man in a 1961 Peggy Lee recording, and began playing it with the Beatles. They performed it at the Decca Audition. Paul has gone out of his way to defend the inclusion of non-rock’n’roll songs, such as this, in the Beatles’ repertoire. “Rock’n’roll wasn’t all I liked in music,” he said. [88] He loved the old standard tunes partially as the result of his father’s influence, but he also felt that the Beatles’ range set them apart from more limited groups. [89]

  Please Mr. Postman (COVER) (Brian Holland, Robert Bateman, Berry Gordy)

  (lead vocals: John)

  This was a hit for the Marvelettes, a Motown girls group, in 1961.

  SIDE TWO

  Roll Over Beethoven (COVER) (Chuck Berry)

  (lead vocals: George)

  This was released as a single by Chuck Berry in 1956 and quickly became a rock’n’roll standard. It was a Beatle standby. [90] Live versions can be found on Beatles at the BBC, volumes 1 and 2, and Anthology 1 .

  Hold Me Tight — (McCartney-Lennon)

  (lead vocals: Paul) (recorded on February 11, September 12, 1963)

  Paul apparently started this song, then he and John worked on it together at Forthlin Road. [91] Paul called it a “work” song, “a bit Shirelles.” [92] This was a fairly early song that the Beatles had played at the Cavern.

  Neither Paul nor John commented on it until the eighties, when their memories were not fresh. John ascribed it to Paul, and wasn’t sure if he added anything to it. [93] It’s probably the familiar pattern of a work session after one of them started the song.

  This had been recorded for Please Please Me , but just missed the cut, so they recorded it again for With the Beatles , on September 12.

  You Really Got A Hold On Me (COVER) (William

  “Smokey” Robinson)

  (lead vocals: John, George)

  This song, a hit for the Miracles in 1962, is one of many Beatle covers showing the deep impact Motown had on them. It can also be found in Live at the BBC , and John gives a memorable performance of it in Let It Be , the movie.

  I Wanna Be Your Man (McCartney-Lennon)

  (lead vocals: Ringo) (recorded on September 11, 12, 30, and October 3, 23, 1963)

  As Paul and John tell the story, they had recommended the Rolling Stones to Decca, and later Mick Jagger [94] asked Paul and John for a song. Paul said, in 1984, “We met Mick and Keith in a taxi one day in Charing Cross Road and Mick said, ‘Have you got any songs?’ So we said, ‘Well, we just happen to have one with us!’” [95] They went to a club and played this for the Stones — no more than an incomplete song by Paul which he had written for Ringo. [96] When the Stones agreed that the song was in their style, Paul and John went into another part of the room and finished it off, probably adding another verse to the lyrics. John said, in 1980, “And we came back. And that’s when Mick and Keith got inspired to write, they said, “Jesus, look at that. They just went in the corner and wrote it and came back!’ Right in front of their eyes we did it.” [97] This probably occurred on September 10, 1963. [98]

  Paul took credit for this song in 1984: “I wrote it for Ringo to do on one of the early albums.” [99] However, in two subsequent interviews, he referred to it as a collaboration: “We wrote ‘I Wanna Be Your Man’ for Ringo,” he said in 1995, [100] and five years later, he stated, “So we tried to write something else for Ringo, something like ‘Boys,’ and we came up with ‘I Wanna Be Your Man’ — a Bo Diddley kind of thing.” [101]

  Lennon, in his earliest comment on the song, in 1971, ascribed the original song to Paul but then mentioned collaboration: “Both of us, but mainly Paul . . . I helped him finish it.” [102] Ten years later, he referred to it as “a kind of lick Paul had, ‘I wanna be your lover, baby, I wanna be your man.’” [103]

  Thus this is a typical early Beatles songwriting process: one of the two started the song, then the other helped finish it in songwriting sessions. So when in later interviews, Paul or John mentioned the original writing or the subsequent collaboration, the interviews can seem contradictory, but they probably are only emphasizing different stages in the songwriting process.

  The Stones recorded “I Wanna Be Your Man” on October 7 and it was released as their second single on November 1, 1963; it reached 12 on the U.K. charts.

  Devil In Her Heart (COVER) (Richard B. Drapkin)

  (lead vocals: George)

  The Donays, a girl group from Detroit, released this, their only record, in 1962.

  Not a Second Time — (Lennon-McCartney)

  (lead vocals: John) (recorded on September 11, 1963)

  This looks like a song started by John, then finished with collaboration. Like many of the early Beatle songs, it was Motown-influenced: “To me, I was writing a Smokey Robinson or something at the time,” John said. [104]

  He claimed it in a number of interviews. “I wrote this for the second album,” he said in the early 70s. [105] But in a familiar pattern, Paul remembered collaboration:

  William Mann in the Times wrote of the descending “Aeolian cadence” in our song “Not a Second Time” . . . We hadn’t been conscious of any of that. We just did our songs in hotel rooms whenever we had a spare moment; John and I, sitting on twin beds with guitars. He on one bed, me on another. [106]

  Money (That’s What I Want) (COVER) (Berry Gordy, Janie Bradford)

  (lead vocals: John)

  “Money” is the screamer that ends this “album as Cavern performance.” A 1959 Barrett Strong single, it was co-written by Berry Gordy, the founder of Motown, and was in fact Motown’s first hit. It gives an exclamation point to the strong Motown influence on this album.

  The Beatles had also recorded “Money” in the Decca Audition, and other versions can be found on Anthology 1 , On Air — Live at the BBC Volume 2 , and Plastic Ono Band’s Live Peace in Toronto 1969 .

  * * *

  [1] Lennon in Smith, “Throat Sweets Keep Us Going” (1963) and in “From ‘You To Us’ Inspired ‘From Me To You’” (1963). Ray Coleman, interview with the Beatles, in Melody Maker , Oct. 17, 1964 (Sandercombe, The Beatles: Press Reports , 94). Hennessey, “Who Wrote What” (1971). Aldridge, Beatles Illustrated Lyrics , 166. Paul said they wrote it after hearing Roy Orbison play a new song for them, Anthology , 94, but they toured with Orbison in May to June, 1963, after “From Me to You” was released.

  [2] Lennon in Smith, “Throat Sweets Keep Us Going” (1963).

  [3] “‘From You To Us’ Inspired ‘From Me To You’” (1963).

  [4] Sheff, The Playboy Interviews ( 1980), 179.

  [5] Ibid., 150.

  [6] Lewisohn, “The Paul McCartney Interview” (1988), 10.

  [7] Miles, Many Years From Now , 149.

  [8] As quoted in Turner, A Hard Day’s Write , 31.

  [9] Wenner, Lennon Remembers , 83; Hennessey, “Lennon: the Greatest Natural Songwriter,” 12. George Martin remembered it as a full collaboration also, Williams, “Produced by George Martin.”

  [10] Interview in Smith, Off the Record , 201. See also Miles, Many Years From Now , 149.

  [11] Smith, “Throat Sweets Keep Us Going Say Beatles!” Cf. Lennon before 1972 (Aldridge, Beatles Illustrated Lyrics , 166): “Paul and I wrote this as a B-side.”

  [12] Hennessey, “Who Wrote What,” Record Mirror . Also Sheff, The Playboy Interviews, 180.

  [13] Miles, Many Years From Now , 149.

  [14] Hennes
sey, “Who Wrote What,” Record Mirror. Sheff, The Playboy Interviews, 180. Wenner, Lennon Remembers , 26.

  [15] Miles, Many Years From Now , 180.

  [16] Unterberger, Unreleased Beatles , 55.

  [17] For the non-Beatles who sang Lennon-McCartney songs, see Engelhardt, Beatles Undercover ; Unterberger, Unreleased Beatles , 341-54.

  [18] Engelhardt, Beatles Undercover , 224-25.

  [19] Miles, Many Years From Now , 182.

  [20] Sheff, The Playboy Interviews, 181-82.

  [21] Sheff, The Playboy Interviews, 180.

  [22] Ray Coleman, interview with the Beatles, in Melody Maker , Oct. 17, 1964 (Sandercombe, The Beatles: Press Reports , 94).

  [23] Smith, “Close-Up on Paul McCartney” (1963).

  [24] Lewisohn, “The Paul McCartney Interview,” (1988), 8. Read, “McCartney on McCartney,” episode 2.

  [25] Hennessey, “Who Wrote What,” Record Mirror. See also Aldridge, The Beatles Illustrated Lyrics , 259: “I wrote this in Spain for Billy J. Kramer.”

  [26] Sheff, The Playboy Interviews (1980), 180.

  [27] See also Tony Mansfield (of the Dakotas) in Giuliano, The Beatles: A Celebration , 44, who reflects collaboration.

  [28] Miles, Many Years From Now (1995), 182.

  [29] Sheff, The Playboy Interviews, 203. Also in 1971, Hennessey, “Who Wrote What,” Record Mirror.