Song: “I’ll Be on My Way”
Album: (Not Released on LP)
“I’ll Be on My Way” was likely the first single that Lennon
and McCartney “gave away.”The song,
which John credited to Paul, was first recorded and released by Billy J. Kramer
(another act managed by Epstein and produced by Martin) in April of 1963,
B-sided by another Lennon-McCartney composition, “Do You Want to Know a
Secret.”The Kramer version reached
number two in the UK charts (beat out by the Beatles “From Me to You,” which
occupied the number one spot.
The Beatles also recorded their own version of the song that
April. It was broadcast on the BBC’s Side
by Side in June 1963, and it’s their only known recording of the song.
Song: “Please Please Me”
Album: Please Please Me (1963)
Lennon’s “Please Please
Me” was the title track to the Beatles’ first LP and their second UK single
(first in the United States).Originally
B-sided by “Ask Me Why,” the song was not particularly successful, but it was
re-released in January 1964, this time coupled with “From Me to You,” and it
rose to number three on the US Hot 100.
Despite the success of
“Love Me Do,” the Beatles weren’t widely known outside of Liverpool and
Hamburg. In fact, they were still obliged to perform their last stint in
Germany when “Love Me Do” entered the British charts, preventing them from
actively promoting the tune elsewhere.But Producer George Martin saw enough promise in them to record a second
single. He did not, however, have a lot of faith in “Please Please Me.” He
considered it slow and rather unremarkable (Lennon originally conceived of it
as a slow, bluesy song a la Roy Orbison’s “Only the Lonely”), and he would have
preferred that they release their earlier recording of Mitch Murray’s “How do You Do It?”
as their next single.But he was swayed
by their insistence that they record their own material and by, in Martin’s mind, a much-improved livelier version of
“Please Please Me” they later played for him. Instead of being Orbison-influenced, this
version borrowed more from the Everly Brothers, with John’s harmonica skills featured prominently and Paul’s high note held over the cascading melody.
“The
Long and Winding Road” was the Beatles’ 20th (and final) number one
song in the United States and the last single released by the band while all
members were still alive.While immensely
popular upon its release, Paul (the song’s primary composer) was enormously
displeased with Phil Spector’s production of it—so much so that he cited
Spector’s treatment of the song as one of six reasons for the legal split of
the Beatles.
Paul wrote the song at his farm in Scotland during a time of
growing tension in the band (providing its metaphorical heft), but the “long
and winding road” is also said to be a physical reference to the B842 road
running along the east coast of Kintyre into Cambeltown in Scotland.
Paul cut an early demo of the tune in September 1968 during The Beatles (The White Album) sessions. The final recording was cut on January 26 and
31, 1969, just days before and a day after the legendary rooftop concert. In
early 1970, Spector was presented with the tapes from the Get Back sessions to remix the songs for an album. He gave
particular attention to “The Long and Winding Road.” Citing John’s poor bass
performance on the track, he remixed it with an orchestration that included 18
violins, 4 violas, 3 cellos, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, 2 guitars, and achoir of
14 women, which was arguably a bit overkill for a seemingly minor problem (and
certainly in direct opposition to the Beatles’ stated “back to basics” intent
for the album).
A simpler mix was released with the Beatles Anthology in 1996. And in 2003, The Beatles and Yoko Ono
release Let It Be…Naked, which
contains “stripped down” cuts of all of the album tracks, including (and
probably, especially) “The Long and
Winding Road.” This version of the album contained no strings or other
instrumentation that wasn’t played in the studio during the original
recordings, which brought the album in line with (or, at least, much closer to)
its intended form.
Ringo, who never had any problem with the sting arrangment
Spector added (beyond Spector’s odd, eccentric behavior during the mixing
process), liked the Naked version of
the tune, saying that it’d been over thirty years since he’d heard it without
all of the added instrumentation, and it blew him away. Spector has criticized
Paul for being so overly sensitive about the original album version, citing
that McCartney had no problem accepting the Oscar for the Let It Be soundtrack or adopting some of Spector’s arrangement when
performing the song on tour in the years since.
The closing lyrics in the single version of the song include
Paul’s refrain, “Yeah, yeah, yeah,” fittingly harkening back to the Beatles’
early hits as they played off into the sunset.
Written
by Lennon, “Tell Me Why” was recorded in eight takes in February 1964. The
video below was filmed the next month at the Scala Theatre in London and can be
seen during the studio performance portion of A Hard Day’s Night. The lyrics are far more biting than the
harmonies and doo-wop structure suggest, and Paul later reflected that this,
like many of Lennon’s songs, was likely drawn from personal experiences, but
neither McCartney, Starr, or Harrison realized it at the time.
Written by McCartney and Lennon (and considered one of their
most collaborative efforts), “From Me to You” was released as a single in 1963
and became the first number one hit on some of the British charts (second on
others).But it was not an immediate hit
in the U.S. In fact, it took Del Shannon’s cover version a year later to put
the song in the American pop charts (making it the first song written by Lennon
and McCartney to enter the U.S. charts). It was one of the last Beatles tunes
attributed to McCartney-Lennon (before taking on the Lennon-McCartney label for
good).
Inspired by some of the letters featured in New Musical Express, Paul and John began
writing “From Me to You” during a ride to Shrewsbury for a show. Performer
Kenny Lynch, who was on the same coach, apparently considered himself something
of a songwriter and tried to “help” the two before exasperatedly proclaiming
the song “bloody rubbish” by “idiots” who “don’t know music from their
backsides.”
But Paul has said that it was a “pivotal” song for the
group, marking innovation in their song structure and chord use. And the
opening “da da da da da dum dum da,” which was suggested by George Martin (and
the band at first thought unusual), proved successful, indicating to the group Martin’s
musical savvy—and perhaps cementing their trust in him.
McCartney has pointed
out that this tune—like many of their early numbers—uses “I” or “me” or “you”
as a way of connecting directly to the listener. But although this particular
song uses first person pronouns, it has no lead singer.
Paul claims he first realized the impact the Beatles had
on the musical world when he heard a milkman whistling "From Me to You."
“I’ll Cry Instead” is a Lennon tune
recorded for the A Hard Day’s Night
soundtrack.Although director Richard
Lester ultimately decided to use “Can’t Buy Me Love” in the sequence, John wrote “I’ll Cry
Instead” for the band’s breakout scene in the film. And while it wasn’t used
in the original film, the 45 release was listed as “From the United
Artists Picture, A Hard Day’s Night.” Plus Walter Shenson’s 1981 re-release of the film includes the tune over a
redone opening sequence that includes a retro-style photo collage (see the promo for the film below).
Cynthia Lennon—John’s first wife—has
said that the song reflects Lennon’s frustration during that period, gaining
tremendous fame but losing the freedom of his youth.
