"Free as a Bird"

Song: "Free as a Bird"

Album: (Not Released on LP)

According to Yoko, George had, at some point, presented her with the idea of adding vocals and instrumentation to demos Lennon had recorded prior to his death.  Paul later visited her at her home in New York, following the ceremony inducting John into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and she gave him four tapes of unreleased material. The surviving Beatles selected and contributed to two, which were both then released as a promotion for The Beatles Anthology in 1995.

John’s performance in “Free as a Bird” comes from the demo he recorded at his apartment in 1977.  Jeff Lynne (of E.L.O. and The Traveling Wilburys) co-produced the final record to which Paul, George, and Ringo added tracks. The overdubs and production took place in February and March of 1994 at McCartey’s home studio in Sussex. Since the lead vocals and piano were recorded together on a cassette tape, they couldn’t be separated, and aside from breaking apart the song to move its pieces around, or adding the occasional space for Paul and George to add lead vocals, they had to follow the original structure of the song fairly closely. So they agreed to treat the project as such: John wrote and recorded his bit then stepped out of the studio for lunch (or perhaps tea). They also all agreed the recording for "Free as  Bird" was more pleasant than it was for the second song selected for Anthology, “Real Love.” It was like they were simply “filling in” an almost completed Lennon tune. 

"Get Back"

Song: “Get Back”

Album: Let It Be (1970)

“Get Back” was written by Paul and recorded in January 1969 during the “Get Back” sessions. It was released as a single in April, 1969 (and on the Let It Be LP in May 1970, shortly after the Beatles went their separate ways). 

An earlier version of the song was more racially charged, addressing immigration in the United States and Great Britain, and “get back” could be read as a cry for immigrants to leave.  Obviously, the final version is less complicated and controversial.

Billy Preston was brought in by Harrison and recorded keyboards for the track on January 22. His presence was also likely meant to ease tension within the group, which was plagued by infighting throughout the session.  The song was ultimately credited to “The Beatles with Billy Preston” and was the only single for which they requested another artist be credited with them.

“Get Back” was performed three times during “The Beatles Rooftop Performance” on the roof of Apple Studios in January of 1969. The third play was the final song of the performance and was interrupted by the police.

"Twist and Shout"

Song: “Twist and Shout”

Album: Please Please Me

“Twist and Shout” (originally titled “Shake It Up, Baby”) was written by Phil Medley and Bert Russell and performed by both the Top Notes and The Isley Brothers before it appeared on the Beatles Please Please Me in 1963. It was the last of eleven songs recorded during an epic 10-hour session on February 11, 1963. George Martin knew Lennon’s voice would take a hit from the performance so he waited until the last 15 minutes of the session to record it. Lennon was even fighting a cold at the time, producing a rasp that is evident on the record (and giving him only enough oomph for one take of the song). 

But it is John’s vocal that makes it one of the finest examples of early British rock, and the song is (at least) partially credited with the dawn of Beatlemania, as their energetic live performance of the song was popularized during widely-viewed performances on Sunday Night at the London Palladium (1963), The Royal Variety Show (1963), and the Ed Sullivan Show (1964).

The song continued to be a fixture at the Beatles’ live shows until 1965, and they recorded it nine times for BBC television and radio. In 1986, following the release of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (in which “Twist and Shout” is prominently featured in an iconic scene), the song re-entered the pop-charts, peaking at No. 23.  

The performance below is from The Royal Variety Show in 1963.

"Some Other Guy"

Song: "Some Other Guy"

Album: (Not Released on LP)

"Some Other Guy" was written by Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller, and Richard Barrett, and was first released by Barrett in 1962. The Beatles recorded the song the same year during a BBC radio session (which was later included on 1994’s Live at the BBC). It played an important role in the Beatles’ early success as it was a popular tune  at the Cavern Club. The video below, of John and Paul singing the song, is the only know existing synchronization of recorded sound with a Beatles performance at the club. And it’s the first film featuring Ringo as the Beatles’ drummer. 

An interesting nugget: John later paid homage to "Some Other Guy" by using the same two-chord intro in his single “Instant Karma.”

And another: This footage is from Wednesday, August 22, 1962—exactly 50 years ago today (heck, it was even on a Wednesday!).  

"I Saw Her Standing There"

Song: “I Saw Her Standing There”
Album: Please Please Me (1963)

“I Saw Her Standing There” is the first track on the Beatles’ debut LP, Please Please Me.” It was also released as a B-side in the U.S. (A-sided by “I Want To Hold Your Hand”). The song originated with McCartney (in fact, the Please Please Me liner notes credit the tune to McCartney-Lennon, instead of the more familiar Lennon-McCartney), but John and he collaborated in its completion.  It was first titled “Seventeen” and included the lyric, “She was just seventeen, never been a beauty queen,” which evidently induced howling laughter in John, who insisted the beauty queen bit be changed.   It was, as was the title.

The track was recorded at EMI in February of 1963, during the marathon recording session that included 10 of the 14 songs on the  Please Please Me LP.  Producer George Martin hoped to capture the energy of a Beatles’ concert by giving the album a live performance vibe. One of his techniques to this end was to include Paul’s “One, two, three, four! count-in at the beginning of this song (something that was usually removed during mixing).  Apparently The Ramones began most songs during their live sets with the same count-in, paying homage to the Beatles and “I Saw Her Standing There.”

"Two of Us"

Song: "Two of Us"
Album: Let it Be (1970)

Written by McCartney, “Two of Us” was originally titled “On Our Way Home” and recorded with a more electric/rock sound. McCartney didn’t care for it, though, and the band reworked it acoustically and recorded the final version that appeared on Let It Be in January 1969.

McCartney said the song was about (and dedicated to) his wife-to-be, Linda Eastman, but many critics (and fans) feel that some of the lyrics (like, “you and I have memories/longer than the road that stretches out ahead”) suggest that the song was actually about McCartney and Lennon.

"Money"

Song: “Money (That’s What I Want)”
Album: With the Beatles (1963).

Written by Janie Bradford and Berry Gordy, and originally recorded by Barret Strong in 1959, “Money (That’s What I Want)” was frequently covered in the 1960’s, including by the Beatles on their second U.K. release, With the Beatles. They discovered the original version in Brian Epstein’s record store (it had been released—but was not a hit—in the UK). They played it live and recorded it several times for BBC radio before they recorded it in July 1963 for the LP.

"Don't Let Me Down"

Song: “Don’t Let Me Down”

Album: (Not Released on LP)

Paul McCartney called John’s “Don’t Let Me Down” a “genuine plea” from Lennon to Ono, like he felt he was really taking a chance with her, making himself vulnerable in this new relationship.

It was recorded during the Get Back sessions on January 28, 1969, but was dropped by Phil Spector when he finished mixing what ultimately became the album Let It Be, but it was released as the B-side to the “Get Back” single.

The band performed the song twice during their rooftop concert two days later, and the version below appeared in the Let It Be film (although I think the audio's been dubbed from the original recording session).

And I think it's safe to say, whatever your feelings about Yoko, that she hasn't, even in the 30+ years since Lennon's death, ever let him down. She continues to be his biggest fan and defender. 

"And I Love Her"

Song: “And I Love Her”

Album: A Hard Day’s Night (1964)

Written primarily by McCartney and released as an A-side (B-sided by “If I fell”) in July 1964.  The song is also the fifth track on the Beatles’ third album, A Hard Day’s Night, which was released the same summer. 

Paul claimed credit for the middle eight (indicating John might have helped), but others, including Lennon himself, gave John more credit, indicating that he wrote the majority of it during the recording session for the song. Whatever the case, Lennon was impressed with the song, saying it was McCartney’s “first ‘Yesterday’.”

The Beatles performed the song live outside of Abbey Road Studios on July 14, 1964, and it was broadcast on the BBC’s Top Gear radio program two days later. If there’s video of that, I couldn’t find it. The clip below is from the film Hard Day’s Night.

"Baby's in Black"

Song: “Baby’s in Black”

Album: Beatles for Sale (1964)

“Baby’s in Black” was co-written by Lennon and McCartney and was released on Beatles for Sale in 1964 (Beatles ’65 in North America). It was the first song recorded for Beatles for Sale on August 11, 1964, and is about the grieving Astrid Kirchherr, a friend of the Beatles, following the death of her fiancée Stuart Sutcliffe.

Lennon and McCartney insisted on recording the vocal for the tune together, into the same microphone, at the same time.  They sang separate, simultaneous melodies, which Paul has continued to say they were both the primarily melody.  The result is one of my favorite Beatles’ harmonies.

The Beatles performed the song in concerts between 1964 and 1966, and, as you can see in this performance from Munich, John and Paul sang into the same microphone for the tune during live performances as well.

"Strawberry Fields Forever"

Song: “Strawberry Fields Forever”

Album: (Not Released on LP)

Lennon’s “Strawberry Fields Forever” is a meditation on his childhood that he wrote during a period of difficulty and change in 1966. The Beatles were no longer touring, John had just embroiled them in controversy with his “more popular than Jesus” comment, his marriage to Cynthia was crumbling, and he had increased his drug use, especially of the psychedelic LSD.  He’d said he’d always felt a bit different, shy, and self-doubting, but during this time he felt very disconnected—like he was on another plane of existence.

The song was the first recorded for Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, but it ultimately was left off the album, instead appearing as the B-side to “Penny Lane,” which made for a great A-side/B-side, as “Strawberry” is reflective of John’s suburban childhood and “Penny” is reflective of Paul’s.

The title comes from a Salvation Army house of the same name near John’s childhood home. John would frequently play there, and the “nothing to get hung about” line in the refrain is apparently from his Aunt Mimi’s rule about not playing there. John’s typical reply to her was, “They can’t hang you for it.”

“Strawberry Fields Forever” was fairly successful commercially, reaching number eight in the U.S., but it was a huge critical success and is often cited as one of the defining songs of psychedelic rock.

As legend has it, Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys heard the song while driving and had to pull over to listen to the whole thing because he was so taken by it, absorbed in it. The song might even have been responsible for The Beach Boys’ unfinished album, Smile, because with “Strawberry Fields Forever,” the Beatles had achieved what Wilson had hoped to with that album.

The promotional film below was filmed at the end of January, 1967 by Swedish television director Peter Goldman, and it implements numerous techniques, like stop-motion, jump-cuts, and reverse film effects, again paving the way for the modern music video.

A final note: the memorial for Lennon at Central Park in New York City is named for this song.

"I Want to Hold Your Hand"

Song: “I Want to Hold Your Hand”

Album: (Not Released on LP)

Written by Lennon and McCartney and recorded in October 1963, "I Want to Hold Your Hand" was instrumental to the Beatles success in the United States.

Epstein, worried about the band’s lack of success in the across the Atlantic, encouraged them to write a song that would appeal to American listeners. “I Want to Hold Your Hand” was that song. John and Paul composed it in the basement of the house of Jane Asher, Paul’s then-girlfriend. Lennon described it as a true collaboration between he and Paul, saying they wrote the song “eyeball to eyeball” and played into each other’s noses.

Epstein convinced Capitol Records to release the song as a single in the U.S. in December of 1963 (B-sided by “I Saw Her Standing There”). Fans loved it, but most critics, at least at first, dismissed it as fad music that wouldn’t pass the test of time.  Bob Dylan, however, was impressed by their “outrageous” chords. And the song was nominated for a Grammy Award for Record of the Year. But it lost to, of all songs, “The Girl from Ipanema.” I'm not kidding.

I believe the clip below is from the Beatles’ February 1964 performance on The Ed Sullivan Show.

"Revolution"

Song: “Revolution”

Album: (Not released on LP, but the original version, "Revolution 1," appeared on The Beatles (1968), aka The White Album)

“Revolution” by Lennon was a re-working of “Revolution 1,” which would later appear on The Beatles LP. It was meant to be a more single-friendly version of the song, which John hoped to release as an A-side.  Paul was worried about the potential political controversy, though, and George thought it was too slow.  It ultimately served as the B-side to “Hey Jude.”

The song grew out of the political protests of the late 1960’s. The Beatles had previously avoided political songwriting, but John thought it was time to speak up, to stop avoiding tough questions. “Revolution” reflects John’s views at the time, which were anti-war but not anti-establishment, which basically made everyone angry. The far-right, already suspicious of the Beatles (and their possible communist sympathies), thought the song went too far and was subversive. The far-left, on the other hand, thought the song didn’t go far enough, citing songs like the Rolling Stones’ “Street Fighting Man” as more sympathetic to their cause.

In any case, it’s a good, hard rocker. A song that’s difficult not to tap your foot to.

And while John’s political views continued to evolve in the last decade of his life, he indicated, as late as 1980, shortly before he died, that "Revolution" still stood as a good representation of his views.  He would always stand against what he believed was wrong, but he would never do so in violence.

"I Feel Fine"

Song: “I Feel Fine”

Album: (Not Released on LP)

“I Feel Fine” is the A-side of the Beatles eighth British single, released in November 1964.   Lennon composed the driving, catchy, and highly recognizable guitar riff in the studio while the band recorded “Eight Days a Week.” He subsequently wrote a whole song around it.

The Beatles, especially John, were interested in the technology of recording, and around the time this song was cut they had begun experimenting with sounds previously eliminated from recordings as mistakes—goofs, talkback, etc.  “I Feel Fine” marked the first instance of guitar feedback on a record. Other bands had previously used the effect in live recordings, but the Beatles were the first to include it on a single.

"Ticket to Ride"

Recorded in February 1965 and released as a single in April, “Ticket to Ride,” featured in both the album and film Help! (see clip below), marked important Beatles “firsts.” One of John’s favorite pieces of the song—the double-time coda “My baby don’t care”—took the tune to 3:11, making it the first Beatles’ single longer than three minutes. Also, “Ticket to Ride” is the first of the band’s songs to feature Paul on lead guitar.

While the song is primarily a Lennon composition, there is some dispute (as there often now is) about how big of a role McCartney played in its writing. John claimed that Paul was responsible for the way Ringo plays drums on the track. Paul claims that the two of them wrote the whole song together in a three-hour session, and it’s really more of a 60-40 composition, leaning slightly towards John.

Whatever the case, critics agree that “Ticket to Ride” is an important piece in the band’s canon, indicating a shift in their musical style. Many of the songs on Help! point to this shift. "Ride's" unique rhythm, chiming guitars, and heavy drumming make for weightier music than they’d previously released.

"You've Got to Hide Your Love Away"

Song: “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away”

Albume: Help! (1965)

Written be Lennon, “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away” is an acoustic-driven folkish song by John, heavily influenced by Bob Dylan.  The clip below is from the film Help!, and is yet another example of how the Beatles paved the way for the contemporary music video. The tune has no backing vocals and only light percussion, but musician John Scott recorded tenor and alto flute parts, making it the group’s first song (other than “Love Me Do”) to feature an outside musician.

Look past the silliness of the video and listen to the song with this in mind: Musician and gay activist Tom Robinson has said “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away” is likely about Brian Epstein, the Beatles’ manager, who was gay. It was common to stay in the closet at that time in Great Britain, where homosexuality was then a crime.

Sadly, Epstein died of an overdose (of sleeping pills) 45 years ago this month at the age of 32. There continues to be speculation about whether or not Epstein took his own life, but the official cause of death was ruled as accidental.