December 17, 1965, Granada TV Studios, Manchester
In 1965 Johnnie Hamp, like the rest of the country, was fascinated, intrigued and compelled by the phenomenon known as Beatlemania. And like the rest of the world he was a big fan of the band. Hamp had just acquired the position of head of light entertainment at Granada Television and knew that the band was swamped with offers. For anything to get their nod, it would have to be stylish, imaginative and in keeping with the band’s high standards.
That was when the idea of a show, introduced by John and Paul but dedicated to other artists singing their songs, was conceived. Hamp threw it the band’s way. Television rarely honored pop in such a manner, and the boys quickly signaled their approval.
Asked if they had any suggestions for artists themselves, the band requested Ella Fitzgerald. Her version of “Can’t Buy Me Love” had given the band an unexpected presence in the jazz world. Unfortunately, the singer was not available. Those who were included film composer Henry Mancini, duo Peter and Gordon, Dick Rivers (a French Rocker who sang “Things We Said Today” in French), Esther Phillips, Lulu, Peter Sellers, Cilla Black, Billy J. Kramer and Marianne Faithfull.
The show highlighted the duo’s great songwriting versatility—“She Loves You,” “A Hard Day’s Night” and “We Can Work It Out” representing their ability to craft highly catchy singles; “Yesterday,” especially, displaying a mature, deeper side. The show was made at a time when LSD was yet to feature strongly in John’s songwriting. The following April they would start recording the Revolver album, a work that would take them into a whole new field of artistic excellence. This show then in many ways marked the end of phase one of their writing, John’s particularly.
There is only one account of the two men writing songs pre-LSD and that occurs in Michael Braun’s book, Love Me Do (1964). He was allowed to sit in on the pair as they wrote the song, “One And One Is Two” for singer Billy J. Kramer. As the session started, Paul was at the piano and John was on the guitar. Paul had the first lines written and sang them to John. George stuck his head around the door and advised removing one of the repeated lines, John agreed and started considering other words that would fit the song. John then took over piano and Paul switched to guitar. They taped the finished song three times before Paul recorded a message for the publisher Dick James. Meanwhile, John was overheard saying, “Billy J. is finished when he gets this song.”
Lennon and McCartney’s initial ambition in life was to match the artistic excellence of the songwriting partnership Gerry Goffin and Carole King, whose songs they adored. When they began their partnership their way forward was to craft songs in a calculated fashion. There was never a thought of producing songs that expressed their own personal feelings.
John later said that he kept all his personal musings for his books, In His Own Write (1964) and A Spaniard In The Works (1965) but even they were clouded by wordplay. That is why in their early songs they directly addressed their fans—“Love Me Do,” “She Loves You,” “From Me To You,” “All My Loving.” In doing so, they wrote songs that every one of their fans thought was written personally to them and them alone. “I’d have a separate songwriting John Lennon who wrote songs for the meat market,” he later confessed, “and I don’t consider the lyrics to have any depth at all, they were just a joke.”
The men’s antennae were sharp and attentive and picked up on all kinds of influences. Lennon’s “Please Please Me” was inspired by the 1932 Bing Crosby song “Please” in which the singer swooped and swapped between the words, “please” and “pleas.” John’s song “Run For Your Life” was inspired by a line in the Elvis Presley song, “Baby, Let’s Play House.” Naturally, other musicians inspired them. John was forever trying to emulate one of his heroes Smokey Robinson, and the band was always trying to write an authentic Motown song.
John’s songwriting changed after he heard Bob Dylan and he started to adopt a more personal style. His songs, “You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away,” “Help!” and “I’m A Loser” all signposted this new direction, and his song “Nowhere Man” has the distinction of being the first Beatles song not to deal with love.
Two media people also played their part in Lennon’s development. The writer Maureen Cleave asked him why his songs never carried words with more than two syllables. He replied by writing “Help!” and deliberately inserting words such as “independence” and “appreciate.” The other influence was the TV presenter Kenneth Allsop. He had been impressed by John’s book, In His Own Write, and asked the Beatle why he explored his deeper feelings in print, but not in his songs. Lennon took the criticism on board and responded with “I’m A Loser,” a startling admission for a smiling Beatle at the top of his game. This strain of songwriting found its apotheosis with “In My Life,” which with its beautiful melody and wistful, restrained vocals, brilliantly evoked John’s past, his friends, his family, his Liverpool.
McCartney was always more straightforward. His early songs stuck to the tricks of the trade and if he did move outside the boundaries, it was normally as a reaction to John. When John wrote “I’m A Loser,” Paul retorted with “I’m Down”; when John wrote “In My Life,” Paul penned a song called “Penny Lane,” which looked at his past in Liverpool.
Unlike John, Paul sometimes struggled with words but made up for it with his wondrous melodic gifts. This is the man who woke up with the melody for “Yesterday” in his head, convinced it belonged to someone else, so familiar was its nature. That song alone, covered by thousands of artists, would guarantee anyone a place at the top table. When one then discovers that his song “Michelle” was written as a teenager and played as a joke at Beatnik parties in Liverpool, one’s admiration can only grow.
Musically, The Beatles were born in a fortuitous time and place. Liverpool is a music town. When growing up, there were hundreds of venues dedicated to live music of every sort. Music spilled out of pubs and clubs as much as the drunks. All four Beatles absorbed this music and were deeply influenced by it. This meant that they sucked in country and western, jazz, blues, early R&B and swing. McCartney was also attentive to the music his father played in the family home. Jim McCartney adored the standards of the 1930s and 40s and his son would often employ such devices and sounds in his own work. John was the same: “Honey Pie” and “Goodnight” from The Beatles double album (The White Album) are just two examples.
The perverse nature of youth-culture music (I’m a Rocker so I won’t listen to soul; I’m a Mod so I won’t listen to Elvis) bypassed The Beatles. They loved music of all kinds and all natures, and by aligning their talent with the music of the past that they had unconsciously soaked up, they were able to forge their own unique style and sound.
The Music Of Lennon And McCartney was transmitted on December 17, 1965. Few could have predicted that the two men who introduced the acts then played their new single, “We Can Work It Out,” were just about to take their music to yet another level with Revolver, the album many consider their best—and therefore the best album ever made.