5
“He’d bring them in, we’d check ‘em” —
A
HARD DAY’S NIGHT
A Hard Day’s Night presents a striking contrast to the Beatles’ earlier albums, as it contains all original songs. In fact, the major release that immediately preceded it, the Long Tall Sally EP, might have led Beatle observers to expect a predominance of covers. (And in fact, they still had a vast repertoire of covers they could have drawn on.) Instead, the Beatles released an entire album of newly-written original songs. So this album represents a watershed in the group’s creative development.
On the authorship of the Lennon-McCartney songs on this album, Paul said, in a very early interview:
John wrote some which when we got back to England I finished off with him. He sort of half wrote them, and then when I — when we both got back, you know, we talked about them, and finished them off. . . . We normally help each other. Maybe if John writes a song, I sort of say, well, that’s no good, and that’s very good, and that’s no good, and we talk about the song together and work it out, y’know. [1]
This attests to both original authorship of many songs on the album, and collaborative work on them.
A number of the Beatles’ albums were connected to movies: aside from A Hard Day’s Night, we have Help! , Magical Mystery Tour , Yellow Submarine and Let It Be . The Hard Day’s Night movie, however, based on the Beatles’ manic daily life after they hit stardom, was probably the best.
John and Paul wrote this together from the ground up. On October 16, 1963 they were in the basement, the music room, in the house of Paul’s new girlfriend, Jane Asher, [2] and evidently, the pressure was on for them to write a new single. So they started pounding on the piano together. Then they got the “catch line,” “I want to hold your hand” — “and so we started working on it from there,” said Paul in an early interview. “We got our pens and paper out, and we just wrote the lyrics down. And uhh, eventually you know, we had some sort of a song.” [3] John remembered Paul coming up with a striking chord, and he immediately recognized it as right: “That’s it! Do that again!” [4] They recorded the song the next day. [5]
Both Paul and John remembered collaboration on this song. In 1970, John said, “I like ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand,’ we wrote that together — it’s a beautiful melody.” [6] Later he used it as an example of how they would spend “hours and hours and hours” writing together. [7]
Paul agreed, saying that he and John used to write “facing each other, eyeball to eyeball, exactly like looking in the mirror. That’s how songs like ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’ were written.” [8]
In a 1964 interview, Paul and John told a bizarre story of wandering into an abandoned house that happened to have a piano and an organ in the basement and writing the song there. [9] In fact, this was a joke cover story to hide the fact that Paul was having a relationship with Jane Asher. Paul and the eighteen-year-old Jane had met on April 18, 1963, and soon became close. He moved into the Asher house, 57 Wimpole Street, Marylebone, London, in November, and would live there for some three years. Jane and her family apparently opened up a new world of urban sophistication to Paul that he’d never known before.
Paul and John had remarkably different memories of writing this song, and typically Paul remembers collaboration and John remembers individual authorship. According to Paul, the band arrived at a hotel room at one in the afternoon and had a couple hours free. So John and Paul decided to write a song. They sat on twin beds and wrote this from the ground up (per Paul). He remembered the details of the room, the beds, “the G-Plan furniture, the British hotel with olive green and orange everywhere.” They eventually arranged the song in three part harmony (singing a duet, then adding a part for George), which was a departure for them — Paul said that they took Phil Spector’s “To Know Him Is to Love Him” (which the Beatles had played at the Decca audition) as their model. [10] John, however, sang the middle section solo.
While Paul had strong visual memories of collaboration, John claimed the song for himself, starting in 1971. Ten years later, he said it was “my attempt at writing one of those black B-side records that have nice three-part-harmony and sort of Smokey Robinson songs.” [11] He offered it as an example of his interest in melody: “When I go back in my own songs — . . . early attempts at melodies — ‘This Boy’ or any sort of early Beatle stuff, of course I was writing melodic “muzak” (in quotes) with the best of them.” [12]
I accept Paul’s witness to collaboration — his vivid memories of the place of writing are convincing, and in addition, a song sung as a duet is often a sign of collaboration. Furthermore, most early Beatles songs were written with some degree of collaboration. However, John may have dominated the songwriting session, or begun the song, and the fact that he sings the middle might be evidence for this.
This is a very early song by Paul, written when he was sixteen, at his home in Forthlin Road. [13] One day he introduced it to the Beatles with a jaunty introduction, “Listen to this song, fellers.” However, when he sang the first line, “Please lock me away,” they collapsed in laughter. [14] Though Ringo liked the song, Paul decided it wasn’t Beatleworthy. He first offered it to Billy J. Kramer, who rejected it, but Peter Asher, Jane Asher’s brother, leader of the duo Peter and Gordon, liked it. [15] “Oh sure,” Paul said to him. “We don’t want it.” [16]
After Peter kept urging Paul to finish the song, he added a bridge, [17] and perhaps significantly, he didn’t change the first line. The single was quite successful, reaching number one in the U.K. and U.S. (which is one more warning that “the songs the Beatles gave away” were not uniformly second rate.)
Both Paul and John agreed that this was a McCartney song. In 1965, he gave it as the first example of a song he had written entirely on his own. [18] Thirty years later, he said, “It was an early song of mine that we didn’t use for the Beatles.” [19] John, asked about the song in 1980, said that Paul had the song even before the Beatles. [20]
In 1964, Paul twice referred to it as a co-written song, but he was probably just making a nod to the “Lennon-McCartney” label. [21]
Peter and Gordon went on to a successful recording career in the U.K. and U.S., and Peter later managed artists such as Linda Ronstadt and James Taylor in the states. [22]
“Can’t Buy Me Love” was written while the Beatles were in Paris in January 1964. [23] It’s a McCartney song, but Lennon helped finish it. There are pictures of them composing or rehearsing in the George V hotel, Paul and John on piano, George with guitar. [24] Journalists Billy Shepherd and Johnny Dean reported seeing the Beatles “huddled round a piano in the plushly-magnificent Hotel George Cinq in Paris . . . with Paul and John furiously working on last-minute songs for recording and for a film.” [25]
Both Paul and John agree that this was mainly a Paul song. However, they produce contradictory testimony on whether it was a collaboration or not. Paul claimed it in 1965: “What did I write on my own? Oh, . . . ‘Can’t Buy Me Love.” [26] Thirty years later, he said, “‘Can’t Buy Me Love’ is my attempt to write a bluesy mode.” [27] However, his earliest statement, apparently in 1964, mentions collaboration. “This was written really when we were in Paris. We had to have a new record ready for recording in England and we were going to record a song in Paris as well, so we wrote ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’ there and we recorded the first track of it in Paris and we finished it off in London. It’s a two-country effort.” [28]
John’s statements definitely attributed the song mainly to Paul, but also reflected some collaboration. “John and Paul, but mainly Paul,” he said in 1971. [29] After thus pointing to definite collaboration, he referred to it in 1980 as “Paul’s completely.” After such a resounding attribution, he goes on to undercut himself by stating that he might have helped with the middle of the song. But then he retreats from that idea! “But I don’t know. I always considered it his song.” [30] Repeatedly, in dealing with the Beatle songwriting interviews, we’re brought face to face with the fragility of memory.
An early statement by George Harrison also reflects collaboration: “They [Lennon and McCartney] did ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’ in Paris.” [31]
I conclude that this is a Paul song, finished with collaboration. It is another example of how a song can be firmly “owned” by one or the other writers, but can be finished up in a songwriting session, with music or word editing from the other member of the team.
George said the song was written in Miami Beach, Florida, from February 14 to 21, 1964. [32] John claimed this song in the early seventies, saying that he was trying to trying to emulate rhythm and blues star Wilson Pickett. [33] Miles, presumably reflecting Paul McCartney, also ascribed it to John. [34]
Pickett is best known for “In the Midnight Hour” (1965); his album It’s Too Late had been released in 1963. [35]
This is one of the 1962 Hamburg recordings, which was finally released now as Polydor sought to capitalize on every possible scrap of Beatles recordings. It is the first professionally recorded Beatles performance with vocals, but otherwise has little interest, except for completists. The recording was also released as a single in the U.K. on May 29, 1964.
Paul wrote the beginnings of this song in the George V Hotel in Paris, then he and John worked on it together after a show at the Olympia Theater. [36] Thus it was written from late January to early February, 1964. Paul and John recorded four demos in Paris (with Paul on guitar and John adding a minor piano part), sending the final one to Billy J. Kramer. [37] When the demos were done, John remarked, “Billy J is finished when he gets this song.” [38] The tune was in fact rejected by both Kramer and the Fourmost, [39] before it found a home with The Strangers, an obscure group from South Africa whom the Beatles had known in Liverpool. The song never charted.
Both Paul and John agreed that this was mainly a McCartney song. John, asked about it in 1971, said, “Paul. That was a terrible one,” and nine years later, “That’s another of Paul’s bad attempts at writing a song.” [40] However, journalist Michael Braun described Paul working on the lyrics with John and George — one more reminder that there may have been minor collaboration in all the songs John or Paul claimed for themselves, in the early Beatles era. [41] Bill Harry, editor of Mersey Beat , also records collaboration — he wrote that the song “was mainly written by Paul,” but “Paul and John worked together on the number in their suite at the George V Hotel.” [42]
c
Paul wrote this specifically for Peter Asher. [43] According to Asher, when Peter and Gordon returned from their American tour, Paul met them and said, “I’ve written your second single, here it is, hope you like it.” [44]
John, asked about the song in 1980, ascribed it to Paul. [45] It reached number ten in the U.K. and twelve in the U.S.
In 1961, Paul felt that all the groups in Liverpool were doing the same songs, so he decided to steal a march on them by writing a song himself. He came up with “Like Dreamers Do” during a bus ride, then played it to the Beatles the next day. They weren’t too enthusiastic, but learned the song, and possibly Paul and John did some work on it together to finish it off. It became quite popular at the Cavern, probably because “it had a novelty value. . . . It was our big number for week and weeks,” Paul said in 1963. [46] Thus it was actually one of the earliest self-written songs that the Beatles performed.
The Beatles included it in the Decca audition on January 1, 1962, [47] but never were interested in putting it on a Beatle album. They met the Applejacks, a group from Birmingham who had signed with Decca, at a television appearance, and Paul and John gave them this song to record. It became the Applejacks’ second single, reaching number twenty in the U.K. charts. [48]
Paul and John usually ascribed “Like Dreamers Do” totally to Paul, who evaluated it with refreshing candor in the 1990s: “I did a very bad song called ‘Like Dreamers Do.’” [49] John, in 1971, described it as “A very early one of Paul’s,” [50] and in 1980 he said that Paul had written it as a teen-ager and then later revived and polished it. [51]
However, in 1964, John seemed to remember it as a collaboration: “It [the Lennon-McCartney songwriting] started in school holidays. I was about 15. . . At that time we did ‘Like Dreamers Do’.” [52] John was fifteen from October 1955 to 1956. However, he did not meet Paul until July 1957, when he was sixteen, and the songwriting sessions with Paul did not begin immediately. But even a 1958 or 1959 date for the song conflicts with Paul’s 1963 statement.
I accept this as a Paul song, possibly finished with collaboration, though the evidence is sketchy.
An EP of three rousing covers and one solid Lennon-McCartney; unlike their first two albums, here the screamer came first. All four songs were recorded on June 1, 1964.
Little Richard released the “Long Tall Sally” single in 1956. Paul sang this song at his first stage performance, when he was about fourteen, and it became a McCartney vocal specialty. [53] “Ever since I heard Little Richard’s version, I started imitating him,” he said in 1973. “It was just straight imitation, really, which has gradually become my version of it as much as Richard’s.” [54]
John would egg him on as he performed this and other Little Richard rave-ups. [55] In 1963, when the Beatles were preparing for their performances in France, John said, “If they want things like “Sally” and “[Roll Over] Beethoven”, we can do that standing on our ears.” [56] They often performed this as the last song of a show. “I could never think of a better number to finish on,” Paul said. [57]
Other performances of “Long Tall Sally” are on the Live at the BBC albums, The Beatles At The Hollywood Bowl (where it closes the show) and Anthology 1 (a TV performance from 1963).
John wrote the beginnings of this song before the Beatles, when he was about fifteen, he said. Later, he worked on it with Paul at John’s house at Menlove Avenue. [58] Finally, in early 1964, he added a middle eight to it. [59]
In a familiar pattern, John claimed this as his song entirely, while Paul remembered some collaboration. John said,
That was my song. The bulk of the “I Call Your Name” part written around the period Paul was writing “Love Me Do” when there was no Beatles and no group. And I just had it around, it was my effort at the kind of blues originally. And then I wrote the middle eight just to stick it in the album when it came out years later. [60]
Paul agreed that it was primarily John’s, but in 1995 did remember some collaboration. “We worked on it together, but it was John’s idea. When I look back at some of these lyrics, I think, Wait a minute. What did he mean? ‘I call your name but you’re not there.’ Is it his mother? His father?” [61]
This was first released on the “Bad to Me” / “I Call Your Name” single by Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas, see above.
This was the B side of the 1958 “Dizzy Miss Lizzie” single by Larry Williams, another rhythm and blues singer important to the Beatles. In an interview from 1964, John said “Slow Down” was “just an old rock and roll number from eight years ago. . . . And it’s one we’ve done for a long time, and we thought we’d just stick it on the EP.” [62] Another version of this is on Live at the BBC .
The rockabilly Carl Perkins, another Beatles favorite, released this single in 1957, and it became one of his most widely-known songs. Perkins came to the Beatles recording session on June 1, which unnerved Ringo as he laid down his vocals. [63] It was partially based on the blues song “Match Box Blues” (1927) by Blind Lemon Jefferson. “Matchbox” is also on Live at the BBC .
When the Beatles were in Paris, in January 1964, Paul had been introduced to some Dylan records at a radio station. “Paul got them off whoever they belonged to,” said Lennon, “and for the rest of the three weeks in Paris we didn’t stop playing them. We all went potty on Dylan.” [64] This song is the first fruit of that influence. [65]
As the Beatles prepared for their first movie, producer Walter Shenson [66] needed a title for the movie and a title song, and suggested to the Beatles [67] that Ringo’s phrase “Hard Day’s Night” would work. [68] John thought about this, went home and came up with the song. In a 1965 interview, he said that the song was in the “Dylan vein” when he first wrote the opening bars. “But later we Beatle-ified it before we recorded it.” [69]
The next morning he came into Abbey Road early and one observer described him humming the melody to the other Beatles. [70] He and Paul then developed the music and lyrics. At 8:30 a.m. Lennon called Shenson into their studio and he and Paul played it for him. Shenson said “that [John] and Paul had roughed [a song] out on scraps of paper.” [71] According to Miles, the film was titled on April 13, the Beatles played the song to Shenson the next day, and recorded it on the 16th. [72]
John repeatedly and strongly claimed this song as his own, written with no collaboration. In 1971, he listed it as an example of how he would sometimes write alone: “And we’d written separately for years. . . . I wrote ‘A Hard Day’s Night,’” he said. [73] He remembered writing it by himself quickly, after Walter Shenson, the film’s producer, asked for a title song for the movie as soon as possible. Dick Lester suggested Ringo’s phrase, hard day’s night, “and the next morning I brought in the song. ‘Cause there was a little competition between Paul and I as to who got the ‘A’ sides.” [74] George Martin, in 1964, remembered “everyone” liking Ringo’s phrase, Hard Day’s Night. Then “John went off and came back the next day with a song he’d written to go with the title.” [75]
However, there is substantial evidence for collaboration (aside from the title coming from Ringo). In an early interview, Paul said, “John and I wrote this especially for the film.” In Anthology , he remembered Shenson asking both him and John to write a title song. “We thought about it and it seemed a bit ridiculous writing a song called ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ — it sounded funny at the time, but after a bit we got the idea of saying it had been a hard day’s night and we’d been working all the days, and get back to a girl and everything’s fine. . . . And we sort of turned it into one of those songs.” [76] In 1995, he suggested that he probably contributed to the words and the middle eight, a twenty-minute touchup to the song John had brought in. [77]
Early insiders Walter Shenson and Dick James also remembered collaboration. Shenson, in 1964, wrote that Ringo came up with the movie title, then “Late one evening, Shenson asked Lennon to write a title song. At 8:30 the following morning, John called and said that he and Paul had roughed one out on scraps of paper. They recorded it that night.” [78] Dick James, the Beatles’ music publisher, in 1965 spoke of John saying to him, about the song, “we’ve already written half of it.” [79]
The early evidence is thus complex. It seems likely that this started out as a John song, but was finished with collaboration.
Both John and Paul agreed that John wrote this. In 1971, John included it in a list of songs he had written, and in 1980, he said, “That’s me.” [80]
John used the song to show how he could excel at what many people regard as the McCartney side of the Beatles: “That’s my first attempt at a ballad proper,” he said in 1980. “. . . That shows that I wrote sentimental love ballads, silly love songs, as you call them, way back when.” But he said that Paul had contributed the middle eight to this. [81] Earlier, he put it on a list of John songs. [82] There is a composing tape or demo of the song, in which John sings, accompanied by guitar. [83]
Paul remembered a songwriting session for this song, though it was a session dominated by John, and he also cited the song as an example of John’s tender side. He said, in 1995, “People tend to forget that John wrote some pretty nice ballads. People tend to think of him as an acerbic wit and aggressive and abrasive, but he did have a very warm side to him really which he didn't like to show too much in case he got rejected.” “We wrote ‘If I Fell’ together,” he said; however, he agreed that “the emphasis [is] on John.” But then he added, “because he sang it.” [84] This increases the confusion still further, because Paul sang melodic lead on the song. (Possibly because the melody was too high for John.) Miles writes, “‘If I Fell,’ ‘I’m Happy Just to Dance with You’ and ‘I’ll Be Back’ were all co-written with John.” [85]
In a very late interview, Paul claimed the intro: “One song I wrote a little after “Please Please Me” was my best attempt at a preamble: “If I Fell.” [Sings] ‘If I fell in love with you, would you promise to be truuue...’ Then after the line, ‘just holding hands,’ the song properly gets going. [Raises voice] That’s it, everyone!” [86] This would make a neat parallel to Paul’s “Here, There and Everywhere” intro.
John and Paul knew that George needed a song to sing in the movie and came up with this for him. It represents another example of flat contradiction in attribution. John claimed it as his song. “I wrote this for George to sing,” he said sometime before 1979. [87] But Paul, in 1995, remembered this as “a straight co-written song for George.” “We wrote ‘I’m Happy Just To Dance With You’ for George in the film.” Paul, typically, commented on the chords. He and John knew that using an E to A-flat-minor chord progression “pretty much always excited you.” [88]
Paul wrote this, and he said it became “the first ballad I impressed myself with.” [89] According to Miles in 1995, the song was inspired by Jane Asher (which Paul had denied in 1984). [90] It was certainly written in the Asher home, during the Jane Asher period. Paul remembered playing the song in the upstairs drawing room of the Asher residence, soon after writing it. [91]
John helped with the middle eight. Dick James left an account of Paul and John writing it together at the studio. “John and Paul went to the piano and, while Mal Evans was getting tea and some sandwiches, the boys worked at the piano. Within half an hour they wrote, there before our very eyes, a very constructive middle to a very commercial song.” [92]
Both Paul and John agreed that the main song was written by Paul. In fact, in 1995, Paul felt that the song might have been entirely his own: “I’m not sure if John worked on that at all.” [93] John said, in 1980, “‘And I Love Her’ is Paul again. I consider it his first ‘Yesterday.’” [94] However, there was disagreement on the middle eight. In 1971, John claimed this entire section of the song: “Both of us. The first half was Paul’s and the middle eight is mine.” [95] Paul flatly disagreed, in 1995: “The middle eight is mine. I would say that John probably helped with the middle eight, but he can’t say ‘It’s mine.’ I wrote this on my own.” [96] And in 1980, John softened his 1971 statement, saying that he only “helped” with the middle eight.
I conclude that the main song is Paul’s, but that the middle eight was collaborative, written by Paul and John in the studio.
The movie men needed another upbeat song, “and I just knocked it [“Tell Me Why”] off,” John said in 1980. It was in the genre of black girl group music. [97] Paul agreed that it was John’s and felt that it may have been based on his relationship with Cynthia or with relationships he was having with other women at the time. [98]
See the “Can’t Buy Me Love / You Can’t Do That” single, above.
SIDE TWO
In 1971, John claimed this, and Miles/Paul also ascribe it to him. [99] Simple enough, it would seem. However, in an undated comment by Lennon that was printed in 1972, he stated that the song was co-written. It was “Another of those songs we wrote about the time of Hard Day’s Night .” [100] This is an example of one of the individual Beatles disagreeing with himself. It’s unfortunate that the second comment is undated, but it’s at least as early as the first listing by John.
If Paul did collaborate, the songwriting session was probably dominated by John.
In 1971, John claimed this. [101] “I wrote that for Hard Day’s Night ,” he said in 1980. [102] Miles/Paul agreed in 1995. [103] The only complexity in the historical record comes from a very early interview with George Martin, who in 1964 spoke of it as co-written — “the boys came up with this” — but he may have been just assuming collaboration. [104]
This song was written while Paul and Jane Asher, and Ringo and Maureen Cox, were on a yacht vacation in the Virgin Islands in May 1964. McCartney separated from his friends, went below deck with a guitar, and started writing the song. However, the smell of oil was oppressive, the boat was rocking, and he started to feel queasy, so he went up to the back deck and finished the song there. [105] According to Miles, it reflected Paul’s and Jane Asher’s relationship — times together, then a great deal of time apart. [106] Paul described it as “a slightly nostalgic thing already, a future nostalgia.” [107] He said the Beatles had a fondness for it because it was “like folk music.” [108] So like the first song on the album, it was influenced by the folk renaissance.
Both Paul and John have ascribed the song directly to Paul. [109] The latter, in 1964, said, “I did a couple while I was there [the Virgin Islands], which we recorded when we got back, ‘Things We Said Today’ and ‘Always and Only.’ [110] In 1995, he said, “I wrote ‘Things We Said Today’ on acoustic.” [111]
We seem to have achieved an uncontroversial attribution; but as often, a stray piece of evidence breaks the symmetry. In another early interview, Paul said that he wrote the song on holiday, then he and John “finished [it] off when we got back.” [112] Paul stated this quite firmly, so I accept that there was some “finishing” collaboration with John on this song.
In 1980, John claimed this. “That’s me again, another Wilson Pickett, Motown sound, a four-in-the-bar cowbell song.” [113] Miles/Paul agreed in 1995, putting it in a list of songs written by John. [114]
See the “Can’t Buy Me Love / You Can’t Do That” single, above.
John claimed this strongly in his three comments on the song. In 1971, he said, “Me. A nice tune, though the middle is a bit tatty.” [115] At about the same time, he referred to it as “An early favorite that I wrote,” [116] and in 1980, he affirmed, “‘I’ll Be Back’ is me completely.” [117]
Paul, in the 1990s, however, stated that the song was a mixture of John’s original authorship and collaboration:
“I’ll Be Back” was co-written, but it was largely John’s idea. When we knew we were writing for something like an album he would write a few in his spare moments, like this batch here. He’d bring them in, we’d check ’em. I’d write a couple and we’d throw ’em at each other, and then there’d be a couple that were more co-written. [118]
It was probably a song that was begun by John, then finished with collaboration.
In other words, according to Paul, there had been two levels of collaboration on many songs. One was John or Paul writing songs, then bringing them to the other, to “throw them at each other” and “check them.” This was not collaboration from the ground up, but it was collaboration, as theoretically this quality control process involved some changes. You could call it major collaboration and minor (finishing) collaboration. However, there was undoubtedly a continuum between the two types of collaboration, so we are left to wonder how much, exactly, was John, and how much, exactly, was Paul, in many of these early Beatle songs.
[1] Paul McCartney, Interview with Klas Burling, July 29, 1964.
[2] For more on the Asher music room, see “Interview with Peter Asher” (who remembers that “I Want to Hold Your Hand” was written there by Paul and John sitting at a piano); Miles, Many Years from Now , 107-8 (but Paul doesn’t confirm that “I Want to Hold Your Hand” was written there). Miles lists: “And I Love Her,” “Every Little Thing,” “Eleanor Rigby,” “I’ve Just Seen a Face,” “You Won’t See Me,” and “I’m Looking Through You.”
[3] Kelley, Interview with the Beatles, Paris, 1964.
[4] Sheff, The Playboy Interviews, 150.
[5] Kelley, Interview with the Beatles, Paris.
[6] Lennon, Rolling Stone Interview, Dec. 1970, BBC, part 4, cf. Wenner, Lennon Remembers , 98-99, also 26, 83. See also: Hennessey, “Lennon: the Greatest Natural Songwriter,” 12, Hennessey, “Who Wrote What,” Record Mirror ; McCabe and Schonfeld. John Lennon: For the Record , 118;
[7] Sheff, The Playboy Interviews, 150.
[8] Uncut interview, 2004, in Sawyers, Read the Beatles , 245. Similar: Miles, Many Years From Now , 108; Williams, “Produced by George Martin.”
[9] Kelley, Interview with the Beatles, Paris.
[10] Lewisohn, “The Paul McCartney Interview,” 10 (1988); Miles, Many Years From Now , 155 (1995). Interview in Smith, Off the Record (before 1989), 201.
[11] Hennessey, “Who Wrote What,” Record Mirror. Lost Lennon Tapes, Sept. 16, 1991, cf. Sheff, The Playboy Interviews, 203.
[12] Sheff, The Playboy Interviews, 149.
[13] Miles, Many Years from Now , 111-12. According to Lewisohn, Paul started the song “during a dark, late-night walk home.” Tune In , extended, 516.
[14] Milwaukee Press Conference, Sept. 4, 1964.
[15] Miles, Many Years from Now , 111-12.
[16] Milwaukee Press Conference, Sept. 4, 1964.
[17] Peter Asher, 1995 Goldmine article, as cited in Unterberger, The Unreleased Beatles , 345.
[18] Wyndham, “Paul McCartney As Songwriter.”
[19] Miles, Many Years from Now , 111-12.
[20] Sheff, The Playboy Interviews, 183-84. Similar: Hennessey, “Who Wrote What,” Record Mirror
[21] He referred to the “composers” of the song, Interview with the Beatles, Disc Weekly , May 9, 1964 (Sandercombe, The Beatles: Press Reports , 62).
[22] Engelhardt, Beatles Undercover , 373-74.
[23] McCartney, [1964] in Badman, The Beatles Off the Record , 97.
[24] Everett I, 221.
[25] Shepherd and Dean, “Behind the Spotlight,” The Beatles Book , Monthly no. 31 (Feb. 1966), 21.
[26] Wyndham, “Paul McCartney As Songwriter.”
[27] Miles, Many Years from Now , 161.
[28] McCartney, in Badman, The Beatles Off the Record , 97.
[29] Hennessey, “Who Wrote What,” Record Mirror.
[30] Sheff, The Playboy Interviews, 182. See also Lennon in Cott, “The Rolling Stone Interview,” (1968). Lennon [1964], in Badman, The Beatles Off the Record , 97, seems to refer to recording the song, not to songwriting.
[31] Harrison [1964] in Badman, The Beatles Off the Record , 97. Shepard and Dean also reported that “Can’t Buy Me Love” was co-written: “He [Paul] and John had written the song [‘Can’t Buy Me Love’] at late-night sessions in Paris during January.” Shepherd and Dean, “Behind the Spotlight,” The Beatles Book , Monthly no. 32 (March 1966), 22. See also “Beatle News,” Beatles Book Monthly 9 (April 1964), 29.
[32] Coleman, “George Harrison — Exclusive.” See also Harrison [1964], in Badman, The Beatles Off the Record , 97.
[33] Aldridge, Beatles Illustrated Lyrics , 212. Similar: Sheff, The Playboy Interviews, 204.
[34] Miles, Many Years From Now (1995), 164.
[35] For another song in Pickett’s style, see “When I Get Home” below.
[36] Harry, “Billy J. Kramer.” Miles, Many Years From Now (1995), 162.
[37] Braun, Love Me Do , 82-83. Winn, Way Beyond Compare , 120.
[38] Braun, Love Me Do , 82-83.
[39] Engelhardt, Beatles Undercover , 476. Unterberger, The Unreleased Beatles , 86.
[40] Hennessey, “Who Wrote What,” Record Mirror; Sheff, The Playboy Interviews, 184. For Paul, Miles, Many Years From Now (1995), 162.
[41] Michael Braun, Love Me Do , 82-83; Winn, Way Beyond Compare , 120.
[42] Harry, “Billy J. Kramer.”
[43] Miles, Many Years from Now , 112.
[44] Peter Asher, Introduction to performance of “Nobody I Know,” 2015.
[45] Sheff, The Playboy Interviews, 204. See also Hennessey, “Who Wrote What,” Record Mirror.
[46] Coleman and Roberts, “What Makes a Beatle Beat?” (“Like Dreamers Do” not named, but in other listings, it’s always put first, as in Roberts, “How to Write a Hit.”) Miles, Many Years from Now , 82. See also Anthology , 18, 68. Lewisohn, Tune In , extended, 516-17.
[47] This performance can be found on Anthology 1.
[48] Engelhardt, Beatles Undercover , 24.
[49] Miles, Many Years from Now , 36.
[50] Hennessey, “Who Wrote What,” Record Mirror.
[51] Sheff, The Playboy Interviews , 183.
[52] Roberts, “How to Write a Hit.”
[53] McCartney in Gambaccini, “The Rolling Stone Interview.”
[54] Ibid. Du Noyer, Conversations , 30.
[55] McCartney in Goodman, “Playboy Interview,” 88.
[56] Anthology , 112.
[57] Gambaccini, “The Rolling Stone Interview”.
[58] Miles, Many Years from Now , 46.
[59] Sheff, The Playboy Interviews (1980), 180.
[60] Lost Lennon Tapes, Sept. 16, 1991, cf. Sheff, The Playboy Interviews , 180. Similar: Hennessey, “Who Wrote What,” Record Mirror. Aldridge, Beatles Illustrated Lyrics , 201. Lennon in 1974, cited in Google Groups: “A song that I wrote — except for the middle part — when I was sixteen. We recorded the middle-eight in Ska-style.”
[61] Miles, Many Years from Now , 46.
[62] The Beatles, Interview, Auckland, June 24, 1964.
[63] Ibid.
[64] Lennon, interview, in Coleman, “Beatles Say – Dylan Shows the Way” (1965), quoted below.
[65] Ibid.
[66] Or director Richard Lester. Sheff, The Playboy Interviews, 185.
[67] Or to Lennon and McCartney, or Lennon alone. Lost Lennon Tapes, July 9, 1990.
[68] Or the Beatles decided the phrase would work. Miles, Many Years from Now , 164.
[69] Lennon, interview, in Coleman, “Beatles Say — Dylan Shows the Way” (1965).
[70] Maureen Cleave (as quoted in Turner, A Hard Day’s Write , 47).
[71] Walter Shenson, article about Hard Day’s Night , in Disc Weekly , July 18, 1964 (Sandercombe, The Beatles: Press Reports , 72). Similar: Walter Shenson, March 1966, in Lydon, “Lennon and McCartney: Songwriters,” also in Flashbacks: Eyewitness Accounts of the Rock Revolution , 11. See also Shenson in Pritchard and Lysaght, The Beatles: An Oral History , 164: “At eight-thirty the next morning John and Paul called me into their dressing room at the studio. On the back of a matchbook cover they had the lyrics of ‘A Hard Day’s Night.’ The two of them then took out their guitars and played this song.”
[72] Miles, Many Years from Now , 164-65.
[73] McCabe and Schonfeld, John Lennon: For the Record , 118. Similar: Hennessey, “Who Wrote What,” Record Mirror.
[74] Sheff, The Playboy Interviews, 185.
[75] Interview with Nigel Hunter, Disc Weekly , June 19, 1964 (Sandercombe, The Beatles: Press Reports , 62).
[76] Lost Lennon Tapes, July 9, 1990. Anthology , 129.
[77] Miles, Many Years from Now , 164-65.
[78] Walter Shenson, article about Hard Day’s Night , in Disc Weekly , July 18, 1964 (Sandercombe, The Beatles: Press Reports , 72). Similar: Walter Shenson, March 1966, in Lydon, “Lennon and McCartney: Songwriters,” also in Flashbacks: Eyewitness Accounts of the Rock Revolution , 11. See also Shenson in Pritchard and Lysaght, The Beatles: An Oral History , 164: “At eight-thirty the next morning John and Paul called me into their dressing room at the studio. On the back of a matchbook cover they had the lyrics of ‘A Hard Day’s Night.’ The two of them then took out their guitars and played this song.”
[79] Dick James, in Jones, “Northern Songs Ltd. for Beatle Songs Unlimited,” 11.
[80] Hennessey, “Who Wrote What,” Record Mirror ; Sheff, The Playboy Interviews, 204. For Paul, “Paul and Linda McCartney Interview,” Playboy , (1984), 107; Miles, Many Years from Now , 164 (assuming that Miles reflects Paul).
[81] Lost Lennon Tapes, Sept. 23, 1991, cf. Sheff, The Playboy Interviews, 204.
[82] Hennessey, “Who Wrote What,” Record Mirror.
[83] Winn, Way Beyond Compare , 113.
[84] Miles, Many Years from Now , 162.
[85] Ibid.
[86] “How Does It Feel to Be a Beatle,” Interview with Jude Rogers, Q Magazine , May 2013, as cited in Beatles Bible. Paul was not claiming the entire song as his own, as his 1995 interview shows.
[87] John before 1979, in Miles, Beatles in their Own Words , 79. Hennessey, “Who Wrote What,” Record Mirror.
[88] Miles, Many Years from Now , 163.
[89] Ibid., 122-23.
[90] Ibid., 122. Goodman, “Paul and Linda McCartney Interview,” Playboy , 107.
[91] Miles, Many Years From Now , 122-23.
[92] Harry, McCartney Encyclopedia , at “And I Love Her.”
[93] Miles, Many Years From Now , 122-23.
[94] Sheff, The Playboy Interviews, 183.
[95] Hennessey, “Who Wrote What,” Record Mirror. He put it on a list of songs that were collaborative. Hennessey, “Lennon: the Greatest Natural Songwriter,” 12.
[96] Miles, Many Years From Now , 122-23.
[97] Lost Lennon Tapes, Sept. 23, 1991, cf. Sheff, The Playboy Interviews, 204-5. Hennessey, “Who Wrote What,” Record Mirror.
[98] Miles, Many Years From Now , 164.
[99] Hennessey, “Who Wrote What,” Record Mirror . Miles, Many Years From Now , 164.
[100] Aldridge, Beatles Illustrated Lyrics , 186.
[101] Hennessey, “Who Wrote What,” Record Mirror.
[102] Sheff, The Playboy Interviews, 205.
[103] Miles, Many Years From Now , 164.
[104] Nigel Hunter, interview with George Martin, Disc Weekly , June 13, 1964, as quoted in Sandercombe, The Beatles: Press Reports , 62.
[105] Miles, Many Years From Now , 121.
[106] Ibid., 122.
[107] Ibid.
[108] McCartney, interview with Klas Burling, July 29, 1964.
[109] For John, see Hennessey, “Who Wrote What,” Record Mirror (a list of Paul songs); Lennon in 1980 (Lost Lennon Tapes, Episode Sept. 16, 1991; cf. Sheff, The Playboy Interviews, 204).
[110] Shepherd, “Beatles on Holiday,” 9. “Always and Only” is a mystery. Some believe that the transcriber of the interview, or the ghost writer of the article, got the name wrong. Unterberger, The Unreleased Beatles , 116.
[111] Miles, Many Years From Now , 122.
[112] McCartney, interview with Klas Burling, July 29, 1964.
[113] Sheff, The Playboy Interviews, 205. Similar: Hennessey, “Who Wrote What,” Record Mirror.
[114] Miles, Many Years From Now , 164.
[115] Hennessey, “Who Wrote What,” Record Mirror.
[116] Aldridge, Beatles Illustrated Lyrics , 171.
[117] Lost Lennon Tapes, Sept. 16, 1991, cf. Sheff, The Playboy Interviews , 173.
[118] Miles, Many Years from Now , 163.