Who Wrote the Beatle Songs: A History of Lennon-McCartney is a book in the tradition of Mark Lewisohn’s The Beatles Recording Sessions, Walter Everett’s The Beatles as Musicians, Ian MacDonald’s Revolution in the Head, and Tim Riley’s Tell Me Why —it surveys all of the songs by the Beatles. However, unlike those books, Who Wrote the Beatle Songs
concentrates solely on songwriting. It also has a strong biographical
element: I tell the fascinating story of John Lennon and Paul McCartney
as songwriters.
The Beatles are arguably the most
influential group in the history of popular music, and the single most
important element in their success was their songwriting. Unlike rock
stars such as Elvis, Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton, they were
songwriters first and performers second. They have been widely
misunderstood because the history of their songwriting has not been
examined carefully. Setting aside the songs of Harrison and Starr at
this time, all their songs were attributed to “Lennon-McCartney,” which
suggests 50-50 songwriting ownership, in the tradition of George and Ira
Gershwin. In fact, most of the Beatle songs were dominated by Paul or
by John, and some were written entirely by one or the other (such as
John’s “Across the Universe” or Paul’s “Hey Jude”).
After the Beatles breakup, Lennon and McCartney have given a number of
interviews discussing who wrote which Beatle songs. Unfortunately, these
interviews are often contradictory, a natural result of trying to
remember events that took place many years (sometimes decades) earlier.
John had a tendency to emphasize individual authorship in his
interviews, while Paul frequently remembered collaboration (though often
“finishing” collaboration, after one writer had substantially begun the
song). To evaluate such complex, contradictory evidence, I’ve tried to
use standard historical tools to come to a valid judgment on who wrote
each Beatle song.
The result is the first
comprehensive, detailed assessment of who wrote the Beatle songs. Every
chapter is devoted to a Beatles album, and its attendant singles. I give
a careful attribution for every song and tell the story of how it was
written. Then I evaluate conflicts or unities in the evidence. So this
book is full of great stories—how John wrote “She Said She Said” after
he heard Peter Fonda tell of a near-death experience at a party with the
Byrds in L.A.; how Paul wrote “Yesterday” in his sleep, then sang it
for months with the lyrics “Scrambled eggs—Oh baby, how I love your
legs”; how George’s mother, Louise French Harrison, filled in a gap in
“Piggies” with “What they need’s a damn good whacking!”.
When this survey is complete, we can draw conclusions about the
individual songwriting talents of Paul, John and George, and can reject
many widespread stereotypes about them. One cliché is that John
specialized in rock while Paul produced ballads. Actually, both of them
wrote strong rock songs (like Paul’s “Helter Skelter”) and strong quiet
songs (like John’s “Goodnight”). Another common misapprehension is that
the Beatles’ best songs were based on close collaboration; actually, as
these two songwriters progressed in maturity they wrote together less.
Paradoxically, the songwriting flourished as the collaboration
decreased.
John became increasingly interested in
lyrics, while Paul was always obsessively devoted to music (though they
both wrote great music and lyrics at times). Who Wrote the Beatle Songs will celebrate and give a wealth of insight into the idiosyncratic brilliance of both of the Beatles’ two main songwriters.
Distinguished musicologist Michael Hicks has written, of Who Wrote the Beatle Songs,
“A special book indeed: an exhaustive—and blessedly fussy—compendium of
the impulses behind every Beatles (and Beatles-born) recording.
Authoritative and tantalizing, it offers new insights for even the most
seasoned Beatles aficionado.”
Todd M. Compton
(Author)
