Lennon/McCartney
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The songwriting partnership of John Lennon and Paul McCartney is one of the best-known and most successful musical collaborations of all time. In an agreement reached early in their partnership, the pair agreed to use the shared credit Lennon/McCartney on all songs written by the duo, alone or in tandem, for The Beatles.
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[edit] The working partnership
Lennon and McCartney's first musical idols were The Everly Brothers, and they learned many of their songs, and imitated them.[1] A common misconception is that Lennon and McCartney each wrote their own songs alone and simply credited them to the partnership. While each of them often wrote independently - and many Beatles songs are primarily the work of one or the other - it was only rarely that a song would be completed without some input from each of the duo. In many instances, one writer would sketch an idea or a song fragment and bring it to the other to finish or improve; in some cases, two incomplete songs or song ideas that each had worked on individually would be combined into a complete song. Often one of the pair would add a middle eight or bridge section to the other's verse and chorus.[2] Lennon called it "Writing eyeball-to-eyeball",[2] and "Playing into each other's noses".[3]
Lennon and McCartney's first compositions were written at 20 Forthlin Road, at Mimi's house at 251 Menlove Avenue, or at the Liverpool Institute.[4] Their first songs were heavily inspired by The Everly Brothers, and Buddy Holly,[5] and they often invited friends to Forthlin Road, such as George Harrison, Nigel Whalley, Barbara Baker, and Lennon's art school colleagues, to listen to performances of their new songs.[6]
The approach of the Lennon/McCartney songwriting team included elements of competitiveness and mutual inspiration as well as straightforward collaboration. The collaborative and creative merging of musical ideas between the pair is often cited as a key reason for The Beatles' innovativeness and popular success.
The pair wrote songs together from 1958 until 1969. As time went on, the songs increasingly became the work of one writer or the other, often with the partner offering up only a few words or an alternate chord. "A Day in the Life" is a notable and well-known example of a later Beatles song that includes substantial contributions by both Lennon and McCartney, where a separate song by McCartney was used to flesh out the middle of Lennon's composition. "Hey Jude" is an example of a later McCartney song that was improved by relatively minor input from Lennon. While auditioning the song for Lennon, when McCartney came to the lyric "the movement you need is on your shoulder," McCartney assured Lennon that he would change the line — which McCartney felt was nonsensical — as soon as he could come up with a better lyric. Lennon advised McCartney to leave that line alone, saying it was one of the strongest in the song.
[edit] A joint credit
Even before they formed The Beatles, McCartney and Lennon began writing songs together at their childhood homes in Liverpool. Lennon suggested that all songs written by either one of the pair (whether written individually or in a collaborative effort) should be credited to both of them, in an effort to emulate the familiarity of the Leiber–Stoller partnership. Between 1962 and 1970 all songs either of them published (including most Beatles songs) were jointly credited. On The Beatles' first album, Please Please Me, the credit appeared as "McCartney−Lennon"; on all later albums Lennon's name appeared first. As a result of this mutual agreement, songwriting royalties for the bulk of The Beatles' catalogue were shared equally between the two.
There was a substantial disagreement between Lennon and McCartney over the authorship of only two songs: "Eleanor Rigby", and "In My Life", which are included here.[7] Although Lennon said that McCartney only helped with the middle eight of "In My Life",[8] McCartney claims that he wrote the whole melody by taking inspiration from two Smokey Robinson and the Miracles songs: "You've Really Got a Hold on Me", and "Tears of a Clown"[7]. (Lennon's claim is odd, as "In My Life" does not have a middle eight.) McCartney said that he wrote "Eleanor Rigby" on an upright piano in the Asher's music room in Wimpole Street,[9] and later played it to Donovan before it was finished - which Donovan confirmed.[10] Lennon claimed, in 1972, that he wrote 70% of the "Eleanor Rigby" lyrics,[11] but Pete Shotton - a childhood friend - remembered Lennon's contribution as being "absolutely nil".[12]
[edit] Controversy
The nature and billing order of the dual credit was an occasional source of controversy. When McCartney released his solo live album Wings Over America in 1976, the songwriting credits for five included Beatles songs were reversed to place McCartney's name first; Lennon's wife Yoko Ono publicly objected to the change, though Lennon himself made no public statement. When John Lennon's 1997 compilation of solo hits, Lennon Legend: The Very Best of John Lennon, was released, "Give Peace a Chance", a song that had previously been credited to Lennon-McCartney, was listed as being composed solely by John Lennon.
In the late 1990s, McCartney and Yoko Ono were in dispute over the writing credits for a number of Beatles songs [13] McCartney had wanted to change the credits from the traditional Lennon-McCartney to 'Paul McCartney and John Lennon' for the song, "Yesterday". McCartney claimed that he and Lennon had agreed in the past that the credits could be reversed, if any one of them wanted to, on any future releases,[13] but he later withdrew his request.[13] In a February 2005 statement, McCartney stated that "It's something that I don't have a problem with any more."[14]
[edit] Other credits
A number of songs primarily written by the duo and recorded by The Beatles were credited to persons in addition to Lennon and McCartney. "What Goes On" was credited to Lennon-McCartney-Starkey, while "Flying" and "Dig It", as well as The "Beatles Version" of "Free as a Bird", were credited to Lennon-McCartney-Harrison-Starkey. The German-language versions of "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "She Loves You" were also credited to additional songwriters for assisting with the translation: "Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand" was credited to Lennon-McCartney-Nicholas-Heller and "Sie Liebt Dich" was credited to Lennon-McCartney-Nicholas-Montague.
[edit] Non-Beatles songs
In the 1960s, many songs credited to Lennon-McCartney were originally released, not by The Beatles, but by other artists, especially those managed by Brian Epstein. The songwriting credit helped launch new artists' careers. Beatles' versions of some of these were recorded: some were not released until after their split, on compilations such as Live at the BBC and The Beatles Anthology.
- Billy J. Kramer with the Dakotas — "I'll Be on My Way" (1963), "Bad To Me" (1963), "I Call Your Name" (1963), "I'll Keep You Satisfied" (1963), "From a Window" (1964)
- Tommy Quickly — "Tip of My Tongue" (1963)
- The Fourmost — "Hello Little Girl" (1963), "I'm In Love" (1963)
- Cilla Black — "Love of the Loved" (1963), "It's For You" (1964), "Step Inside Love" (1968)
- The Rolling Stones — "I Wanna Be Your Man" (1963)
- The Strangers with Mike Shannon — "One And One Is Two" (1964)
- Peter & Gordon — "Nobody I Know" (1964), "A World Without Love" (1964), "I Don't Want To See You Again" (1965)
- The Applejacks — "Like Dreamers Do" (1964)
- P.J. Proby — "That Means a Lot" (1965)
- John Foster & Sons Ltd Black Dyke Mills Band — "Thingummybob" (1968)
- Mary Hopkin — "Goodbye" (1969)
In addition, McCartney wrote songs under his own name for other artists prior to The Beatles' split; notably "Catcall" for The Chris Barber Band in 1967, Badfinger's 1969 hit "Come and Get It", and "Penina" recorded by Carlos Mendes (Portugal, 1969) and Jotte Herra (Netherlands, 1970). He also penned the song "Woman" (1966) for Peter & Gordon under the pseudonym Bernard Webb, to see if the song would gain success without his reputation; it did.
[edit] Two of Us
In 2000, VH1 produced a movie entitled Two of Us, named after the song "Two of Us", a single from The Beatles' final album, Let It Be. The movie, set in 1976, focuses on the state of the relationship between McCartney and Lennon at that time. McCartney was played by Aidan Quinn, and Lennon was played by Jared Harris.
[edit] Song Samples
[edit] 1965
[edit] 1966
[edit] Notes
[edit] References
- Miles, Barry (1998). Many Years From Now. Vintage-Random House. ISBN 0-7493-8658-4.
- Spitz, Bob (2006). The Beatles: The Biography. Little, Brown and Company (New York). ISBN 1845131606.
[edit] External links
- Who Wrote That? (dubious accuracy for some of the songs listed)
- The Lennon-McCartney Songwriting Partnership
- Songs the Beatles Didn't Do compiled by Joseph Brennan; includes Lennon/McCartney songs and others
- A list of the songs John Lennon and Paul McCartney gave to other artists during the Beatle years originally posted on Usenet rec.music.beatles 1994-11-09.
