Why The Beatles Gave Away Songs | The Music of Lennon-McCartney

Not everything Lennon-McCartney wrote was recorded by The Beatles. Which makes me wonder why, since 3 of their first 4 albums are full of cover songs, why would they give any of their songs away for other artists to record when they don’t have enough material to fill an album. And so for today's video we are going to try and understand why the Beatles gave away so many songs.
#thebeatles #lennonmccartney #videoessay
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Works Cited
concertarchives.org. “The Beatles Tours & Concerts.”
Fleming, Colin. “1963: The Year the Beatles Found Their Voice.” The Atlantic, 15 June 2013, www.theatlanti...
Jackson, Grant. “The Songs the Beatles Gave Away.” Slate, 22 April 2013, www.slate.com/...
Lewisohn, Mark. The Beatles - All These Years - Extended Special Edition. vol. Volume One: Tune In, Little, Brown UK, 2013.
Lewisohn, Mark. The Beatles Recording Sessions. Harmony Books, 1988.
Lewisohn, Mark. The Complete Beatles Chronicle: The Definitive Day-by-Day Guide to the Beatles' Entire Career. Chicago Review Press, 2010.
Roylance, Brian, editor. The Beatles Anthology. Chronicle Books, 2000.
Sheff, David. All We Are Saying. 2000.
Spizer, Bruce, and Frank Daniels. Beatles for Sale on Parlophone Records. 498 Productions, 2011.
Vinyl Rewind is your home for vinyl related content on KZbin. New uploads feature vinyl-based music reviews, video essays, artist interviews, and collecting tips, for both the novice and expert vinyl enthusiast. Vinyl Rewind is dedicated to preserving an analogue lifestyle in the digital age. Watch-Listen-Learn
00:00 Introduction
00:51 The Songwriting Duo
03:08 The First Songwriting Success
06:16 1964 - The Biggest Year Yet
08:45 Songwriting Duo Slows Down
10:28 1966 - No Film, No Tour
12:20 Conclusion
14:51 Outro

[@sammcbride2149]

Despite John Lennon mocking the opening line of "Please lock me away..." it's actually a fantastic opening line. Imagine if that was the opening line of a novel. Who wouldn't keep reading a novel with an opening line like that?! I would be totally intrigued by that line and I would keep reading. Besides, I don't always trust John Lennon's taste in songs. He had his strange and personal biases.

[@richardrangel9704]

Agreed. As I got older my opinion of Lennon changed considerably. He was a flaming leftist especially with thr SINYC lp.

[@PartTimeBuddhist]

I'd personally give the crown to Cilla Black's "It's For You." Talk about some elegant time signature shifts. I have a hard time imagining a Beatles version - it's like Lennon-McCartney doing Bacharach-David. Not sure why it wasn't a hit in the US, but the day I came across it was a nice day indeed.

[@strathman7501]

Yes, a classy song. Another of Paul's in a similar mould that worked well for Cilla is Step Inside Love. Very subtle. Listen to his guitar chording, which is probably heard best on the tape of Paul coaching Cilla at Abbey Road. Sophisticated writing.

[@drjerry5389]

John Lennon and Paul McCartney wanted to be like Goffin/King who wrote an incredible amount of hits.

[@randallpinkfloyd]

I am heartbroken that A World Without Love, I’m In Love, and Bad To Me never got an official release by the band, but at least we have the original demos for Bad To Me and I’m In Love that was released on the compilation “The Beatles Bootleg Recordings 1963” that was released in 2013 by the band

[@Borella309]

2 great ones (by Paul) given away towards the end of The Beatles career were "Goodbye" recorded by Mary Hopkin, and "Come and Get It" recorded by Badfinger - they were both top chart hits (in the UK at least) - I wish The Beatles had done them - Goodbye should have gone on The White Album, and Come and Get It would have been a terrific Beatles single, but I doubt that John or George would have been too interested in recording it at that period (late 1969 I think). We have Paul's demo's of both which are great in themselves.

[@leslieromanovega8870]

Great content.. You have a point about 'A World without Love' being rejected.. Although not outright, it was said that John mocked its opening line 'Please lock me away' and John would go 'OK'

[@eko9554]

I’m in Love could’ve been a #1 Beatles hit. I really love and kinda wish it was recorded by them.

[@Paolo8772]

I once had a Bootlegged of a recording of The Beatles playing their song Bad to Me. The bootleg album it came from was entitled The Beatles Not For Sale.

[@normansaunders6891]

There is a complete version on KZbin with footage from A Hard Day's Night.

[@Paolo8772]

@@normansaunders6891 I've discovered it by now, thanks. It has a guitar solo section the one I remember didn't have.

[@sammcbride2149]

Very interesting topic, VG. Thanks for all the work you put into it and I'm glad you didn't abandon the project. It was worth it!

[@mnbv990]

Agreed,

[@Danjoker.]

They were just that good! They gave songs away like it was no big deal.

[@sebastianswaltz]

Great video! Another artist/songwriter in the same vein that comes to my mind is Prince. The man would release jam-packed albums annually throughout the 80's and 90's, and still had the juice to give away some amazing songs like "I Feel For You", "Manic Monday", and "Nothing Compares 2 U". Like Lennon and McCartney, the sheer prolificacy is just mind-boggling!

[@samwisegamgee4659]

Wow! Great historical insight into not only their creative output but also the underlying economic (Royalties) and music industry bias (Singles vs. Albums) that occurred during the evolving time-period that spanned their careers. Good job.

[@antoniodalfonso]

This video was very well done! As a young man I asked myself why did the Beatles not record World without love! which is such a fine work, so dark, such a scream for love! and peace! Thank you for doing this video! Excellent research! You might have included Harrison's few songs! And yes yes how much The Writers gained by the input of the other two! I find it a pity that Harrison and Starkey do not share credit for their contribution! And I Lover Her, eg, owes so much to Harrison's riff! That would be credited today! Am glad Robert Fripp questioned this practice of not crediting musicians' work. Exceptions made, The L-M credit could read The Beatles period!

[@elmolewis9123]

Excellent coverage and presentation. 👍👍

[@MichaelSmith-sd9kz]

There's a story about Albert Einstein, regularly considered a fairly intelligent sort of fellow, where, hanging out at a party, he's just rambling away about all these brilliant new higher-math ideas, and all these physics students are writing it all down, and someone pulls him aside, cautioning him against just giving such brilliant thoughts away to ambitious young people, and then Einstein is all, "I'll have other ideas." Same situation here.

[@WalnutAnimations]

I wish I could go back to the sixties and be there for the release of all the Beatles songs

[@darrenselector7729]

That Means a Lot and Come and Get It are two of my favorite songs they gave away. I would include their demo versions as some of my favorite Beatles songs.

[@Danjoker.]

Superb video as always.

[@Romchikthelemon]

Thank you! Love your channel

[@SpeedOfThought1111]

great video, thanks for your hard work.

[@Chill_Mode_JD]

Great job dude, I really enjoyed this one. You might make it look easy but I know the video production process can be a real pain in the ass, I appreciate the honestly ✌️💯

[@elvisleeboy]

'Goodbye' written by Paul McCartney for Mary Hopkin was a brilliant song. The demo by Paul is excellent, although Mary certainly did the song justice.

[@idanwillenchik3050]

The only Lennon-McCartney song that was never recorded or released by the Beatles to top the US Billboard Hot 100 chart was A World Without Love by Peter and Gordon. It topped the chart for one week on June 27th 1964.

[@artistaccount]

Bad to me?

[@BullittHilts]

I watched the video on Billy Joel’s new song, then got this as a suggestion at the end of the Billy one. SUPER well done. Subscribed!

[@ZJ-ne9kn]

From a window and a world without love are probably my favorite they decided to give away

[@eastonwarner5399]

🔥🔥🔥 vid as always

[@hatmanndo]

I think you did a Great job!! 👍😊 Thanks!

[@renemies78]

What a great video! It's one of your best!

[@thingsthathappenedtomymoth2816]

Paul did write two very good songs toward the end of the sixties for other performers. The demos he did are now official Beatles releases: “Goodbye” is one, which he wrote for Mary Hopkin, and the other is the one he wrote in 1969 for Badfinger: “Come And Get It.”

[@marivg8948]

What's another good song(s) they gave away? Off the top of my head I remember "Goodbye" by Mary Hopkin and "Come and Get It" by Badfinger. Goodbye could have been on McCartney I and Come and Get It could have been on Ram.

[@matcoffidis1135]

One of my favs is That Means A Lot. Heard it on the Anthology and thought...wow! I heard the other version (different artist) and it didn't even remotely compare. I've heard I'll Be On My Way on the Beatles station on Sirius...so lovely...❤❤

[@Kermit_T_Frog]

The early albums, obviously, had so many covers by reason that they were given almost no time time to work their own compositions into proper shape. A time consuming process. Makes perfect sense that they'd turn to songs they already were proficient in.

[@robgronotte1]

The Beatnix is an Australian Beatles tribute band who recorded a full album of songs The Beatles gave away, as they thought the Beatles' version would have sounded. It's the closest you can now get to hearing them anyway. Here's their version of World Without Love: kzbin.info/www/bejne/ol6ngqqNg6uJkKc

[@raywaites1539]

I have a Japanese album - 'Unreleased Singles' which includes most of the songs they gave away but actually recorded by the Beatles. These include the hits by The Fourmost, The Applejacks, Peter and Gordon, Billy J Kramer, Cilla Black and Mary Hopkin.

[@prschuster]

Yes, they gave away their throwaway songs, which became hits for other artists. Imagine being that good.

[@jsizemo]

3:33 Someone like Paul Anka comes to mind. He ended up being just that.

[@KevMuso]

It is probably relevant to mention here that whenever The Beatles performed a cover, it was usually a new unique arrangement rather than a straight copy of the original. There was one occasion where they had their own quirky version of the Song "If You Gotta Make a Fool of Somebody". Unfortunately for The Beatles, another band, Freddie & The Dreamers, copied The Beatles' arrangement of this song, recorded it, released it as a single in May 1963 and it was a hit. Obviously The Beatles could not claim credit, as it only their arrangement and not their song. This may have been the tipping point when they decided to step up on the songwriting.

[@noahbody9747]

Hearing some of the songs giving to other artists reinforced my belief they weren't great songs. Granted the artists did put their own spin on the songs. I'm glad the Beatles did cut a version of I'll Be on My Way for the BBC. Even this early draft of the song sounded better to me than the official release by Billy J. Kramer.

[@Clay3613]

Come and Get It is a banger though.

[@noahbody9747]

@@Clay3613 Yes, Come and Get It is a great song. Paul told Bad Finger to play it exactly the way he performed on the demo he gave them. I guess I should have qualified my comment on their early songs. Being barely out of their teens, they had a way to go (but they quickly learned fast!).

[@sammcbride2149]

I've always wondered what John and Paul's music career would have been like if they had pursued only songwriting and never formed a band.

[@artistaccount]

The same cause they wrote all their songs lol. They just would've never gone touring the first years cause you know no band

[@francisnabrynski2997]

Be advised there are versions by the beatles of "bad to me" and "world without love".

[@richardgillette5759]

Why The Beatles Gave Away Songs? Because they wrote too many good songs

[@startwithlogic8200]

😂😂😂😂

[@DaPoopIsInDaPudding]

That’s what the Cinderella story is anyway

[@jesusperez2694]

U saved me time but I'm still gonna watch it anyway

[@theo9952]

Of all those songs they gave away, I really like only 3, all by Paul and published during the late Beatles era. Those are STEP INSIDE LOVE, GOODBYE and COME AND GET IT. I don't care much about early songs.

[@Richardarthur86]

I really love I’ll Be On My Way en World Without Love. But I think my favourite McCartney giveaway is On The Wings Of A Nightingale, as a tribute for and to The Everly Brothers.

[@tecpaocelotl]

I am not sure if the record was legit or a bootleg, but there was an album called songs that the Beatles gave away. It didn't have all the songs but had an album worth of the songs.

[@mikejervis]

i like your view point

Gran video pa

[@beatlemaniacwaltdisneyfan4753]

the actual question is: why "love me do/p.s. i love you" and not "one after 909/love me do" debut?

[@Cesar_09_]

Can you make a Pros and cons of hitchhiking breakdown?

[@2veryfatboys]

What about a LOVE 2008 album review

[@user-gu6zz1ei3p]

The covers they did on the bbc sessions just meant they were song writers and George and Ringo were the brick and mortar of the band

[@douglasmijangos3327]

I have a friend who hated the Beatles and loved The Rolling Stones 😂 I told him “the Beatles gave their weaker songs to The Rolling Stones and got them in the door” 🤷🏻‍♂️😂 and like Lennon said the Beatles did something and right after the Stones copied them 😂 “She’s a Rainbow” was not influenced in any way by “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” not at all😂

[@voidsabre_]

Weird to make this whole video and not talk about Come and Get It and Goodbye

[@ntxmt]

I thought George's version of Do You Want To Know A Secret was better than Billy J's

[@rustyrobinson8027]

Probably good advertising

[@johnnymoondog]

0.9x

[@bernadettekavanagh9984]

Paul McCartney wasn't present when John Lennon and Co gave away the songs. And was very upset when he found out. He's been trying to get his property back ever since.

[@phillippope6844]

Parlophone and Brian Epstein handing out Lennon McCartney songs to their other artists probably just made more business sense. The Beatles, like many artist in the early 60s, didn't have as much artistic control over their music (recorded or even written). Music was a purely business minded game (as if it isn't today, but perhaps even more so it was all about the end result in the early 60s, no love was lost for butchering Beatles content and selling it in the most lucrative way, i.e the Capitol albums). Lennon-McCartney tunes could be relied on to tap into the popular teenage musical ear, and giving lesser-known in-house acts a Lennon-McCartney song must have looked like a promising way to launch new bands and rake in even more profits. No one knew how big the Beatles would become, so in a sense its just spreading their talent out to other artists to generate more buzz, and perhaps launch a new name and face that can equally bring in $.

[@DetroitRockCitizen]

There's an album released in the '70s called The Songs That Lennon and McCartney Gave Away. To be brutally honest nearly all of them are not all that great. The two best were the two biggest hits: A World Without Love and Bad to Me. I'm in Love? No....

[@beatlemaniacwaltdisneyfan4753]

doctor robert taxman here there and everywhere were easy to play live. bad to me and i'll be on my way fit better on with the beatles than most of it

[@hazrinahmad2822]

Goodbye, come and get it?

[@redgreen__]

Money

[@kbob1163]

Most of the songs they gave away in '63 and '64 were old by that time, and they probably preferred their more recent efforts. Plus most of them were lame.

[@steveshattah]

Too many songs we got too many songs hey we got too many songs we're blowing them out we got a sale like you wouldn't believe come on down and get your songs we got a discount today hurry before Billy j Kramer and The Dakotas grab them all.

[@catchall673]

Interesting topic, but it didn't hold my interest.

[@fromchomleystreet]

McCartney and Lennon stood to make more money from a hit single by another artist than they stood to make from the same song appearing as a Beatles album track. They had enough original material to cover all their singles. Albums were a lower priority in the early sixties. You filled them out with filler.

[@garyfletcher844]

Because they didn't like the songs. They were sub-standard.

[@DaPoopIsInDaPudding]

The Beatles didn’t even write most of their own songs. You can tell Paul or billy or whatever his name is is the only one with superior skills. The others were nothing special yet everyone believes the Cinderella story they were fed. Mike Williams channel gives you all the info you’ll ever need if you can handle it. Most can’t accept being lied to.