The 1956 song that stayed with John Lennon and Paul McCartney: “It was just such a thrill”
The songwriting partnership of John Lennon and Paul McCartney is one littered with highs and lows.
When The Beatles broke up, it was pretty evident that the two had gone in completely separate creative directions. They have both had their own ideas about what made a good song, and they were very different. Paul McCartney wanted to write pop songs, and John Lennon wanted something more hard-hitting.
It was this variety of ideas that got in the way of the band ever being able to truly connect towards the end of their run together. The break-up was pretty messy, as band members went to the press to talk about some of the songs their counterparts had written and essentially tore them to shreds.
Paul McCartney was a big fan of his song ‘Hello Goodbye’, but the same couldn’t be said for John Lennon. Their differences of opinion on this were a big reflection of how much their attitudes towards creativity were changing. “That’s another McCartney,” said Lennon. “Smells a mile away, doesn’t it? An attempt to write a single. It wasn’t a great piece; the best bit was the end, which we all ad-libbed in the studio, where I played the piano.”
Of course, while the end of the band may have been somewhat turbulent, it’s worth remembering that there was a time when they all got along. When John Lennon and Paul McCartney were once two halves of the same mind. They loved the music that one another made, and were also big fans of the same kinds of artists. One of the songs that they both loved when they initially started making music was ‘Be-Bop-a-Lula’ by Gene Vincent.
“If the oldies but goldies come on (the radio), it’s one of my favourites,” said Lennon. “If I hear ‘Be-Bop-a-Lula’, I can hear it over and over again. Every time it comes on, I switch up the thing, and I have the record still.”
Their mutual love for the song went a lot deeper than just the sound, it was built into the foundation of The Beatles. When John Lennon and Paul McCartney first met, McCartney knew he wanted them to make music together. When they first started talking about their influences and what artists they liked, their mindsets aligned, and as a mini audition, McCartney decided to play a cover of the song. It was a mutual adoration for this track that cemented the two’s early bond, and that allowed them to go on and make such good music together.
“Now this is the first record I ever bought when I was a kid,” recalled McCartney, “and I saved up my pocket money for months, and then I took the bus downtown to the record shop, and I remember going into the back of the shop and listening to the record and loving it.”
He concluded, “It was just very early days of rock’n’roll, so it was just such a thrill, and then I got back on the bus, went home and played it endlessly, and these memories of Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps singing ‘Be-Bop-A-Lula’ will stay with me forever.”
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