The 1965 Beatles song John Lennon wanted to delete from history: “The one song I really hate”
The Beatles worked at a frantic rate that makes most major bands that exist in 2026 look like part-timers in comparison.
Within a decade, they created a back catalogue that is vaster than many acts can craft over the course of 30 years, which was a result of their tireless work rate. Admittedly, waving goodbye to touring in 1966 also immeasurably helped them focus on their studio commitments, which is a luxury that doesn’t exist for bands in today’s musical economy.
However, even the Fab Four couldn’t achieve a 100 per cent hit rate. John Lennon, in particular, was especially critical of multiple creations when he looked back on his earlier career.
It’s natural to grow unhappy with a song once it has been released into the world. Nevertheless, Lennon took this to the extreme and often unfairly beat himself up in the media over songs that most of his peers would love to have written.
In the eyes of millions, the Fab Four could do no wrong and walked on water. However, the self-critical nature that inflicts us all even extended to Lennon, who later turned his back on several and boldly claimed that every single track they made could be improved. Their hit rate remains higher than any other band ever to live, but Lennon was a perfectionist who constantly sought ways to improve his craft. “I feel I could make every fucking one of them better,” he once remarked during his infamously scathing interview with David Sheff in 1980.
In the same conversation, Lennon spoke candidly, expressing regrets about his career. The singer-songwriter held nothing back, addressing everything openly, including the numerous songs he had come to disdain, both from The Beatles and his solo catalogue.
Admittedly, most of the tracks that Lennon lamented were from a position of personal growth. In 1980, he was a married father who didn’t recognise the young mop-topped kid with the world at his feet who had played a part in the song’s creation.
In a remarkably intense seven-year period, The Beatles recorded over 300 songs, and naturally, some have aged better than others. Despite their musical genius, the Fab Four were human, and not every track they produced was a masterpiece.
As much as Lennon was particularly vocal in ridiculing many of Paul McCartney’s songs, dismissing some as “granny shit“, he was even more critical of his own work. Among the tracks that irked him the most was the 1965 track ‘It’s Only Love’ from Help!, which he later expressed deep dissatisfaction with and would happily have erased from the history books.
‘It’s Only Love’ is the Oxford Dictionary definition of a throwaway track. It was included on Help! largely due to time constraints and the need for filler material rather than artistic merit. The likelihood of ‘It’s Only Love’ making it onto a Beatles record after 1965 is extremely slim. From the start, Lennon was never a fan.
“It’s the most embarrassing song I ever wrote. Everything rhymed. Disgusting lyrics. Even then I was so ashamed of the lyrics, I could hardly sing them. That was one song I really wished I’d never written,” Lennon once revealed in an interview with British journalist Ray Connelly.
Furthermore, in a separate interview, he expressed his anger at ‘It’s Only Love’, telling Hit Parader: “That’s the one song I really hate of mine. Terrible lyric.”
Lyrically, ‘It’s Only Love’ is lacking in imagination and is a track that would have been best served on the scrap heap. On it, Lennon lazily sings, “It’s only love, and that is all, Why should I feel the way I do? It’s only love, and that is all, But it’s so hard loving you.”
As the years went on, his opinion on the track didn’t soften. In 1980, when he spoke to David Sheff, he stated: “‘It’s Only Love’ is mine. I always thought it was a lousy song. The lyrics were abysmal. I always hated that song.”
On the other hand, McCartney has a much more balanced and reflective attitude towards the track. Admittedly, it’s not one of his favourites, but he doesn’t stay awake at night regretting a misguided song from 1965.
He once told Barry Miles: “Sometimes we didn’t fight it if the lyric came out rather bland on some of those filler songs like ‘It’s Only Love’. If a lyric was really bad we’d edit it, but we weren’t that fussy about it, because it’s only a rock ‘n’ roll song. I mean, this is not literature”.
Unlike Lennon, McCartney adopted a more measured view, recognising that one song isn’t a matter of life or death. If The Beatles released a whole album at this quality level, then perhaps it would be worthy of worrying about, but the bland and inoffensive ‘It’s Only Love’ is hardly a war crime.
Ultimately, ‘It’s Only Love’, as McCartney wisely pointed out, was a filler song and should be viewed as precisely that. Nothing more, nothing less.
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