The Beatles song John Lennon and Paul McCartney agreed was awful: “That’s the one song I really hate”
When we think about The Beatles, we think about the classics; we recall the first songs we heard of the band that blew our minds and exposed us to a new range of music. Throughout music, no matter what legend of rock and pop you are reading up on, somewhere buried in their history is the first time they heard The Beatles and how much of an impact it had on them.
Bruce Springsteen, Liam Gallagher, Jack White, Steve Van Zandt, and Joni Mitchell all have tales about the first time they heard The Beatles and how much it meant to them. The Beatles remain the most influential band on the planet, not only because of what they did but also because of what they triggered so many other people to do.
“When I heard the Beatles, I knew what I wanted to do,” Ozzy Osbourne said when discussing how much of an impact the band had on him, “My son says to me, Dad, I like the Beatles, but why do you go so crazy? The only way I can describe it, is like this, ‘Imagine you go to bed today and the world is black and white and then you wake up, and everything’s in colour. That’s what it was like!’ That’s the profound effect it had on me.”
Osbourne’s sentiment is undoubtedly sweet, but it doesn’t account for all of the less-than-average songs for which The Beatles were responsible. It’s hardly surprising that The Beatles were responsible for some poor tracks, given the amount they were asked to write. As soon as they proved that they were a working formula and people were excited about what they had to say, their record label wanted more songs that even the most legendary songwriters could fathom.
Paul McCartney and John Lennon both wrote furiously, which led to many songs that they loved, as well as some other tracks that they found less appealing. If you look through The Beatles discography, you won’t struggle to find songs that one of the songwriting duo doesn’t like; however, you will rarely find one that both of them equally despise. That is, of course, until you stumble across ‘It’s Only Love’.
From the album Help! ‘It’s Only Love’ was a track that Lennon and McCartney grew to detest. The main point of contention for them both was the quality of the lyrics. When discussing the track, Lennon said he always considers it one of his worst offerings because of how poor the words are. “I always thought it was a lousy song,” he said, “The lyrics were abysmal. I always hated that song. That’s the one song I really hate of mine.”
McCartney agreed, recalling that they knew the lyrics were bad when they came up with them but not so bad they felt the need to change them. “Sometimes we didn’t fight it if the lyric came out rather bland on some of those filler songs like ‘It’s Only Love’,” said McCartney. “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.”
