Every song The Beatles rejected from their own records
The Beatles took the world by storm when they burst onto the scene in the early 1960s. Not only were the Liverpool foursome leading figures in the decade’s countercultural movement and figureheads of the British Invasion, but they revolutionised Western popular music, introducing new recording techniques and genres to the mainstream. Regarded as the most influential band of all time, The Beatles released thirteen studio albums together before disbanding in 1970.
Although there were only seven years between the band releasing the first and last album, the band underwent a momentous change. Whereas The Beatles’ early albums, such as Please Please Me and With The Beatles, featured a collection of accessible rock and roll hits, love songs and Motown covers, their sound evolved as the band took inspiration from other cultures and interests, such as LSD. 1966 marked the beginning of The Beatles’ psychedelic period, with the band’s interest in Eastern philosophy and music seeping into their work.
By the time The Beatles went their separate ways, they had released over 200 songs. Yet, the band members wrote countless more tracks that never made their way onto their final studio albums or singles. However, thanks to The Beatles’ dedicated fanbase, many of their previously unreleased tracks – including demos, rarities, and B-sides – have been released via official compilation albums or bootlegs. In the 1990s, Apple Records released the Anthology series, comprised of three compilation albums, which included many unreleased Beatles cuts.
Elsewhere, the band wrote many tracks they gave away to other artists, such as Cilla Black, Peter and Gordon, the Fourmost, Billy J Kramer with the Dakotas, Mary Hopkin, Badfinger, and PJ Proby. The Lennon-McCartney composition ‘A World Without Love’, given to Peter and Gordon as their debut single, shot to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and resulted in international fame for the duo. In fact, McCartney wrote many of the duo’s tracks, mainly because Peter was the brother of his then-girlfriend Jane Asher.
Sadly, none of Peter and Gordon’s Lennon-McCartney penned tracks exists as Beatles demos. But luckily for die-hard Beatles fans, several of their compositions which they never ended up releasing for themselves, exist in rough demo format, performed by the band. For example, ‘Hello Little Girl’, released in 1963 by the Fourmost, made its way onto Anthology 1, with vocals by John Lennon, as does Cilla Black’s ‘Love of the Loved’, with McCartney taking the lead. However, a song such as ‘One and One is Two’, performed by The Strangers with Mike Shannon, but written by McCartney, is harder to find.
Here is a list of the songs the Beatles wrote but never placed on their studio albums or singles.
Every song The Beatles rejected from their own records:
- ‘In Spite of All the Danger’
- ‘You’ll Be Mine’
- ‘Cayenne’
- ‘Cry For A Shadow’
- ‘I’ll Be On My Way’
- ‘Bad to Me’
- ‘Tip of my Tongue’
- ‘Hello Little Girl’
- ‘Love of the Loved’
- ‘I’ll Keep You Satisfied’
- ‘I’m In Love’
- ‘A World Without Love’
- ‘One and One is Two’
- ‘Nobody I Know’
- ‘Like Dreamers Do’
- ‘You’ll Know What To Do’
- ‘From A Window’
- ‘It’s For You’
- ‘I Don’t Want To See You Again’
- ‘If You’ve Got Troubles’
- ‘That Means A Lot’
- ’12-Bar Original’
- ‘Woman’
- ‘Carnival of Light’
- ‘Catcall’
- ‘Shirley’s Wild Accordian’
- ‘Jessie’s Dream’
- ‘Step Inside Love’
- ‘Thingumybob’
- ‘Sour Milk Sea’
- ‘Circles’
- ‘Not Guilty’
- ‘What’s the New Mary Jane’
- ‘Etcetera’
- ‘Badge’
- ‘Paul Piano Intro’
- ‘Jazz Piano Song’
- ‘Suzy Parker’
- ‘Teddy Boy’
- ‘All Things Must Pass’
- ‘Goodbye’
- ‘Come and Get It’
- ‘Penina’
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