One song on every Beatles album that the band hated
Anyone who listened to The Beatles during the early stages of their career knew that the band were on to something special. Whether this was during some of their early shows in Liverpool, throughout the club scene in Hamburg or on their rise to fame, it was evident the band had something. However, nothing was more proof of The Beatles’ potential than when they initially flew to America and performed on The Ed Sullivan Show.
“The floodgates opened until the summer of ’65,” recalled Steve Van Zandt after the band had performed their rendition of ‘I Wanna Hold Your Hand’ on the chat show. “It transformed America […] On February 8th, there were no bands in America; on February 9th, we had Ed Sullivan, and on February 10th, everybody had a band in their garage. It was literally overnight.”
When their record label realised just how much potential The Beatles had, the band was asked to write a lot of music so that the label could release multiple albums and profit from every one. The Beatles tried their best, but as a result, they had to compromise on quality quite often.
The Beatles often had creative differences, which ultimately caused them to split up. That being said, there were some numbers that none of the band members were particularly fond of and which are remembered today as songs by The Beatles so bad that even The Beatles themselves hated them.
Songs by The Beatles that even The Beatles hated:
Abbey Road – ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’
When The Beatles were recording some of their final music, the band was on the brink of collapse. Paul McCartney was more or less holding the entire band together, which meant churning out pop songs that a lot of the other members weren’t too happy with. One of the prime examples of this was the Abbey Road track ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’.
John Lennon resented the track and how many takes it took to record it. George Harrison and Ringo Starr also had some harsh words for the track. “Sometimes Paul would make us do these really fruity songs,” said George Harrison, “I mean, my God, ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’ was so fruity.”
The Beatles (The White Album) – ‘Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da’
Speaking of Paul McCartney songs that the rest of the band couldn’t stand, one of The Beatles most infamous numbers was their offering on The White Album, ‘Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da’. The blatantly over-the-top pop song was a bit too much for the rest of the band, notably John Lennon, who came into the studio in a rage when he found out the song would be on the album.
“John Lennon came to the session really stoned, totally out of it on something or other, and he said, ‘All right, we’re gonna do ‘Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da’,” recalled Richard Lush, the band’s engineer at the time. “He went straight to the piano and smashed the keys with an almighty amount of volume, twice the speed of how they’d done it before, and said, ‘This is it! Come on! He was really aggravated.”
With The Beatles – ‘Little Child’
Paul McCartney and John Lennon were responsible for writing a great deal of songs for The Beatles, which meant that while there were some tracks they were passionate about, there were others they didn’t care for and wrote purely because they had to. Songs that fell into the latter category were sometimes pushed to the side, and Ringo Starr was allowed to sing the vocals. ‘Little Child’ was the band’s song from With The Beatles that the band weren’t overly keen on.
“‘Little Child was a work job,” explained McCartney. “Certain songs were inspirational and you just followed that. Certain other songs were, ‘Right come on, two hours, song for Ringo for the album.’”
Help! – ‘It’s Only Love’
It’s hard to find songs that every member of the band hated. Usually, there was one person who had a soft spot for the track (most likely the person who wrote it). McCartney and Lennon were usually divided in their taste; however, an exception to this rule was on their song ‘It’s Only Love’, which both members of the band hated.
“‘It’s Only Love’ is mine. I always thought it was a lousy song. The lyrics were abysmal. I always hated that song,” said Lennon. “That’s the one song I really hate of mine. Terrible lyric.”
Sgt Pepper Lonely Hearts Club Band – ‘Good Morning Good Morning’
Despite the personal and creative differences between the members of The Beatles, they always remained united in their pursuit of musical excellence. As such, songs that were considered throwaways and album fodder were often looked upon poorly. This is what happened with the track ‘Good Morning, Good Morning’ on Sgt Pepper’s, which all the band struggled to get excited about.
“It’s a throwaway, a piece of garbage, I always thought,” said Lennon before admitting that the song was loosely inspired by the Kellogg’s Corn Flakes ad. “I always had the TV on very low in the background when I was writing, and it came over, and then I wrote the song.”
Let It Be – ‘Dig A Pony’
Recording Let It Be was difficult for most of the band; however, it was particularly an issue for John Lennon. He was dealing with all of the negative press published as a result of his relationship with Yoko Ono, while also dealing with heroin addiction. He wasn’t interested in contributing much to the album, but he did write ‘Dig a Pony’.
‘Dig a Pony’ was a difficult song to make sense of as it was largely nonsensical and lacked creative direction. “You just take words and you stick them together, and you see if they have any meaning,” said Lennon when discussing the song. “Some of them do and some of them don’t.”
Rubber Soul – ‘Run For Your Life’
The Beatles’ music is often associated with popular love songs about desire and longing; however, they also wrote some songs full of spite and malice. ‘Run For Your Life’ is the latter, as this twisted track about jealousy is one of the strangest the band ever released and one of their most sinister.
The band were never too keen on the track; however, it didn’t have anything to do with the twisted narrative and was instead a result of how little effort went into the song. “I never liked ‘Run for Your Life’,” admitted John Lennon, “Because it was a song I just knocked off.”
Revolver – ‘And Your Bird Can Sing’
The meaning behind the band’s Revolver track ‘And Your Bird Can Sing’ remains a mystery. Some people believe it was a jab at Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithfull, given that “bird” is common English slang for girlfriend. Others thought it was a song written about Frank Sinatra after an article was published on behalf of Sinatra, which seemed to mock the Beatles.
If we are to listen to John Lennon; however, the song might not have any hidden meaning. The band was never too keen on the track, as it could not ignite any specific feelings in those listening. Lennon has since said that the song felt like a throwaway track and isn’t a number he’s proud of.
Please Please Me – ‘A Taste of Honey’
You would think that the covers The Beatles did would be well-liked by the band, given they have chosen to record and perform them; however, that wasn’t the case for their song ‘A Taste of Honey’. The track was initially written by Bobby Scott and Ric Marlow for the Broadway version of the play of the same name.
While the Beatles had a shared creative voice on their earlier albums, such as Please Please Me, there were some tracks they weren’t happy about recording, and this cover was one of them. The band found it irritating and would have rather opted for a different cover.
Yellow Submarine – ‘Only a Northern Song’
Finally, when the band was working on their album Sgt Pepper’s, George Harrison worked hard to write a song that would fit into the album’s track list. He came up with ‘Only A Northern Song’, but he despised the track before it was even finished and didn’t put much heart into the final product.
It never made the cut on Sgt Pepper’s and was instead placed on their album Yellow Submarine. None of the band were fans of the song, even their producer, George Martin, said, “I’m disappointed that George didn’t bring something better.”
