“In the early days”: the one songwriter John Lennon and Paul McCartney wanted to be like
When we think about the greatest songwriters in the world, it’s easy to be dazzled by celebrity. People think of the big names that grace album covers and venue marquees. But, in reality, history’s finest songwriters are often found behind the scenes. Tucked away inside studios, the best talents often remain unknown. That doesn’t stop them from being inspirational, though, as John Lennon and Paul McCartney’s first shot in the arm was a well-kept secret at the start of their career.
This is still the case today. Some of the biggest and most successful songwriters in the world are people you don’t know. Ironically, you would know their work, contribute to their success and allow them royalties with your streams, but you won’t know their names.
But in the 1950s and ‘60s, that was even more of an operation. In a similar vein to the golden age of Hollywood, where actors were hired by a studio and were brought out again and again for roles within that company, like cogs in the machine, music was the same. Labels had songwriters who would constantly be writing hits for their stars. People would be plucked from the masses and shot into notoriety off the back of their voice, look, and attitude, but they didn’t always have a sharp lyrical pen or even a musical ear to match. Hence, they needed help behind the scenes.
There are some incredibly famous cases of this. Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller are among the best-known. Their work captured and controlled the zeitgeist of the ’50s, as they wrote a long list of hits, including many of Elvis Presley’s biggest tunes. However, Lieber and Stoller worked forever in the shadows. Despite essentially crafting the sound of an era, the average person on the street wouldn’t know who they were.
Another powerful player found her way out of the dark, though. But when Lennon and McCartney were huge fans, she was still a niche name working on the factory floor of music.
Now, the world knows Carole King primarily as a singer-songwriter and an artist in her own right, with her album Tapestry often gracing lists of the best records ever made. In the late ’50s and early ‘60s, when Lennon and McCartney were just starting out as songwriters, she was merely a name on the liner notes of hits they admired.
“In the early days, Paul and I, we wanted to be the [Gerry] Goffin and [Carole] King of England, you know,” Lennon once said, picking out King and her writing partner and husband, Gerry Goffin, as two key early inspirations.
The duo already had a long list of hits, and throughout the ‘60s, it would get even longer. They wrote The Shirelles’ ‘Will You Love Me Tomorrow,’ Aretha Franklin’s ‘(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman,’ The Monkees’ ‘Pleasant Valley Sunday’, and many more chart-topping, moment-defining songs. For the two Scouse songwriters watching on, it was a goal to hit: “Goffin and King were very big in those days, and we used to want to be Buddy Holly and Goffin/King, etc,” Lennon said.
Obviously, later down the line, King would be far more than just a behind-the-scenes songwriter and grow into a household name as an artist. But even before that, you could say that she played a hand in inspiring The Beatles to greatness.
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