The Beatles song John Lennon called a “damn good piece of work”
The Beatles‘ meteoric rise to success was aided by the fast rate with which they released new music. After their debut album, Please Please Me, was shared in February 1963, the Liverpool quartet swiftly got to work on a second record. Beatlemania was sweeping the nation, and fans were desperate for more music. Meanwhile, the Fab Four embarked on sold-out tours, where they often had to be smuggled into the venue by the police due to the masses of screaming fans.
As The Beatles became more famous, subsequently spending more time on the road, they had to get creative when it came to writing new music. One of the songs that emerged from this period was ‘All My Loving’, which ended up on LP number two, With The Beatles. While touring with Roy Orbison, Paul McCartney penned the song on the tour bus.
In Barry Miles’ book Many Years From Now, McCartney recalled, “It was the first song I’d ever written the words first. I never wrote words first, it was always some kind of accompaniment, I’ve hardly ever done it since either. We were on a tour bus going to a gig, and so I started with the words. I had in mind a little country and western song.”
He continued: “We played the Moss Empire circuit a lot, and there were always these nice big empty backstage areas. The places have all become bingo halls now. We arrived at the gig, and I remember being in one of these big backstage areas, and there was a piano there, so I’d got my instrument. I didn’t have a guitar, it was probably with our road manager, and I remember working the tune out to it on the piano. It was a good show song, it worked well live.”
Although the song wasn’t initially released as a single, ‘All My Loving’ proved successful. Therefore, the song became a single in certain countries, topping the Canadian charts, before leading an eponymous EP, also featuring ‘Ask Me Why’, ‘Money (That’s What I Want)’ and ‘P.S. I Love You’. The Beatles opened their iconic set on The Ed Sullivan Show with ‘All My Loving’ and included it on the soundtrack to ‘A Hard Day’s Night’.
It’s safe to say that The Beatles were big fans of the track, and John Lennon confirmed so in a 1980 interview with Playboy. When asked about the song, he replied, “‘All My Loving’ is Paul, I regret to say. Ha-ha-ha. Because it’s a damn good piece of work. [Singing] ‘All my loving…’ But I play a pretty mean guitar in back.”
Revisit the song below.
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