Songs the Beatles never recorded but were hits for others

August 27, 2015 • 7:15 am

It’s not widely known, except perhaps among Beatlephiles, that Lennon and McCartney wrote several songs they never recorded, with several of them becoming huge hits for other groups.

Here, for example, is a song that readers of a certain age will remember: “Bad to Me” by Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas. Written by John Lennon, it was released by Kramer’s group in 1963 in the UK and went to #1; the following year it was released in the U.S. and went to #9. When I heard it on the radio the other day, I thought to myself, “That sounds just like a Beatles song. In fact, the arrangement is exactly like a Beatles song.” (I knew of this song, of course, as I was 14 when it was a hit.) Sure enough, I checked and was right.  Listen for yourself; this could easily have been the Beatles in the early Sixties:

The video below claims to be a demo by Lennon and the Beatles, and it sure sounds like it. I’m not sure exactly why Lennon and McCartney handed off this song to others; it’s perfectly in line, qualitywise, with what they were recording at the time. Note that there’s a slight difference from Kramer’s version in the melody.

Another Beatles discard that became a hit was “A World Without Love“, written by Paul McCartney and recorded by Peter and Gorden. It went to #1 in both the US and UK in 1964.

The Beatles were immensely talented, and their discards became #1 hits for others. I know some will disagree, but the group was, without question, the greatest rock group of all time.

66 thoughts on “Songs the Beatles never recorded but were hits for others”

    3. PS. It almost doesn’t meet PCC’s criteria as it turns up on Anthology 3, but it’s a solo performance from McCartney segueing into “Los Paranoias” with Lennon and Starr (but credited as “The Beatles”).

    4. Billy J Kramer and Cilla Black were both managed by Brian Epstein, so it is not really surprising that he gave them Lennon and McCartney songs to record.

      The arrangement on the BJK recording is exactly like the Beatles’ arrangements because it was produced by George Martin who produced and arranged the Beatles’ songs too. Martin has a bigger role in the Beatles sound than many people realise.

  2. When the Beatles first became popular, I admit I wasn’t that impressed with their music. As the years have gone by, I’ve become ever more amazed at just how _good_ these guys were.

  3. They wrote ‘I wanna be your man’ for the Stones which was a hit in the UK and a ‘B’ side to ‘Not Fade Away’ in the U.S.

      1. IMO the two renditions sound utterly different. When Jagger sings it, it sounds really risque which the Beatles version does not.

  4. The Beatles were unique for a few reasons as we look back on the whole industry. They were a game changer in the direction of pop music when they came along. They were outstanding song writers both Paul and John and that is really the key to staying power. There have always been talented players and singers but if they could not create their own music, it gets very limited.

    But in the end, they were like many others and that is they could not get along and stay together. In that way, they were not unique.

  5. And don’t forget “Come and Get It” that McCartney wrote in 1969 (still a Beatle!) for Badfinger. You can hear McCartney’s demo of the song on the third Anthology box. (While I’m here, Badfinger’s three other hits, “Baby Blue”, “No Matter What”, and “Day After Day” (with a beautiful solo by George Harrison), all written by Pete Ham, are three of the best songs that the Beatles never wrote.)

    In the late 1970s, EMI released an LP called “The Songs Lennon and McCartney Gave Away”. Strange that this was never reissued on CD. If you go to Amazon you’ll see that someone is selling the LP for $114!

    1. Their “Greatest Hits” is a bargain on iTunes UK at the moment!

      I just came across them recently (when searching for I can’t remember what). A very sad history.

      /@

  6. I was – forgive me – never greatly interested in pop music (classical & folk music were what I preferred) but of all the pop groups who appeared in my youth (youth!), the Beatles are the ones who have stayed with me. Their best songs are clever verbally, and very interesting musically, and also owe a great deal to British and American folk music.

    1. Deryck Cooke, who wrote well on music and how it means and also prepared a finished version of Mahler’s last symphony, wrote interestingly on the Beatles’ harmonic daring.

    2. The Beatles also helped to showcase elements of classical music to a new audience. They made great use of strings in many songs. “Eleanor Rigby” comes first to my mind.

        1. Wonderful examples. I think these bits of orchestration reminded a lot of young people that the classical music they couldn’t stand to listen too was actually very nice when done with panache – a bit of classical and romantic.

          The Rigby link did not work for me but this one does:

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09bCXwA9FBg

          1. Thank’s for fixing the link. I’ve corrected it and added “She’s Leaving Home”

            I Am The Walrus
            http://tinyurl.com/pr4b49y

            Eleanor Rigby
            http://tinyurl.com/q3csll2

            She’s Leaving Home
            http://tinyurl.com/nqb7yve

            There’s a second interesting story behind “She’s Leaving Home”. McCartney was in a frenzy of creativity at that time. He knew what he wanted but George Martin wasn’t available to do the orchestration (busy doing Cilla Black recording sessions). McCartney recruited Mike Leander to do it and the end result was a perfect pop record. It’s only vocals and orchestra on the record. McCartney’s action (I reckon understandable in the circumstances) did upset Martin.

  7. If Bad to Me came out in ’63, Kramer may have gotten it in ’62 when the Beatles hadn’t gotten that big yet. Maybe they just needed the dosh?

    1. I suspected that they just didn’t think it was up to the standard of their other songs, and remember that at that time they fancied themselves as becoming the Goffin-King equivalent in England.

      Even for the time, Lennon may have considered the lyrics of Bad to Me a little to silly or sentimental. That’s also probably why they never released one of his very first songs, Hello Little Girl, which you can hear in the Anthology set. “Bad to Me” has a nice hook in the verses, but the bridge or “middle eight” seems weak in comparison to other Lennon songs.

      They also “gave” BJK the much better song, I Call Your Name, before they recorded it for themselves, as well as McCartney’s I’ll Be on My Way (the Beatles’ version is on Live at the BBC).

      1. John wrote “Bad to Me” specifically for Billy J., at the request of their mutual manager, Brian Epstein. Epstein felt that writing songs for other artists would help promote Lennon & McCartney’s reputation as songwriters, as well as helping his other clients have hits-a win/win situation.

  8. Youtube has this video of the lads themselves performing “Bad to Me” live. At least it looks like and sounds like and says it’s them (although I suppose there’s still a chance it could be a canny impression by The Rutles).

    The Billy J. & the Dakotas version of “Bad to Me” sounds kind of like the Beatles, but it sounds even more (to my ear, at least) like The Dave Clark Five.

    1. …or maybe “quasi-live,” is more like it. The premise of the video appears to be that they’re playing “Bad to Me” while the band is setting up, but the audio and video seem badly out of sync at times, or possibly that they’re playing another tune entirely.

      1. That is very much NOT a video of “bad to me.” That is a video (but not audio) directly from their first movie, “A Hard Day’s Night” and the song they are singing in the original video is “If I Fell.” That video merely put the audio of “Bad To Me” on top of the Hard Day’s Night video.

        In the 60s it was a question between me and my friends and presumably others who was better, the Beatles or the Stones. It’s clear now that the Beatles won.

        1. I agree, and for years I’ve taken the Beatles side of that argument against some of my buddies. (I do, nonetheless, have a special place in my heart for Keith; he IS Rock-n-Roll.)

          1. Although I was born in 1962, I really only became aware of the Beatles circa 1972 when I first saw Yellow Submarine on tv. Within a few years I was very much into the Beatles, as well as many other ’60s performers. At 17 in 1979, my personal rankings of favorite bands were the Beatles at no. 1, followed by the Stones and the Who. My tastes have quite expanded over the decades since, but the Beatles remain my favorite all-time band.

          2. Yes, what Fred said. But I would have a really hard time choosing a favorite all-time band.

            I’ve said it before but will again here: Today’s offerings are extremely weak tea compared to the 1960s and 1970s.

  9. I feel like it should always be noted that McCartney ‘gave’ the song “World without Love” to Peter and Gordon while he was dating (as he did for roughly five years) Peter’s sister Jane. I’ve often thought my wooing might have been enhanced were I able to dispense hit songs to family members at will.

    1. Yeah, serving up a hit record to your squeeze’s brother must be a real knickers-dropper. I always thought the ultimate move was when Mick wrote “Wild Horses” as his make-up song for Marianne Faithfull, then invited her into the studio to sit there while he sang it. Who’s not gonna score big-time with that?

      1. Yes, McCartney talks about all this in his auto-bio, Many Years from Now.

        He also notes, as have so many rock musicians, that he and the lads got into it, “to get girls”. That was the main motivation. The Eagles say the same; and probably all rockers would, if they were honest and forthcoming.

        Which, to me, goes a long way to explaining the disparity between male and female rockers (by count).

        1. The disparity is not fully explained. Has anyone asked female rockers what motivated them? Were they trying to “get babies?”

  10. I think that their contribution to music was (like Dylan) far more than their performances. They created a legacy of music that others have expanded upon.

    Once Joe Cocker got his hands on “A Little Help From My Friends” that song was never the same.

    1. Neither was Joe, really. I mean he still rolled along for years after performing ALHFMF at Woodstock, and he could still rise to the occasion to deliver top-notch performances even in his later years, but the Life and the Road took a heavy toll out of the guy over the years.

    2. Jay, all very subjective but it’s the only cover of a Beatles song I like better than the original. He changed it to “waltz time”. Any other pop record in “waltz time”?

  11. I know some will disagree, but the group was, without question, the greatest rock group of all time.

    I wouldn’t disagree. “Talented” is an understatement.

  12. I own an entire CD entitled “Lost Songs: Song the Beatles Wrote but Never Recorded” that was released in 1999 and includes “Bad to Me” and “World Without Love”, but does NOT include “Step Inside Love” nor “I Call Your Name”.

    I like those first two numbers, but some of the ones on the album are a tad disappointing, although yes they are certainly the best rock group of all time.

  13. The Beatles are a special phenomenon as they were the vanguard of so many revolutionary firsts that are now taken for granted or thought of as cliche. The best was to gauge how brilliant The Beatles were in music and culture I’d recommend the brilliant mockumentary The Rutles (Eric Idle & Neil Innes) that lovingly makes fun of the mythological status of the Fab Four in our collective consciousness. The confluence of so many cultural forces was a once in a millennium occurrence. The Beatles were the right band, with the right music, at the right time to change the world. They certainly earned their GOAT status as there will never be another Beatles. 500 years from now as humans spread Across the Universe, the music of the Beatles will still be played, in bars, at clubs, on the Holodeck, etc., as new generations of humankind and our alien friends keep discovering the genius of the Fabs music.

    1. I noticed at the time that each time the Beatles went off in a new direction, everybody else followed. Or so it seemed to me.

      cr

      1. They often played “me too” to other bands’ new sounds (e.g. the Beach Boys, Pet Sounds). But they did it really well. They had tons of influences: Older rock and blues of course, folk, etc. I can often clearly here the 1940s dance-hall influence in their music.

        I agree that they were great and an amazing nexus of cultural influences.

        I own and regularly play their records.

        I “grew up” on the Beatles in the mid-1970s via the “Blue” and “Red” records that my brother had. (The hits compilations.)

  16. “Woman” by Peter and Gordon was written by McCartney but credited to “Bernard Webb”.

  17. “World Without Love” was a favourite of mine, long-forgotten till I just looked on Youtube. And yes, it absolutely is a Beatles song in its sound.

    (Digression – Youtube promptly linked to another forgotten favourite, “Silence is Golden” by the Tremeloes. How does it know? Youtube is scanning my brain.)

    cr

  18. The ‘White Album’ was a collection of songs that seem to be other song writers done by the Beatles, it was just amazing to me. It was raw, with a big orchestral production, rock and roll, simple acoustic, and the bazaar.
    It came a little of a surprise, when they could write stuff like Penny Lane, Strawberry Fields,I am he Walrus and Hullo,Goodbye and
    George Martin was definitely the fifth Beatle on those songs.
    With Abbey Road they did it again but definitely with a lot more recording panash. The engineers on that album did us Beatles Fans a huge service.
    I recollect Ringo saying in an interview, when recording Abbey Rd they were all in a good space for it and I believe that showed.

    1. The best book I have read by an engineer working on Beatles albums is “Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles” by Geoff Emerick. Very insightful in how the process worked inside Abbey Road. “Geoff Emerick became an assistant engineer at the legendary Abbey Road Studios in 1962 at age fifteen, and was present as a new band called the Beatles recorded their first songs. He later worked with the Beatles as they recorded their singles “She Loves You” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” the songs that would propel them to international superstardom. In 1964 he would witness the transformation of this young and playful group from Liverpool into professional, polished musicians as they put to tape classic songs such as “Eight Days A Week” and “I Feel Fine.” Then, in 1966, at age nineteen, Geoff Emerick became the Beatles’ chief engineer, the man responsible for their distinctive sound as they recorded the classic album Revolver, in which they pioneered innovative recording techniques that changed the course of rock history. Emerick would also engineer the monumental Sgt. Pepper and Abbey Road albums, considered by many the greatest rock recordings of all time. In Here, There and Everywhere he reveals the creative process of the band in the studio, and describes how he achieved the sounds on their most famous songs. Emerick also brings to light the personal dynamics of the band, from the relentless (and increasingly mean-spirited) competition between Lennon and McCartney to the infighting and frustration that eventually brought a bitter end to the greatest rock band the world has ever known.”

  20. Coming to the comments section of a post like this reminds me of hanging out on the corner listening to the radio with my buddies.

  21. Lennon and Mcartney were great song writers, but terrible performers. I will never understand the love for the Beatles. I can’t tolerate most of what they put out, They were the acoustical equivalent of The Monkees and Taylor Swift.

    I’ll grant that they were innovative, for their time… But that doesn’t change the fact that they can be blamed for boring/bland pop “music.”

    2. The vox contrarian has spoken!

      The vox populi (and the old album cover) had it that “50 million Elvis fans can’t be wrong!” That’s equally applicable here.

    3. “Among the reasons The Beatles stopped touring in August 1966 was the lack of technology to re-create on stage the music they were constructing in the studio. Just consider the difficulties in playing tracks from Revolver, which had come out a few weeks before their last concert: were they going to schlep along a string octet just to perform “Eleanor Rigby” or a horn section just for “Got To Get You Into My Life”? How would they reproduce all the nautical sounds in “Yellow Submarine”? And how in tarnation would you even approach “playing” the double-tracking and swirling sound effects throughout “Tomorrow Never Knows”? How The Beatles created and tried to reproduce their increasingly sophisticated musical palette would forever change how music is made and how we hear it.” – “How The Beatles Rocked Technology” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stewart-wolpin/how-the-beatles-rocked-te_b_4718784.html

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