Lennon–McCartney
The songwriting credit Lennon/McCartney appears on all Beatles songs that were written by John Lennon and/or Paul McCartney without the aid of the other two Beatles, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. Even before they formed the Beatles, they began writing songs together at their childhood homes in Liverpool, and Lennon suggested that all songs written by either one of the pair (whether written individually or in a collaborative effort) were credited to both of them, in an effort to emulate the familiarity of the Leiber-Stoller partnership. As a result of this mutual agreement, royalties were shared equally between the two. It remains one of the best known and most successful songwriting partnerships of the 20th century.
On the Beatles' first album, Please Please Me, the credit appears as "McCartney−Lennon"; on all later albums Lennon's name comes first.
A common misconception is that Lennon and McCartney each wrote their own songs alone and simply credited them to the partnership. While each musician often wrote independently and many Beatles songs are primarily the work of one or the other, it was only rarely that a song would be completed without some input from each of the duo. In many instances, one writer would sketch an idea or a song fragment and bring it to the other to finish or improve; in some cases, two incomplete songs or song ideas that each had worked on individually would be combined into a complete song. Often one of the pair would add a middle eight or bridge section to the other's verse and chorus.
The approach of the Lennon/McCartney songwriting team included elements of competitiveness and mutual inspiration as well as straightforward collaboration. The collaborative and creative merging of musical ideas between the pair is often cited as a key reason for the Beatles' innovativeness and popular success.
The pair wrote songs together from 1958 through 1969. As time went on, the songs increasingly became the work of one writer or the other, often with the partner offering up only a few words or an alternate chord. "A Day in the Life" is a notable and well-known example of a later Beatles song that includes substantial contributions by both Lennon and McCartney, where a separate song by McCartney was used to flesh out the middle of Lennon's composition. "Hey Jude" is an example of a later (McCartney) song that was improved by relatively minor input from Lennon. While auditioning the song for Lennon, when McCartney came to the lyric "the movement you need is on your shoulder," McCartney assured Lennon that he would change the line--which McCartney felt was nonsensical--as soon as he could come up with a better lyric. Lennon advised McCartney to leave that line alone, saying it was one of the strongest in the song.
In the 1990s and early 2000s, Paul McCartney attempted to have the credit reversed to "McCartney-Lennon" on a number of songs which he wrote independently, most notably "Yesterday," but this change was opposed by Lennon's estate. In a February 2005 statement, however, McCartney stated that "...it's something that I don't have a problem with any more."[1] Ironically, when John Lennon's 1997 compilation of solo hits, Lennon Legend: The Very Best of John Lennon, was released, "Give Peace a Chance", a song that had previously been credited to Lennon-McCartney, was listed as being composed solely by John Lennon.
A number of songs by The Beatles were credited to persons in addition to Lennon and McCartney. "What Goes On" was credited to Lennon-McCartney-Starkey, while "Flying" and "Dig It", as well as the newer "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love", were credited to Lennon-McCartney-Harrison-Starkey. The German-language versions of "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "She Loves You" were also credited to additional songwriters for assisting with the translation: "Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand" was credited to Lennon-McCartney-Nicholas-Heller and "Sie Liebt Dich" was credited to Lennon-McCartney-Nicholas-Montague.
Non-Beatles songs
In the 1960s, many songs credited to Lennon & McCartney were originally released, not by The Beatles, but by other artists, especially those managed by Brian Epstein. The songwriting credit helped launch new artists' careers. Beatles versions of some of these appear on compilations such as The Beatles Anthology.
- Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas — Do You Want to Know a Secret/I'll Be On My Way, Bad To Me/I Call Your Name, I'll Keep You Satisfied (1963); From A Window (1964);
- Tommy Quickly — Tip Of My Tongue (1963)
- The Fourmost — Hello Little Girl, I'm In Love (1963)
- Cilla Black — Love Of The Loved (1963); It's For You (1964); Step Inside Love (1968)
- Rolling Stones — I Wanna be Your Man (1963)
- The Strangers with Mike Shannon — One And One Is Two (1964)
- Peter and Gordon — Nobody I Know, World Without Love, I Don't Want To See You Again (1964)
- The Applejacks — Like Dreamers Do (1964)
- P.J. Proby — That Means A Lot (1965)
- Mary Hopkin — Goodbye (1969)
In addition, McCartney wrote songs under his own name for other artists prior to the Beatles' split; notably Badfinger's 1969 hit Come and Get It.
See also
External links
- Who Wrote That?
- The Songs Lennon and McCartney Gave Away
- The Lennon-McCartney Songwriting Partnership
