The Beatles Song That Was Initially Crueler Than the Final Version
Many of the songs John Lennon wrote for the Beatles were introspective. He wrote about his feelings and relationships, both with his first wife, Cynthia, and Yoko Ono. In 1964, he wrote the song “If I Fell” about an affair. The original lyrics were a bit harsher on the betrayed partner in the song than in the final version.
John Lennon toned down the lyrics of a Beatles song
In 1964, Lennon wrote the ballad “If I Fell.” Lennon admitted it was semi-autobiographical.
“That’s my first attempt at a ballad proper,” he said in the book All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview With John Lennon and Yoko Ono by David Sheff. “That was the precursor to ‘In My Life.’ It has the same chord sequences as ‘In My Life’: D and B minor and E minor, those kind of things. And it’s semi-autobiographical, but not consciously. It shows that I wrote sentimental love ballads, silly love songs, way back when.”
In it, Lennon sings about meeting a new partner and hoping their relationship will be better than his last. He also hopes his current partner “will cry/ When she learns we are two.” In an early version of the song, Lennon wrote this line more directly as: “I hope that she will cry/ When she hears we are two” (via In His Own Write: The Stories Behind Every Beatles Song by Steve Turner).
The sentiment is the same, but placing “I hope” directly in front of “she will cry” makes it a bit harsher. He softened the blow slightly for the final version of the song.
The Beatles couldn’t stop laughing when John Lennon sang the song in ‘A Hard Day’s Night’
While the song is about Lennon’s romantic entanglements, he sang it to Ringo Starr in the film A Hard Day’s Night. There was no love interest for Lennon in the film, so they fit the ballad in wherever they could. As a result, the band could hardly make it through this scene without laughing.
“We’re in the television studio and Ringo is supposed to be sulking a bit,” Paul McCartney explained. “John starts joking with him and then sings the song as though we’re singing it to him. We got fits of the giggles just doing it.”
John Lennon often cheated on his wife
As “If I Fell” hints, Lennon had a number of extramarital relationships. He married Cynthia in 1962 after she discovered her pregnancy. He cheated on her often throughout their six years of marriage.
“He had no shame,” Lennon’s friend Bill Harry said, per the book The Beatles: The Biography by Bob Spitz. “He acted as if he were still a bachelor — even after the baby came.”
Lennon eventually confessed his infidelity to Cynthia. While he initially said he wanted to work on their marriage, he soon left Cynthia for Ono. Lennon and Cynthia divorced in 1968. He married Ono the following year.
