John Lennon Said 1 Beatles Song Sounded Like Girl Group Music

Paul McCartney discussed writing songs on a deadline during The Beatles’ A Hard Day’s Night era. John said one of The Beatles’ songs from A Hard Day’s Night sounded like girl group music. Paul said the track may have been about John’s marital problems.

Paul McCartney said writing The Beatles’ songs was like pulling a rabbit out of a hat

In the 1997 book Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now, Paul discussed writing songs during The Beatles’ A Hard Day’s Night era. “You knew when the recording date was and so a week or two before then we’d get into it,” he said. “It didn’t seem like pressure. It was I suppose you’d have to think it was but I don’t remember it being a pressure. It was fun, it was great.”

Paul compared songwriting to stage magic. “I always liken songwriting to a conjurer pulling a rabbit out of a hat,” he said. “Now you see it, now you don’t. If I now pick up a guitar and start to conjure something out of the air, there’s a great magic about it. Where there was nothing, now there is something.”

Paul McCartney said songs from ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ may have been about John Lennon’s affairs

The book All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono includes an interview from 1980. In it, John discusses writing The Beatles’ “Tell Me Why” by request. “They needed another upbeat song and I just knocked it off,” he recalled. He said “Tell Me Why” was like a “New York girl group song.”

In Many Years From Now, Paul discussed the meaning of “Tell Me Why.” “I think a lot of these songs like ‘Tell Me Why’ may have been based in real experiences or affairs John was having or arguments with [his wife] Cynthia or whatever, but it never occurred to us until later to put that slant on it all,” he said.

How The Beatles’ ‘Tell Me Why’ performed on the pop charts in the United States and the United Kingdom

“Tell Me Why” was never a single, so it did not chart on the Billboard Hot 100. The song appeared on the album A Hard Day’s Night. The soundtrack became massive, topping the Billboard 200 for 14 weeks. It spent a total of 56 weeks on the chart.

According to The Official Charts Company, “Tell Me Why” was never a single in the United Kingdom either. On the other hand, A Hard Day’s Night became a huge hit there. It was No. 1 for 21 of its 39 weeks on the U.K. chart.

“Tell Me Why” is a classic Beatles song even if John felt it sounded more like a girl group song.