John Lennon Said 2 Beatles Songs Proved He Could Write All-Time Great Melodies
John Lennon wasn’t always concerned with writing melodies. Despite this, he said two of The Beatles’ songs showed he could write melodies “with the best of them.” One of these tunes was a hit — but only after George Martin created an instrumental recording of it.
John Lennon said 2 Beatles songs proved he didn’t just write ‘shouting rock ‘n’ roll’ tracks
In a 1980 interview from the book All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono, John discussed his role in The Beatles. “My contribution to Paul’s songs was always to add a little bluesy edge to them,” he said. “Otherwise, y’know, ‘Michelle’ is a straight ballad, right? He provided a lightness, an optimism, while I would always go for the sadness, the discords, the bluesy notes.” This balance between Paul’s sensibilities and John’s was the main magic of the Fab Four’s sound.
John didn’t always care about melodies. “There was a period when I thought I didn’t write melodies, that Paul wrote those and I just wrote straight, shouting rock ‘n’ roll,” he remembered. “But of course, when I think of some of my own songs — ‘In My Life,’ or some of the early stuff, ‘This Boy’ — I was writing melody with the best of them.”
John Lennon said he lied about writing songs without Paul McCartney
John was asked if he and Paul wrote separately. “No, no, no,” he said. “I said that, but I was lying.” John laughed.
The “Power to the People” singer explained why he lied. “By the time I said that, we were so sick of this idea of writing and singing together, especially me, that I started this thing about, ‘We never wrote together, we were never in the same room,'” he said. “Which wasn’t true.”
How The Beatles’ ‘In My Life’ and ‘This Boy’ performed on the pop charts
“In My Life” is one of The Beatles’ most famous ballads today. After all, it’s the perfect graduation song! Regardless, the tune was never a single and it did not hit the Billboard Hot 100. “In My Life” is the standout track on Rubber Soul. That record topped the Billboard 200 for six of its 70 weeks on the chart.
A version of “This Boy,” shockingly, was the bigger hit. An instrumental release of the track called “Ringo’s Theme (This Boy)” reached No. 53 and stayed on the Billboard Hot 100 for eight weeks. The fact that “Ringo’s Theme (This Boy)” became a minor hit in the United States speaks to both The Beatles’ ubiquity and the fact that instrumental pieces did a lot better on the charts in the 1960s than they do today.
“Ringo’s Theme (This Boy)” appeared on the album A Hard Day’s Night. That record reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for 14 weeks, staying on the chart for 56 weeks.
“In My Life” is one of The Beatles’ most popular tracks today while “This Boy” is not. Regardless, John felt they both showed off his talent.
