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TL;DR:

  • John Lennon co-wrote a song from The Beatles’ before the band was famous.
  • Paul McCartney said the song wasn’t as good as “Love Me Do.”
  • John said a number in the song’s title had a special meaning to him.
The Beatles' John Lennon as a teenager
The Beatles’ John Lennon | Michael Ochs Archives / Stringer

John Lennon wrote one of the songs from The Beatles‘ Let It Be as a teenager with help from Paul McCartney. Paul said it was better than some of their earlier compositions. In addition, John revealed the significance of the song’s title.

Paul McCartney didn’t think a song from The Beatles’ ‘Let It Be’ was great

In the 1997 book Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now, Paul recalled the evolution of the Lennon-McCartney songwriting partnership. “So we just developed the art, gradually, gaining in confidence,” he said. “So we did this every so often through a number of months.

“We did ‘Just Fun,’ ‘In Spite of All the Danger,’ which I’d written more fully so John didn’t have much of a look-in there,” he said. “I did a very bad song called ‘Like Dreamers Do’ which The Applejacks did later. ‘One After 909’ was getting a little bit better, then came ‘Love Me Do,’ which was the culmination of it when we finally got a song we could actually record.” Paul said “One After 909” wasn’t great even though he had a soft spot for it.

John Lennon said The Beatles’ ‘One After 909’ had numerical significance to him

The book All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono features a 1980 interview. During the interview, John discusses “One After 909.” “That was something I wrote when I was about 17,” he said.

John explained the significance of the number nine to him. “I lived at 9 Newcastle Road,” he recalled. “I was born on the ninth of October, the ninth month [sic]. It’s just a number that follows me around, but, numerologically, apparently I’m a number six or a three or something, but it’s all part of nine.”

Related

The Jackson 5 Knocked The Beatles’ ‘Let It Be’ Off the Top of the Chart

How ‘One After 909’ and its parent album ‘Let It Be’ performed on the pop charts in the United States and the United Kingdom

“One After 909” was never a single, so it did not chart on the Billboard Hot 100. The tune was included on the album Let It Be. That album topped the Billboard 200 for four weeks lasting a total of 79 weeks on the chart.

According to The Official Charts Company, “One After 909” did not chart in the United Kingdom. On the other hand, Let It Be was a hit there. The album was No. 1 for three of its 53 weeks on the U.K. chart.

It took a while for fans to hear “One After 909,” but it eventually appeared on a hit album.

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