Paul McCartney Gave a Song He Wrote As a Teen to Another Band

One of the songs Paul McCartney wrote as a teenager became a hit for another band. What a prodigy he was! John Lennon said the tune in question played an important role in The Beatles’ career.

A Paul McCartney song appeared on a special Beatles tape

The book All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono features an interview from 1980. In it, John was asked about the track “Like Dreamers Do.” While the tune was credited to the Lennon-McCartney songwriting partnership, it was first released by a British band called The Applejacks. 

“That’s Paul,” John said. “That was another one that he’d written as a teenager and sort of resurrected and polished up for later on. That’s on the audition tape that we sent Decca, which is around as a bootleg. I sing ‘To Know Her Is to Love Her’ and ‘Hello Little Girl’ and Paul sings ‘Like Dreamers Do.’ I believe they’re all on that.”

John Lennon didn’t write the song but he said interesting things about dreams

While John did not write “Like Dreamers Do,” he had plenty to say about dreams. He revealed what he thought about the world before he got involved with Yoko. “I was stuck in the feeling that one did not — was not justified in being alive unless one was fulfilling other people’s dreams, whether they were contractual dreams or the public’s dreams, or fulfilling my own dreams and illusions about what I thought I was supposed to be, which, in retrospect, turned out to not be what I am,” he said.

He also compared his relationship with Yoko to a dream. “‘A dream you dream alone is one thing, a dream you dream together is reality,'” he said. “So we reestablished our dream together.” That’s the sort of beautiful quote that deserves to inspire a million inspiration Facebook memes and get embroidered on a decorative pillow.

How ‘Like Dreamers Do’ performed on the charts

The Official Charts Company reports The Applejacks’ “Like Dreamers Do” reached No. 20 in the United Kingdom. It stayed on the chart for a total of 11 weeks. The Applejacks only had two other charting singles in the U.K.: “Tell Me When” and “Three Little Words.” Neither of these songs were written by members of The Beatles. While The Beatles went on to become one of the most important rock ‘n’ roll bands of all time, The Applejacks are more of a footnote in The Beatles’ career than a classic rock band in and of themselves.

The Beatles’ recording of “Like Dreamers Do” later appeared on the album Anthology 1. The record is a tribute to the Fab Four’s early years. It seems that every few years, The Beatles manage to release some new material, whether it’s a previously buried outtake or a new single like the recent soft-rock ballad “Now and Then.”

The Official Charts Company reports Anthology 1 hit No. 2 in the U.K and stayed on the chart for 12 weeks. It remains a compelling look into The Beatles in their primitive form. 

“Like Dreamers Do” is not one of The Beatles’ more well-known songs. Regardless, it became an essential hit for another band.