John Lennon was probably the most outspoken Beatle during the band’s lifespan. He had a habit of praising songs in one breath and tearing songs apart in the next. With that in mind, let’s look at just four Fab Four songs that John Lennon allegedly couldn’t stand.
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1. “Eight Days A Week”
This 1964 Beatles hit is a fan favorite, but John Lennon was notably not a fan of the track from Beatles For Sale. One can’t deny that this particular album and this particular song are quite commercial. Lennon knew it for what it was: a cash grab. But he also felt that “Eight Days A Week” was a struggle to record, and he even said that it was a “lousy song”.
“‘Eight Days A Week’ was never a good song,” said Lennon of the track.
2. “Yesterday”
It’s wild to think that anyone would dislike “Yesterday”. This famous 1965 Beatles tune from Help! is one of their most legendary songs, and it’s one of the most-covered songs of all time. However, Lennon didn’t like elements of the classic tune. Specifically, he felt that the lyrics could have been a bit fuller.
“The lyrics don’t resolve into any sense, they’re good lines,” said Lennon of the song shortly before his death in 1980. “They certainly work, you know what I mean? They’re good, but if you read the whole song, it doesn’t say anything; you don’t know what happened. She left and he wishes it were yesterday, that much you get, but it doesn’t really resolve.”
3. “Twist And Shout”
Out of all the songs John Lennon couldn’t stand, this one wasn’t a Beatles original. Rather, it’s a cover of a Bert Berns and Phil Medley song. It wasn’t the musicality or the composition that Lennon couldn’t stand. Rather, the song’s origins just didn’t align with his values. He said that he “always hated singing” that particular tune if a black artist was performing at the same concert.
“It doesn’t seem right, you know,” said Lennon of “Twist And Shout”. “I feel sort of embarrassed. It makes me curl up. I always feel they could do the song much better than me.”
4. “It Won’t Be Long”
Another great tune from 1963, “It Won’t Be Long” wasn’t exactly good enough for Lennon. He bemoaned the pop-rock tune, though he did acknowledge that “It Won’t Be Long” helped pull in interest from a new audience at an important time in the Fab Four’s career.
“It was my attempt at writing another single,” said Lennon. “It never quite made it. That was the one where the guy in the ‘London Times’ wrote about the ‘Aeolian cadences of the chords’ which started the whole intellectual bit about the Beatles.”
Photo by ITV/Shutterstock
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