The Beatles’ Song Paul McCartney Couldn’t Remember Writing (But He Probably Did)

When you write as many songs as Paul McCartney has, it’s understandable if you might have forgotten a few of them. It’s even more understandable if they’re Beatles’ songs, since he was often collaborating with John Lennon on them.

In the case of “What You’re Doing,” a hidden gem from The Beatles‘ 1964 UK album Beatles for Sale, McCartney has said that he didn’t really remember too much about its creation. But all evidence points toward it being one of his, and a sneakily great one at that, even if he didn’t think too much of it.

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Beatles for Sale, the second album released by the Fab Four in the UK in 1964 and their fourth overall, found the band scrambling for material. Their schedule, always intense, reached a fever pitch in 1964, what with their usual recording and touring augmented by the creation of their first movie, A Hard Day’s Night.

On the A Hard Day’s Night album, John Lennon and Paul McCartney had written every song, marking the first time the band would release an album without any covers. They weren’t quite able to pull that off on Beatles for Sale. And maybe the busy nature of the time explains why McCartney didn’t remember much about the origins of “What You’re Doing,” as he explained in the book Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now:

“What You’re Doing’ was a bit of a filler. I think it was a little more mine than John’s, but I don’t have a very clear recollection so to be on the safe side I’d put it as 50-50. It doesn’t sound like an idea that I remember John offering, so it sounds like a way to get a song started, some of them are just that. ‘Hey, what’cha doing?’ You sometimes start a song and hope the best bit will arrive by the time you get to the chorus … but sometimes that’s all you get, and I suspect this was one of them. Maybe it’s a better recording than it is a song, some of them are. Sometimes a good recording would enhance the song.”

While “What You’re Doing” might have been a joint effort, it’s more than likely that McCartney did the bulk of the writing. On a vast majority of occasions, the lead singer of a Beatles song was also the person who wrote it, and Paul took lead on this track. And “What You’re Doing” seems to fall into line with songs like “I’m Looking Through You” and “You Won’t See Me” in referencing the occasional relationship turmoil McCartney underwent with longtime girlfriend Jane Asher.

Inspecting the Lyrics to “What You’re Doing”

McCartney wasn’t wrong about “What You’re Doing” being a sharp-sounding song. The thumping beat by Ringo Starr immediately grabs your attention, and George Harrison’s circling guitar riff is a winner as well. But Macca was way too hard on the lyrics, as this one gets its point across with a bit of feistiness.

The lyrics stand out because of the unique rhyming pattern. Check out the first two lines, for example: Look what you’re doing / I’m feeling blue and lonely. Instead of having the rhyme at the end of the line as you might expect, McCartney sneaks it into the middle, with a few more syllables coming after they rhyme in the second line. It gives the song a feeling of forward movement that sends it hurtling from verses to verse.

The narrator of “What You’re Doing” implies his significant other’s actions are unburdened by any consequences: Why should it be so much to ask of you / What you’re doing to me? The polite way he frames the question belies his impending frustration. As the song goes on, he gets more accusatory: Please stop your lying / You got me crying, girl.

While it might not be the most complex song in the world, “What You’re Doing” packs a nice little punch, and like just about any other Beatles song you can name, the performance gives it something extra. Maybe Paul McCartney doesn’t remember writing it, but he should be proud that he did.

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