The Beatles gave the song to another artist
Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney and George Harrison pose for a portrait in front of an American Flag in 1964 in New York City(Image: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
Paul McCartney and John Lennon’s skill as songwriters meant it wasn’t just The Beatles who benefited from their work. Paul and John wrote plenty of songs which were recorded by other artists, including the Rolling Stones’ first hit ‘I Wanna Be Your Man’.
The band’s manager Brian Epstein also used songs written by Paul and John for other bands he managed, such as Cilla Black and Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas. Paul also wrote the first hit for Badfinger after they signed to The Beatles’ label Apple – ‘Come And Get It’, which peaked at four in the UK charts.
The band also gave away the song ‘A World Without Love’ to Peter and Gordon because Paul didn’t think it was good enough for The Beatles. It ended up topping the charts for the pop pair.
Another song they were happy to let go was ‘That Means A Lot’, which was mainly written by Paul and meant to be on the soundtrack album for their 1965 film ‘Help’. The Beatles began recording it in February of that year and then in March but they couldn’t get it right.
At the time, John told NME: “The song is a ballad which Paul and I wrote for the film but we found we just couldn’t sing it.
“In fact, we made a hash of it, so we thought we’d better give it to someone who could do it well.”
Rock and roll band ‘The Beatles’ drink a beer in a still from their movie ‘Help!’ which was released in 1965(Image: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
The song was given by Mr Epstein to American singer P.J. Proby, whose version reached 24 in the NME chart after its September 1965 release. Paul was very happy to have given it away but didn’t really want it to see the light of day.
He told Barry Miles for his biography: “Normally I’d try and bury these songs and not put them out but there was so much pressure from people, they’d say, ‘Have you got anything?’ I’d say, ‘I have, but you really don’t want to see them.’
“They’d say, ‘I do! Believe me, I think I can make a good job of it, and your name on it would be a big plus.’
“So PJ Proby, a friend of ours that we met during the Jack Good television show that we did, Round The Beatles, wanted to do it, so I gave it to him. He had a minor hit with it.”
John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison pose for a photo in the snow in March 1965 in Obertauern, Austria(Image: Michael Ochs Archive/Getty Images)
The Beatles’ version was released on the second ‘Anthology’ compilation album in 1996. But Paul hadn’t grown any fonder of it.
In a 1988 interview with Mark Lewisohn, He said: “There were a few songs that we were just not as keen on, or we didn’t think they were quite finished. This was one of them.”