Notes
Paul McCartney and John Lennon composing "I Saw Her Standing There" in Paul's living-room in Forthlin Road, Liverpool, November 1962. They only noted the text, never the chords. Photo by Mike McCartney.
I have collected and indexed these lyrics because I love them. Beatles songs have been part of my life at least since my aunt and uncle gave me the Ticket To Ride single for my 10 years' birthday.
As I worked with the material I was surprised to find that many of the classic songs were not published on LPs, only as single records, for example I Want To Hold Your Hand, She Loves You, I Feel Fine, Day Tripper, We Can Work It Out, Paperback Writer, and Rain.
Who wrote the song? The primary composer is usually also the lead singer.
Sources of Lyrics:
- The selection of songs and when they were published is collected at www.aboutthebeatles.com/discography.php.
- Most of the texts are collected at www.stevesbeatles.com/songs/. No typos, kudos!
- The "50 Great Songs" canon stems from Chris Ingham: "The rough guide to The Beatles", Rough Guides, London, 2006
Statistics: The 161 songs contain 27,271 words. After conversion in WordToWeb and sorting with Regular Expressions, there remained:
- 2,597 unique verse lines and
- 1,871 unique words. The words have
- 4,646 links to the various songs
I omitted links to the 100 most frequent words, which were: you, I, the, to, me, a, and, in, love, Be, My, know, it, that, All, I'm, is, She, of, your, on, It's, Don't, So, her, can, for, Do, when, yeah, Oh, With, But, I'll, what, Say, get, girl, want, see, got, if, will, back, Let, come, down, no, like, Time, you're, she's, was, I've, man, We, right, can't, why, now, Ah, tell, up, good, need, never, home, Just, baby, One, Go, He, there, make, said, better, day, Have, out, well, way, little, take, gonna, How, Yes, going, na, at, his, long, not, Think, Only, mind, night, They, are, been, Where.
Omitted Songs: I have chosen only to work with the 161 songs published by John Lennon and Paul McCartney 1962-1970, not with the other songs performed by The Beatles:
George Harrison:
- "Don't Bother Me" released on With The Beatles 1963
- "I Need You" released on Help! 1965
- "You Like Me Too Much" released on Help! 1965
- "If I Needed Someone" released on Rubber Soul 1965
- "Think For Yourself" released on Rubber Soul 1965
- "I Want To Tell You" released on Revolver 1966
- "Love You To" released on Revolver 1966
- "Taxman" released on Revolver 1966
- "Blue Jay Way" released on Magical Mystery Tour 1967
- "Within You, Without You" released on Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band 1967
- "Long, Long, Long" released on The Beatles (The White Album) 1968
- "Piggies" released on The Beatles (The White Album) 1968
- "Savoy Truffle" released on The Beatles (The White Album) 1968
- "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" released on The Beatles (The White Album) 1968
- "The Inner Light" released on UK Single 1968
- "Here Comes The Sun" released on Abbey Road 1969
- "Something" released on Abbey Road 1969
- "Old Brown Shoe" released on UK Single 1969
- "It's All Too Much" released on Yellow Submarine 1969
- "Only A Northern Song" released on Yellow Submarine 1969
- "For You Blue" released on Let It Be 1970
- "I Me Mine" released on Let It Be 1970
Ringo Starr:
- "Don't Pass Me By" released on The Beatles (The White Album) 1968
- "Octopus's Garden" released on Abbey Road 1969
Oddities:
- "Komm Gib Mir Deine Hand" Lennon/McCartney/Nicholas/Heller, released on the German single 1964
- "Sie Liebt Dich" Lennon/McCartney/Nicholas/Montague, released on the German single 1964
- "Flying (instrumental)" Lennon/McCartney/Harrison/Starkey, released on Magical Mystery Tour 1967
- "Christmas Time Is Here Again" Lennon/McCartney/Harrison/Starkey, released on UK Single 1995
- "Free As A Bird" Lennon, released on UK Single 1995
Other Authors:
- "Anna (Go To Him)" Alexander, released on Please Please Me 1963
- "Roll Over Beethoven" Berry, released on With The Beatles 1963
- "Rock And Roll Music" Berry, released on Beatles For Sale 1964
- "Money" Berry/Gordy/Bradford, released on With The Beatles 1963
- "Baby It's You" David/Williams/Bacharach, released on Please Please Me 1963
- "Boys" Dixon/Farrell, released on Please Please Me 1963
- "Devil In Her Heart" Drapkin, released on With The Beatles 1963
- "Chains" Goffin/King, released on Please Please Me 1963
- "Please Mr. Postman" Holland, released on With The Beatles 1963
- "Words Of Love" Holly, released on Beatles For Sale 1964
- "Mr. Moonlight" Johnson, released on Beatles For Sale 1964
- "Long Tall Sally" Johnson/Penniman/Blackwell, released on Long Tall Sally, EP 1964
- "Kansas City/Hey Hey Hey Hey" Lieber/Stoller/Penniman, released on Beatles For Sale 1964
- "Twist And Shout" Medley/Russell, released on Please Please Me 1963
- "Act Naturally" Morrison/Russell, released on Help! 1965
- "Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby" Perkins, released on Beatles For Sale 1964
- "Honey Don't" Perkins, released on Beatles For Sale 1964
- "Matchbox" Perkins, released on Long Tall Sally, EP 1964
- "You Really Got A Hold On Me W." Robinson, released on With The Beatles 1963
- "A Taste Of Honey" Scott/Marlow, released on Please Please Me 1963
- "Slow Down" Williams, released on Long Tall Sally, EP 1964
- "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" Williams, released on Help! 1965
- "Bad Boy" Williams, released on A Collection of Beatles Oldies 1966
- "Not A Second Time" Wilson, released on With The Beatles 1963
- "Till There Was You" Wilson, released on With The Beatles 1963