4 Beatles Songs With Musical Intros That Are Separate From the Rest of the Track

Early rock and roll from artists like Elvis, Chuck Berry, and Buddy Holly certainly influenced The Beatles. But they also took some cues from pre-rock music, such as standards associated with the Great American Songbook.

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Those songs often included a verse separate from the main thrust of the song. These four Beatles songs followed that tradition.

“Do You Want To Know A Secret”

George Harrison only wrote one song that was recorded by The Beatles over their first four albums. But The Beatles wanted to keep him involved as a singer. As a result, he’d either sing some cover songs or, as in this example, John Lennon and Paul McCartney would write for him. Lennon apparently got the idea for “Do You Want To Know A Secret” by watching the Disney version of Snow White. The song includes a two-line intro that ends on an unresolved chord. That makes the cheerful little guitar riff that starts the main part of the song stand out even more.

“If I Fell”

John Lennon and Paul McCartney took a big leap as writers with the songs they composed for the A Hard Day’s Night movie and album. On the one hand, the fact that they wrote all 14 of the LP’s songs was a monumental achievement at that time in pop music. Meanwhile, the depth of the material was increasing by leaps and bounds. “If I Fell” provided great evidence of their improvement. The ballad expresses ambivalence and uncertainty in ways that no Beatles song had attempted to do to that point. “I found that love was more than just holding hands,” Lennon sings in the separate intro, perhaps slyly referencing how much the band had matured as writers in such a short time.

“Honey Pie”

Perhaps more than anybody else in the group, Paul McCartney showed an affinity for more antiquated styles of music. That tendency often grated on the other members of the group. John Lennon derisively called it “granny” music. But you have to give McCartney props for committing to songs like “Honey Pie”, going all-in with the old-time spirit of the thing. In the opening section, he even uses some studio sleight of hand to make his voice sound like he’s beaming in from an old wireless. In the context of the inherently wacky White Album, this song makes more sense than if you just hear it as a standalone.

“The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill”

This is the one song on this list that takes the separate-section approach but does so with a purely instrumental part. “The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill” originated during The Beatles’ retreat to India to study meditation. John Lennon thought there was some disconnect between the peaceful nature of the proceedings and the insistence of one of the attendees on going big-game hunting. A brief classical guitar piece begins the song. The Fab Four sourced it from a setting on the Mellotron, which they often did in those days. As such, the part wasn’t actually played by one of the group.

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