4 Beatles Songs You Might Have Forgotten Were Album Closers

In this day and age, it’s common for artists to reserve something special for the last song on an album. That tactic wasn’t used quite as much in the 60s. The Beatles would help change that in 1967 when they dropped “A Day In The Life” at the end of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

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Before that, they didn’t always leave something momentous at the end of their British LPs. Here are four tracks that you might have forgotten closed out records by the Fab Four.

“Money (That’s What I Want)” from ‘With The Beatles’ (1963)

The Beatles ended their first album, Please Please Me, with “Twist And Shout”. That album largely mimicked what a typical live set for the group sounded like at The Cavern. Since the R&B-based scream-along style of “Twist And Shout” worked so well the first time around, they went back to the well on With The Beatles. And even though it’s not nearly as popular as “Twist And Shout” these days, a case could be made that they did an even better job with “Money (That’s What I Want)”. Originally an early Motown hit for Barrett Strong, the song gets a vigorous reading from The Beatles. Highlights include John Lennon’s showstopping vocal and nimble piano work from producer George Martin.

“I’ll Be Back” from ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ (1964)

The Beatles crossed a major threshold on A Hard Day’s Night. John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote every one of the 13 tracks on the album. That was just unheard of in 1964, an era when outside songwriters were still heavily utilized by just about every rock band you could imagine. For the most part, the songs on the first side of the album were the tracks that appeared on the album. On the second side, Lennon/McCartney included subtler material that generally leaned to the melancholy side of things. “I’ll Be Back”, a hushed, folk-rock style track that resides mostly in minor keys, takes the LP home. The resilience of the narrator stands out, as he keeps promising that he’ll return to his love no matter what happens.

“Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby” from ‘Beatles For Sale’ (1964)

After writing all the songs on A Hard Day’s Night, Lennon and McCartney couldn’t quite rise to the occasion again on Beatles For Sale. They relied on covers on six of the 14 tracks on the record. It might have helped if George Harrison was writing more, but that wouldn’t really take place until the following year. Nonetheless, Harrison did get a single vocal showcase on the album with closing track “Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby”. Written by Carl Perkins, a Beatles favorite, the song found the band effortlessly inhabiting a rockabilly stance. And Harrison does an outstanding job paying proper homage. His vocal is unshowy but soulful, and he apes Perkin’s fat guitar licks quite well also.

“Dizzy Miss Lizzy” from ‘Help!’ (1965)

If they had released the Help! album just a few years later, they most likely would have ended the album with the song that they chose as the penultimate track. That song: “Yesterday”. But The Beatles, especially Paul McCartney, who wrote and sang it, felt a tad self-conscious about that track. It included just one member of the group playing, something that had never happened before. And it was a tender ballad with lush strings leading the way in a musical sense. Instead of choosing that downer to end the album, the group relied on their old strategy of going with a raucous R&B number to close things out. Thus, John Lennon got to yell himself hoarse one more time on “Dizzy Miss Lizzy”.

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