Right up until near the end, when things got a little dicey, The Beatles mostly projected an air of harmony to the public. Only after the breakup did we find out that there were occasionally severe arguments. But they kept these mostly hidden from the public.
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One of those dustups concerned the first song they released after the death of manager Brian Epstein in 1967. And it came down to which of the Lennon/McCartney songwriting pair was going to get the A-side.
Goodbye, Brian
For most of 1967, The Beatles rode an incredible wave that carried them to heights that few artists have ever experienced. Before the summer was over, they had delivered a spellbinding two-sided single (“Strawberry Fields Forever”/”Penny Lane”), a masterpiece album (Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band), and an acclaimed worldwide performance of a song (“All You Need Is Love”) perfectly timed for the occasion.
But then fate intervened to put the brakes on the nonstop good vibes. Brian Epstein, the manager who brought the band from obscurity to the pinnacle of stardom, was found dead in his London home on August 27, 1967.
Shaken by the news, The Beatles had to decide how to proceed. They pressed on with a Paul McCartney idea for a television film that had already been in the discussion stages. Needing music for the soundtrack, the group’s two writers went to work.
John Vs. Paul
Although John Lennon and Paul McCartney still contributed to each other’s material in 1967, the days when they would originate ideas together and flesh them out line by line were long gone. Instead, they’d each come in with their own songs when needed.
The competition for which man would write and sing on the A-side of each single had always been intense. Lennon was coming off the high of writing “All You Need Is Love”. Both he and McCartney quickly churned out contenders for the lead single to the soundtrack of Magical Mystery Tour.
Lennon came up with the weirdly wonderful “I Am The Walrus”. Once the song was recorded, the spirit of the music matched the song’s ambitious yet indecipherable lyrics. McCartney came up with “Hello Goodbye”, which stuck to a more straightforward lyrical tack but highlighted his melodic skills. But which song would get the call as the A-side?
A Dejected “Walrus”
When people make lists of the finest Beatles songs these days, “I Am The Walrus” generally is highly acclaimed. “Hello Goodbye” doesn’t get that same kind of love. But at the time, The Beatles, with the world watching how they would proceed in the absence of Epstein, needed a sure thing.
“Hello Goodbye”, with its traditional charms, got the nod as the A-side over the more adventurous “I Am The Walrus”, which was relegated to the B-side. After the band broke up, Lennon admitted that he thought that this was the wrong choice. And he offered some insults about “Hello Goodbye” in the process.
Still, at that moment, the results were hard to deny. The single, with “Hello Goodbye” out in front, went to No. 1 all over the world. And it helped distract folks from the Magical Mystery Tour film, which earned the group perhaps the worst reviews of their career.
Photo by David Magnus/Shutterstock
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