The telepathy that Paul McCartney and John Lennon supposedly shared from their early years of songwriting disguises a crucial dissonance between the pair. Often, successful couples require vast differences to excel. The Beatles wouldn’t have been quite so successful had Lennon and McCartney been exactly the same as one another. Fortunately, they were chalk and cheese, day and night, hello and goodbye.
Early in the Beatles’ discography, Lennon and McCartney worked on ideas together, but the concept would more often than not arise from one side of the partnership. Even at this juncture, McCartney showed a propensity for softer ballads and cheery lyrics, while Lennon embraced the dark and obscure. Over time, these nascent qualities matured impressively.
A great example of the difference between Lennon and McCartney and the profit it brought was the influential Sgt. Pepper closer, ‘A Day in the Life’. The track is composed of two different lyrical and instrumental tones. The mournful voice that opens, “I read the news today, oh boy,” is undoubtedly Lennon’s, while the chirpy “Woke up / Got out of bed” is classic McCartney.
There are deviations to the rule, but for the most part, it is easy to tell which Beatle wrote what song in the band’s catalogue. With this established, I probably needn’t say which Beatle wrote ‘Hello, Goodbye’ and which wrote ‘I Am The Walrus’. Lennon composed the latter as his main contribution to Magical Mystery Tour. At the time of recording, the band deemed it worthy of release as a single, but ultimately, McCartney’s ‘Hello, Goodbye’ made the A-side, relegating Lennon’s creation to the B-side.
‘Hello, Goodbye’ was The Beatles’ first single to be released following the death of their manager Brian Epstein. The death came as a massive shock to the band, leading to managerial stress many historians regard as the beginning of the end. Several important factors can be attributed to The Beatles’ demise, and ‘Hello, Goodbye’ could be considered as one of the smaller contributors.
As the song that displaced ‘I Am The Walrus’, ‘Hello, Goodbye’ didn’t reside in the fondest of Lennon’s thoughts. Besides this, he was never a fan of McCartney’s nonsensical lyrics that ironically toyed with opposites. Lennon once described the song as “three minutes of contradictions and meaningless juxtapositions”.
Indeed, beyond the catchy instrumentation, the song is rather “meaningless”, but what about ‘I Am The Walrus’? Eggmen, walruses and a “naughty girl” who controversially let her “knickers down” are similarly nonsensical in their lyrical setting. However, Lennon’s oblique allusions carry much more depth, even if the lyrics serve only to confound the critics. Simply put, when it comes to the bizarre, Lennon could win gold in every race.
Lennon most certainly had a right to be unhappy with his song’s position as a B-side. However, McCartney was probably right in placing ‘Hello, Goodbye’ on top. Firstly, Lennon’s song had real estate elsewhere, on the Magical Mystery Tour EP. Secondly, it was more universally appealing as a single.
While ‘I Am The Walrus’ certainly aligned with the contemporary psychedelic movement, ‘Hello, Goodbye’ was more likely to resonate beyond the hipsters of the time. In fact, McCartney conjured ‘Hello, Goodbye’ with international appeal in mind. Following the recent success of Lennon’s ‘All You Need is Love’, McCartney sought a similarly simple and accessible single.
‘Hello Goodbye’ was a huge financial success for The Beatles, topping charts around the world, including the US Billboard Hot 100, the Danish Singles Chart, and the Dutch Singles Chart. From this perspective, the A-side decision was correct. However, Lennon and many fans would likely have had more respect for the brazen action of swapping ‘I Am The Walrus’ for the A-side.
