The Beatles‘ “Do You Want to Know a Secret?” was even more secretive than you thought! John Lennon said he penned the song in a “secret little apartment” owned by an important figure in rock ‘n’ roll history. Paul McCartney’s memories of the song contradict John’s.
John Lennon wrote The Beatles’ ‘Do You Want to Know a Secret?’ in a place for ‘liaisons’
The book All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono features a 1980 interview. In it, John discussed The Beatles’ “Do You Want to Know a Secret?” That ballad was one of the rare Beatles hits with lead vocals from George Harrison.
“Well, I can’t say I wrote it for George,” John said. “I was in the first apartment I’d ever had that wasn’t shared by fourteen other students — gals and guys at art school. I’d just married Cyn, and [The Beatles’ manager] Brian Epstein gave us his secret little apartment that he kept in Liverpool for his sexual liaisons separate from his home life. And he let Cyn and I have that apartment.”
John Lennon explained why he excluded George Harrison from early Beatles albums
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In the same interview, John discussed George’s role as a singer in the Fab Four. “It had been John and Paul so long, he’d been left out because he hadn’t been a songwriter up until [Revolver],” he said. “As a singer, we allowed him only one track on each album. If you listen to The Beatles’ first albums, the English versions, he gets a single track.”
John revealed how he picked out tunes for George and Ringo Starr to perform. “The songs he and Ringo sang at first were the songs that used to be part of my repertoire in the dance halls,” he said. “I used to pick the easier songs for them to sing.”
Paul McCartney said he co-wrote ‘Do You Want a Secret?’ for George Harrison
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In the 1997 book Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now, Paul recalled the origin of “Do You Want to Know a Secret?” Contradicting John’s comments, Paul said he and John wrote “Do You Want to Know a Secret?” specifically for George. According to Paul’s memories, he didn’t want to sing the song because it pandered to Beatles fans and John felt the same way.
Paul considered “Do You Want to Know a Secret?” a formulaic tune. He and John weren’t in love with “Do You Want to Know a Secret?” but Paul felt it worked well for its time. Paul also noted that he and John were able to take a “slim little premise” and transform it into a full song with “Do You Want to Know a Secret?” He compared it to “I’m Happy Just to Dance with You,” a track George performed in the film A Hard Day’s Night, as well as “If I Fell,” one of the early ballads that John wrote.
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Paul isn’t too fond of “Do You Want to Know a Secret?” but John remembered writing it in an interesting location.
