McCartney Times

Exploring the Far Out Magazine archives, we’ve unearthed some unknown homemade clips of former Beatle John Lennon recording a version of ‘If I Fell’.

The home recordings, thought to date back to January 1964, sees Lennon attempting to turn in a different direction of songwriting. “That’s my first attempt at a ballad proper,” Lennon once said in an interview with Playboy in 1980. “It shows that I wrote sentimental love ballads way back when,” he added despite McCartney later claiming that the pair wrote the song together.

the song would later be included on The Beatles’ third studio album, A Hard Day’s Night, a record which collects songs from the soundtrack to their film of the same name. The structure of the song was a working development with the final recording using an alternative ending and, somewhat unusually, finds both Lennon and McCartney sharing a single microphone in the studio to lay down their harmonies.

While officially released in July 1964 as part of the album, ‘If I Fell’ was later made available as the B-side of the US single ‘And I Love Her’ and, following that, it was released in December 1964 as the A-side of a single ‘Tell Me Why’ in the UK.

In truth though, the formation of the song came months before. In the below recordings, Lennon can be heard running through four raw demos of the track which offers alternative takes, detailed chord progression and gentle vocals.

Enjoy it, below.

Source: Rare home recordings of John Lennon, 1964