ABOUT THIS INTERVIEW:
Immediately following a brief 'Top Of The Pops' chat with John Lennon and Paul McCartney on March 20th 1967 about progress on their upcoming album, Brian Matthew recorded a second interview with the songwriting team.
John and Paul would be honored with three Ivor Novello awards for the year 1966 at the annual ceremonies held on March 23rd 1967. Since John and Paul could not attend the ceremonies in person, Matthew taped the following conversation with them for inclusion in the program. The interview was recorded at EMI's Abbey Road studios.
The Ivor Novello is a prestigious annual award in Britain for high achievement in songwriting and composing.
- Jay Spangler, www.beatlesinterviews.org
Q: "This (first award) goes to the A-side of the record issued in 1966 which acheived the highest
certified British sales in the period the 1st of January to the 31st of December 1966. You
may
have been wondering whether the Beatles have won anything. They did get one or two awards. This
is the first of them, and it goes to 'Yellow Submarine.' Best-selling A-side number in Britain
last year, for which John and Paul you get this."
PAUL: "We are truly grateful."
JOHN: (excitedly) "Great, great."
PAUL: "That is really wonderful. I see it's inscribed on the side of it."
JOHN: "That's an old one from Brian's piano."
PAUL: (laughs) "Well, this is wonderful. And I'd like to thank everybody, on behalf
of John,
George,
Ringo and myself."
Q: "Yes."
PAUL: "Thank you."
Q: "Good. Who was principly reponsible, Paul or John?"
JOHN: "Paul."
PAUL: "John, really."
JOHN & PAUL: "No. No."
Q: "I see."
JOHN: "Ringo."
PAUL: "No, it's the old patty, you know. The old vaudeville. I suppose I thought of the
idea and
then John and I wrote it. There's your correct answer, Brian."
Q: "Yeah. What were you setting out to write? I mean, did you think of a song
for
Ringo in the first place, or what?"
PAUL: "We just sort of thought, we have to have a song. That it was. Sort of bit of
fantasy in it, you know. And the only way to do that would be to have it so kids could
understand
it, and anyone could take it on any level. Multi-level song."
Q: "Yeah. I heard a funny sort of story that you used to perform this to your
nephews. Is that all wrong?"
PAUL: (jokingly) "That's all wrong. That was Mozart's Piano Concerto."
Q: (mock-seriousness) "Oh, I see."
(laughter)
Q: "John, earlier before we started recording, you said it was in effect written
as two separate songs."
JOHN: "Yeah. I seem to remember, like, the submarine... the chorus bit, you coming in with
it."
PAUL: "Yeah."
JOHN: "And wasn't the other bit something that I had already going, and we put them
together?"
PAUL: "Well, yeah. Right. Yeah."
JOHN: "And it made sense to make it into..."
PAUL: "Yeah, the bit... (sings melody to verse) 'Dut-ta-da, da-dut-ta-da.'"
JOHN: "With Ringo in mind, again."
Q: "Yes."
JOHN: "Always thinking of him, you see, at times like this."
(laughter)
JOHN: "And that's what happened."
Q: "And they, like, gelled."
PAUL & JOHN: "Yeah."
Q: "And now on to the most performed work of the year. And this, I should
explain, includes live broadcast, television performances, and performances in ballrooms
throughout the country. And the winner for 1966 was Michelle. Paul, do you even
remember this song?"
PAUL: (sings) "'Mee-shell, my bell.' I know the one."
Q: "Good!! Did you write it or did John?"
PAUL: "Well, you know..."
JOHN: "I think Paul wrote that one. I remember saying, 'Why don't you pinch THAT bit
from so-and-so's song' and he said 'Right.'"
Q: "What was it pinched FROM?"
JOHN: "Uhhhh, I'm not telling."
PAUL: "It was pinched from something. Most of them are, Brian."
Q: (laughs) "Are they!"
PAUL: "But you've got to own up
eventually. (laughs) No, it's just a slight pinch, but you never notice, you know."
Q: "No."
PAUL: "And, I mean, I couldn't tell you because the P.R.S. would probably rip me."
(laughter)
JOHN: "It's a wonderful award and we'd like to say 'Bon we.'"
Q: "Oh, because it's a French song."
JOHN: "Yeah."
Q: "The last award to be presented to the Beatles... they have become runners-up
to themselves. Give us the inside story on the song 'Yesterday.'"
JOHN: "Ah well, this is John saying I don't know anything about that one. I'll hand you over
to Paul."
PAUL: (laughs) "This is Paul, taking up the story in a slight
holiday-villa in Corsica. Stumming away on a medieval guitar, I thought (sings)
'Scrambled Egg'.
But I never could finish it, and eventually I took it back in with the ancient wisdom
of the east, John came out with (sings) 'Yesterday.'"
Q: "Apart from being the runner-up in the 'most performed' section, I think
that must have been the most recorded number last year... must've been about 400 versions
of it. You must have heard some of them. Is there any one that you think is a standout
performance?"
JOHN: "Uhh, one by a young fellow called Paul McCartney had a sort of plaintive approach."
PAUL: (laughs)
Q: "A naive charm."
PAUL: "Yes, uhh... Andy Williams."
JOHN: "The arrangement of the strings was wrong."
PAUL: "Yeah."
JOHN: "That was the trouble with Andy's version."
Q: "There was Matthew Monroe."
JOHN & PAUL: "Yeah."
PAUL: "That was arranged by a good friend of ours. Charlie Drake."
Q: "Ahh."
(laughter)
PAUL: "And he did a very good arrangement. I would like to thank him personally."
Q: "Yeah, good. So, would you say that probably is your favorite version of
them all?"
PAUL: "Uhh, well I think Charlie Drake."
JOHN: "Yeah, Charlie Drake."
PAUL: "Charlie Drake and Matt did a fine, fine record on that."
Source: Transcribed by www.beatlesinterviews.org from audio copy of the interview
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