Off The Beatle Track

In The Beatles Anthology book, Paul tells this story about writing She Loves You in June 1963:

John and I wrote ‘She Loves You’ together. There was a Bobby Rydell song out at the time and, as often happens, you think of one song when you write another.

John also chimes in:

It was Paul’s idea: instead of singing ‘I love you’ again, we’d have a third party.

The song to which Paul’s referring is Forget Him, written by Tony Hatch, released in the U.S. in April 1963, and apparently released in the U.K. in April or May.

It’s become part of Beatles’ lore that Forget Him inspired She Loves You. But to me, this seems like a case in which Paul, perhaps uncharacteristically, sells himself short.

Forget Forget Him

Let’s take a look at the lyrics of Forget Him:

Forget him if he doesn’t love you.
Forget him if he doesn’t care.
Don’t let him tell you that he wants you,
‘Cause he can’t give you love which isn’t there.
Little girl, he’s never dreaming of you.
He’ll break your heart, you wait and see.
So, don’t you cry now, better tell him goodbye now,
Forget him, and please come home to me.

And so forth. It’s not a terrible song, but it’s no She Loves You.*

I can’t believe we’re parsing Forget Him‘s lyrics, but here we are. The three parties in Forget Him are the singer, the (presumably) woman to whom Bobby sings, and the man about whom Bobby sings to the woman. The last line of the chorus nicely sums up Bobby’s message: “Forget him, and please come home to me.” Basically, Bobby says, I’m better for you than he is, the “third party” to whom John refers being the other man.

But what about. . .

So the songwriting innovation inspired by Messrs. Rydell and Hatch seems to be the introduction of the other man into the song’s story.

Although it may be technically true that John and Paul hadn’t yet used that element in their own songwriting, they’d certainly encountered the “other man” in songs they covered, to wit (off the top of my head): Some Other Guy and Anna (Go to Him). In both cases, the other man is right there in the title!

So it’s funny that Rydell and Hatch inspired John in ways that Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller, and Richie Barrett (Some Other Guy) and Arthur Alexander (Anna) didn’t.

The real Beatles’ version of Forget Him

I believe that the real innovation of She Loves You is that the singer is not involved in the relationship; he’s offering advice to a friend about how to win back his love. That’s new, and if, as John says, Paul was responsible for that, then Paul deserves the credit for the new angle.

I would also argue that Paul and (mostly) John wrote their own (and better) version of Forget Him later in 1963: This Boy.

That boy took my love away,
Though he’ll regret it someday.
But this boy wants you back again.

That boy isn’t good for you
Though he may want you too.
This boy wants you back again.

Oh, and this boy would be happy
Just to love you, but, oh, my,
That boy won’t be happy
Till he’s seen you cry.

This boy wouldn’t mind the pain
Would always feel the same
If this boy gets you back again.

Couldn’t we summarize This Boy with “Forget him, and please come home to me”?

*I have s a soft spot for Bobby Rydell, who grew up in South Philadelphia at the same time my mom did.