While all of the songs that John Lennon and/or Paul McCartney wrote were credited to Lennon/McCartney, the truth is that most of their songs were written mainly by one or the other. What follows are the best songs (in my opinion) that The Beatles recorded in 1965 which were written by Lennon.
"Ticket To Ride" was a remarkable song to be released as a single in April 1965. It had a sound which was more "heavy" than people were used to hearing at that time. It had a new "emotional weight" to it that previous Beatles songs mostly lacked. The press at the time even called it "uncommercial" although it did go to #1 in both the UK and the US (as did everything else The Beatles released at this time).
"You've Got To Hide Your Love Away" is another example of the growing maturity and expanding sound of The Beatles (and Lennon in particular). This is probably the most "Bob Dylan-esque" song The Beatles ever recorded, Dylan was obviously a huge influence on Lennon at this time. This was a two way street. While The Beatles were heavily influenced by Dylan lyrically and in trying a more "acoustic sound," Dylan was influenced by The Beatles to pick up the electric guitar in order to bring rock to folk music (ie: "folk rock").
"Help!" was of course the title track for the album and film by the same name. Are you noticing a pattern with these songs? Lennon was definitely exploring the "darker" side of things. While the music of this song is rather uptempo and very catchy, the lyrics tell another story. Originally Lennon pictured this is a slower more emotive song, but it was speeded up during recording to make it "more commercial."
"Norwegian Wood" continues the "introspective songs" streak. This is a brilliant song, one of Lennon's best. But it's also memorable for George Harrison's contribution (the introduction of the sitar in western pop music).
"In My Life" is definitely one of the most classic of classic Beatles songs. Everything about it from it's beautifully simple guitar riff, to it's poetic lyrics, to it's memorable melody is perfect. There has been some disagreement over the years over to what extent Paul McCartney was involved in writing the melody for this song. Lennon has said that Paul helped with the melody while McCartney has said he wrote the entire melody (setting John's words to music basically).
"Nowhere Man" continues the now very obvious pattern of John Lennon's 1965 songs. He was writing a lot of very "down" songs at this time. Separating out his songs from the Beatles songs as a whole really makes this clear. Also, it's amazing how many absolutely classic songs he wrote in 1965. These are all not just good songs, but truly great classic songs.
"Girl" has always been one of my favorites. I love the backing vocals "tit tit tit" and the breathing in sound (definitely not like Tay Zonday). And it definitely fits in with the theme of Lennon's '65 songs as the lyrics may be the most downcast of this whole bunch.
All of these songs are included in both of The Beatles Remastered Box Sets.
Buy The Beatles Remastered CDs.
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