{"id":582811,"date":"2026-04-05T01:00:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T01:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/582811\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T01:00:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T01:00:14","slug":"my-least-favorite-beatles-song-elvis-presley-inspired-it-john-lennon-hated-it-behind-the-song-he-wanted-to-keep-off-the-beatles-first-psychedelic-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/582811\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cMy least favorite Beatles song.\u201d Elvis Presley inspired it. John Lennon hated it. Behind the song he wanted to keep off the Beatles\u2019 first psychedelic record\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Beatles drew inspiration from all over the musical map \u2014 Motown, acoustic<\/a> folk, rockabilly and beyond. But one of the darker lines ever sung by the band can be traced directly to a 1950s rock and roll record by Elvis Presley<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The lyric appears in Presley\u2019s 1955 Sun Records single \u201cBaby, Let\u2019s Play House,\u201d written by Arthur Gunter. Early in the song, Presley delivers a line that\u2019s as blunt as it is unsettling: \u201cI\u2019d rather see you dead, little girl, than to be with another man.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The phrase stuck with John Lennon. Nearly a decade later, he used it as the starting point for a Beatles song \u2014 one that would eventually appear on the band\u2019s landmark 1965 album, Rubber Soul.<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

That song was \u201cRun for Your Life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\"The\n<\/p>\n

The Beatles pose in 1965. (from left) McCartney, Ringo Starr, George Harrison and Lennon. (Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Lennon borrowed Presley\u2019s line almost verbatim for the song\u2019s opening lyric. From there he built the rest of the track around the same jealous premise, warning the song\u2019s subject that if he ever caught her with another man, \u201cthat\u2019s the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

Years later, Lennon would admit the song wasn\u2019t something he thought much about at the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never liked \u2018Run for Your Life\u2019 because it was a song I just knocked off,\u201d he told Rolling Stone in 1970. \u201cIt was inspired from Elvis.\u201d<\/p>\n

All the latest guitar news, interviews, lessons, reviews, deals and more, direct to your inbox!<\/p>\n

Run For Your Life (Remastered 2009) – YouTube
\n\"Run<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

The track ultimately became the closer on Rubber Soul, the group\u2019s sixth studio album and one often regarded as the point where the Beatles fully embraced the idea of the LP as an artistic statement rather than simply a collection of songs.<\/p>\n

It was also the first record on which they presaged the dawn of psychedelic rock by using the studio to change the sound of their instruments. The sessions saw the Beatles experimenting with new textures and instrumentation. George Harrison famously introduced the sitar<\/a> to the band\u2019s sound on \u201cNorwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown),\u201d while Paul McCartney used a fuzz bass<\/a> tone on Harrison\u2019s \u201cThink for Yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"George\n<\/p>\n

George Harrison and Lennon at a press conference circa 1965. (Image credit: Don Paulsen\/Michael Ochs Archives\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cRun for Your Life,\u201d however, had simpler origins than other tracks on the album. Lennon later described it as a quick composition built around the Presley line that had caught his ear years earlier.<\/p>\n

What to read next<\/p>\n

\u201cI wrote it around that,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I didn\u2019t think it was that important.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was sort of a throwaway song of mine that I never thought much of. But it was always a favorite of George\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 John Lennon<\/p>\n

In hindsight, the song also reflected something about Lennon\u2019s state of mind at the time. As McCartney later noted in his memoir Many Years From Now, Lennon\u2019s lyrics often revealed a possessiveness that contrasted with McCartney\u2019s own outlook on relationships.<\/p>\n

\u201cJohn was always on the run, running for his life,\u201d McCartney wrote. \u201cHe was married; whereas none of my songs would have \u2018catch you with another man.\u2019 \u2026 I wasn\u2019t as worried about that as John was. A bit of a macho song.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even if Lennon dismissed the track as a throwaway, there was little chance of it being replaced. With the holiday season approaching, the Beatles were racing to finish Rubber Soul in time to be released for Christmas 1965.<\/p>\n

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\"Production\n<\/p>\n

A woman checks pressings of Rubber Soul for quality control at the E.M.I. factory in Hayes Middlesex, November 24, 1965. (Image credit: Daily Herald\/Mirrorpix\/Mirrorpix via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The album\u2019s final recording session \u2014 which began at 4 p.m. on November 11 and stretched into the early hours of the next morning \u2014 saw the band record McCartney\u2019s \u201cYou Won\u2019t See Me\u201d and Lennon\u2019s \u201cGirl,\u201d while also adding overdubs to \u201cWait.\u201d With the deadline looming, there simply wasn\u2019t time to create another song. \u201cRun for Your Life\u201d remained in place as the album\u2019s closing number.<\/p>\n

And while Lennon later called it his \u201cleast favorite Beatles song\u201d and said he \u201calways hated\u201d it, at least one of his bandmates felt differently.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was sort of a throwaway song of mine that I never thought much of,\u201d Lennon later said. \u201cBut it was always a favorite of George\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Beatles drew inspiration from all over the musical map \u2014 Motown, acoustic folk, rockabilly and beyond. But…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":582812,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[49,48,75,341],"class_list":{"0":"post-582811","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=582811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/582812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=582811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=582811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=582811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}