Real Love (Beatles song) Early origins Who originally wrote Real Love? Real Love" originated as part of an unfinished stage play that Lennon was working on at the time, titled The Ballad of John and Yoko. Where was the song Real Love written? The song was first recorded in 1977 with a handheld tape recorder on his piano at home. How did the rest of the Beatles originally respond to the "Real Love" song? I don't know.
Did anyone else play on the early version of the song besides Lennon?
Did anyone else play on the early version of the Real Love besides Lennon?
According to Beatles biographer John T. Marck, "Real Love" originated as part of an unfinished stage play that Lennon was working on at the time, titled The Ballad of John and Yoko. The song was first recorded in 1977 with a handheld tape recorder on his piano at home. Eventually the work evolved under the title "Real Life", a song which Lennon would record at least six times in 1979 and 1980, and then abandoned. The song was eventually combined with elements of another Lennon demo, "Baby Make Love to You". In June 1978, Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono told the press that they were working on a musical, The Ballad of John and Yoko, which had been planned during the previous year. Songs proposed to be included up to this point were "Real Love" and "Every Man Has a Woman Who Loves Him". In later versions, Lennon altered portions of the song; for example, "no need to be alone / it's real love / yes, it's real love" became "why must it be alone / it's real / well it's real life." Some takes included an acoustic guitar, while the eventual Beatles release features Lennon on piano, with rudimentary double-tracked vocals, and a tambourine. The version released in 1996 most closely reflected the lyrical structure of the early demo takes of the song. Lennon appears to have considered recording "Real Love" for his and Ono's 1980 album Double Fantasy. A handwritten draft of the album's running order places it as the possible opening track on side two. The song remained largely forgotten until 1988, when the take 6 of "Real Love" appeared on the Imagine: John Lennon soundtrack album. The song was also released on the Acoustic album in 2004. The demo with just Lennon on piano was issued in 1998 on John Lennon Anthology and then later on Working Class Hero: The Definitive Lennon. CANNOTANSWER
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"Real Love" is a song written by the English musician John Lennon, formerly of the Beatles. He recorded six demos of the song in 1979 and 1980 with "Real Life", a different song that merged with "Real Love". In 1988, the sixth take was posthumously released for the documentary soundtrack Imagine: John Lennon. In 1995, his demo was completed by his former Beatles bandmates (Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr) as part of the Beatles Anthology project, along with "Free as a Bird".

The song was released as a Beatles single in 1996 in the United Kingdom, United States and many other countries. It reached number 4 and number 11 respectively in the UK and US singles charts, and earned a gold record more quickly than a number of the group's other singles. The song was not included on the BBC Radio 1 playlist, prompting criticism from fans and British Members of Parliament. The track opened the Beatles' Anthology 2 album. It is the last single by the Beatles to become a top 40 hit in the US, the last released record of new material credited to the Beatles, and the last to originate and be included on an album as well as the last top 10 hit in the UK.

Early origins
According to Beatles biographer John T. Marck, "Real Love" originated as part of an unfinished stage play that Lennon was working on at the time, titled The Ballad of John and Yoko. The song was first recorded in 1977 with a handheld tape recorder on his piano at home. Eventually the work evolved under the title "Real Life", a song which Lennon would record at least six times in 1979 and 1980, and was then abandoned. The song was eventually combined with elements of another Lennon demo, "Baby Make Love to You". In June 1978, Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono told the press that they were working on a musical, The Ballad of John and Yoko, which had been planned during the previous year. Songs proposed to be included up to this point were "Real Love" and "Every Man Has a Woman Who Loves Him".

In later versions, Lennon altered portions of the song; for example, "no need to be alone / it's real love / yes, it's real love" became "why must it be alone / it's real / well it's real life." Some takes included an acoustic guitar, while the eventual Beatles release features Lennon on piano, with rudimentary double-tracked vocals, and a tambourine. The version released in 1996 most closely reflected the lyrical structure of the early demo takes of the song.

Lennon appears to have considered recording "Real Love" for his and Ono's 1980 album Double Fantasy. A handwritten draft of the album's running order places it as the possible opening track on side two. The song remained largely forgotten until 1988, when take 6 of "Real Love" appeared on the Imagine: John Lennon soundtrack album. The song was also released on the Acoustic album in 2004. The demo with just Lennon on piano was issued in 1998 on John Lennon Anthology and then later on Working Class Hero: The Definitive Lennon.

Reuniting the Beatles
Before the Anthology project, the closest the Beatles had come to reuniting on record (while all four members were still alive) was for Starr's Ringo album in 1973, when Lennon, Harrison and Starr collaborated on "I'm the Greatest". By the early 1990s, the idea of redoing some of Lennon's old songs was inspired by former Beatles road manager Neil Aspinall and Harrison, who first requested some demos from Ono. In January 1994, McCartney went to New York City for Lennon's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. While there, he received at least four songs from Ono. According to Aspinall, it was "two cassettes" which "might have been five or six tracks". Ono said of the occasion: "It was all settled before then, I just used that occasion to hand over the tapes personally to Paul. I did not break up the Beatles, but I was there at the time, you know? Now I'm in a position where I could bring them back together and I would not want to hinder that."

In an interview, McCartney remarked:

Yoko said "I've got a couple of tracks I'll play you, you might be interested". I'd never heard them before but she explained that they're quite well known to Lennon fans as bootlegs. I said to Yoko, "Don't impose too many conditions on us, it's really difficult to do this, spiritually. We don't know, we may hate each other after two hours in the studio and just walk out. So don't put any conditions, it's tough enough. If it doesn't work out, you can veto it." When I told George and Ringo I'd agreed to that, they were going, "What? What if we love it?" It didn't come to that, luckily.

McCartney, Harrison and Starr then focused their attention on four songs: "Free as a Bird", "Real Love", "Grow Old with Me" and "Now and Then". Of these, they liked "Free as a Bird" the most, and worked hard on it. Eventually the song was released as the first new Beatles single since 1970. The remaining Beatles then turned their attention to "Real Love", which, co-producer Jeff Lynne later remarked, at least "had a complete set of words".

Working in the studio
With George Martin declining to produce the new recording, the Beatles brought in Electric Light Orchestra's Jeff Lynne, who had worked extensively with Harrison, including as part of the Traveling Wilburys, and had already co-produced "Free as a Bird". The first problem that the team had to confront was the low quality of the demo, as Lennon had recorded it on a hand-held tape recorder. Lynne recalled:

We tried out a new noise reduction system, and it really worked. The problem I had with "Real Love" was that not only was there a 60 cycles mains hum going on, there was also a terrible amount of hiss, because it had been recorded at a low level. I don't know how many generations down this copy was, but it sounded like at least a couple. So I had to get rid of the hiss and the mains hum, and then there were clicks all the way through it ... We'd spend a day on it, then listen back and still find loads more things wrong ... It didn't have any effect on John's voice, because we were just dealing with the air surrounding him, in between phrases. That took about a week to clean up before it was even usable and transferable to a DAT master. Putting fresh music to it was the easy part!

Although "Real Love" was more complete than "Free as a Bird", which had required the addition of some lyrics by McCartney, the song also suffered from problems with Lennon's timing. Lynne recalled that "it took a lot of work to get it all in time so that the others could play to it." Lynne emphasised that the three remaining Beatles were keen to ensure the song sounded very "Beatles-y": "What we were trying to do was create a record that was timeless, so we steered away from using state-of the-art gear. We didn't want to make it fashionable."

As with "Free as a Bird", the Beatles worked at McCartney's studio in Sussex, with the intention of producing another single. Added to the demo were the sounds of a double bass (originally owned by Elvis Presley's bassist, Bill Black), Fender Jazz bass guitar, a couple of Fender Stratocaster guitars, one of which was Harrison's psychedelically-painted "Rocky" Strat (as seen in the "I Am the Walrus" video), as well as a Ludwig drum kit. Other than their regular instruments, a Baldwin Combo Harpsichord (as played by Lennon on the Beatles song "Because") and a harmonium (which appeared on the band's 1965 hit single "We Can Work It Out") were also used. During the recording process, it was decided to speed up the tape, thereby raising the key from D minor to E♭ minor.

As their sound engineer, the Beatles opted for Geoff Emerick, who had not only worked with them to a great extent in the 1960s, but is often credited with many of the Beatles' audio inventions. The assistant engineer was Jon Jacobs, who had worked with McCartney and Emerick since the late 1970s. The attitude in the studio was very relaxed, according to Lynne: "Paul and George would strike up the backing vocals – and all of a sudden it's the Beatles again! ... I'd be waiting to record and normally I'd say, 'OK, Let's do a take', but I was too busy laughing and smiling at everything they were talking about." Starr said that the lightheartedness was key to ensuring he, Harrison and McCartney could focus on the task: "We just pretended that John had gone on holiday or out for tea and had left us the tape to play with. That was the only way we could deal with it, and get over the hurdle, because [it] was really very emotional."

Starr commented: "Recording the new songs didn't feel contrived at all. It felt very natural and it was a lot of fun, but emotional too, at times. But it's the end of the line, really. There's nothing more we can do as the Beatles."

Music video
The single's video features shots of the three remaining Beatles recording in Sussex, mixed with shots of the Beatles taken during their career, including a brief clip of Ringo Starr drumming from Paul McCartney's solo film Give My Regards to Broad Street. Geoff Wonfor, who directed the Anthology documentary, filmed the three recording in the studio with a handheld camcorder, as they did not want to be aware of the camera recording. Kevin Godley, who co-directed the music video, said that it was meant to be a "fly on the wall thing".

Two different versions of the video were made. The first version aired during the second instalment of The Beatles Anthology television mini-series on ABC, at the end of the episode. The second version is the more common of the two, and appears on the bonus disc of the Anthology DVD set. The most notable difference between the two is in the way the videos begin: the first is presented by a strawberry – possibly a reference to "Strawberry Fields Forever", although also quite likely a nod to Godley's "Strawberry Studios" – while the second opens with a piano (the piano chord at the beginning).

Release
Although "Real Love" was released as single in both the UK and US on 4 March 1996, the first time the song was publicly aired was on 22 November 1995, when the American television network, the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) aired the second episode of The Beatles Anthology. The single debuted on the British charts on 16 March 1996 at number 4, selling 50,000 copies in its first week. The single's chart performance was subsequently hindered by BBC Radio 1's exclusion of "Real Love" from its playlist. Reuters, which described Radio 1 as "the biggest pop music station in Britain", reported that the station had declared: "It's not what our listeners want to hear ... We are a contemporary music station."

Beatles spokesman Geoff Baker responded by saying that the band's response was "Indignation. Shock and surprise. We carried out research after the Anthology was launched and this revealed that 41% of the buyers were teenagers." The station's actions contrasted strongly with what had occurred at the launch of "Free as a Bird" the year before, when Radio 1 became the first station to play the song on British airwaves. The exclusion of "Real Love" provoked a fierce reaction from fans also, and elicited comment from two members of parliament (MPs). Conservative MP Harry Greenway called the action censorship, and urged the station to reverse what he called a ban.

McCartney wrote an 800-word article for British newspaper The Daily Mirror about the alleged ban, in which he stated: "the Beatles don't need our new single, 'Real Love', to be a hit. It's not as if our careers depend on it … It's very heartening to know that, while the kindergarten kings of Radio 1 may think the Beatles are too old to come out to play, a lot of younger British bands don't seem to share that view. I'm forever reading how bands like Oasis are openly crediting the Beatles as inspiration, and I'm pleased that I can hear the Beatles in a lot of the music around today." The letter was published on 9 March, the day after Radio 1 announced the "ban".

The station's controller, Matthew Bannister, denied that the failure to include "Real Love" was a ban, saying that it merely meant that the song had not been included on the playlist of each week's 60 most regularly featured songs. As an act of goodwill, the station produced a "Golden Hour" dedicated to the group's music as well as music by bands influenced by the Beatles. This "Golden Hour" concluded with a playing of "Real Love".

"Real Love" fell out of the British charts in seven weeks, never topping its initial position of number 4. In the US, the single entered the charts on 30 March, and peaked at number 11. After four months, 500,000 copies had been sold in the US. The Beatles' compilation album Anthology 2, which included the song, eventually topped the British and American albums charts.

John Lennon's solo versions appear on several Lennon compilations, the film Imagine: John Lennon, and also in a 2007 ad campaign for J. C. Penney. 
On 6 November 2015, Apple Records released a new deluxe version of the 1 album in different editions and variations (known as 1+). Most of the tracks on 1 have been remixed from the original multi-track masters by Giles Martin. Martin and Jeff Lynne also remixed "Real Love" for the DVD and Blu-ray releases. The remix of "Real Love" cleans up Lennon's vocal further, and reinstates several deleted elements originally recorded in 1995, such as lead guitar phrases and drum fills, as well as making the harpsichord and harmonium more prominent in the mix.

Lyrics and melody
The song's lyrics have been interpreted by one reviewer to be conveying the message that "love is the answer to loneliness" and "that connection is the antidote to unreality."

The song was sped up 12% from the demo, apparently to "effect the ... snappy tempo" as Alan W. Pollack has speculated. The tune is nearly completely pentatonic, comprising primarily the notes E, F, G, B and C. The refrain is higher than the verse; while the verse covers a full octave, the refrain, at its peak, is a fifth higher.

The instrumental intro is four measures long, and the verse and refrain are eight measures. The introduction occurs in parallel E minor with the main thrust of the song being in E major, although in the recording the song is in E minor and the main thrust in E major as it was sped up from its original speed. There are several other occasions where Lennon moves to a chord from the parallel minor, e.g. in the chorus where the progression moves from a major tonic (I) chord to a minor subdominant (iv) chord. The move to minor harmony happens on the words 'alone' and 'afraid'. This combination of lyrics and harmony turning at the same point is a common Beatles device, and helps give the song a wistful feeling. The outro largely comprises the last half of the refrain repeated seven times, slowly fading out.

Personnel

Sixth take
John Lennon – lead vocals, acoustic guitar

Beatles version
According to Ian MacDonald and Mark Lewisohn:
John Lennon – double-tracked lead vocals, piano
Paul McCartney – backing vocals, acoustic guitar, piano, bass guitar, double bass, harmonium, harpsichord, percussion
George Harrison – backing vocals, electric guitars, acoustic guitar, percussion
Ringo Starr – backing vocals, drums, percussion
Jeff Lynne – backing vocals, guitar

Track listings
All tracks written by Lennon–McCartney, except where noted.

7" (R6425)
"Real Love" (Lennon) – 3:54
Recorded at The Dakota, New York City, circa 1979 (original demo) and at The Mill Studio, Sussex, in February 1995.
"Baby's in Black" – 3:03
Recorded live at the Hollywood Bowl on 29 August 1965 (spoken introduction by Lennon) and 30 August 1965 (song performance).

CD (CDR6425)
"Real Love" (Lennon) – 3:54
"Baby's in Black" – 3:03
"Yellow Submarine" – 2:48
Recorded at EMI Studios, London, on 26 May and 1 June 1966. A new remix with a previously unreleased "marching" introduction with the sound effects mixed higher in volume throughout.
"Here, There and Everywhere" – 2:23
 Recorded at EMI Studios, London, on 16 June 1966. This is a combination of take 7 (a mono mix of the basic track with McCartney's guide vocal) with a 1995 stereo remix of the harmony vocals as overdubbed onto take 13 superimposed at the end.

Charts and certifications

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Tom Odell version

In 2014, English singer-songwriter Tom Odell released a cover version of the song. It was released on 6 November 2014 in the United Kingdom as a digital download through Sony. The song was selected as the soundtrack to the John Lewis 2014 Christmas advertisement and was later included on the "Spending All My Christmas With You" EP released in 2016.

Chart performance
On 9 November 2014 (week ending 15 November 2014), "Real Love" debuted at number 21 in the UK Singles Chart with only 3 days of sales, and then reached a new peak of number 7 the following week.

Track listing

Chart performance

Weekly charts

Release history

Other versions
Regina Spektor recorded a cover version of "Real Love" for Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur, released in June 2007. She performed that cover at Bonnaroo the same month.
Adam Sandler performed the song in the 2009 film Funny People. This version is also found on the film's soundtrack.
The Last Royals released a cover version of "Real Love" on 1 September 2015.
Shakey Graves released a cover version of "Real Love" on Bandcamp, 9 February 2020.

References

External links
 Real Love sheet music 
 

1988 songs
1996 singles
Apple Records singles
John Lennon songs
Song recordings produced by Jeff Lynne
Songs about loneliness
Songs released posthumously
Songs written by John Lennon
The Beatles Anthology
The Beatles songs
Songs in memory of John Lennon
Musical compositions completed by others
"It's for You" is a song written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney of the Beatles for Cilla Black for whom it was a UK Top Ten hit in 1964. The song is mainly a McCartney composition.

Background

Composition
Paul McCartney, who had been present at Abbey Road Studios when Cilla Black had recorded her breakthrough hit "Anyone Who Had a Heart", had written "It's for You" with John Lennon using "Anyone Who Had a Heart" as the model although Black herself has opined: "For my money, ['It's for You'] is nothing like the 'Anyone...' composition."

Recording 
On 3 June 1964 McCartney cut a demo of "It's for You" to give to Black and producer George Martin. Black recorded the song at Abbey Road Studios on 2 July with Martin producing the session. She recalled: "That was some session...John [Lennon] and Paul [McCartney] joined me and George Martin. We made one track and then everyone had a go at suggesting how they thought it should be recorded. George said it should be one way, John and Paul another and I just added my suggestions while they were thinking of what else they could do with the composition."

Release and chart performances
Having Black, well publicized as an associate of the Beatles, record a Lennon–McCartney tune did not result in the anticipated smash hit: "It's for You" followed Black's back-to-back #1 hits: "Anyone Who Had a Heart" and "You're My World", into the Top Ten but remained there for only two weeks - 29 August &  5 September 1964 - at #8 and #7.

In the US "It's for You" became Black's second single release in September 1964: although the precedent "You're My World" had reached the US Top 30, "It's for You" rose no higher on the Billboard Hot 100 than #79.

"It's for You" reached #17 in Australia.

Although Black recorded several Beatles songs to be album cuts, she only had one later single release of a Lennon–McCartney song: "Step Inside Love" #8 in 1968.

Tribute covers
Recordings of "It's for You" as The Beatles may have performed it are available on the 1989 album by Bas Muys entitled Secret Songs: Lennon & McCartney and on the 1998 release It's Four You by the Australian tribute band The Beatnix.

The Beatles recording demo version
On 20 July 2016, the Daily Express announced the original acetate demo featuring Paul's voice was discovered among other demos in Cilla Black's collection and was proposed for auction.

Remakes and covers
Mina recorded an Italian rendering of "It's for You" – entitled "So che mi vuoi" – on her 1965 album, Studio Uno.
Texas band The Mods recorded a version of "It's for You" in 1966.
Three Dog Night recorded a version of the song for their eponymous debut album in 1968. A performance of the song is also featured on the group's 1969 live album, Captured Live at the Forum. That same year the Puerto Rican rock band The Challengers covered the song in their first album, which can be heard at http://rockinpr.net/challengers.html 
In 1971, Springwell, a five-man outfit from Allen Park MI, had a regional hit with "It's for You" which reached #60 on the Hot 100 in Billboard: the track, recorded at Eastern Sound Studio in Toronto, reached #21 in Canada.
 In 1979, Midwest-based Head East covered the song on their A&M Records double LP release of Head East Live!
 In 1995, Salad, an alternative rock group from the UK, covered the song as the B-Side to their single "Granite Statue".
 In 2009, Mr. Big covered "It's for You" during their reunion tour, and a recording was released on their album Back to Budokan. This performance featured vocals by Paul Gilbert, Billy Sheehan, and Pat Torpey, without regular lead singer Eric Martin.
It was covered by Seattle-based Beatles cover band Apple Jam on their 2012 album Off the Beatle Track.

References

External links
  
 

Parlophone singles
1964 singles
Cilla Black songs
Three Dog Night songs
Song recordings produced by George Martin
Songs written by Lennon–McCartney
1964 songs "Move Over Ms. L" is a song written by John Lennon.  It was originally intended to be released on his 1974 album Walls and Bridges but was left off shortly before the album release, and was eventually released as the b-side to Lennon's "Stand by Me" single.  In the interim it was released by Keith Moon on his album Two Sides of the Moon.  Moon also released it as the b-side of his "Solid Gold" single.

Recording and release
Lennon recorded demos of "Move Over Ms. L" around May and June 1974, first an electric guitar version and then an acoustic guitar version. Lennon recorded the original version of "Move Over Ms. L" that he intended to release on July 15, 1974, using the musicians that performed on Walls and Bridges.  It was intended to be included on Walls and Bridges but Lennon decided to leave it out 3 weeks before the album's release.  It was originally slotting to be on side 2 of the album, between "Surprise, Surprise" and "What You Got," the latter of which was later shifted to side 1.  Lennon rerecorded it in October 1974 and finally released as the b-side of "Stand By Me" in March 1975.  It is the only song of Lennon's solo career to be released as a single b-side without appearing on an album during his lifetime.  An alternative take that was recorded during the Walls and Bridges sessions was released on John Lennon Anthology.

Music and lyrics
"Move Over Ms. L" is an up-tempo rock 'n' roll song with a "driving rhythm."  Fab Four FAQ author Robert Rodriguez feels that stylistically the song fits well better with the rock 'n' roll oldies such as "Stand by Me" from Lennon's Rock 'n' Roll than with the songs on Walls and Bridges.  Beatle historian Bruce Spizer describes the backing music as being similar to that on Larry Williams' "Bony Moronie," which Lennon included on Rock 'n' Roll.

Some of the lyrics to "Move Over Ms. L" have been interpreted as mocking Lennon's wife Yoko Ono, from whom Lennon was separated when the song was written.  In particular, the chorus of "Move Over Ms. L / You know I wish you well" appears to be directed at Ono.  Other lyrics include Lennon playing with words and incorporating cliches in ways that don't always seem logical, but which Lennon may have put together that way just because he felt they sounded good.  Rodriguez describes it as a "stream-of-consciousness rocker."  Lennon would reuse the lyrics of one of those cliches, "They're starving back in China," in his later song "Nobody Told Me."

John Lennon's versions
Music lecturers Ben Urish and Keith Bielen describe Lennon's vocal as a "full-throttle vocal performance."  Besides singing the lyrics, Lennon exhorts the musicians with phrases like "whoo-oo-hoo," "alright!" and "that's right" during the song.  Instrumentation includes Lennon and Jesse Ed Davis on electric guitar, Eddie Mottau on acoustic guitar, Ken Ascher on piano, Klaus Voormann on bass, Alfred Jenkins on percussion, Jim Keltner on drums and various horn instruments.

Lennon released an alternative version of the song on John Lennon Anthology, which excludes the horns and overdubs, and with slightly different lyrics.  Spizer describes this version as having a western swing feel.  Urish and Bielen describe this version as "looser" than the original, but state that Lennon's exuberance remains intact.

Keith Moon's version
Keith Moon released his version on "Move Over Ms. L" on his 1975 album Two Sides of the Moon and later as the b-side of his "Solid Gold" single. Moon uses an arrangement very similar to Lennon's but with different horn riffs.  Beatle biographer John Blaney speculates that Lennon may have sent Moon a rough mix of his version of the track, rather than a mere demo.  Urish and Bielen claim that the recording "makes the most musically of Moon's limited vocal abilities."  On the other hand, Rodriguez describes Moon's vocal performance as "cringing" and the overall performance as a disorganized mess, with many Los Angeles-based musicians participating in the recording amidst lots of partying with drugs and alcohol.  Beatle historians Chip Madinger and Mark Easter regard Moon's version as "lamentable."

References

John Lennon songs
Songs written by John Lennon
Song recordings produced by John Lennon
1974 songs