John Lennon Sang a 'Gorgeous' Demo of a Beatles Song That Ringo Starr Didn't Do Justice
John Lennon wrote a Beatles song that he intended to give to Ringo Starr. A Beatles engineer said this was a shame, as Lennon sang it beautifully.
John Lennon wrote the sweeping lullaby “Good Night” for the White Album, but he didn’t sing the song. Typically, he would sing the songs he wrote, but he passed this one off to Ringo Starr. According to Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick, this was a shame. He explained that Lennon sang a beautiful demo of the song. He didn’t find Starr’s version of the song nearly as impressive.
Work on the White Album was, for the most part, a nightmare for everyone involved. Band relations were frosty when they weren’t outright hostile, and everyone in the studio was exhausted and fed up. Therefore, the introduction of Lennon’s “Good Night” came as a pleasant surprise.
“[J]ohn surprised us all with the unveiling of his lush ballad ‘Good Night,'” Emerick wrote in his book Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles. “Like ‘Across the Universe,’ the song showed his softer side, a stark contrast to the screamer he had belted out just the night before. It ably demonstrated the depth of his abilities as both a songwriter and a performer, which was really quite astonishing.”
Source: Emma McKee/cheatsheet.com
