Though they both wrote songs for the Beatles, Paul McCartney and George Harrison rarely teamed up as a duo. Nevertheless, they once hopped into the writer’s room together for their skiffle band, The Quarrymen. Learn more about this McCartney–Harrison joint venture, below.
Back before the Beatles skyrocketed to fame, McCartney and Harrison were apart of a smaller venture called The Quarrymen. While in that group, they wrote a song titled “In Spite of All The Danger.” It’s one of the only songs credited to McCartney–Harrison, making it novel in the Fab Four’s catalog.
In spite of all the danger
In spite of all that may be
I’ll do anything for you
Anything you want me to
If you’ll be true to me
Though the Beatles would later come to be finite in their copyrights and songwriting credits, The Quarrymen didn’t quite understand how to fairly distribute those credits–at least according to McCartney.
Though this song is credited to both members, Macca once said that he penned the song and Harrison just played the guitar solo.
“It says on the label that it was me and George but I think it was actually written by me, and George played the guitar solo,” McCartney once said. “We were mates and nobody was into copyrights and publishing, nobody understood – we actually used to think when we came down to London that songs belonged to everyone. I’ve said this a few times but it’s true, we really thought they just were in the air, and that you couldn’t actually own one. So you can imagine the publishers saw us coming!”
Source: Alex Hopper/americansongwriter.com