What John Lennon Was Actually Hiding When He Wrote "Do You Want to Know a Secret" by ...
The First Dramatic Minor Chord
The song starts with a slow introduction that doesn’t repeat later in the song. Lennon had picked up this staple from many of his favorite songs from the ’30s and ’40s.
You’ll never know how much I really love you
You’ll never know how much I really care
A Walt Disney Classic
Lennon’s mother Julia would often sing “I’m Wishing” from the 1937 animated film Snow White. Larry Morey and Frank Churchill wrote the song. The opening lines are: Want to know a secret? / Promise not to tell? / We are standing by a wishing well.
In All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Lennon told David Sheff, “My mother was always … a comedienne and a singer. Not professional, but, you know, she used to get up in pubs and things like that. She had a good voice. She could do Kay Starr. She used to do this little tune when I was just a 1- or 2-year-old. … Yeah, she was still living with me then. … The tune was from the Disney movie.”
Listen
Do you want to know a secret
Do you promise not to tell
Whoa, oh, oh
A Marriage Kept from Public Knowledge
As their manager, Brian Epstein was pursuing a recording contract for The Beatles, and Lennon was planning on marrying Cynthia Powell. Epstein urged Lennon to rethink his plans, as he had been selling the group as a quartet of young, lovable, single gentlemen. Lennon agreed to postpone the wedding, and The Beatles signed with EMI’s Parlophone label on February 13, 1962. Lennon and Powell were married on August 23, 1962, at the Mount Pleasant register office in Liverpool. Epstein was the best man.
Source: Jay McDowell/americansongwriter.com
