I'll Be on My Way

John Lennon explained "I'll Be on My Way" "was early Paul."{{sfn|Cadogan|2008|page=159}} Credited to Lennon–McCartney, Paul McCartney wrote the song in the first half of 1959.{{sfn|Lewisohn|2013|p=214–215}} Author Todd Compton attributes it to "McCartney–Lennon."{{sfn|Compton|2017|pp=48-49}} McCartney wrote the song on his first guitar, a Framus Zenith acoustic guitar.{{sfn|Lewisohn|2013|p=215, 705}} In The Beatles Anthology, McCartney recalls, "All my first songs... were written on the Zenith; songs like 'Michelle' and 'I Saw Her Standing There'. It was on this guitar that I learnt 'Twenty Flight Rock', the song that later got me into the group The Quarry Men."{{sfn|The Beatles|2000|p=20}} When first written, the song had little beyond its melody.{{sfn|Lewisohn|2013|p=705}} The song was fleshed out years later after the Beatles added it to their live repertoire.{{sfn|Lewisohn|2013|p=705}}{{refn|group=nb|Walter Everett writes the song was added to the Beatles' repertoire in "the last months of 1961",{{sfn|Everett|2001|p=101}} while Lewisohn writes it was not until September 1962.{{sfn|Lewisohn|2013|p=705}}}}

The song is heavily inspired by Buddy Holly. Musicologist and writer Ian MacDonald writes, "Played a little faster, the song reveals its debt to Buddy Holly's simple three-chords schemes. (Imagine each chorus finishing 'I'll be on my way ah-hey-hey'.)"{{sfn|MacDonald|2005|p=82}} Everett agrees, writing the song "has strong Holly ties, especially in the duet refrain,"{{sfn|Everett|2001|p=52}} as does Lewisohn who calls the song "Hollyesque."{{sfn|Lewisohn|2013|p=705}} The rising and falling chromatic line of the guitar intro comes from the Crickets' cover of "Don't Ever Change",{{sfn|Everett|2001|p=169}} especially the augmented E chord.{{sfn|Lewisohn|2013|p=705}} After measure 11, McCartney's vocal part moves to a descant in parallel thirds above Lennon's, a technique derivative of Holly's normal double-tracked vocal patterns.{{sfn|Everett|2001|p=169}}

Though Lennon sang the lead vocal as a harmony duet with McCartney, he never liked the song.{{sfn|Lewisohn|2013|p=705}} Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn writes that while performing it, "when they got to the line 'this way will I go'—[Lennon] pulled a crip face and hunched himself Quasimodo-like around the microphone. Paul had no choice but to ride the laughter."{{sfn|Lewisohn|2013|p=706}}

McCartney made a demo of the song prior to Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas recording it.{{sfn|Everett|2001|p=169}} Dakotas guitarist Mike Maxfield claims that he still owns the acetate and that all of the Beatles play on it, though this claim has never been substantiated.{{sfn|Everett|2001|p=388n190}}

The Beatles recorded the song on 4 April 1963 at the BBC Paris Theatre, London, and broadcast on the BBC radio show Side by Side on 24 June 1963.{{sfn|MacDonald|2005|p=82}} Everett writes that George Harrison's guitar solo features "the clash of bent unison double-stops",{{sfn|Everett|2001|pp=134–135}} similar to those of Scotty Moore in Elvis Presley's "Just Because" and "Jailhouse Rock" and in Jerry Lee Lewis's "Livin' Lovin' Wreck".{{sfn|Everett|2001|p=135}}

Everett suggests the Beatles recorded a rendition of the song only to help promote Kramer's record.{{sfn|Everett|2001|p=169}} The Beatles released their version on the 1994 album Live at the BBC.{{sfn|MacDonald|2005|p=82}}{{sfn|Everett|2001|p=160}} It is the only non-cover song on the album that was previously unreleased.{{sfn|Goodden|2008}}

MacDonald describes the lyrics and music as "almost derisively naive".{{sfn|MacDonald|2005|p=82}} Lewisohn singles out the lyric "When the June light turns to moonlight" as the kind Lennon and McCartney "usually spurned" in others.{{sfn|Lewisohn|2013|p=215}} McCartney reflected on the work in his official biography, Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now, saying "It's a little bit too June-moon for me, but these were very early songs and they worked out quite well."{{sfn|Miles|1998|page=180}} In 1980, John Lennon said of the song, "That's Paul, through and through. Doesn't it sound like him? Tra la la la la [laughs]. Yeah, that's Paul on the voids (joys) of driving through the country."{{sfn|Sheff|2000|p=170}} Everett writes the "this way I will go" lyrics, "are too closely related, in an innocent way, to those of "I'll Follow the Sun."{{sfn|Everett|2001|p=169}} He concludes that the chord transitions are ultimately uninteresting.{{sfn|Everett|2001|p=169}}

According to Ian MacDonald:{{sfn|MacDonald|2005|p=82}}

• John Lennon – lead vocal, acoustic guitar
• Paul McCartney – harmony vocal, bass
• George Harrison – lead guitar
• Ringo Starr – drums

Kramer and the Dakotas recorded "I'll Be On My Way" on 14 and 21 March 1963.{{sfn|Everett|2001|p=167}}

Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas released their cover of the song as the B-side of their hit debut single, "Do You Want to Know a Secret"{{sfn|MacDonald|2005|p=82}} on 26 April 1963.{{sfn|Everett|2001|p=387n182}} The record held at #2 nationally in the U.K., second to the Beatles' "From Me To You".{{sfn|Everett|2001|p=167–168}} This version of the song is included on the 1979 EMI album The Songs Lennon and McCartney Gave Away.{{sfn|Calkin|2002}}

{{Reflist|group=nb}}

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{{Refbegin}}

• {{cite book |author=The Beatles |author-link=The Beatles |year=2000 |title=The Beatles Anthology |publisher=Chronicle Books |location=San Francisco |isbn=978-0-8118-2684-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HWuQu8EMDKcC |access-date=4 February 2021}}
• {{cite book| last=Cadogan| first=Patrick| year=2008| title=The Revolutionary Artist: John Lennon's Radical Years| publisher=Lulu| isbn=978-1-4357-1863-0}}
• {{cite web| last=Calkin| first=Graham| year=2002| title=Collaborations: The Songs Lennon and McCartney Gave Away| work=JPGR| url=https://www.jpgr.co.uk/col_nut18.html| access-date=29 October 2006}}
• {{cite book| last= Compton| first=Todd| year=2017| title= Who Wrote the Beatle Songs? A History of Lennon-McCartney| publisher= Pahreah Press| isbn=978-0-9988997-0-1}}
• {{cite book |last=Everett |first=Walter |author-link=Walter Everett (musicologist) |year=2001 |title=The Beatles As Musicians: The Quarry Men through Rubber Soul |url=https://archive.org/details/beatlesasmusicia00ever |url-access=registration |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford and New York |isbn=978-0-19-514105-4 |access-date=4 February 2021}}
• {{cite web|last=Goodden |first=Joe |website=The Beatles Bible| year=2008| title=I'll Be On My Way| url=https://www.beatlesbible.com/songs/ill-be-on-my-way/| access-date=15 September 2008}}
• {{cite book|last=Lewisohn |first=Mark |author-link=Mark Lewisohn |title=The Beatles – All These Years, Volume One: Tune In |publisher=Crown Archetype |year=2013 |isbn=978-1-4000-8305-3 }}
• {{cite book |last=MacDonald |first=Ian |year=2005 |author-link=Ian MacDonald |title=Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties |edition=2nd revised |publisher=Pimlico |location=London |isbn=978-1-84413-828-9}}
• {{cite book|last=Miles|first=Barry |author-link=Barry Miles|title=Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now|publisher= Secker & Warburg|location=London|year=1998|isbn=978-0-436-28022-1}}
• {{cite book | last=Sheff | first=David | year=2000 | title=All We Are Saying | publisher=St Martin's Griffin | isbn=0-312-25464-4| url-access=registration | url=https://archive.org/details/allwearesayingla00lenn}}

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Category:1963 songs

Category:The Beatles songs

Category:Billy J. Kramer songs

Category:Song recordings produced by George Martin

Category:Songs written by Lennon–McCartney