TL;DR:
- John Lennon revealed The Beatles’ “In My Life” was originally connected to Penny Lane in Liverpool.
- John didn’t like the original version of the song.
- The song was a minor hit in the United Kingdom
John Lennon said the original version of The Beatles‘ “In My Life” had connections to the band’s later song “Strawberry Fields Forever.” He revealed he wasn’t a fan of that draft of the song. In addition, John explained Paul McCartney’s role in writing “In My Life.”
The Beatles’ John Lennon almost wrote a very ‘boring’ song
The book All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono is an interview from 1980. During the interview, John discussed “In My Life.” “‘In My Life’ started out as a bus journey from my house on 250 Menlove Avenue to town, mentioning every place that I could remember,” he said. “And it was ridiculous.”
John discussed the places he named in the original version of “In My Life.” This is before even ‘Penny Lane‘ was written and I had Penny Lane, Strawberry Fields, Tram Sheds — Tram Sheds are the depot just outside of Penny Lane — and it was the most boring sort of ‘What I Did on My Holidays Bus Trip’ song and it wasn’t working at all,” he recalled.
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John Lennon said he wasn’t sure if he could finish The Beatles’ ‘In My Life’
John almost gave up on completing “In My Life.” “I cannot do this!” he said. “But then I laid back and these lyrics started coming to me about the places I remember.”
John remembered Paul McCartney’s role in writing “In My Life.” “The whole lyrics were already written before Paul had even heard it,” he said. “In ‘In My Life,’ his contribution melodically was the harmony and the middle eight itself.”
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How ‘In My Life’ and its parent album ‘Rubber Soul’ performed on the charts in the United States
“In My Life” found an audience in the United States. The song peaked at No. 9 on Billboard’s Hot 100 Recurrents chart, staying on the chart for one week. The Beatles released “In My Life” on the album Rubber Soul. The album was No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for six weeks, staying on the chart for 70 weeks altogether.
“In My Life” charted in the United Kingdom as well. According to The Official Charts Company, the song reached No. 78 in the U.K. for a single week. Meanwhile, Rubber Soul became far more popular. It topped the U.K. chart for eight weeks, remaining on the chart for 42 weeks in total.
“In My Life” was a classic track even if John didn’t like the original version of it.
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