The only song John Lennon wished he'd never written

The only song John Lennon wished he'd never written
Source: Daily Mail Online

It's no secret that John Lennon was a talented songwriter, with a career spanning decades that changed the trajectory of modern music.

The musician, together with his bandmate Paul McCartney, penned dozens of songs which have since become classics - but that isn't to say they didn't have regrets.

In fact, there was one early The Beatles track that Lennon was so 'embarrassed' of that he once confessed he wished he had never written it at all.

Lennon said the hit, written for The Beatles' 1965 release 'Help!', had 'disgusting lyrics', which he was 'so ashamed of' he could 'barely sing them'.

The song in question is, perhaps surprisingly, 'It's Only Love'.

It was written by both Lennon and McCartney - an underrated track detailing a romantic relationship, with simple lyrics and an undeniably catchy chorus.

'It's only love, and that is all, but it's so hard loving you,' the lyrics say.

But Lennon harboured a hatred for the song - which had the working title 'That's A Nice Hat' - once telling Hit Parader magazine: 'That's the one song I really hate of mine. Terrible lyrics.'

He has also described 'It's Only Love' as 'the most embarrassing song I ever wrote'.

Lennon explained: 'Everything rhymed. Disgusting lyrics. Even then, I was so ashamed of the lyrics, I could hardly sing them.

'That was one song I really wished I'd never written.'

But his co-writer McCartney was more forgiving of the track, which appeared on the second half of Help! - a studio album that accompanied a film of the same name.

He said: 'Sometimes we didn't fight it if the lyric came out rather bland on some of those filler songs like "It's Only Love".

'If a lyric was really bad we'd edit it, but we weren't that fussy about it,