John Lennon and Paul McCartney may have been only half of the Fab Four, but don’t expect Ian Leslie to write a “George and Ringo” book. The Beatles’ beating heart was always Lennon and McCartney. In John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs, Leslie, whose previous books have focused on applied philosophy, examines their relationship through the lens of individual tracks. We’re taken from “Come Go With Me,” the doo-wop number that Lennon sang at a Woolton church fête in 1957 when the pair met, to “Here Today,” McCartney’s 1981 tribute to his murdered friend.
The Lennon-McCartney songwriting powerhouse, which would produce around 180 songs, began in earnest in 1962 after the two men made the decision to sideline George Harrison. (Ironically, the latter’s “Here Comes the Sun,” from 1969, is today the most streamed Beatles song on Spotify.) Their partnership became a private dialogue, even as millions fell in love with the music. Few knew, for example, that Lennon’s “I Don’t Want to Spoil the Party,” a 1964 Beatles song, was raking over McCartney’s real-life 21st birthday celebrations a year earlier, during which Lennon had savagely beat up Cavern compère Bob Wooler for joking that the singer’s holiday with gay Beatles manager Brian Epstein had been a “honeymoon”.
