That Boy (Go To Him)

'Anna (Go To Him)' is possible the poorest song the Beatles ever covered. It is surprising that it was included on Please Please Me, while the Beatles had stronger cover songs in their repertoire at that moment. There is no recording of any Live performance, they only played it twice on BBC's Pop Go The Beatles (as filler).

So why did they select it for PPM ? Since Lennon does the lead vocals, it was probably his choice. What could have been his motives ? The song structure is conventional, the chord structure is poor by any standard (the middle eight is just one chord...). So was the appeal in the lyrics insteead? Lennon wasn't hot for mushy lyrics, he could hardly bring himself to sing backing vocals on 'Besame Mucho', 'Till there was you' etc.

But the Anna lyrics are subtly different: they speak about separation of the lovers: in fact, the man encourges his wife to leave him for another. Could this have resonated with Lennon's own feelings at the time ? He was recently married to Cynthia, in a 'shotgun wedding". So he may very well have secretly wished that Cynthia would leave him.

This hidden thought is corroborated by another surprisingly mushy song, this time wrtiten by Lennon: This Boy. Again, the lyrics speak of separation, and the singer sort of gives up on his lover.

The link between these 2 songs is not only in the lyrics; musically, they match too; however, a remash will always be difficult, because Lennon gave This Boy one of his odd rythms (6/8). Still, this re-mash suffics that both songs probaly revelaed Lennon's hidden wish for a divorce from Cynthia ?