If I Fell

John Lennon wrote this song during their Paris gig in late January of 1964. Unlike "work" songs, which he cranked out for a mass audience, If I Fell is a serious project, influenced by Dylan, and containing emotional elements that reveal something about the composer. A "true ballad," the song deals with potentially painful, human drama -- in this case the possibility of leaving one woman because of another. At the time, such subject matter was considered audacious and risky, both financially and morally, for the more innocent pop music market. In the movie, A Hard Day's Night, John sings this to Ringo, which makes very little sense; however the director did not want any of the Beatles to have girlfriends in the film, thus remaining "available" to their many, young female fans. John would later relive the crisis he wrote about, when in 1968 he left his wife and married Yoko Ono.