I'll Be on My Way

I'll Be on My Way was written mainly by Paul McCartney with input from John Lennon in the early days of the Beatles, around 1961. The song is clearly inspired and influenced by Buddy Holly and is somewhat similar in tone to his 1959 release, It Doesn't Matter Anymore. The singer is putting a good face on a tough romantic breakup. The Lennon-McCartney duo passed the song on to Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas (one of six they provided to that group, which was also from Liverpool, also managed by Brian Epstein and also produced by George Martin at EMI). Thus, it was Kramer, not the Beatles, who made the original recording. The song came out on April 26, 1963 as the b-side to Kramer's hit, Do You Want to Know a Secret? This song, sung by George on the Please Please Me album, was later given to Billy J. Kramer, who took it to a number 2 position in the UK charts, bested only by From Me to You by the Beatles. On April 4 of 1963 the Beatles recorded the song for BBC at the Paris Theater in London for the radio show Side by Side, broadcast on June 24, 1963. This sole known recording of the song by the Beatles is available on the 1994 album, Live at the BBC.