Beatles – "Good Night" (1968)

Now the sun turns out his light

Good night, sleep tight

I was mildly excited to learn a couple of weeks ago that SiriusXM satellite radio was adding “The Beatles Channel” to its lineup.  

I gave “The Beatles Channel” a shot before I gave up on it.  Actually, I gave it several shots.  But the dross-to-gold ratio is unacceptably high.

“The Beatles Channel” is a misnomer.  The music on that channel includes a lot of non-Beatles stuff.  (The Beatles released only 12 studio albums.  That’s not a lot of content when you’re a satellite radio company and you’ve got 24 hours of programming a day to fill.)

There are a fair number of covers of Beatles songs on “The Beatles Channel” – like Regina Spektor’s cover of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.”

There are also a fair number of Beatles covers of songs by other artists – like their forgettable 1964 cover of Carl Perkins’s forgettable 1957 record, “Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby.”

“The Beatles Channel” also plays the original recordings of some of the songs the Beatles covered – like Buddy Holly’s 1958 recording of “Crying, Waiting, Hoping.” 

It seemed like about every third song on “The Beatles Channel” was a live Paul McCartney recording of a non-Beatles song.  (I’m guessing that SiriusXM must have been able to negotiate some rock-bottom royalty payments for the McCartney solo catalog.)

There were also a fair number of John Lennon songs.  The typical McCartney solo song is pretty bad, but the typical Lennon solo recording is worse – especially when he teams up with Yoko Ono.

As Exhibit A, the prosecution would like to offer into evidence Lennon’s 1980 recording, “Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy),” which was written for John and Yoko’s son, Sean.  

(That song contains a famous John Lennon quote: “Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.”  It looks like Lennon “borrowed” that line – perhaps from a 1957 issue of Reader’s Digest.)

“The Beatles Channel” also programs plenty of miscellaneous gasbaggery – call-in shows, recorded interviews with celebrities or self-proclaimed Beatles experts, etc., etc.  For example, the first day’s programming featured Larry King yakking about meeting Paul McCartney backstage before one of Sir Paul’s Las Vegas appearances.  (Would you believe me if I told you that interview was more about Larry King than it was about Paul McCartney?)

When “The Beatles Channel” finally gets around to playing an actual Beatles record, the odds are that it will not be a good one.

Let's face it.  The Beatles recorded a number of great songs, but they also put out a lot of crap.

To wit: 

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John Lennon had two sons by two different mothers, and he wrote both of them a lullaby.

The less said about “Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)” – which was inspired by his younger son Sean (whose mother was Yoko Ono) and which I mentioned above – the better.

I second that emotion for “Good Night,” which was written for his elder son, Julian, whose mother Cynthia was pregnant when John married her in 1962.  

John said shortly before his death that he didn’t love Julian any less because he wasn’t a planned child: 

He’s still my son, whether he came from a bottle of whiskey or because they didn't have pills in those days.

That's nice.

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“Good Night” is the last song on The Beatles, the two-record album that is better known as the “White Album.”  When I heard it the first day that “The Beatles Channel” was on the air, I did not recognize it – I don’t remember ever hearing it before.

Since everyone I knew in college owned a copy of the “White Album,” that’s hard to explain.  

The only Beatle who had anything to do with the recording of “Good Night” was Ringo Starr, who sings the song’s clichéd lyrics over a lush orchestral arrangement.  (God only knows why John asked Ringo to sing a lullaby written for his child rather than singing it himself.)

One versatile musician and Beatles aficionado of my acquaintance told me that “Good Night” is widely regarded as the worst of all Beatles songs.

To that, I reply “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer,” “Octopus’s Garden,” “Yellow Submarine,” and – last and almost certainly least – “When I’m Sixty-Four.”  Which is not to say that “Good Night” isn’t a very bad song.

The Beatles’ army of copyright lawyers has managed to keep even a mediocrity like “Good Night” off Youtube.  So i'm not able to share it with you.

Click below to buy the song from Amazon:

Beatles – "One After 909" (1970)

I said move over once

Move over twice

Come on, baby

Don't be cold as ice

Channel 18 on SiriusXM satellite radio is now “The Beatles Channel,” which was launched on May 18 at 9:09 AM.  (I’ll have much more to say about “The Beatles Channel” in the next 2 or 3 lines.)

SiriusXM chose 18 for the channel number and May 18 for the date of the launch because the two digits that comprise the number 18 add up to 9.

I didn’t know until recently that the number 9 had special significance for the Beatles, but you best believe it did. 

From the SiriusXM blog:

Here are 9 examples that show how the number 9 looms large in the Beatles’ legend:

1.  John Lennon was born on Oct. 9, 1940.  The first home John lived in was at 9 Newcastle Road in Wavertree, Liverpool.  The words “Newcastle,” “Wavertree” and “Liverpool” each contain nine letters.  

2.  As a teenager, John took the No. 72 bus (7 + 2 = 9) to Liverpool Art College, where he became friends with Stuart Sutcliffe.  He soon asked Sutcliffe to join his band, the Quarrymen, which featured Paul McCartney, whose last name has nine letters, as does Sutcliffe’s.  The group changed their name to the Beatles in 1960, and John left in 1969, nine years later.

3.  The Beatles’ first appearance at the Cavern Club was on Feb. 9, 1961.  The band’s manager, Brian Epstein, first saw them perform there on Nov. 9, 1961.  He secured a record contract for the group with EMI on May 9, 1962.

The Beatles at the Cavern Club

4.  One of the Beatles’ earliest songs was “One After 909.”  It was originally recorded in March 1963 (that version was released on the Anthology 1 album) and ultimately was re-recorded for Let It Be, the last album released by the band in May 1970.

5.  The Beatles’ historic first appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show” took place on Feb. 9, 1964.

6.  The most significant use of the number occurs in Lennon’s song “Revolution 9,” from “The White Album,” which features a series of tape loops including one with a recurring “number nine” announcement.

7.  Lennon’s song “#9 Dream” was released in 1974 on Walls and Bridges, his ninth non-Beatles album, and was issued in the ninth month of the year.  When released as a single, “#9 Dream” peaked at No. 9 on the Billboard “Hot 100” chart in the U.S.  The refrain in the chorus – “Ah! Böwakawa poussé, poussé” – features nine syllables.

8.  There are nine Os in the combined names of John Ono Lennon and Yoko Ono Lennon.  Their son, Sean Lennon, was born on Oct. 9, 1975. 

John, Yoko, and Sean Lennon

9. The long-awaited digital remasters of the Beatles’ albums, along with the group’s “Rock Band” video game, were released on Sept. 9, 2009.  That’s 09-09-09.

This is all utter nonsense, of course.  I have no doubt that you could take 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, or 8 and come up with a similar list proving the significance to the Beatles of that number.  (No, I’m not going to do that.  I turn 65 in two days, and I have no intention of wasting any of my remaining time on foolishness like that.)

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As was noted above, “One After 909” – which dates from 1957 or 1958 – was one of the first songs Lennon and McCartney ever wrote.  (Sir Paul says they wrote the song together, but John says he wrote it by himself.)

The Beatles recorded it on the same day in March 1963 that they recorded “From Me to You,” but they didn’t like any of the takes enough to release it.  

“One After 909” was one of the songs the Beatles played in their infamous live performance on the roof of the Apple Corps building in January 1969.  The recording of that performance was included on the Let It Be album, which was released shortly after the group’s break-up in the following year.

There are a number of Beatles songs that are very, very special.  But there are a lot that aren't.  “One After 909” is one of the latter group.

Click here to listen to the Let It Be version of “One After 909.”

And click below to buy the version of the song that was included on the Anthology 1 album.  (It owes a lot to Chuck Berry.)