Composition
The song is a music hall comedy number. Lennon came up with the lyric/title after seeing a phone book. He said:
| “ | That was a piece of unfinished music that I turned into a comedy record with Paul. I was waiting for him in his house, and I saw the phone book was on the piano with 'You know the name, look up the number.' That was like a logo, and I just changed it. | ” |
McCartney once told Beatles recording analyst Mark Lewisohn, " are only just discovering things like 'You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)' — probably my favourite Beatles' track !" He went on to explain:
| “ | It's so insane. All the memories ... I mean, what would you do if a guy like John Lennon turned up at the studio and said, 'I've got a new song'. I said, 'What's the words?' and he replied 'You know my name look up the number'. I asked, 'What's the rest of it?' 'No, no other words, those are the words. And I want to do it like a mantra!' | ” |
The lounge section includes a reference to Denis O'Dell, associate producer on the A Hard Day's Night film, who Lennon had also worked with on How I Won the War. Partway through the song, Lennon introduces McCartney as lounge singer "Denis O’Bell." The reference prompted numerous telephone calls to O'Dell's home by fans who told him, "We have your name and now we've got your number," as well as personal visits by fans wanting to live with him.
Read more about this topic: You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)
Famous quotes containing the word composition:
“At painful times, when composition is impossible and reading is not enough, grammars and dictionaries are excellent for distraction.”
—Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861)
“It is my PRIDE, my damn’d, native, unconquerable Pride, that plunges me into Distraction. You must know that 19-20th of my Composition is Pride. I must either live a Slave, a Servant; to have no Will of my own, no Sentiments of my own which I may freely declare as such;Mor DIE—perplexing alternative!”
—Thomas Chatterton (1752–1770)
“Since body and soul are radically different from one another and belong to different worlds, the destruction of the body cannot mean the destruction of the soul, any more than a musical composition can be destroyed when the instrument is destroyed.”
—Oscar Cullman. Immortality of the Soul or Resurrection of the Dead? The Witness of the New Testament, ch. 1, Epworth Press (1958)