The Beatles Bible

‘Little Child’ was another of The Beatles’ original songs on their second album. Although written with Ringo Starr in mind, it was recorded with the writers sharing vocal duties.

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Wikipedia

"Little Child" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1963 UK album With the Beatles. It was written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney for Ringo Starr, but Starr was instead given "I Wanna Be Your Man" as his album song.[1]

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There’s perhaps not much to say about Little Child, an original song from 1963 which McCartney describes as a “work job”. It’s telling that the songs that Lennon and McCartney regarded as throwaways and album fillers were pretty strong in the first albums. I think you can see signs that they were trying to use a formula, in particular the use of harmonica and “c’mon, c’mon, c’mon” lines. Apparently the song was written with Ringo in mind, but it ended up being sung by Lennon.

Little Child is the first song in this ranking from With The Beatles. This probably accurately reflects my overall impression of the strength of the album compared to those that figured prominently in the lower rankings – the White Album and Let It Be.

Comparing early and late Beatles is so weird because it’s almost like a different band and a different kind of music. Black and white versus colour. But of course we are talking about changes over only a five, six, seven years. The Beatles themselves were no doubt changed a lot during those years; the twenties are a transformative time in any young person’s life, but the Beatles by virtue of their whirlwind travel, work schedule and unprecedented global fame, were changed even more than most.

Still they were the same people. It’s fascinating to see them in Get Back frequently going back to the rock’n’roll songs they first knew as teenagers, reminiscing about what were still recent experiences for them. Or hearing the “She Loves You” bit on the outro of All You Need Is love.

Having been born in 1967 I kind of came to the Beatles in reverse. Some of their most recent records were still current when I was growing up. Then when I listened to the Red, and Blue Albums, I preferred the Blue. When I began to get more into the Beatles as a teenager, it was those later songs, Sgt Pepper, Strawberry Fields, I Am The Walrus etc. that most appealed. I liked the early albums, but I don’t think I really got them; I had my own teenage bands to be into (although in retrospect the 80s were not great for that). Later on I started to appreciate how the early albums would have struck their original fans, and they grew on me.