It wasn’t a song Paul was particularly proud of
The Beatles were prolific in the eight years that Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, John Lennon and George Harrison were together as a band. Between 1962 and 1970, they released 12 studio albums in the UK including six in their first three years.
Once they retired from touring in 1966, The Beatles were able to focus more time on crafting their albums in the studio but the early years were hectic. Record label Parlophone was keen to make the most of their incredible popularity by releasing plenty of music.
As a result, Paul and John were not proud of every single song they wrote. Paul said that some were merely for work and became “filler on albums”. About their 1963 track ‘Hold Me Tight’, he said “I can’t remember much about that one. Certain songs were just ‘work’ songs, you haven’t got much memory of them. That’s one of them.”
He also described it as “a failed attempt at a single which then became an acceptable album filler”. But it was not the only 1963 song of Paul’s that he doesn’t look back fondly on.
Like ‘Hold Me Tight’, the gentle love song ‘Little Child’ featured on the band’s second album ‘With The Beatles’. The song sees the narrator asking someone to dance with them and take a chance on them and Paul said the lyrics “I’m so sad and lonely” was inspired by ‘Whistle My Love’ by Elton Hayes.
Paul later explained that he believed ‘Little Child’ wasn’t his finest work, written to fill a gap on the record. Looking back at it, he said: “‘Little Child’ was a work job.
“Certain songs were inspirational and you just followed that. Certain other songs were, ‘right, come on, two hours, song for Ringo for the album’.
John saw it similarly. In a 1980 interview, he said: “‘Little Child’ was another effort of Paul and I to write a song for somebody. It was probably Ringo.”
The song was recorded over three different sessions in September and October 1963 and the ‘With The Beatles’ album was released in November 1963. Despite John and Paul’s lack of love for it, critics have been kind about it.
Reviewer Richie Unterberger of AllMusic wrote: “It might have been one of the less sophisticated and impressive tracks on the record, but it was still pretty good. He added: “‘Little Child’ might not be a work of genius, but it’s sheer rock ‘n’ roll fun.”