This Boy - Anthology 1 Version

John Lennon wrote this song. One of his early compositions, it is seemingly simple, but very clever. The song contains only a few notes, but the space between the notes is filled by the arrangements. It's the same technique you hear in Liszt's "Liebestraum," the piano piece in Schumann's Davidsbündlertänze and in Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata."

This was the first Beatles composition that was commented on by a music critic. William Mann wrote in The London Times December 27, 1963, that the song had "pendiatonic clusters."

George Harrison: "It was John (Lennon) trying to do Smokey (Robinson)."