It goes without saying that John Lennon wrote some exceptional songs in his time, and while there have always been plenty of people who have shared their celebration of this by verbally praising his work, many others have chosen to imitate his masterpieces or pilfer specific licks. For example, Radiohead’s ‘Karma Police’, while a masterpiece in its own right, shamelessly steals a piano riff from ‘Sexy Sadie’, and while Oasis aren’t shy in admitting their love for Lennon’s work, there have been many occasions where that influence has been worn a bit too clearly on the sleeve.
Of course, while he was in The Beatles, he was surrounded by a couple of other exceptional songwriters in Paul McCartney and George Harrison. While it’s completely up to the individual’s opinion as to who deserves to be crowned as the best of the trio, there are more than enough Lennon-penned tracks in the band’s catalogue that do a considerable amount to let him claim the right to call himself the best songwriter in their ranks.
Despite this, Lennon wasn’t always ready and willing to praise his former colleagues for their work, with a large portion of his ire being thrown in the direction of McCartney when the bassist chose to go a bit too twee for his liking. That being said, when he did muster up some praise for the work of his bandmates, he knew exactly what elements made a good pop song and could pick out certain features that struck a chord with him.
However, if someone else wrote something he was left stunned by, then he’d admit it with glee, and as it turns out, one of the Fab Four’s earliest touring partners was responsible for writing a song that had a hook so divine that Lennon couldn’t help but ‘borrow’ some elements of the track. On an episode of Rick Beato’s podcast, The Doobie Brothers’ frontman Michael McDonald revealed he’d been told a story by Jackie DeShannon, whom he had worked alongside on a couple of occasions in the past.
“She had some great stories about the original Beatles tour she did,” McDonald revealed. “The Beatles always had that kind of jangly guitar, and she was a big influence on that.” McDonald continued, proclaiming to Beato that “she had a big hit record, and it had this great guitar lick,” referring to her 1963 single, ‘When You Walk in the Room’.
“John Lennon loved that record,” he continued, “And so you can almost hear his affectation of that on ‘Every Little Thing’.” McDonald then revealed that DeShannon had told him about one time during her tour with The Beatles where she boarded the plane they were sharing, only for Lennon to jump out at her in the aisle with his guitar, playing the lick from ‘When You Walk in the Room’, before supposedly proclaiming: “the greatest fucking guitar lick ever written”.
While the song bears an uncanny resemblance to a number of Lennon’s songs, with ‘Every Little Thing’ being an example as McDonald asserts and ‘Ticket to Ride’ also sharing traits, Lennon is right to praise DeShannon for her craft, as he may never have discovered this fruitful lick that kicked his career on significantly.