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:
“I live in the angle of a leaden wall, into whose composition was poured a little alloy of bell-metal. Often, in the repose of my mid-day, there reaches my ears a confused tintinnabulum from without. It is the noise of my contemporaries.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Boswell, when he speaks of his Life of Johnson, calls it my magnum opus, but it may more properly be called his opera, for it is truly a composition founded on a true story, in which there is a hero with a number of subordinate characters, and an alternate succession of recitative and airs of various tone and effect, all however in delightful animation.”
—James Boswell (1740–1795)
“There was not a grain of poetry in the whole composition of Lord Fawn, and poetry was what her very soul craved;Mpoetry, together with houses, champagne, jewels, and admiration.”
—Anthony Trollope (1815–1882)