The weak lyrics of the Lennon-McCartney songs on “Please Please Me” and “With the Beatles” in 1963

The songs by John Lennon and Paul McCartney on The Beatles' first two albums ("Please Please Me" and "With the Beatles", 1963) explode with musical energy (as with "I Saw Her Standing There"), but their texts are cliché-ridden and devoid of imagery, story, characters, or even humor. Some of the cover songs have better texts: "Till There Was You", by Meredith Wilson (from the 1957 musical "The Music Man"), is full of well-developed images, and the epistolary conceits of both Chuck Berry's 1956 "Roll Over Beethoven" and the multi-authored 1961 hit "Please Mr. Postman", by The Marvelettes, are rigorously and wittily extended. Only later did Lennon and McCartney become good lyricists. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 23 June 2024)