This song was the B side to Get Back. This song was credited to John and Paul but it’s a clear John song that he wrote directly to Yoko. Don’t Let Me Down should have been on the Let It Be album in my opinion. It would have made it a stronger album but Phil Spector decided to took it out.
This one is one of my favorite late Lennon Beatle songs. I liked the time signature change in this song. All measures are in 4/4 time except for the eighth measure, which is in 5/4, the extra beat needed in order to fit in John’s first verse lyric “Nobody ever loved my like she…”
The song peaked at #35 in the Billboard 100 in 1969. It’s a powerful and sincere love song by John.
Billy Preston, who The Beatles met when he was on tour with Little Richard in 1962, played keyboards on this track. Preston was one of the few outside musicians (excluding members of orchestras) to play on any Beatles song.
George Harrison brought Preston in to play on the sessions. It was a smart move by George. Not only did Preston bring his talents in the mix but his presence helped smooth the tensions the band had at the time. He did the same thing on the White Album sessions by bringing Eric Clapton in to play on While My Guitar Gently Weeps.
From Songfacts
John Lennon dedicated this song to Yoko Ono. It was the first song he wrote for Yoko, whom he married on March 20, 1969.
This was one of the songs The Beatles played at their impromptu rooftop concert in 1969. The concept of the album was The Beatles performing new songs for a live audience, with film footage of their rehearsals used to make a documentary TV special. George Harrison didn’t like the idea, and when things got tense during recording, he left the sessions and returned only after they agreed to cancel the live performance. The Beatles were still under contract to make another movie, so they decided to use the rehearsal footage as their last movie, Let It Be. In order to end the movie, they needed a big scene, so they went to the roof of Apple Records and started playing. John Lennon forgot some of the words to this song while the Beatles were playing their rooftop concert.
When Apple Records remixed the album Let It Be and released it in 2003 as Let It Be… Naked, this was included. An alternate take was used. It was the only song on the new album that did not appear on the original.
Lennon asked Ringo to crash his cymbals loudly to “give me the courage to come in screaming.”
Billy Corgan’s band Zwan covered this. They rearranged the entire song so only the melody was the same. They added a guitar solo at the end. Others artists to cover the song include Randy Crawford, Crown of Thorns, Dylan & Clark, Garbage, Gene, Marcia Griffiths, Taylor Hicks, Julian Lennon, Annie Lennox, Maroon 5, Matchbox Twenty, The Persuasions, Phoebe Snow, Stereophonics and Paul Weller. >>
Garbage lead singer Shirley Manson is from Edinburgh, and in 1999 they played this song at the opening of the newly-elected Scottish Parliament, which was celebrating autonomy after 300 years of British rule.
Don’t Let Me Down
Don’t let me down, don’t let me down
Don’t let me down, don’t let me down
Nobody ever loved me like she does
Oh, she does, yeah, she does
And if somebody loved me like she do me
Oh, she do me, yes, she does
Don’t let me down, don’t let me down
Don’t let me down, don’t let me down
I’m in love for the first time
Don’t you know it’s gonna last
It’s a love that lasts forever
It’s a love that had no past
Don’t let me down, don’t let me down
Don’t let me down, don’t let me down
And from the first time that she really done me
Oh, she done me, she done me good
I guess nobody ever really done me
Oh, she done me, she done me good
Don’t let me down, don’t let me down
Don’t let me down
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One of my favorite later Beatles songs also- love the rawness of the song. I’d pick it over the A-side- and I like Get Back.. They should have had this on Let It Be. would have made it a much better album.
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It would have boosted the albums standing. They at least fixed that particular problem on the Let It Be Naked edition. Though I do miss the studio chatter…I was just so accustomed to it.
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Those time changes are great eh. Another top drawer track. Didn’t know it was Spector’s call to pull it from let it be…though it would have been the band at that stage in their career…
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I’ve listened to it in the past few months with different ears. Your post got me listening to the time change and I love it’s effect on the song.
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Ah yes! A few bars of 5/4 really confuses the best of us on the first listen…on the thousandth listen, not so much!
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This is a fantastic song, and I never realized that it was taken off the “Let It Be” album until “Let It Be… NAKED” took out all of Spector’s “improvements” and re-added the song.
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He so over produced it. That was one of Johns worse mistakes in the Beatles by giving Spector those tapes.
If that song is on the original… it’s a much stronger album.
I like the Naked version free of Spector.
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Funny, we just listened to that song here yesterday. One of my sweetie’s favorites by them. For me, I can take it or leave it but I agree it could well have found its way onto the album… they put out several far weaker songs in their last year or two together. But, this one lives on five decades on, B-side or not!
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It would have made the album stronger. It is a bare bones song.
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It should have been on the record, but it’s not a favourite. Lennon’s vocal is the best bit IMO.
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It’s a very simple bare bones song. Two chords through most of it. It could have easily taken the place of I Dig A Pony but…I will admit I love that riff to that song.
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Give peace a chance !? Don’t Let Me Down! A nice and fervently sung song with a simple basic structure.
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Lennon’s voice…he made these bare bone songs sound great.
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This is one of the few 45s I had, so I must have really liked it back then. It feels like it is coming from the heart, gut, and soul all 3.
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It was more like an open letter.
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I just suddenly remembered why there was no Beatles music in my house, growing up. My dad said he never could stand The Beatles as they were the only band that he knew that sang in harmony…all off key. He followed that up with…Johnny Cash does, too, but, he’s better at it. LOL!
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LOL…ok… I have to disagree with that!
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Well, of course. I just now remembered that…and it was YEARS ago that he said that.
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I don’t imagine they were popular with parents after the mid sixties.
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IDK. When they came in 1964, my dad was a freshman in college. I didn’t show up until his senior year. I am assuming he decided not to like The Beatles back then.
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I’ve read where Steven Spielberg hated them until…the White Album because everyone else liked them…then he said he saw the light lol.
Of all things though…harmonizing…songs I understand but not harmonizing. There arent many better than them….inlcuding the over rated beagles…oh I mean eagles
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