<p id=”par-1_60″>In the early 1970s, <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/tag/john-lennon/?swcfpc=1″>John Lennon’s</a> vocals on a song spellbound a room full of <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/celebrity/”>celebrities</a>. The former <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/tag/the-beatles/?swcfpc=1″>Beatle</a> began working with producer Phil Spector during this time. While many of their recording sessions were drunken and contentious, some allowed Lennon to flex his talent. Lennon’s friend shared how the studio reacted when the former Beatle sang a cover song.</p>
<h2 class=”wp-block-heading” id=”h-john-lennon-astonished-people-with-the-cover-of-a-song”>John Lennon astonished people with the cover of a song</h2>
<p id=”par-2_26″>Lennon’s friend, Elliot Mintz, attended multiple recording <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/john-lennons-friend-said-amazing-seriously-injured-lennon-recorded-phil-spector.html/”>sessions with Lennon and Spector</a>. He said one night, megastars appeared in the studio, hoping to hear Lennon sing.</p>
<p id=”par-3_61″>“Indeed, it was suddenly the biggest party in Hollywood, a full-on ‘happening,’” Mintz wrote in his book <em>We All Shine On: John, Yoko, and Me.</em> “Warren Beatty, Elton John, Cher, Joni Mitchell, David Geffen — everywhere I looked I spotted another superstar who’d come to watch John Lennon perform. And this time he most certainly did get a chance to sing.”</p>
<figure class=”wp-block-image size-full” id=”emb-1″><img decoding=”async” src=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/John-Lennon-Phil-Spector-1-1.webp?strip=all&quality=80″ alt=”A black and white picture of John Lennon playing guitar and standing in front of a microphone. He wears tinted glasses.” class=”wp-image-3762808″><figcaption class=”wp-element-caption”>John Lennon | Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images</figcaption></figure>
<p id=”par-4_30″>He sang “To Know Her Is to Love Her,” a cover of the 1959 song “To Know Him Is to Love Him,” to the delight and astonishment of the room.</p>
<p id=”par-5_48″>“Stepping up to the microphone, John belted out such a heart-wrenching cover of ‘To Know Him Is to Love Him,’ he left the whole room speechless,” Mintz wrote. “John’s voice sounded so rich, so intimately familiar with the lyrics, you could tell the song ran through his veins.” </p>
<p id=”par-6_9″>The recording appeared on the 1986 <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/elton-john-refused-work-john-lennons-posthumous-album.html/”>posthumous album</a>, <em>Menlove.</em></p>
<h2 class=”wp-block-heading” id=”h-john-lennon-recorded-the-song-with-the-beatles-years-before”>John Lennon recorded the song with The Beatles years before</h2>
<p id=”par-7_37″>Over a decade before that night, Lennon recorded the song with The Beatles. They recorded it in 1962 as an audition for Decca, and then again in 1963 for the BBC Radio show <em>Pop Go The Beatles.</em></p>
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<iframe title=’To Know Her Is To Love Her (Live At The BBC For “Pop Go The Beatles” / 6th August, 1963)’ width=”925″ height=”694″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/xzUKcn5auuU?feature=oembed” frameborder=”0″ allow=”accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share” referrerpolicy=”strict-origin-when-cross-origin” allowfullscreen></iframe>
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<p id=”par-8_25″>“That was the first three-part [harmony] we ever did,” Paul McCartney said (per <a target=”_blank” href=”https://www.beatlesbible.com/songs/to-know-her-is-to-love-her/” rel=”noreferrer noopener”>The Beatles’ Bible</a>). “We learned that in my dad’s house in Liverpool.”</p>
<p id=”par-9_17″>The band released the song years after their split, on the 1994 album <em>Live At the BBC.</em></p>
<h2 class=”wp-block-heading” id=”h-his-studio-sessions-with-phil-spector-were-not-always-this-fruitful”>His studio sessions with Phil Spector were not always this fruitful</h2>
<p id=”par-10_41″>While Mintz recalled a warm, creative atmosphere on the night Lennon recorded “To Know Her Is to Love Her,” the studio sessions with Spector could be remarkably unproductive. They drank and used drugs in excess, which led to <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/phil-spector-tied-raging-john-lennon-order-subdue.html/”>fights between them</a>.</p>
<p id=”par-11_56″>“A couple of nights later, the switch flipped again, and the energy at Phil’s studio turned from celebratory to poisonous,” Mintz wrote. “I arrived to find John and Phil arguing and cursing at each other as sullen crew musicians glowered at them from the sidelines. Both John and Phil were clearly loaded; Phil could barely stand.”</p>
<p id=”par-12_22″>When Lennon and Spector fought, they accomplished very little. This greatly irritated the studio artists they recruited to work on the album.</p>
<p id=”par-13_25″>“Some of the studio artists grew so fed up with the rancor, they stormed out of the session,” he wrote. “Nothing got recorded that night.”</p>