‘Fancy My Chances With You’ was written by Lennon and McCartney in 1958.
Towards the end of the year, a recording was made by Japage 3 – the band featuring John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison – at the McCartney family home, 20 Forthlin Road in Liverpool. The recording, made by friend Derek Hodkin, also featured Mike McCartney on drums.
I liked classical music and didn’t really know rock and roll. I’d only heard of Elvis Presley. So when John said to Paul, ‘Do your Little Richard…’ and he sang ‘Long Tall Sally’, it sounded incredible there in the front room, a terrific sound, so loud and exciting. It was like they all had party pieces: John said, ‘George, play that bit for Derek…’ I thought George was a bit of a show-off – and Paul started singing a little ditty that went ‘I fancy me chances with you, I fancy me chances with you…’
Tune In, Mark Lewisohn
By the time the band became The Beatles they had moved on with a repertoire of stronger songs, but Lennon and McCartney returned to ‘Fancy My Chances With You’ on 24 January 1969, the 13th day of the Get Back/Let It Be sessions.
The recording from that day was released in 2003 on the bonus Fly On The Wall disc that came with early copies of Let It Be… Naked. It was given a wider release on 15 October 2021, on the super deluxe editions of the 50th anniversary reissue of Let It Be. On both releases it was combined with The Beatles’ recording of ‘Maggie Mae’.
It’s ‘Fancy ME Chances’, surely? It’s Liverpool vernacular, ‘Fancy MY Chances’ sounds far too posh!
You’re right, but ‘Fancy My Chances With You’ is how the song was published and officially released, in 2003 and in the 2021 reissue of LIB, plus the Get Back documentary. Presumably that’s The Beatles’ preference!
I’m not sure how Lennon-McCartney spelt it when they wrote it – perhaps it was never written down at the time. In Tune In Mark Lewisohn calls it ‘I Fancy Me Chances’, so maybe that.