One of The Beatles’ finest ‘lost’ songs, ‘Leave My Kitten Alone’ was recorded during the second session for the Beatles For Sale album, but remained unreleased until Anthology 1 in 1995.
‘Leave My Kitten Alone’ was The Beatles’ first complete, full-band song to be discarded since ‘How Do You Do It’ in September 1962. The band most likely based their version on Johnny Preston’s 1961 single, although it it had originally been recorded by Little Willie John in 1959.
The song had been a part of The Beatles’ live repertoire during their Hamburg period, although by August 1964 they hadn’t performed it for two years.
That was a Johnny Preston song that we’d rehearsed in Liverpool along with all our Cavern stuff and it was just in our repertoire. It wasn’t a big one that we used to do, we’d pull it out of the hat occasionally, and we also recorded it.
Had the song been released on Beatles For Sale, it would surely have been one of the highlights. Why it was rejected is unclear, although it has been suggested that it was dropped in favour of ‘Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby’, in order to give George Harrison a lead vocal.
Nonetheless, as Mark Lewisohn pointed out in The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, “hindsight shows that perhaps it might have made a better LP track than, say, ‘Mr Moonlight’, most people’s least favourite song on what was to become the Beatles For Sale LP”.
In the studio
The Beatles recorded five takes of ‘Leave My Kitten Alone’ Alone on 14 August 1964. The first was complete, though lacked the vocal forcefulness it needed. Take two broke down, with John Lennon saying, “I wish I could do it without playing”.
He did just that, recording a second complete take – with a “searing” lead vocal, according to Mark Lewisohn – followed by another false start. The fifth and final attempt was the one marked ‘best’, and was later included on Anthology 1.
Onto take five Lennon overdubbed a second lead vocal and George Harrison double-tracked his lead guitar. Paul McCartney taped a piano part and Ringo Starr added a tambourine.
‘Leave My Kitten Alone’ was never mixed during The Beatles’ career, although a stereo version was made for a single, to be released alongside the unreleased Sessions album, which was prepared by EMI in 1985. This version was subsequently bootlegged, although the other complete attempts from the 1964 session remain largely unheard.
Lyrics
You better leave my kitten all alone
You better leave my kitten all alone
Well I told you, big fat bulldog
You’d better leave her alone
You better leave my kitten all alone
You better leave my kitten all alone
This dog is gonna get you
If you don’t leave her alone
Well Mr Dog I’m gonna hit you
On the top of your head
That child is gonna miss you
You gonna wish that you were dead
You better leave my kitten all alone
Well I told you, big fat bulldog
You’d better leave her alone
Well Mr Dog I’m gonna hit you
On the top of your head
That child is gonna miss you
You gonna wish that you was dead
If you don’t leave my kitten all alone, oh yeah
Well I told you, big fat bulldog
You’d better leave her alone
Hey hey
You better leave, you better leave
You better leave
Yeah, you better leave
You better leave, oh you got to leave
Hey hey
Well I told you big fat bulldog…
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe the lyric is “This child is gonna MESS you, You gonna wish…”
That girl is gonna miss you…
I listened to both Little Willie and Johnny and both sound like “the backyard’s gonna miss you…” Seems to make more sense then “that child.” Can’t tell for sure what Lennon sings.
Great song. Blew me away when i first heard it on the Beatles not for sale bootleg.
John also played guitar in this song
yep your lyrics are what he is singing
This song is very very good.John Vocal`s is pure rock “n” roll.The best band in the world.
my very Fav Lennon vocal. i like a lot of fans wish it had been put on an LP. so glad they put it on Anthology
my all time fav John vocal. do you or anyone know if it was by some chance put on the UK version of the Beatles first LP?
Leave My Kitten Alone was not on the first (Please Please Me) or any UK Beatles LP in the 1960’s. it was recorded for Beatles For Sale in 1964 but left in the can.
I was knocked out when I first heard this on Anthology. I couldn’t comprehend why it was not released on an album at some point. Like everyone says it could have gone better than Mr. Moonlight altho Pauls organ and John’s vocal were spotlighted beautifully on Mr. Kitten is a rocker that would go down great even today- 52 years later.
While McCartney historically gives credit to Preston, Lennon’s version is all Little Willie John! Take a ride on the wild side. Go to YouTube and listen to both versions!
Anyone ever come across the bootleg 45?
It was to be the flip side of how do
You do it , then John got shot and was buried until anthology 1 was released .
Since it was prepared for release in 1985 (“Sessions”) , I seriously doubt Lennon’s murder had anything to do with it.
I hear a lot of influence from “Bad Boy” on this track.
I reckon the covers were chosen by Dick James who owned the copyright to the music and Beatles for Sale was his payback.
Since James only owned the copyright to the Beatles-written songs, I fail to see any point to your comment. He certainly didn’t own the rights to this song. (And how, exactly, was this album “payback” to James, and payback for what?)
One of the best Lennon’s. Sad it wasn’t released at the time.
This is the song I always pull out of my hat whenever someone tells me they are a HUGE Beatles fan. If they say “One of their best songs ever”, we are INSTANT friends. If they say “Never heard of it”, they aren’t as big a Beatles fan as they claim.
Great recording – It was almost released as a single by Capitol in the late ’70s or early ’80s, and included in an album of unreleased material that was to be called “Sessions”. There’s a very convoluted and interesting history behind this effort, I remember reading a good article online somewhere.
John’s vocals on this track are foreshadowing of the style he would use on his first (real) solo album, Plastic Ono Band. In hindsight, his emotional issues may be seeping out a bit here…an enthralling performance. No question this should’ve been a album track, or at least a B-side.
You can add me to the list of those people who would have preferred Leave My Kitten Alone to have been on the Beatles For Sale LP, but not as a replacement for Mr Moonlight, but as an extra song for the album. Had Mr Moonlight been the song to be discarded, it would have been on Anthology 1 as a lost Beatles classic, and we would all be writing about it instead of Kitten. Once again it is John Lennon’s vocals, or as Mark Lewisohn said, “searing vocals” which is a highlight of the song. Had the Beatles had more tracks to play with Lennon would have had the opportunity to overdub one of his classic rhythm guitar accompaniments to give the song added depth. I find the songs which have Lennon belting out the lyrics while chugging along with his rhythm guitar an unbeatable combination.
“Had Mr Moonlight been the song to be discarded, it would have been on Anthology 1 as a lost Beatles classic, and we would all be writing about it instead of Kitten.”
No, we wouldn’t.
Yes, we absolutely would. Carnival of Light is, by all accounts, a horrible mess of a project two steps down from even Revolution 9 in its goal. Yet people remain *obsessed* with it. One and one is two gets talked about despite being one of the worst compositions either John or Paul ever produced. A song with a vocal as good as John’s lead was on Mr. Moonlight would absolutely keep it in the Beatles fan sphere even if it was discarded.
To me it should have been honey don’t left off album for leave my kitten alone,defiantly the worst track on Beatles for sale
I made a playlist for each album that includes singles that were recorded around the same time and then arranged them somewhat chronologically. For “Beatles For Sale” I included the Anthology version of this song because it fits well in my opinion.
Baby’s In Black
I’m A Loser
Leave My Kitten Alone
Every Little Thing
I Don’t Want To Spoil The Party
What You’re Doing
No Reply
Eight Days A Week
She’s A Woman
I Feel Fine
Rock And Roll Music
I’ll Follow The Sun
Mr. Moonlight
Kansas City – Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey
Words Of Love
Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby
Honey Don’t
Why Kitten was left off (any) the album, in my opinion was because it did not fit the Beatles stylistically at that time, which was very rich in melody and vocal harmony giving them fantastic cross over appeal. Vocally ‘Kitten’ is only one voice while Moonlight has three and a cleaver arrangement, drumming and structure. To them at the time it could have been seen as too ‘old fashioned’ and lacking significant depth of musical and lyrical meaning. I know it sounds snobby to say that but at the time we (the last Adults in America) were watching and listening to Lawrence Welk (a very popular orchestra ‘pop’ band) and Frank Sinatra. Elvis was being sidelined by these bands from UK, and lets face it, Rock and Roll still had the air of jokery about it… the lyrics were often cheeky almost brat like – music with significant meaning was limited to folk and ‘beatnick’ music… while the brilliant cleaver Beatles were the catalyst bringing all these styles together. I can easily imagine George Martin (the grown up in the Beatles) saying to them “boys, while its great rock and roll, its just not really up to the quality you are all capable of delivering…”
And yet, after this period (1965) they recorded “Bad Boy”, and “Dizzy Miss Lizzie”.
This was left off for probably no deeper reason other than a song had to go and this is what they chose.
The Beatles always treated cover songs with respect, often making very few changes to the original arrangement, key, etc. If you heard the original of LMKA, you would hear a girl backing group singing “Meow” after every line of the song. I’m glad Paul and George wisely chose not to duplicate this in this cover.
Agreed on the elimination of background vocals. I first heard this on the “Lost Lennon Tapes” radio show in the late ‘80s and recorded it off the air. Then, I found it on one of the “Ultra Rare Trax” bootleg LP’s. Finally, it was legitimately released on “Anthology I”.
“Beatles for Sale” turned out to be a very fine album and it was very charitable of John and Paul or perhaps George Martin to include “Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby” on the album, so that George could have a vocal showcase, but he didn’t need to sing any more covers on subsequent albums as a result of starting to write his own songs more frequently.
It was scheduled to be released as a single off of the aborted “Sessions” LP, but ultimately cancelled. All that were ever pressed up were 7” picture sleeves, which are highly collectible (beware – counterfeits exist).
This might be “splitting hairs” (depends on your outlook since it WAS re-recorded in 1969), but the first full band song to be abandoned since “How Do You Do It” was the ‘63 studio recording of “One After 909”.