In 1965, The Beatles wrote a song they couldn’t sing. They gave it to someone who could

The Beatles left “That Means A Lot”, a song written by Paul McCartney and John Lennon for the film Help!, off the album because they felt they could not sing it well enough. They gave it to singer PJ Proby, whose recording became a modest UK hit, giving the discarded song a life beyond the band.

The Beatles recorded the song in February 1965 and tried a faster arrangement and a different key in March, but returned to their original approach. George Martin arranged and conducted strings for Proby’s version, which reached number 30 in the UK. The Beatles’ February recording was later released on Anthology 2 in 1996, after the band’s demanding schedule had eased.