# The 1963 Beatles song Graham Nash taught John Lennon to sing

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/the-1963-beatles-song-graham-nash-taught-john-lennon-to-sing/
- Published: 2026-09-10T10:35:27+00:00
- Updated: 2026-09-10T12:09:39+00:00
- Original publisher: Far Out
- Original article: https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/beatles-song-graham-nash-taught-john-lennon-to-sing-in-1963/
- Topics: Entertainment, Music

## Key points

- Graham Nash taught John Lennon the lyrics to "Anna (Go to Him)" in 1963.
- The pair met at a bar before The Beatles' EMI recording session.
- Lennon sang the song with a cold, giving it a hoarse edge.

## Summary

Before The Beatles became global icons, John Lennon quietly relied on Graham Nash of The Hollies to help him remember the lyrics to Arthur Alexander's "Anna (Go to Him)", a cover the band recorded for their 1963 debut album, Please Please Me. The moment is a reminder that in the early Merseyside scene, Lennon and Nash were simply peers learning from one another rather than the legendary figures they would later become, and it shows a more vulnerable, collaborative side to Lennon before Beatlemania transformed him into an untouchable star.

According to Nash, speaking to Rolling Stone, the pair crossed paths at a bar after a Hollies gig the night before The Beatles were due at EMI to record their debut LP. A nervous Lennon admitted he couldn't recall the words to "Anna", prompting Nash to sit at a piano and run through them with him. Lennon picked the song up quickly, though the finished recording, made in a single day, still bears traces of his hoarse voice, reportedly the result of a cold he was nursing at the time.

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