1. The BeatlesIt Won
Across the road there was a girl, my mate’s sister, who was 16-years-old when I was seven-years-old. Watching her dry her long blonde hair in the mirror, listening to the first Beatles album and the first Bob Dylan album, I thought ‘I get the Beatles harmonies and there’s this bloke called Bob Dylan’ – that crystallised who I became really. I didn’t realise until years later but that moment changed my life.
That song was The Beatles ‘Please, Please Me’, but this one, ‘It Won’t Be Long’ is from the second album [With The Beatles] and the reason I chose that is because it was the anniversary at the time of choosing this list. I just bought a few black Polo necks and me and my mate had a joke about the cover, you know the whole shadow on the album and they’ve got the black Beatles polo necks. I’ve returned to my teenage days by buying that.
I could have chosen any Beatles song really. I love them all, I was a child of the Beatles. ‘It Won’t Be Long’ just has the smell and flavour of those polo necks and the time when the Beatles were starting to move a little bit. When they start to find the feet. This album, and all the Beatles albums, inspired me and changed my life. I stopped listening to my dad and the school teacher, and I listened to what John Lennon was saying.
