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Released in 1965

Bad Boy

Written by Larry Williams

Last updated on March 19, 2025

Album This song officially appears on the Beatles VI (Mono) Official album.

Timeline This song was officially released in 1965

Related sessions

This song was recorded during the following studio sessions:

Related interview

Other Larry Williams songs

From Wikipedia:

“Bad Boy” is a song written and recorded by American R&B musician Larry Williams. Specialty Records released it as a single in 1958, but it failed to reach the U.S. Billboard charts. However, music journalist Stephen Thomas Erlewine calls it one of Williams’s “genuine rock & roll classics” and notes its popularity among 1960s British Invasion groups, such as the Beatles.

Original song

Williams was among the early rhythm and blues artists to adapt his style to the new rock and roll sound. The lyrics reflect a teenage sensibility: “He’s a guy who causes trouble in the classroom, puts chewing gum in little girls’ hair, and doesn’t want to go to school to learn to read and write”, according to critic Richie Unterberger. Musically, he calls it:

rather conventional if energetic early rock’n’roll, sounding like a more pop-oriented Little Richard, as Williams was wont to do. He made it more effective than a common generic early rock’n’roll tune, however, with some start-stop tempos, devious blues-rock guitar, spoken comic “he’s a … bad boy” interjections after lines in the verse, and exaggerated whoops and, most memorably, falsetto commands “Now Junior, behave yourself!”.

Music writer Gene Sculatti compares it to Williams’s earlier song “Dizzy, Miss Lizzy“, but with backup vocals more like the Coasters “Charlie Brown” and the Everly Brothers “Bird Dog”, both Billboard chart hits. […]

“Bad Boy” is one of several Larry Williams songs The Beatles recorded during their career.

According to Mark Lewisohn in “The Complete Beatles Chronicle“, The Beatles performed “Bad Boy” regularly between 1960 and 1962, with John Lennon on lead vocals. However, no known recordings from that period exist.

On May 10, 1965, which happened to be Larry Williams’ birthday, The Beatles recorded “Bad Boy“, intending it solely for North American release. “Bad Boy” debuted on the U.S. album “Beatles VI” in June 1965. It wasn’t until December 1966 that “Bad Boy” was issued in the UK, on the compilation “A Collection of Beatles Oldies.” It later gained worldwide availability through the 1988 release “Past Masters, Volume One” and its 2009 reissue, “Past Masters,” which combined both volumes.

From The Usenet Guide to Beatles Recording Variations:

  • [a] mono 10 May 1965.
    US: Capitol T 2358 Beatles VI 1965.
    UK: Parlophone PMC 7016 Collection of Oldies 1966.
  • [b] stereo 10 May 1965.
    US: Capitol ST 2358 Beatles VI 1965.
    UK: Parlophone PCS 7016 Collection of Oldies 1966, Parlophone PSLP 261 and PCM 1001 Rarities 1978-79.
    CD: EMI CDP 7 90043 2 Past Masters 1 1988.

[a] has bass and drums mixed louder.(Curious fact: this song was available in the US for about a year and a half before the rest of the world including the UK. It’s not the only song released first in the US, as some others from the Help! and Revolver albums in progress were sent out to fill in Capitol’s albums, but this is the only case where the song wasn’t actually used for the UK album.)

Lyrics

A bad little kid

Moved into my neighborhood

He won't do nothing right

Just a sitting got to look so good

He don't wanna go to school

And learn to read and write

Just sits around the house and plays

That rock and roll music all night

Well he put thumb tacks on teacher's chair

Put chewing gum in little girl's hair

Now Junior, behave yourself!

Buys every rock and roll book

On the magazine stand

Every dime that he gets

Oh he's off to the jukebox man

Well he worries his teacher

Till at night she's already to poop

From rocking and a rolling

Spinning in a hula-hoop

Well his rock and roll has gotta stop

Junior's head is hard as rock

Now Junior, behave yourself, ow!

Gonna tell ya mamma

You'd better do what she said

Get to the barber shop

And get that hair cut off your head

You shoot the canary

and you fed it to the neighbor's cat

You have the cocker spaniel

A bath in mother's Laundromat

Well ya mamma said it's gotta stop

Junior's head is hard as a rock

Now Junior, behave yourself! Woo

Officially appears on

See all official recordings containing “Bad Boy”

Bootlegs

Cover versions played during the "Get Back" sessions

"Bad Boy" was covered during The Beatles' "Get Back" sessions in January 1969. Here is the complete list of covers recorded by Paul McCartney, either alone or with other Beatles, during these sessions:

Paul McCartney writing

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