One And One Is Two

From Wikipedia:

“One and One Is Two” is a song by the musical group The Strangers with Mike Shannon, released as their debut single in 1964. It was composed by Paul McCartney and published under the author’s credit Lennon/McCartney.

Background

The demo of “One And One Is Two” was probably recorded in Paris in late January/early February 1964, with McCartney singing to an acoustic guitar and piano. It was recorded at the George V Hotel during the Beatles’ concert series at the Olympia at the request of publisher Dick James. The demo has not yet been released legally.

“One And One Is Two” was originally intended for Billy J. Kramer & the Dakotas, but the group declined. John Lennon reportedly exclaimed during the recording of the demo, “Billy J. will be done when he gets this song”. In 1980, he commented, “This is another one of Paul’s bad attempts at writing a song”.

The song was also offered to fellow group The Fourmost, who, like the Dakotas, had previously recorded other Lennon/McCartney compositions. Brian O’Hara, guitarist and vocalist for The Fourmost later said of the offer, “McCartney came into the studio and played bass on “One and One Is Two”, but there just wasn’t any meat in the song and we couldn’t get anywhere with it.”

The single “One and One is Two” with the B-side “Time and the River” was finally released on May 8, 1964, in the UK by The Strangers with Mike Shannon. The song didn’t get into the British charts. The group released their second and final single, “Do You Or Don’t You” / “What Can I Do”, in December 1964, which also failed to enter the charts. […]

From AllMusic.com:

The Strangers with Mike Shannon (that is precisely how they were billed, not the other way around) had the honor, or misfortune, of covering the most obscure Lennon-McCartney song that was “given away” to another artist in the 1960s, and not recorded by the Beatles. This song was their May 1964 single “One and One Is Two,” and that did not chart in either the U.K. or the U.S. Of all the songs that fell into this category (with the possible exception of Carlos Mendes’ Paul McCartney-penned “Penina“), “One and One Is Two” was the most forgettable. A rather standard and plodding Merseybeat number without the melodic imagination that characterized even the weakest and most primitive songs the Beatles did on their first recordings, it attracted little notice at a time when Lennon-McCartney were the most in-demand composers in popular music.

[The song] had a rather more complex history than simply popping up on the Strangers 45 and disappearing. The composition was apparently intended for use by Billy J. Kramer, who had already covered several Lennon-McCartney tunes for hits. It was written while the Beatleswere playing an extended engagement in Paris at the beginning of 1964, and a demo of McCartney singing the song and accompanying himself on piano has been bootlegged. It has been reported thatJohn Lennon said that if Kramer recorded the song, he (Kramer) would be finished. In his extensive interview for Playboy, the ever-gracious Lennon called it “another of Paul’s bad attempts at writing a song.“

The song was offered to Kramer, who decided not to record it. It was then offered to another Liverpool act that shared management with Brian Epstein, the Fourmost, who had already covered a couple of Lennon-McCartney songs that were not done by the Beatles for hit singles. They did give it a try but, as singer and lead guitarist Brian O’Hara remembered in Beatles Undercover, “McCartney came into the studio and played bass on “One and One Is Two,” but there just wasn’t any meat in the song and we couldn’t get anywhere with it.” Thus rejected by two artists (three if you count the Beatles, too), it made its way to the lowly Strangers with Mike Shannon. […]

Lyrics

Officially appears on

Bootlegs