Party

From Wikipedia:

“Let’s Have a Party” is a 1957 song written by Jessie Mae Robinson and recorded by Elvis Presley for the movie Loving You. It was released as a single in the United Kingdom under the title “Party” and peaked at #2 in the UK Singles Chart. Wanda Jackson recorded the song for her first album, Wanda Jackson, released in 1958. The song was released as a single by Jackson in 1960 and entered the UK chart on 1 September of that year, spending eight weeks there and reaching #32; it also reached #37 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1960. The Jackson version was later featured in the 1989 film Dead Poets Society. Her recording of the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2024.

According to Mark Lewisohn in “The Complete Beatles Chronicle“, The Beatles  – first as The Quarrymen –performed “Party” regularly between 1957 and 1960, with John Lennon on lead vocals. However, no known recordings from that period exist.

On January 31, 1969, during the “Get Back” sessions, John Lennon and Paul McCartney played a version of “Party.” Thirty years later, in 1999, Paul McCartney recorded it for his album “Run Devil Run.”

First heard in Elvis’s second film, Loving You, in 1957. “Whenever we used to try and get the words, we’d get stuck on the verse… ‘Never kissed a bear, never kissed a goo!’ We could never get it. At the end, that’s me going ‘I’m not giving up man.’ It seemed like a good idea to end the album on that.”

From the liner notes of “Run Devil Run”

Let’s Have A Party was from, Elvis did it, I think in Loving You, the second movie. And it’s just a great song. And there were words again, as kids we could never quite get the words. And there was no authority you could consult. It was just us, thankfully. It was kind of nice it was just us. But, there was, I never kissed a bear. And we always used to think it was I never kissed a goo. We didn’t know what a goo was, but that’s what it sounded like. So we were always doing, never kissed a bear, never kissed a goo, like a chicken-chicken in the middle of the room, let’s have a party. So when it came to it, I was, I kept singing, never kissed a goo. And all the guys went, what is that. We looked it up and it said, never kissed a goon, which I don’t think is a whole lot more sensible, either. I never kissed a bear, I never kissed a goon. Well, I’m not sure about the story, the derivation of that. Again, some great archivists will be able to tell us what happened there. But I just like the madness of the words, you know.

Did you keep the goo.

No it’s, came out goon. Never kissed a bear and that is true. I’ve never kissed a goon, that was equally as true. So what more do you want. In a way though, I am glad with this rock ‘n’ roll album. That I have got back to my roots, so it is, it will reassure anyone who thinks, oh, he’s gone all classical now. That, that’s not the case, you know. It’s just another of the things I do. I still love my kind of rock ‘n’ roll music.

Paul McCartney – From an interview with Laura Gross (promotional interview for “Run Devil Run” in 1999)

Lyrics