1956 Rockabilly Classic, Originally a B-Side, Was the Song John Lennon Sang the Day He Met Paul McCartney
Seventy years ago today, the song that became one of the cornerstones of early rock 'n' roll was cut at a Nashville studio in a single afternoon.
Gene Vincent and His Blue Caps recorded "Be-Bop-a-Lula" at Bradley Studios on May 4, 1956. It was originally released as a B-side to a song called "Woman Love." The song reached No. 7 on the Billboard pop charts after radio DJs started flipping the single themselves, ignoring the A-side. It sold more than 2 million copies in its first year.
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The song's biggest cultural moment came a year later. On July 6, 1957, John Lennon sang "Be-Bop-a-Lula" with his skiffle group, the Quarrymen, at a garden fete at St. Peter's Church in Woolton, Liverpool. That same day, he met a 15-year-old named Paul McCartney for the first time.
Lennon never let go of the song. He opened his 1975 covers album Rock 'N' Roll with his own version of Vincent's recording. In his final interview before his death in December 1980, Lennon called it one of his favorites and said he still had the original record.
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The Rest of Its Hall of Fame Run
McCartney picked "Be-Bop-a-Lula" as one of his eight selections on the BBC's Desert Island Discs in 1982 and recorded it again for his 1991 live album Unplugged (The Official Bootleg).
The song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999 and ranks at No. 103 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Vincent himself was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998. His backing band, the Blue Caps, was retroactively inducted in 2012.
Vincent died in October 1971 at age 36, but the song he cut in Nashville at age 21 has now outlasted him by more than half a century.
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This story was originally published May 4, 2026 at 5:56 PM.