The Handwritten Lyrics of Stuart Sutcliffe

The Claims

While with the Beatles Stuart Sutcliffe hand wrote various song lyrics, and based on that evidence many books, websites and auctions have claimed that Stuart composed these songs:

The latter is claimed to be, on Wikipedia and on the official website of the estate of Stuart Sutcliffe http://www.stuartsutcliffeart.com/:

"A sheet of lyrics for unreleased Beatles song written by Stuart Sutcliffe and John Lennon, early 1960's".


Song Identifications

Well, I've identified these songs as NOT having been written by Stu Sutcliffe. The first three songs all appear on the 1961 Ricky Nelson album "Rick is 21". 

In fact for the latter song Stuart wrote out a handwritten playlist, and at the bottom Paul McCartney added the lyrics.

Quoting from Keith Badman's THE BEATLES DIARY VOLUME 2: AFTER THE BREAK-UP 1970-2001:

"1 Feb 1998:
It is revealed that Pauline Sutcliffe, the sister of original fifth Beatle Stuart, has found in her archives some old Beatles' song lyrics written by Stuart and John back in 1960 and 1961. She reveals that she has given them to British band Oasis to record. Some of the lyrics read: "Everybody is getting ready, Everybody is going steady, Everybody but me. I stay home on Friday night, Go to bed at eight, On Saturday night I'm all alone, 'Cos I don't have a date." "

That song is really the above-mentioned "Everybody But Me", 


The Handwritten Lyrics

"Lucky Star"

Lucky star shine on me,
Lucky star don’t you see,
I need your light shining bright,
To win her love for me tonight.
Lucky star in the sky,
Don’t let her love pass me,
No matter how near or far,
Won’t you be my lucky star
(Ooh Ooh, I’m working on you,
I promise I’ll be true)
Lucky star up above,
Please help me win my love,
Tell me what my chances are,
Won’t you be my lucky star
(Ooh....Help me win)


"Everybody But Me"

Everybody’s ever got somebody caring
Everybody’s ever got somebody sharing
Everybody but me
Everybody is getting ready
Going Steady
But me
I stay home on Friday night
Go to bed at eight
On Saturday night I’m all alone
I don’t have a date
Everybody’s out romancing
Having fun and going dancing
everybody
Everybody but me


"Sure Fire Bet"

Yeah you’re a Sure fire bet to win my lips
a sure fire bet to win my heart
a sure fire bet to make me start
to fall in love with you


"Peace of Mind"

As I stood on the doorstep of romance
You told me
Then you threw your loving arms around me
and you gave me, yes gave me, you gave
Peace of mind


Other Handwritten Lyrics

For the record, Stuart Sutcliffe also wrote out the lyrics for the following songs (none are original compositions):

Sometimes "Teenage Heaven" has been mistakenly credited as a poem by Stuart Sutcliffe.

In the case of "When Your Lover Has Gone", Stuart wrote out the lyrics, and Paul McCartney added the title at the top.


Why?

Why did Stuart Sutcliffe write out these lyrics?  The only songs that he have positively been identified as having been sung by him while with the Beatles are two songs that Elvis made popular:  "Loving You" and "Love Me Tender"  - and hand written lyrics for these have not been found.

Perhaps he was working up a list of other possible songs to sing.  There seems to be some collaboration with Paul McCartney since both of them wrote on playlist / lyric sheets.  Perhaps Paul worked with Stuart to help him improve his singing and bass playing?  Stuart did draw a nice sketch of he and Paul playing music together - this was used on the cover of the 1996 Genesis Publication "The Life and Art of Stuart Sutcliffe".


Some Mysteries Remain

I would like to continue on identifying the remaining handwritten lyrics of Stuart Sutcliffe, but I do not have copies of the following "lyrics" that I've seen:

Perhaps they are in the second volume of the limited edition Genesis publication "THE LIFE AND ART OF STUART SUTCLIFFE " which was a reproduction of one of his notebooks?

If anyone has a copy of these, or any other helpful information I may have missed, please notify me.


For more details, see the Sutcliffe info from my Database:

Poems, Playlists, Lyrics, Available recordings, etc,


Reference websites


See Also


Document History

©Copyright 2010
Mario Giannella
Knoxville, TN
September 2010
beatlesong@yahoo.com
Information for Hardcore collectors of Beatles Music (Bootleg and Commercial Release)