John Lennon’s “IN MY LIFE” . . . . . Ukulele Chord/Melody arrangement by Ukulele Mike. . . Contained in the Chord/Melody collection ONE (now reduced to just $20.00)

Official Video of the Beatle’s performance of “In My Life”

We learn from Wikipedia that “In My Life” is a song by the Beatles released on the 1965 album Rubber Soul, written mainly by John Lennon and credited to Lennon–McCartney. The song originated with Lennon, and while Paul McCartney contributed to the final version, he and Lennon later disagreed over the extent of his contributions (specifically the melody). George Martin, who produced the recording, contributed the instrumental bridge. It is ranked 23rd on Rolling Stone‘s “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time” as well as fifth on their list of the Beatles’ 100 Greatest Songs. The song placed second on CBC‘s 50 Tracks. Mojo magazine named it the best song of all time in 2000.

According to Lennon, the song’s origins can be traced to when the English journalist Kenneth Allsop made a remark that Lennon should write songs about his childhood. Afterwards, Lennon wrote a song in the form of a long poem reminiscing on his childhood years. The original version of the lyrics was based on a bus route he used to take in Liverpool, naming various sites seen along the way, including Penny Lane and Strawberry Field. Those original lyrics are on display at The British Library.

However, Lennon found it to be “ridiculous”, calling it “the most boring sort of ‘What I Did On My Holidays Bus Trip’ song”; he reworked the words, replacing the specific memories with a generalized meditation on his past. “Very few lines” of the original version remained in the finished song.^[6] According to Lennon’s friend and biographer Peter Shotton, the lines “Some [friends] are dead and some are living/In my life I’ve loved them all” referred to Stuart Sutcliffe (who died in 1962) and to Shotton.

In a 1980 interview, Lennon referred to this song as his “first real major piece of work” because it was the first time he penned personal lyrics about his own life.

Regarding authorship of the melody, Lennon’s and McCartney’s recollections differ. Referring to McCartney, Lennon said “his contribution melodically was the harmony and the middle-eight itself.”^[ McCartney claimed he set Lennon’s lyrics to music from beginning to end, taking inspiration for the melody from songs by Smokey Robinson & the Miracles. “I liked ‘In My Life’. Those were words that John wrote, and I wrote the tune to it. That was a great one.”

Below are the early attempts at writing the lyrics for “In My Life” in John Lennon’s own hand writing. . .

Although the controversy regarding authorship of the song will go on forever, I personally consider this song one of the finest personal musical statements by the BEATLES.  It’s lyrics are touching and it’s songwriting craftsmanship is is beyond compare.  I thoroughly enjoyed rendering this for solo ukulele performance and chose to use the current popular style of CHORD/MELODY  in its arrangement.  Here is a brief few measures to give you an idea of how it sounds.  I have formatted this and all of the songs in my Chord Melody collections in both standard treble clef as well as Ukulele Tablature.

Here is one important tip I could give you regarding interpretation of TABLATURE. . . Notice in the 3rd measure the stacked notes that are all on the 2nd Fret of each of the strings.  Typically, these would be played by BARRING across all 4 strings at the 2nd Fret. Further on in the piece here is another instance of BARRING.  Although, at this point we are BARRING the 5th Fret

This arrangement is contained in the Chord/Melody eBook ONE.

Here are the entire contents of this 52 song collection:

It can be purchased by making a payment of just $20.00 through the paypal button on the Ukulele Mike website: http://www.ukulelemikelynch.com Once purchased it will be personally emailed to you within the day.

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