The Beatles Songs - What Goes On Lyrics

The Beatles - What Goes On

The Beatles - What Goes On Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Rubber Soul
Released: 1965

What Goes On Lyrics

What Goes On in your heart?
What goes on in your mind?
You are tearing me apart
When you treat me so unkind
What goes on in your mind

The other day I saw you
As I walked along the road
But when I saw him with you
I could feel my future fold
It's so easy for a girl like you to lie
Tell me why

What goes on in your heart?
What goes on in your mind?
You are tearing me apart
When you treat me so unkind
What goes on in your mind

I met you in the morning
waiting for the tides of time
But now the tide is turning
I can see that I was blind
It's so easy for a girl like you to lie
Tell me why
What goes on in your heart?

I used to think of no on else
But you were just the same
You didn't even think of me
As someone with a name
Did you mean to break my heart and watch me die
Tell me why

What goes on in your heart?
What goes on in your mind?
You are tearing me apart
When you treat me so unkind
What goes on in your mind
In your mind
In your mind

Writer/s: LENNON, JOHN / STARKEY, RICHARD / MCCARTNEY, PAUL
Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

What Goes On Song Chart

Left off the US version of Rubber Soul, this was released as the B-side to "Nowhere Man" in America. The song dates back to 1957, when the group was known as The Quarrymen. The Quarrymen were a Skiffle group, Skiffle being a king of music reminiscent of Country & Western with roots in Jazz, involving banjos and various improvised instruments such as a washboard and a washtub. John Lennon was tremendously influenced by Lonnie Donegan, and The Quarrymen in fact covered several Donegan songs. (thanks, Bertrand - Paris, France)

Ringo helped Lennon and McCartney write this and received his first songwriting credit for it - the composition credit on most Beatles songs is Lennon/McCartney, but this is credited to Lennon/McCartney/Starkey. Ringo also sang lead.

Incidentally, this song being partially credited to "Starkey" is a good time to point out that Ringo Starr's actual name is "Richard Starkey," a fact even some Beatles fans seem to be in the dark about.

What was Ringo's comment on having received his first song-writing credit? At a 1966 press conference for the album, Ringo jested in his typical self-deprecating style that he'd written "About five words, and I haven't done a thing since!"

John Lennon can be heard answering Ringo's vocal "Tell me why," with "I already told you why," A reference to their earlier song "Tell Me Why."

"What Goes On" is considered a follow-up to "Please Please Me." Both songs have lyrics revolving around pining for a lover who doesn't love them back, and asking why it has to be that way.