This Boy

“	Just my attempt at writing one of those three-part harmony Smokey Robinson songs. Nothing in the lyrics... just a sound and a harmony. There was a period when I thought I didn't write melodies... that Paul wrote those and I just wrote straight, shouting rock 'n roll. But of course, when I think of some of my own songs-- 'In My Life,' or some of the early stuff-- 'This Boy,' I was writing melody with the best of them	„
—John Lennon, 1980

“	Fabulous. And we just loved singing that three-part too. We'd learned that from: (sings) 'To know know know her is to love love love her...' We learned that in my dad's house in Liverpool.	„
—Paul McCartney, 1988

“	"And now listen to this," John said passionately, "this is the last song I'll play for you." And out of the speakers came the deliquescent sounds of Smokey Robinson and the Miracles' "I've Been Good to You," a song from 1961 that provides the melody and chords for the Beatles' "This Boy," and whose opening lines of voluptuous torment — "Look what you've done / You made a fool out of someone" — were the specific inspiration for "Sexy Sadie" ("Sexy Sadie, what have you done? / You made a fool of everyone").	„
—Jonathan Cott, Days That I'll Remember: Spending Time with John Lennon and Yoko Ono 2013