British or American English?
The Beatles first flew into New York in February 1964. They had what to many American ears was a charmingly fresh approach to the English language. Interestingly, this came across more in their spoken interviews than their lyrics. Early Beatles songs consciously followed the established 'American' style: 'I Wanna Be Your Man'. In fact 'I want to hold your hand' (sung wanna) arose from a direct request from Brian Epstein for a single tailored to the US market. Atlantic Crossing Success gave The Beatles to licence (or license!) to 'Act Naturally' as Ringo sings. By the mid-Sixties British cultural and linguistic references permeate their song lyrics. Here are a small selection: '...crawled off to sleep in the bath' ( from Norwegian Wood). This refers directly to the bathtub rather than the room. the (UK) National Health Service (from ‘Dr Robert’) '...the News of the World (newspaper notorious for sex scandal stories from ‘Polyt