Song

Real Love

Release date: 10 October 1988

Okay start again silly boy, take four

All my little plans and schemes
Aren't like some forgotten dream
Seems like all I really was doing
Was waiting for you

Just like little girls and boys
Playing with their little toys
Seems like all we really were doing
Was waiting for love

No need to be alone
No need to be alone

It's real love
Yes it's real
Yes it's real love
It's real

From this moment on I know
Exactly where my life will go
Seems like all I really was doing
Was waiting for love

Thought I'd been in love before
But in my heart I wanted more
Seems like all I really was doing
Was waiting for you

No need to be afraid
No need to be afraid

It's real love
Yes it's real
Yes it's real love
It's real

"Real Love"
Song by John Lennon from the album Imagine: John Lennon
Released 10 October 1988
Recorded New York City
Genre Rock
Length 2:48
Label Parlophone, EMI
Writer John Lennon
Producer George Martin, John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Phil Spector, Jack Douglas
"Real Love"
Single by The Beatles
from the album Anthology 2
B-side"Baby's in Black" (live)
Released4 March 1996
Format7", CD
RecordedBermuda, July 1980 and Sussex, February 1995
GenreRock
Length3:54
LabelApple
ProducerJeff Lynne, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr
CertificationGold (RIAA)
The Beatles singles chronology

"Real Love" is a song written by the English rock musician John Lennon. Lennon made six takes of the song in 1979 and 1980 with "Real Life", a different song that merged with "Real Love". The song was ignored until 1988 when the sixth take was used on the documentary soundtrack Imagine: John Lennon.

"Real Love" was subsequently reworked by the three surviving former members of the Beatles (Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr) in early 1995, an approach also used for another incomplete Lennon track, "Free as a Bird". "Real Love" was released as a Beatles single in 1996 in the United Kingdom, United States and many other countries; it was the opening track on the Beatles' Anthology 2 album. It is the last "new" credited Beatles song to originate and be included on an album. To date, it is the last single by the group to become a Top 40 hit in the US.

The song reached number four and number 11 in the UK and US singles charts, respectively, and earned a gold record faster than a number of the group's other singles. The song was not included on the BBC Radio 1 playlist, prompting criticism from fans and British members of Parliament. After the release of "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love", Starr commented, "Recording the new songs didn't feel contrived at all, it felt very natural and it was a lot of fun, but emotional too at times. But it's the end of the line, really. There's nothing more we can do as the Beatles."

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