Video: 'You Can't Catch Me (Remastered 2010)'

(Thursday, July 11, 1974) — Former Beatle John Lennon today briefly resumed sessions for what would turn out to be his sixth solo album, Rock ‘n’ Roll, overdubbing vocals for “You Can’t Catch Me” at Record Plant East at 321 West 44th Street in New York City.

Lennon initially teamed up with producer Phil Spector in October 1973 to record an “oldies” album in Los Angeles, but the sessions quickly fell into disarray due to heavy drinking.

Spector then disappeared with the master session tapes and remained out of contact for several months.

A car accident on March 31, 1974, left Spector in a coma, putting the project on indefinite hold.

In mid-1974, Lennon returned to New York with Pang and began preparing for a new album of original material, Walls and Bridges.

Shortly before these sessions began, Al Coury, then-head of A&R/promotion for Capitol Records, retrieved the Spector tapes. Lennon worked on them for a few days, adding new vocals to “You Can’t Catch Me,” initially tracked on Dec. 11, 1973.

Work on the track continued on July 11 and 12, 1974, before Lennon shelved the project again to begin sessions for Walls and Bridges on July 13.

The song’s music publisher, Morris Levy, had sued Lennon for copyright infringement because of the melodic similarity between Chuck Berry’s “You Can’t Catch Me” and the Beatles’ 1969 song “Come Together,” written by Lennon. The Beatles’ song also used some of the lyrics from Berry’s song (“here come old flat-top”).

The suit was settled out of court. As part of the settlement, Lennon included a rendition of “You Can’t Catch Me” on Rock ‘n’ Roll, which was finally released in 1975.