“Lovely Rita” by The Beatles

There are conflicting stories concerning the origin of The Beatles‘ “Lovely Rita”. But the way Paul McCartney himself has explained it is this. He initially got the idea from hearing the “American” term meter maid. In his homeland of the United Kingdom, such authority figures were actually referred to as traffic wardens. Moreover their title was not gender-specific. Indeed the word maid had a completely different, even sexual connotation across the pond. And the designation meter maid tickled him. So he started playing around with the idea of writing a song based on it.

Moreover at the time the UK was transitioning from a free-parking society to one that charged for the privilege. And it was up to the traffic wardens to enforce these laws. So accordingly many people did not like them. As such, when Paul originally conceptualized the track, he was thinking more along the lines of making it “a hate song”. However, he later decided, in relation to Rita, that “it would be better to love her”. He also wanted to make the lyrics “tongue in cheek”. In other words, he thought it would be funny to make a track about falling in love with a meter maid. Additionally Rita rhymes with meter. So all of those aforementioned factors combined are what eventually gave the world “Lovely Rita”. 

Is “Lovely Rita” based on a true story?

Macca himself had his fair share of run-ins with traffic wardens. But according to his own recollection, it wasn’t one of those interactions which served as the inspiration for this tune, as some popular theories have hypothesized.

However the narrative contained therein does feature a related storyline. The vocalist is standing on the roadside when he notices Rita. It can be interpreted that perhaps he knows her already. But either way, seeing her in the meter maid uniform in particular apparently turns him on. So he approaches her and asks her on a date. And he does end up taking her to dinner and having a good time overall. Indeed he even takes Rita home, and they chill together along “with a sister or two”.

Conclusion

But outside that story, what the majority of the lyrics are actually dedicated to is the singer praising how “lovely” Rita is. And conclusively that’s the primary sentiment being relayed, that the singer is in fact thoroughly smitten by Rita.

Release Date of “Lovely Rita”

“Lovely Rita” is one of the songs from the Beatles’ album entitled “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”. Parlophone Records in association with Capitol Records released it with said album on 26 May 1997.

Other notable songs from the “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band” album:

• “A Day in the Life”
• “When I’m Sixty-Four”
• “Within You Without You”
• “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!”
• “With a Little Help from My Friends”
• “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds“

Writing Credits

Paul McCartney wrote “Lovely Rita”. And John Lennon (1940-1980) is also credited with such under the moniker Lennon-McCartney.

Outside of Paul McCartney serving as lead vocalist and playing a couple of instruments, all of his Beatles’ bandmates (Starr, Lennon and Harrison) also contributed to this track.  Additionally the producer of the song, George Martin (1926-2016), plays the piano solo between the second chorus and second verse.

Meta Davies the Inspiration behind “Lovely Rita”?

Concerning the other popular theory in relation to the origin of “Lovely Rita” an actual traffic warden named Meta Davies has put forth that she was the inspiration behind this song. She said that one day in 1967 she ticketed Macca’s car, and afterwards they had a conversation. And while speaking he asked if her name was indeed Meta (as she had signed on his ticket) and then exclaimed “that would be a good name for a song”. 

According to Davies, he then even asked permission if he could use it. However, it has been noted that whereas they may have in fact had that conversation, logically speaking it isn’t very likely that he wrote the song about her. That being said, their interaction may have actually contributed to the song’s creation.

The Beach Boys!

The Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson has stated that this is his favorite of all Paul McCartney tracks. There may be a logical reason behind this. For when recording this classic, Macca had stated that he wanted to make a conscientious attempt to have the tune emulate a Beach Boys’ song.

Paul is Dead

Some readers may be surprised to find out that there is a popular, longstanding conspiracy theory – called “Paul is dead” – which postulates that McCartney died in 1966 and was subsequently replaced by a body double. And for people who actually subscribe to that idea, “Lovely Rita” is said to be an important part of the narrative. In other words, they argue that the way he died was by crashing his car while being distracted by the beauty of Rita.

Weed Reference in “Lovely Rita”?

There is a famous rumor that there is a reference to marijuana in this song.  More specifically when the singer invites Rita to “take some tea”, some analysts have interpreted this as a subliminal shoutout to the consumption of cannabis. This is something McCartney himself was well aware of, as he has staunchly refuted this theory.