Songs > Lovely Rita

Lovely Rita

(Lennon/McCartney)

Song background
One of Paul's friends from America was visiting and saw a 'female traffic warden', which were new in Britian, and commented on the 'meter maids'. Paul was quite amused with the term and wrote a song about it. He originally intended for it to be a hate song, but thought it would be more amusing if the singer was in love with her - in exchange for dismissal of the ticket. Years later a woman named Meta Davies claimed the song was inspired by her writing a ticket for a P McCartney. When Paul came out he asked if Meta Davies was her real name, and when she replied that it was he asked if he could use it in a song. If this story is true, it is most likely that the song was already writen and Paul was simply flattering her.

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