All the Songs
Page 5
Paul: backing vocals, bass
George: backing vocals, guitar
Ringo: drums
RECORDED
Abbey Road: February 11, 1963 (Studio Two)
NUMBER OF TAKES: 2
MIXING
Abbey Road: February 25, 1963 (Studio One)
TECHNICAL TEAM
Producer: George Martin
Sound Engineer: Norman Smith
Assistant Engineers: Richard Langham, A. B. Lincoln
Genesis
“Twist and Shout” was a composition by Phil Medley and Bert Berns, alias Bert Russell, both American author-composers. Originally, the tune was called “Shake It Up Baby.” In 1961, the Top Notes, a rhythm ’n’ blues combo at Atlantic Records, had made a version that had little in common with the one by the Fab Four. Phil Spector, in charge of producing it, had, according to Bert Russell, only managed to destroy it. Russell then produced it the following year and offered it to the Isley Brothers, an African-American doo-wop group, who changed the title to “Twist and Shout.” The song was a mediocre success, climbing to seventeenth place on the charts on June 30, 1962. This version was the one that inspired the Beatles. It should be noted that the performance of the Isley Brothers was highly explosive and wild, and worthy of the great standards of rock ’n’ roll.
A Masterpiece to Close the Session
Geoff Emerick remembered that Richard Langham, the session’s assistant engineer, had told him John had sung “Twist and Shout” without his shirt on despite his cold, the cold temperature, and the humidity of the studio!
Production
The Beatles had just concluded “Baby It’s You,” it was late, and there was still one song left to record. There are two different explanations as to why “Twist and Shout” ended up being the last song of the day to be recorded. George Martin, knowing the song meant real torture for the vocal chords, decided to record it at the end of the day: “‘We’re not not going to record that until the very end of the day, because if we record it early on, you’re not going to have any voice left.’”1 According to Norman Smith, it was during a break that the team chose to end the session with this number. One thing was certain: John had hardly any voice left; he was sick, his throat was burning, and he was burned out. Everyone was aware that it would be difficult to go beyond one take. “John sucked on a few Zubes cough drops, gargled with some milk, and launched into the recording,” remembered Norman. At barely 2:30, John delivered an extraordinary performance, a real lesson in rock ’n’ roll, supported brilliantly by his partners. What we hear now is exactly what John and his buddies sang and played in Studio Two of Abbey Road on that cold evening on February 11, 1963, around 10:00 P.M. There was absolutely no editing or overdub of any kind: everything was recorded and delivered as they experienced it together. At the end of the evening, someone apparently heard George Martin saying: “I don’t know how they do it. We’ve been recording all day but the longer we go on the better they get”2
FOR BEATLES FANATICS
During the November 4, 1963 Royal Command Performance, in the presence of the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret, John dared to utter his famous line, “For our last number I’d like to ask your help. The people in the cheaper seats clap their hands, and the rest of you if you’d just rattle your jewelry. We’d like to sing a song called ‘Twist and Shout’” 4
The Beatles had just finished their first album. Legend has it that there was only one take for this song; in fact, there was a second one, which was complete and with no false starts, but John had no more voice. It is strange that John never really liked his vocal performance. In 1963, he felt he was a usurper, and in 1976, he admitted, “The last song nearly killed me. My voice wasn’t the same for a long time after; every time I swallowed it was like sandpaper. I was always bitterly ashamed of it, because I could sing it better than that; but now it doesn’t bother me. You can hear that I’m just a frantic guy doing his best.”3
Technical Details
One of the characteristics of the “Beatles sound” between 1962 and 1964 was due to the EMI RS114 limiter. This in-house machine, with only six copies made in 1956 for all the EMI studios, was meant to limit the sound to keep it from saturating the sound signal during the production of volume that was too high. Norman Smith especially enjoyed it, which was not the case with all the in-house engineers. It proved very useful, especially on John’s voice, which was at the peak of its power on “Twist and Shout.”
From Me To You / Thank You Girl
1963
SINGLE
RELEASED AS A SINGLE
Great Britain: April 11, 1963 / No. 1 for 7 weeks, beginning on May 2, 1963
United States: May 27, 1963; republished on January 30, 1964 / No. 41 on March 7, 1964
From Me To You
McCartney-Lennon / 1:56
1963
SONGWRITERS
John and Paul
MUSICIANS
John: vocal, rhythm guitar, harmonica
Paul: vocal, bass
George: lead guitar
Ringo: drums
RECORDED
Abbey Road: March 5, 1963 (Studio Two)
NUMBER OF TAKES: 13
MIXING
Abbey Road: March 14, 1963 (Studio Two)
TECHNICAL TEAM
Producer: George Martin
Sound Engineer: Norman Smith on session held March 5, 1963; unknown on session held March 14, 1963
Assistant Engineers: Richard Langham on session held March 5, 1963; unknown on session held March 14, 1963
Genesis
The song “From Me to You” was written on February 28, 1963, by John and Paul, who were on Helen Shapiro’s tour, in the car between York and Shrewsbury. John said: “We weren’t taking ourselves seriously—just fooling about on the guitar—when we began to get a good melody line, and we really started to work at it. Before that journey was over, we’d completed the lyric, everything. I think the first line was mine and we took it from there.…” Paul: “I remember being very pleased with the middle eight because there was a strange chord in it, and it went into a minor: ‘I’ve got arms that long…’ We thought that was a very big step.”1 John also remembered being intrigued by the title and the subject they had chosen for the song. While browsing through the New Musical Express, he realized that he was inspired unconsciously by the title of the column “From You to Us!” In her memoirs, Helen Shapiro related that John and Paul asked her to help them choose the song for their next single. They could not decide between “From Me to You” and “Thank You Girl.” “We crowded around a piano and Paul played, while the two of them sang their latest composition, ‘From Me to You,’ which I liked best.”2
Production
On March 5, 1963, the Beatles were once again at Abbey Road to record their third single. It was the first recording since the epic session of February 11. The session began with the recording of the rhythm section and the vocals live. The seventh take was considered the best one. Then John concentrated on a harmonica part that he recorded on the intro, the solo part, and the end of the song. Norman Smith was still using the same overdubbing technique as he had on the Please Please Me album. During the eighth take, John successfully overdubbed the harmonica intro, but it took two more takes to complete the harmonica overdubs for the solo and ending. George Martin then decided to have John and Paul sing in the intro, thus doubling the harmonica part. In the first try, their mouths were closed as they were singing. The following try was the one used on the record, with their mouths open (dada da dada dum dum da). A final attempt with a falsetto part was not used. Nine days later, during the absence of the Beatles, who were giving a concert in Wolverhampton, George Martin edited four different takes together (takes 12, 8, 9, and 10) to produce the master. Finally, a mono and a stereo mix were completed.
FOR BEATLES FANATICS
While returning from Teddington on April 14, 1963, after having recorded “From Me to You” for the Thank Your Lucky
Stars show, the Beatles heard the Rolling Stones for the first time at the Crawdaddy Club in Richmond. Hired as the press attaché for Brian Epstein, Andrew Loog Oldham introduced the Beatles to this promising group, of which he later became the manager.
Thank You Girl
McCartney-Lennon / 2:02
1963
SONGWRITERS
John and Paul
MUSICIANS
John: vocal, rhythm guitar, harmonica
Paul: vocal, bass
George: lead guitar
Ringo: drums
RECORDED
Abbey Road: March 5–13, 1963 (Studio Two)
NUMBER OF TAKES: 28
MIXING
Abbey Road: March 13, 1963 (Studio Two)
TECHNICAL TEAM
Producer: George Martin
Sound Engineer: Norman Smith
Assistant Engineers: Richard Langham, Geoff Emerick
Genesis
“We knew that if we wrote a song called ‘Thank You Girl,’ a lot of the girls who wrote us fan letters would take it as a genuine ‘thank-you.’ So a lot of our songs were directly addressed to the fans.”1 Before writing “From Me to You,” John and Paul were convinced that this song, composed by four hands, would be side A of their new single. But despite their efforts, it turned out to be rather weak compared to “From Me to You” and ended up on side B of the record.
Production
“Thank You Little Girl,” which was the working title of “Thank You Girl,” was recorded on the same day as “From Me to You”—Tuesday, March 5. It took the Beatles six takes to record it. Then seven other attempts were necessary to redo the last part of the song (starting at 1:40), in order to let Ringo have the opportunity to insert his first real drumming fills. The thirteenth take was definitive. On March 13, John returned alone to Abbey Road to record a harmonica part (diatonic harmonica in G.) In his memoirs, Geoff Emerick, who was then assistant engineer, related that John, who was totally out of commission because of a bad cold, arrived at the studio without his harmonica. He borrowed one from Malcolm Davies, a technician in the etching department. At the end of the session, instead of thanking him, John reproached him for lending him a harmonica that “tasted like a sack of potatoes.”2 He recorded fourteen harmonica takes, because his cold frequently forced him to stop (on takes 14 to 28). Norman Smith then proceeded with the editing. The master resulted from the assembly of takes 6, 13, 17, 20, 21, and 23. A mono and a stereo mix were completed afterwards.
Technical Details
During the session on March 5, Norman Smith drastically changed his recording method. From that point on, he wanted to avoid leakage of drums or guitar into the vocal microphones. He separated John and Paul from Ringo, making them sing before Neumann U 48 mics in a ‘figure-eight’ position. This way, the microphones only recorded the sound in front of and behind them, while rejecting whatever was on their sides. The sound of the group remained live, while being more precise. Another session, on March 11, was required to complete the recording of both songs.
She Loves You / I’ll Get You
1963
SINGLE
RELEASED AS A SINGLE
Great Britain: August 23, 1963 / No. 1 for 6 weeks, beginning on September 12, 1963
United States: September 16, 1963 / No. 1 for 2 weeks, beginning on March 21, 1963
She Loves You
Lennon-McCartney / 2:20
1963
SONGWRITERS
John and Paul
MUSICIANS
John: vocal, rhythm guitar
Paul: vocal, bass
George: backing vocals, lead guitar
Ringo: drums
RECORDED
Abbey Road: July 1, 1963 (Studio Two)
NUMBER OF TAKES: UNKNOWN
MIXING
Abbey Road: July 4, 1963 (Studio Two) / November 8, 1966 (Stereo version, Room 53)
TECHNICAL TEAM
Producer: George Martin
Sound Engineer: Norman Smith
Assistant Engineer: Geoff Emerick
SIE LIEBT DICH (German version of “She Loves You”)
Recorded: July 1, 1963 (Abbey Road, Studio Two) / January 29, 1964 (EMI Pathé Marconi Studios, Paris, France)
Number of Takes: 14
Mixed: March 10 and 12, 1964 (Abbey Road, Studio Three control room)
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Norman Smith
Assistant Engineer: (July 1) Geoff Emerick, (Jan. 29) Jacques Esmenjaud
Released: March 5, 1964
Genesis
“She Loves You,” produced to surf on the wave of success of “From Me to You,” was the first Beatles single to sell a million copies. Inspired by the Bobby Rydell song, “Forget Him,” Paul thought of writing a song in the third person. Sitting on facing twin beds, Paul and John composed “She Loves You” in a room of the Turk’s Hotel in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, on June 26, after a concert at the Majestic Ballroom. Apparently, the next day, they completed it at Paul’s place, once they were back in Liverpool. John said in 1963: “We’d written the song and we needed more, so we had yeah, yeah, yeah, and it caught on.”1 After the yeahs, there were the wooos. In 1980, he said “The ‘woo woo’ was taken from the Isley Brothers’s ‘Twist and Shout,’ which we stuck into everything—‘From Me to You,’ ‘She Loves You’—they had all that ‘woo woo.’ The ‘yeah-yeah’ I don’t know.”2 According to Cynthia Lennon, John’s first wife, the idea for the song went back to their first Christmas together. John had written her a love letter in which he said, Our first Chrismas, I love you, yes, yes, yes.3
The single came out in Great Britain on August 23, 1963, and right away it was very successful. In the United States, still faced with the persistent rejection of Capitol Records, Brian Epstein felt forced to negotiate a contract with Swan Records in place of Vee Jay. Unnoticed when it first came out, on September 16, the record took off after a second pressing, in mid-January 1964, and reached the top of the charts on March 21.
FOR BEATLES FANATICS
“She Loves You” was the first song to be credited to “Lennon-McCartney.” The exception is the French 45 rpm record, which, despite indicating correct credits on the record itself, was still attributed to “McCartney-Lennon” on the back of the sleeve. Incidentally, a fragment of the song reappeared in 1967 in the recording of “All You Need Is Love,” when John and Paul sang the line She loves you yeah, yeah, yeah at the end of the coda.
Production
Norman Smith remembered: “I was setting up the microphone when I first saw the lyrics on the music stand, ‘She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah, She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah, She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.’ I thought, Oh my God, what a lyric! This is going to be one that I do not like. But when they started to sing it—bang, wow, terrific, I was up at the mixer jogging around.”4 As for George Martin, he recalled that he did not like the major sixth chord that concluded the song, which was George Harrison’s idea. He found it too jazzy, old-fashioned, in the style of Glenn Miller. But when the group insisted, he capitulated. The recording of “She Loves You” was a turning point in the Beatles’ career and symbolized by itself the madness of growing Beatlemania. Hundreds of fans invaded the studios. High on the adrenaline, the four musicians delivered a rapid and overexcited performance of “She Loves You.” Unfortunately, the archives of this recording were lost. But it is a known fact that the song underwent two mixes carried out at three years’ interval: the first one, in mono, was done on July 4 by George Martin and his team without the presence of the Beatles; the second one, in stereo, was completed for the compilation, called A Collection of Beatles Oldies, on November 8, 1966, by Geoff Emerick.
Prisoners in the Studio
On the date the Beatles recorded “She Loves You,” they began the day by posing for photos in the alleyway behind the studio. Geoff Emerick recalled that the size of the crowd who came to watch the Beatles was even larger than usual. By the time the Beatles b
egan recording, the fans had overwhelmed the studio’s minimal security. It was an unbelievable sight, straight out of the Keystone Kops: scores of hysterical, screaming girls racing down the corridors, being chased by a handful of out-of-breath, beleaguered London bobbies. In many ways, the “She Loves You” session was a turning point for the group, certainly in terms of their becoming virtual prisoners in the studio; it marked the loss of their freedom at the EMI facilities and the beginning of their incarceration.5
Technical Details
As for guitar work, it was probably starting with this song that George began playing his new Gretsch Country Gentleman. And as for studio work, Norman Smith incessantly improved his recording method. He began using a compressor to limit significant divergences in level. He began placing a (STC-4038) microphone above Ringo’s drums, which gave them a more precise sound and gave elbow room to the rhythm section. Finally, he moved the vocal microphones even farther from the drums. This was the configuration he used until he stopped working with the Beatles in 1965.
I’ll Get You
Lennon-McCartney / 2:04
1963
SONGWRITERS
John and Paul
MUSICIANS
John: vocal, rhythm guitar, harmonica
Paul: vocal, bass
George: lead guitar
Ringo: drums
RECORDED
Abbey Road: July 1, 1963 (Studio Two)
NUMBER OF TAKES: UNKNOWN
MIXING
Abbey Road: July 4, 1963 (Studio Two)
TECHNICAL TEAM
Producer: George Martin
Sound Engineer: Norman Smith
Assistant Engineer: Geoff Emerick