I'm Looking Through You

Yoko Ono inspired John Lennon to write a great many songs.  Patti Boyd served as a muse for both George Harrison and Eric Clapton.  And, later in life, Linda Eastman was an inspiration for Paul McCartney.  But, for much of his time as a member of the Beatles, Paul was dating, and even engaged to, actress Jane Asher.  Yet most of the songs he wrote concerning their relationship were contrasts to his usual upbeat offerings, a typical Northern man's response to her desire to be independent and career-oriented.  Never was this more evident than during the late 1965 sessions for the album Rubber Soul, resulting in several strong numbers such as I'm Looking Through You, We Can Work it Out, You Won't See Me and possibly even Drive My Car.

For some reason, the recording of I'm Looking Through You turned out to be the longest and most complex to date for the Beatles.  The first version of the song was realized at two sessions on October 24th, 1965 totaling nine hours.  After rehearsal, only one take of the basic track was put on tape.  Paul played bass and sang live, John played acoustic and George electric guitar while Ringo played his drum kit.  The many overdubs included maracas, bongos, an organ, John singing a harmony vocal and Paul double-tracking his lead vocal.  One other overdub was actually a changing pattern of handclaps throughout the song.  This quirky, interesting alternate version, which can be heard on Anthology 2, was then considered to be complete.

On November 6th, the group began work on a remake of the song, opting for a more acoustic feel.  Paul had now also written a bridge for the number, something sorely lacking in the first version.  Six hours in the studio on this date resulted in two unsatisfying takes.  It took work on one more take on November 10th to finally arrive at the master.  Overdubs were not added to this until the early morning of November 12th at the final session for the album.  Ringo played one chord on a Hammond organ (he is even credited on the album for this!) and George contributed some sporadic lead guitar fills, but Paul played the tricky lead guitar phrases at the end of each verse himself.  New vocals by Paul and John were also added to this version.

The song is featured on both the British and American versions of the album Rubber Soul.  A mistake in the mixing stage left two false starts by John on acoustic guitar at the top of the stereo mix on the US album.  This delightful rarity is preserved on the recent US albums collection.  The alternate first version of the song featured on Anthology 2 was also scheduled to be a part of the famous Sessions album that almost saw release in the 1980's.  

I'm Happy Just to Dance with You

George Harrison did not have a songwriting partner.  He had been given credit for co-writing one of the group's very earliest numbers In Spite of All the Danger with Paul McCartney, though they both later learned that one should not be credited for merely coming up with a guitar solo.  A few years later, Harrison was rightfully credited with co-writing the instrumental Cry for a Shadow with John Lennon.  But once the group's official recording career began, George found himself on his own.

It must have been extremely daunting to even attempt songwriting while living in the shadow of the rapidly-developing genius of the Lennon-McCartney juggernaut, but Harrison was encouraged by others around the Beatles, and his first solo effort Don't Bother Me sat quite nicely on the group's second album.  Still, composing did not come easily to him - it took time - and with a deadline looming for a new batch of songs for the band's first feature film, Lennon and McCartney were forced to quickly write a song to order for their lead guitarist to sing.

March 1st, 1964 was the last day of recording that batch of songs, with filming scheduled to begin the very next day.  I'm Happy Just to Dance with You was first up on this date, and it was completed in only one hour.  Lennon was the primary composer of the number, and he proved to be the driving force on the recording, as well, playing an aggressive rhythm guitar part throughout.  The fourth take was the first to feature a live vocal from George, and it turned out to be the master.  He then double-tracked his vocal, John and Paul overdubbed strong backing vocals, and Ringo played a loose-skinned Arabian bongo - an item he had also used on Harrison's Don't Bother Me.

The number is one of the last new songs to be heard in the film A Hard Day's Night.  As the boys return to the stage, we hear its melody being played on a piano while some dancers rehearse a routine in front of some large photos of beetles - yes, really.  John joins the dancers, half-playfully, half-mockingly.  Sadly, we do not get to see George leap about as pictured above.  Ringo hops over to his drum kit and plays along with the piano before the boys all grab their instruments and perform the number in a small circle at the front of the stage.

The song was only available on the album A Hard Day's Night in the UK during the group's career.  American fans had a few more options.  It first appeared on the United Artists official soundtrack album A Hard Day's Night.  One month later, Capitol Records released it twice on the same day, both on the album Something New and as the B-side of the single I'll Cry Instead.  Its only other release was again as a B-side to the novelty single The Beatles' Movie Medley in 1982.

The boys performed I'm Happy Just to Dance with You for their BBC radio program From Us to You to promote the film's release.  The song joined the band's live repertoire for one brief month during the British tour in the fall of 1964.

I'm Down

On June 14th, 1965, the Beatles returned to Abbey Road Studios to add to the non-soundtrack side of their upcoming album Help!  As it turned out, the day belonged to Paul McCartney, who showed up with three new compositions ready to record.  After starting and completing his folk-rock tune I've Just Seen a Face in the first hour and a half, the focus shifted to a screaming rocker specifically designed to replace the Little Richard number Long Tall Sally in the group's live act.

For the backing track, John traded in his customary rhythm guitar for an electric organ while the other Beatles stayed with their usual instruments.  Anthology 2 presents take one of I'm Down, revealing that the arrangement was pretty much in place right from the start.  Once the seventh take was determined to be the best, the guitar and organ solos played by George and John were overdubbed, and Ringo added bongos at various points in the song.  Two separate sets of backing vocals were then added.  The first had John and George singing "I'm really down" and other phrases echoing Paul's lead vocal.  The second set had John singing a very low "down" with Paul and George harmonizing above him.  Again, all of this work required only an hour and a half.

The most remarkable part of the day was yet to come when, after shrieking his lungs out on this song, Paul recorded the master take of his brilliant ballad Yesterday.

While I'm Down may have been intended for the album, it wound up serving as the B-side of the single Help! instead.  And that was the only way you could get the song during the group's career.  This was a rare instance of Capitol Records in the US not making a song available on an album.  Post-career was a different story, however.  The song first appeared on the compilation Rock and Roll Music in 1976.  It was the final track on Past Masters Volume 1 in 1988 and, as aforementioned, take one was released on Anthology 2 in 1996.

It fulfilled its purpose in concert, closing out almost every show for the remainder of the group's touring days.  The film of the famous August 15th, 1965 Shea Stadium performance proves that I'm Down could be one of the highlights of shows that had become routinely frustrating.  On this historic occasion, the boys played the finale with abandon, caught up in the insanity of the world's first stadium concert.

I'm a Loser

I'm a Loser was only the second song to be recorded for the album Beatles for Sale, but it confirmed the strong country and western influence on the entire project after the similarly country-flavored Baby's In Black.  It also highlighted another influence exerting itself on John Lennon and the Beatles - that of Bob Dylan.

Even this early in the group's career, Lennon had already composed material that revealed his anger and jealousy, such as I'll Cry Instead and You Can't Do That.  Here, after barely six months of worldwide fame, he was expressing his very real fears and insecurities for all to see and hear, though the vast majority of fans did not realize it at the time.

The song was recorded at an evening session on August 14th, 1964.  The arrangement went through a few alterations before the eighth take was deemed the best.  Starting with take four, John began playing his harmonica live rather than waiting to overdub it later.  Once overdubbing began, George played some extra guitar fills at various points, Ringo added a tambourine and John and Paul double-tracked their vocals during the refrains.  Typical of the group's industriousness in those days, all of this was completed in roughly one hour.

The most Dylanesque touch is, of course, John's harmonica, which he attacks with gusto in the instrumental break.  As for the country feel, not only is there George's rockabilly guitar work, but Paul plays a great walking bass line while simultaneously providing the high vocal harmony in the refrains.

Along with No Reply and Eight Days a Week, I'm a Loser was considered for release as a single before Lennon came up with I Feel Fine.  The song was strong enough to make it into the group's stage act for almost a year, including Another Beatles Christmas Show at the end of the year and the 1965 European tour.

The song was released on both the album and the EP Beatles for Sale in England.  In America, it appeared on the album Beatles '65 and the EP 4 by the Beatles.  Live at the BBC presents a recording from the program Top Gear for which they even took the time to double-track John's vocal in places.  And I possess a bootleg on cassette of a very spirited performance of the number from a concert in Paris from June of 1965.

I'll Get You

The success of the single From Me to You was making the Beatles the hottest rising stars in England in the spring of 1963.  Maintaining their popularity was of paramount importance so, in addition to a grueling touring schedule which included an increasing number of radio and television appearances, manager Brian Epstein and record producer George Martin pushed John Lennon and Paul McCartney to come up with a high quality composition for their follow-up single.

As the date for the next recording session drew near, John and Paul put their heads together at John's house on Menlove Avenue in Liverpool and came up with what they thought would be a sure winner called Get You in the End.  Only days later, they brainstormed once again with the result being a far superior number called She Loves You, thus ensuring that the earlier tune would merely wind up as the B-side.

This is a rare instance in the group's catalog in which we do not know the number of takes for either She Loves You or I'll Get You.  The usually-impeccable Abbey Road Studios documentation is lacking for this day, perhaps due to an equally uncharacteristic lapse of security which resulted in several screaming fans actually getting into the building and disrupting the proceedings.  That event even made the Beatles a bit skittish about heading to the studio canteen between the afternoon and evening sessions.

What we do know is that the afternoon session on July 1st, 1963 was entirely devoted to She Loves You, leaving the work on the B-side for the evening.  As was customary at this time, the backing track was comprised of all four Beatles on their usual instruments with simultaneous live vocals from John and Paul, plus George in the bridge.  The only overdubs were some handclaps and John's harmonica.  There is a vocal flub during the bridge, but the session was running overtime and George Martin did not feel it was necessary to correct it.

In the UK, the sole appearance of I'll Get You was as the B-side of the group's first million-selling single.  Swan Records in America only had the rights to this one single, so when that label chose to release Sie Liebt Dich, the German version of She Loves You, it once again used I'll Get You as the B-side.  Capitol Records also released the song on The Beatles' Second Album.

The song appeared years later on the UK version of Rarities and on Past Masters Volume One.  Anthology 1 presents a performance of the song from the television program Val Parnell's Sunday Night at the London Palladium from October 13th, 1963.  This was the landmark appearance that prompted the first use of the word Beatlemania in the press the following day. 

Finally, On Air - Live at the BBC Volume 2 allows us to hear a taping of the song for the program Saturday Club, which was broadcast a few days before the famous television appearance mentioned above.  Naturally, these live performances do not feature John's harmonica, which plays throughout the song on the record. 

I'll Follow the Sun

October 18th, 1964 was an extremely productive day for the Beatles.  The clock was ticking toward the deadline for their fourth studio album and eighth single, yet only half the necessary tracks had been recorded so far.  Before calling it a night, the most prolific act in show business had eight more tracks ready to order.

Knowing that new material was lacking, McCartney dusted off one of his earliest compositions for the session.  Former drummer Pete Best remembered this song as one that Paul would play on piano between sets at the Kaiserkeller during the group's first trip to Hamburg in the fall of 1960.  And a home recording reportedly exists of the Quarrymen (with John, Paul and George on guitars, Stu Sutcliffe on bass and Tommy Moore on drums) playing the song with a different middle eight sometime in early 1960.  Accounts differ as to whether Lennon assisted in writing the new middle eight before the October 18th session.

After completing three other album tracks and then spending a good chunk of time perfecting the A-side I Feel Fine, the boys concentrated on I'll Follow the Sun.  It only took about an hour to nail the number, but much happened in that brief time.  First, producer George Martin taught a descending vocal line to John for the new middle eight, or bridge.  Plus, it was determined that instead of playing his drum kit, Ringo would merely slap his legs to keep the beat.  In his book Here, There and Everywhere, Geoff Emerick, who was serving as second engineer on the day, recounts watching engineer Norman Smith setting up a microphone between Ringo's knees to capture the sound.

Emerick, who surprisingly has little love for George Harrison in his book, goes on to say that George was rather touchy about John playing an acoustic guitar solo during the brief instrumental break.  He relates that Harrison went up to the control booth and complained that he was supposedly the lead guitarist of the group, so Martin allowed him to play an electric guitar solo as an overdub onto take eight.  Emerick is even disparaging about the simple melody line that George wound up playing for the solo, but there was no time for another attempt, as more songs were required before the night was through.

I daresay that no Beatles fans were aware that this lovely song was an old composition when it was released in December of 1964.  It fits in nicely on the UK album Beatles for Sale and the US version known as Beatles '65.  It also appeared several months later as the lead track on the British EP Beatles for Sale (No. 2).

I'll Follow the Sun was a natural choice for the compilation album Love Songs in 1977.  The one and only BBC recording of the song (for the program Top Gear) was released on the EP Baby It's You and the double album On Air - Live at the BBC Volume 2.  It's interesting to note that George did not take the opportunity to improve upon his simple guitar solo on this occasion.

I'll Cry Instead

A long-standing question I have had concerning this song may have been answered in Dave Rybaczewski's excellent in-depth song-by-song look at the work of the Beatles.  If you have read any of my previous entries regarding I'll Cry Instead, you know that I have always believed that it could not possibly have been written for the soundtrack of A Hard Day's Night, as it was not even recorded until after principal photography of the film was completed.  It was almost certainly not one of the songs written in Paris in January of 1964.

Rybaczewski states that Lennon did not write the song until after the scene of the boys running and jumping around on a field was shot on April 23rd.  Director Richard Lester did not yet know which song he might use to play under that footage, so Lennon ran off to write a song to order as he had recently done for the title song of the movie.  Only after hearing it at that time did Lester reject it and resurrect the recent hit Can't Buy Me Love for the sequence.

The song was recorded on June 1st, as work on the non-soundtrack side of the album began in earnest.  Carl Perkins, an idol of the group, was in the studio that afternoon watching them record his tune Matchbox.  This put George's guitar in a rockabilly groove which it maintained once the boys turned their attention to their first original composition written in that style.  After six takes, they realized that the song was unusually short, so they recorded two more takes of an edit piece playing only the bridge and final verse.

When the US mono mix was prepared on June 4th, a different take of the song's first verse was inserted between take six and take eight, bringing the total time to 2'04" on this version.  The British mixes done on June 9th did not include the repeat of the first verse.  Thus, 1'42" was the running time of those releases.

Producer George Martin was somehow under the impression that Lester might still use the song in the film, so he sent it along with the other soundtrack songs to United Artists and Capitol Records in the US.  All Stateside releases of the song therefore listed it as being part of the official soundtrack.  By the time that the British album was being prepared, the song was correctly relegated to the non-soundtrack side.

The liner notes by Tony Barrow on the UK version of A Hard Day's Night mistakenly credit Paul singing along with John as a duet, but this is surely only John's voice double-tracked.  To complement George's rockabilly guitar part, Paul plays a walking bass line which is briefly highlighted when the rest of the band cuts out near the end of the final verse.  And Ringo adds a very active tambourine throughout the number.

Yet another error appeared on the United Artists soundtrack album A Hard Day's Night with this song incorrectly listed as I Cry Instead.  As the A-side of a single in the US, the song only reached number twenty-five on the Billboard chart.  It was also released on the Capitol Records album Something New, and in the UK on the EP Extracts from the Album A Hard Day's Night.

I'll Be Back

After completion of the film A Hard Day's Night, the Beatles took a well-deserved vacation before returning to the studio to record a new batch of songs for the non-soundtrack side of their third album.  Continuing his domination of the songwriting at the time, John Lennon had composed three numbers in May during a stay in Tahiti with his wife Cynthia, George Harrison and George's new girlfriend Patti Boyd.  Among them was I'll Be Back.

Following a productive afternoon session which saw three songs completed on June 1st, 1964, the evening session was entirely devoted to this complex, moody tune.  John was unsure of what sort of an arrangement he wanted, so when it was suggested that the group attempt the number in waltz time, they gamely gave it a go, as can be heard on Anthology 1.  This take, take two, breaks down in short order, as John proclaims it is "too hard to sing."

Take three is also available on Anthology 1, and it shows how quickly the Beatles were able to adapt as they easily change to 4/4 time and find a better groove.  There are still some significant differences between this take and the master, take sixteen.  For instance, there is no introduction, George is not singing and there is no final repeat of a verse before the fadeout.  The most striking difference, however, is the fact that John and George are playing electric guitars in the early takes.

The switch to acoustic guitars gives the track its distinctive touch, with George adding some subtle but dramatic flourishes for great effect.  And, though John's vocal melody line and Paul's harmony are the main focus of the verses, George's voice gives some extra texture to the overall sound.  John's lead vocal is also double-tracked throughout, not only in the three (!) bridges that he sings solo.

In the absence of a rousing fourteenth track, producer George Martin's decision to end the album with this song is rather bold.  It demonstrates a new maturity developing in the writing and recording of the Beatles.  Also, as Tim Riley states in his excellent book Tell Me Why, "The song links together the harmonic motif of the entire record..."  The number trails off alternating between major and minor keys, reflecting Lennon and McCartney's growing use of different keys for their verses and bridges.

I'll Be Back is the only song from the British version of A Hard Day's Night that we did not get here in the US during the summer of 1964.  We had to wait until December for Beatles '65, though it actually sits quite nicely on side two of that album.

In addition to the early takes featured on Anthology 1, the song also appeared on the post-career compilation Love Songs in 1977.     

If I Needed Someone

The Beatles spent the vast majority of their studio time on October 16th, 1965 working on the new Lennon-McCartney number Day Tripper, which would wind up as half of a double A-sided single.  It was only during the last hour of the evening session that they finally turned their attention to George Harrison's latest composition, If I Needed Someone.  After some rehearsal, they nailed the rhythm track in a single take.

The next scheduled day of recording was on October 18th, at which time a total of ninety minutes was allocated to perform all of the overdubs necessary to complete the song.  This is indicative of the short shrift that George generally received when it came time to work on one of his numbers.  He made the most of it, however, singing and then double-tracking his lead vocal, getting strong backing vocals from John and Paul, plus adding a second lead guitar line along with some tambourine from Ringo.

The influence that the Beatles had had upon American group the Byrds came full circle here.  David Crosby has recounted how the 1964 film A Hard Day's Night made a huge impact on the Byrds, with Roger McGuinn particularly blown away by the sound of George Harrison's 12-string Rickenbacker guitar.  Now, in late '65, George was impressed by a riff on the Byrds' song The Bells of Rhymney, and used it as the basis for the hypnotic riff that runs throughout If I Needed Someone.  George even played a new 12-string Rickenbacker to capture what was now the distinctive Byrds sound.

If I Needed Someone was placed as the penultimate track on the British version of Rubber Soul, but did not appear on the US version.  American fans had to wait six months for the compilation album "Yesterday"...and Today released in June of 1966 to finally hear the song.

The song was strong enough to replace George's spotlight number Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby in the Beatles' stage act.  It thereby became the only Harrison composition to make the cut during the group's touring years, starting with the British tour of late '65 and remaining in the lineup until their final show at Candlestick Park in 1966.

George resurrected the tune for his 1991 tour of Japan with Eric Clapton.  A performance from this tour appears on the Live in Japan double album.

If I Fell

For me, there is no more beautiful ballad in the entire Beatles catalog than If I Fell.  McCartney's And I Love Her was immediately more popular (If I Fell was relegated to the B-side of the American single featuring both songs), but Lennon's offering was lyrically deeper and even more complex musically.  And the duet is their finest on record, surpassing even Two of Us and the final verse of Hey Jude in my estimation.  John and Paul were never in better form.

The number was among those composed at the George V Hotel in Paris during January of 1964 for the group's upcoming film debut.  While Lennon wrote the bulk of the song, McCartney has since claimed the intro as his own.  It was recorded in an afternoon session at Abbey Road Studios on February 27th with John and Paul standing at one microphone per their request.  Fifteen takes were necessary as tiny adjustments were made to the instrumental arrangement along the way.  Some double-tracking was then done for the vocals before the song was complete.  This resulted in some noticeable differences between the mono and stereo mixes of the song, as only the stereo version has John's intro double-tracked and fails to correct a precious moment when Paul's voice cracks on the word "vain" at the end of the second bridge.

Though it is the most mature of the soundtrack songs, it is played as a joke in A Hard Day's Night, with John singing to a sulking Ringo.  We do hear a good chunk of it again in the concert sequence near the end of the film.

It was released in the UK on the album A Hard Day's Night and on the EP Extracts from the Film A Hard Day's Night.  Aside from the Capitol single, it also appeared in the US on the United Artists soundtrack album A Hard Day's Night and the Capitol album Something New.  The 1977 compilation Love Songs contains the stereo version.  And On Air - Live at the BBC Volume 2 presents a new recording of the song for the radio program Top Gear.  John even double-tracked his vocal, including the intro, on this occasion.  This was from July of 1964, only a week after the release of the album in the UK.

Despite the intricacies of the duet, the group added the song to their stage act for the remainder of that year.  They did, however, often laugh their way through the number.  Too bad.  Such a delicate and sublime composition deserved better treatment at the hands of its creators.

I Will

This lovely ballad was among the many tunes that McCartney wrote in Rishikesh, India in the spring of 1968.  He and singer-songwriter Donovan Leitch even spent some time together working on lyrics for it, but Paul eventually abandoned them.  It was not one of the songs that were demoed at George Harrison's house in Esher in May.

Yet, on September 16th, over three months into the sessions for the double album in the works, the tune resurfaced with a fresh set of lyrics inspired by Paul's anticipation of Linda Eastman's impending arrival in the UK.  With acoustic guitar in hand, Chris Thomas in the producer's chair and John and Ringo standing by to provide percussion, Paul launched into no less than sixty-seven takes of the number.  When all was said and done, take sixty-five was determined to be the best.  On the following day, Paul performed all of the necessary overdubs himself.  These included a harmony vocal in places, some lovely fills on a second guitar and, most interestingly, a clever vocal bass line in lieu of his usual electric bass guitar work.

The September 16th session has become rightfully known for the occasional ad libs between proper takes of the song.  Anthology 3 fades in a wonderful performance of Step Inside Love, which Paul had written as the theme song for Cilla Black's television show.  Once this concludes, a remark by John immediately prompts Paul into a silly ad libbed number called Los Paranoias.  In addition to continuing his percussion throughout, John tosses in a few odd vocalizations, as well.  But the most famous aside from the session is Can You Take Me Back.  The 50th anniversary edition of the "White Album" finally allows us to hear that entire number.  Of course, a snippet of it actually made its way (uncredited) onto the original album to serve as a segue between Cry Baby Cry and Revolution 9.

George may not have participated in the recording of I Will, but he did get to play it in 1994 during filming for the Anthology series.  As Ringo watches, George and Paul perform a bit of the song with ukuleles out in George's garden at Friar Park.

The song appeared on the Love Songs compilation in 1977.  And, in addition to Step Inside Love/Los Paranoias, Anthology 3 presents take one of the song from the original session.  A true rarity is the single released in the Phillipines in 1968, where the song was the B-side to Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da.

I Want You (She's So Heavy)

I Want You (She's So Heavy) has the simplest lyrics of any song in the Beatles catalog, and has often been the subject of ridicule for this very reason.  The extended coda has also been criticized as unnecessary and monotonous.  Yet listen to the band playing together as a tight unit again, right on the heels of the ragged Get Back sessions.  In fact, the song emerged from those sessions in the last days of January 1969.  Lennon only had the bluesy verses at that time, but bootleg tapes reportedly reveal a few jams of the number highlighted by some great interplay between John and keyboard player Billy Preston.

On February 22nd, Preston reunited with the Beatles at Trident Studios as they set about making a proper recording.  With Glyn Johns as producer, the five man band laid down thirty-five takes before calling it a night.  A listening session the next day resulted in Lennon deciding to splice together parts of takes nine, twenty and thirty-two to create the master, which ran 8'04" at this point.

While this was the first track to be recorded for Abbey Road, there were no plans for such an album at the time.  The song might even have been intended to flesh out a potential Get Back album, according to some sources.  Yet it did not appear on the first attempt by Glyn Johns to compile an album from those sessions, though in its current state, it would have fit in with the no overdubs, live-in-the-studio concept.

All of that changed on April 18th at Abbey Road Studios with Chris Thomas now producing.  After finishing work on Harrison's B-side Old Brown Shoe, John and George remained to overdub guitars onto the coda of I Want You (She's So Heavy), creating a massive sound as they played the riff over and over many times.  On April 20th, Ringo added conga drums and John played a second Hammond organ part in addition to that of Billy Preston on the master.

By August 8th, the group was finally nearing completion on an album to be called Abbey Road, with George Martin back in the producer's chair.  John now chose to pull out the original Trident Studios tape, minus most of the April overdubs, and had George Harrison add the white noise effect from his Moog synthesizer onto the last minute or two of the recording.  August 11th saw John, Paul and George add the layers of "she's so heavy" vocals.  John was indecisive as to which version he preferred, so the vocals were put onto both.  Ringo also added some more cymbal crashes for good measure.

On August 20th, John made some crucial decisions.  After having Ringo use an old-fashioned wind machine (such as theaters use backstage) to augment the white noise effect, he had engineer Geoff Emerick splice the two versions together, with the April overdubs for the bulk of the song and the Trident master serving as the coda.  Then, while listening to a playback, he told Emerick to cut the tape at the 7'44" mark, the result being the shocking, unexpected end of the song.  On this date, that would also have been the end of the album, as sides one and two were reversed at the time.

While many fans will continue to dislike the song, there is no doubt that the group is in fine form throughout.  John's simultaneous singing and playing is quite good, Paul's bass work is nothing short of tremendous and Billy Preston's mastery on the keyboard, especially during the "she's so heavy" sequence, once again adds an element that none of the Beatles could have provided. 

I Want to Tell You

Over the course of the Beatles' recording career, George Harrison was generally represented by two lead vocal spots on a typical fourteen track album.  On Revolver, he landed three.  This was not unprecedented - he also had three on With the Beatles.  But two of those had been cover versions.  This time, all three were his own compositions.

On June 2nd, 1966, the group began work on the third of those numbers, a song about the difficulty of communication.  They recorded five takes with George on guitar, Paul on piano and Ringo on drums.  Upon listening to the takes, George decided that take three had been the best.  He then recorded his lead vocal as John and Paul supplied the harmony, with Paul's vocal line sounding deliberately dissonant.  This dissonance is carried over into one of the piano parts he played.  The second piano part was among the further overdubs, which also included John on tambourine and Ringo on maracas, as well as George double-tracking his lead vocal.  And all four Beatles provided handclaps during the song's last verse.

One final overdub was added on June 3rd.  This was Paul's bass line, the first time that this was done as an overdub on any Beatles' song, though this practice would become quite common from this time forward.  At some point, it was decided that the opening of the number would fade in with George's guitar riff.  This works particularly well on the UK version of the album following the fadeout of Doctor Robert.

The use of dissonance on the recording helps to convey the message of confusion present in the lyrics.  And, as the song fades out, Paul's high vocal harmony plays around in such a manner that it highlights the strong influence of George's interest in Indian music on the other members of the band.

I Want to Tell You appears on both the UK and US versions of the album Revolver.  It never resurfaced on any of the group's post-career compilations, nor did they ever play the song live.  George did resurrect the song, however, for his tour of Japan in 1991.  The album Live in Japan features one of these performances.