What You're Doing

Let me just start out by stating that I love this song.  It is one of a number of lesser-known songs by the Beatles that I feel could easily have been a hit for any other group.  And yet, producer George Martin and the Beatles themselves never thought too highly of it, relegating it to the penultimate spot in the running order on side two of the UK album Beatles for Sale.  Perhaps one of my reasons for admiring it is that Capitol Records placed it in a much more prominent spot, leading off side two of the American album Beatles VI.  

The group first attempted to record What You're Doing late in the second session of the day on September 29th, 1964.  Seven takes were committed to tape before calling it a night.  They returned to the song at the second session of the following day, recording takes eight through twelve.  Take eleven was chosen as the best, Paul double-tracked his lead vocal in the bridge, and it was probably considered complete.

Or was it?  As other songs were treated to mono mixing in the coming days and weeks, What You're Doing was ignored - that is, until the final day of sessions for the album, October 26th, at which time the group remade the song with a new arrangement, starting at take thirteen.  The last take - take nineteen - was chosen as the best.  One notable difference of this new version was the opening of the number.  Ringo was always averse to doing drum solos, but he sets up a strong beat here, much like the drum pattern of the Ronettes' Be My Baby, as Dave Rybaczewski points out in his excellent in-depth look at this song.

Another difference was a most unusual change in the backing vocals.  I have not heard the original arrangement, but John reportedly sang a harmony line in the verses of that version.  Now, instead, John and George shout out the first words of each phrase before switching over to a melodic "ooh" behind Paul's lead vocal.  In this new version, Paul double-tracked his lead vocal throughout, not just in the soaring bridges.  He is also credited with adding the piano part heard in the bridges and at the end of the song, though the style of playing sounds more like that of producer George Martin.

For me, one final highlight of the song is the coda, where Ringo returns to his opening drum pattern, then Paul comes in with an pulsing bass line, and the piano finally joins in along with George's great guitar riff which we have heard for much of the number.  All of these elements combine for one of the most unique tracks that the band had recorded up to this point in time.

Yet, apart from the song's placement on Beatles for Sale and Beatles VI which I mentioned above, the song has never surfaced again on any post-career compilations.  In my opinion, that is a shame for such a terrific recording.  If nothing else, it would have been nice to hear the earlier version of What You're Doing in the Anthology series, but even that was unfortunately not meant to be.