You Really Got a Hold on Me

On his 1975 album Extra Texture, George Harrison dedicated the song Ooh Baby (You Know That I Love You) to one of his all-time favorite singers, Smokey Robinson.  The following year, he came up with another tribute song simply titled Pure Smokey for his album 33 1/3.  Though they knew they could not sing like him, the Beatles, particularly George and John, always admired the silky-smooth tone of Robinson's voice.  And, on just their second album, the Beatles chose to record one of the compositions that he had written for his own group the Miracles, even though it had not been a hit in the UK.  

Unusually, George, not Paul, sings the low harmony vocal with John for most of the number, especially considering that the band added the song to their repertoire as their fame in Britain was already steadily building.  Their first known performance of You Really Got a Hold on Me was on May 15th, 1963, at the Royalty Theatre in Chester, Cheshire.  They recorded it soon thereafter on May 24th for the very first edition of their BBC Radio program Pop Go the Beatles.  They returned to the number for the ninth edition of that program on July 16th.  Thus, it was fresh in their minds when they began sessions for the album With the Beatles only two days later on the 18th.

For the recording, producer George Martin joined them on piano, adding some depth to their sound.  With the Beatles playing their usual instruments, this lineup went through seven takes of the song before hitting the best.  They were not satisfied with the ending riff, however, and recorded a few edit pieces before nailing that ending on take ten.  One more edit piece was recorded of John, Paul and George singing the final exciting exclamation of "baby."  Takes seven, ten and eleven were then combined for the master.

They performed the song again on July 30th for the BBC Radio program Saturday Club.  This terrific rendition - slightly faster than the official recorded version - can be heard on the 1994 collection Live at the BBC.  Incidentally, this recording was made on a ridiculously busy day which saw the boys tape appearances for two separate BBC programs in between morning and evening recording sessions for the album With the Beatles.  The last time that they would play You Really Got a Hold on Me for the BBC was on September 9th of 1963 for the fourteenth edition of their program Pop Go the Beatles. 

Even before work on the album was complete, it was time for the boys to produce their next single.  When they reported to EMI's Abbey Road Studios on October 17th, a new treat was in store for them - four-track recording.  Lennon was so certain that everything would sound so much better than on two tracks that he insisted on re-recording You Really Got a Hold on Me on this occasion.  After only one take, however, producer George Martin persuaded the group to move on to the single, assuring them that they already had a fine recording of the Miracles' number in the can.

One week later, they were in Sweden for their first official tour of a country outside of the UK.  They played the song as part of an appearance for Swedish radio before a live audience on October 24th.  Five songs from this highly energized performance can be heard on Anthology 1.

The British album With the Beatles was released in late November while the group was in the middle of their Autumn Tour of the UK.  You Really Got a Hold on Me was part of their setlist for the final time on this tour, not even making the cut for their Christmas shows soon thereafter.

In the US, Capitol Records held the song back from its first album Meet the Beatles, opting to include it instead on The Beatles' Second Album, released in April of 1964.  It sits nicely on side one of that album, followed in sequence by two more cover versions, Devil in Her Heart and Money (That's What I Want).

They did return to the song one more time on January 26th, 1969, during the Get Back sessions.  George Harrison was renewing his obsession with Smokey Robinson at the time, and the Beatles and Billy Preston played the song twice, as well as The Tracks of My Tears.  Producer/engineer Glyn Johns almost included one take of the song on his unreleased Get Back album, and director Michael Lindsey-Hogg did feature it in the film Let it Be.

You Never Give Me Your Money

The spring of 1969 was a tumultuous time for the Beatles.  They had attempted to manage their own affairs since the death of manager Brian Epstein in August of '67 - an unwise decision which saw their company Apple eventually spiraling out of control as a result.  Though they now realized that they needed someone with experience to come in and actually manage things for them, they could not agree on who that person should be.  John wanted the brash Allen Klein, and he convinced George and Ringo to side with him.  Paul, on the other hand, preferred his new in-laws the Eastmans, and a power struggle inevitably ensued.  On one occasion, after hearing what he considered to be more empty promises from Klein, McCartney came up with the title and first few lines of a new song called You Never Give Me Your Money.

The song evolved and shifted into other sections which can loosely be interpreted as reflecting various periods of the Beatles' career.  During sessions for the "White Album" the previous year, McCartney had been especially enthusiastic while working on Lennon's Happiness is a Warm Gun, a piece which also included multiple sections strung together.  Now, the idea of a huge medley combining several unfinished song fragments from both Lennon and McCartney began taking shape.  You Never Give Me Your Money would serve as the opening number of this song suite. 

With this in mind, the Beatles gathered at Olympic Sound Studios in London on May 6th, 1969 to work on the basic track of the song.  They recorded no less than thirty-six takes of the complex number before deciding that take thirty was the best.  The 50th anniversary edition of the album Abbey Road presents the very similar take thirty-six, which turns into an extended jam by the band.  I possess a bootleg version of take thirty and its jam, which goes on for a minute or two before coming to a halt.  As on all of these takes, Paul plays piano and sings a guide vocal while John plays distorted guitar, George alternates between some lovely low notes and the stinging lead guitar parts in the connecting instrumental sections, and Ringo deftly shifts the beat as necessary from section to section.

The focus changed over the next few days to solidifying the lineup of the unreleased Get Back album, following which the group took a break for a month and a half.  Work on what would become the album Abbey Road began in earnest on July 1st, though only Paul was present to record his lead vocal for You Never Give Me Your Money.  He finally added a bass part to the track on July 11th.  And, on the 15th, he played some tubular bells in the "But, oh, that magic feeling" section, as well as double-tracking some of his lead vocal.  At some point, George also double-tracked some of his lead guitar part.

A particularly long and important session took place on July 30th.  First, John, Paul and George overdubbed backing vocals at various places throughout the song, and Ringo hit a tambourine at a few strategic points.  Overdubs were applied to a few other numbers, too, before the entire medley was edited together for the first time as a trial run.  This can be heard in its entirety on the deluxe 50th anniversary edition of the album.  At this point, You Never Give Me Your Money was joined to the following song Sun King by a simple organ chord.  Neither John nor Paul was satisfied with this link, but different ideas were not forthcoming.

Hearing the trial run made Paul decide to re-record his bass part and portions of his piano part on July 31st.  Some of the three-part backing vocals were also re-recorded, while others were deemed superfluous and eliminated.  The body of the song was now complete, but the issue of the segue into Sun King was not yet solved.

The solution arrived on August 5th in a plastic bag.  As he had done in 1966 for Tomorrow Never Knows, Paul compiled a number of tape loops featuring different sounds.  This entire session was devoted to transferring these onto a master tape, then opting to use only the bells and crickets for the ideal mood-setting segue into the next song, though it required multiple editing and crossfading attempts on August 13th, 14th and 21st to finally get it right.

The component parts of the Huge Medley, or the Long One, as the EMI staff and the Beatles themselves referred to it at the time, are so inextricably tied to one another that it is almost impossible to listen to any of them separately.  Thus, You Never Give Me Your Money has never been reissued on any post career compilations, except, of course, on the 50th anniversary editions of Abbey Road. 

You Like Me Too Much

For the soundtrack of 1964's A Hard Day's Night, John Lennon had written the lightweight pop number I'm Happy Just to Dance with You to serve as George's vocal spotlight in the film.  By early '65, it was time for the group to come up with a fresh batch of songs for the soundtrack of their second feature film, and Harrison himself rose to the challenge, coming up with not merely one, but two numbers for director Richard Lester's consideration.  Lester opted to use I Need You in the film, leaving You Like Me Too Much for the non-soundtrack side of the upcoming Help! album.

We need to keep in mind that Harrison had just one released solo composition at this point in time - 1963's Don't Bother Me, which had appeared on the album With the Beatles.  His only other - a pleasant ditty called You Know What to Do from mid-64 - survived as a demo, long forgotten, then discovered during research for the Anthology series in the 1990's.  No doubt it must have been a daunting task trying to become a songwriter while living in the shadow of the great Lennon/McCartney partnership.  But Harrison persevered, even though these two newest efforts were somewhat awkward compared to the steady flow of quality tunes coming from the other two Beatles.  It is a credit to John, Paul and producer George Martin that they gave Harrison his due, grudgingly or otherwise, and allowed him to grow.

Having recorded I Need You on February 15th, 1965, George waited two days before presenting You Like Me Too Much to the group on the 17th.  The basic track featured Ringo on drums, George on acoustic guitar, John shaking a tambourine and Paul splitting his duties, first playing a piano intro, then concentrating on his bass part.  Once overdubs began onto take eight, John decided to play electric piano, as he had done earlier in the day on McCartney's The Night Before.  For the instrumental solo section, Paul and George Martin sat at the same Steinway piano and played answering phrases as George played an electric guitar part.  Finally, George double-tracked his lead vocals with Paul supplying the backing vocals.

As stated above, You Like Me Too Much appeared on the non-soundtrack side of the UK album Help!, which was released in August of 1965.  Here in the US, we actually got to hear the track two months earlier on the album Beatles VI.  It has never appeared on any post career compilations.

You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)

In late 1969, Apple Records issued a press release stating that a new single by the Plastic Ono Band was due out in early December featuring John and Yoko with "many of the greatest show business names of today."  The B-side, pictured above, was a bizarre piece called What's the New Mary Jane which had been recorded during sessions for the "White Album" in 1968.  Of the other Beatles, only George appeared on that track.  The A-side was a comic concoction called You Know My Name (Look Up the Number) which the Beatles had been working on sporadically for a few years.  The single never came out, probably because the others rightfully felt that these recordings had nothing to do with John's imaginary Plastic Ono Band.

In fact, the Beatles had a great deal of fun working on the song, beginning on May 17th, 1967, a few weeks before Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band took the world by storm.  The boys were already on to their next project, recording a small batch of songs for the soundtrack of an animated film based on their 1966 hit Yellow Submarine.  Producer George Martin was away on holiday resulting in a loose atmosphere as the group laid down fourteen takes of the instrumental backing for what would be known as part one of a multipart number.  Take ten was marked down as being the best, but only for the time being.

Martin was back at the helm on June 7th, and everyone was basking in the glow of the outpouring of rave reviews for Sgt. Pepper.  Upon further listening, take nine was now chosen as the best, and a few overdubs were added including some handclaps.  As other ideas emerged, the session somehow devolved into chaos, leaving nothing useable to add to the basic track at that point. 

On the following evening, however, the creative juices were flowing.  With some invited guests in attendance, the band cranked out four more sections of the song, using the same chord pattern, but in various styles, tempos and with different instruments.  There were twelve takes of part two, four takes of part three, six takes of part four, and only a single take of part five.  One of the guests was Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones, who inexplicably showed up with a saxophone.  Naturally, he was asked to play it for the big finish of part five.  And, for part three, the guests helped to contribute sounds to create a nightclub atmosphere. 

They waited until the following evening, June 9th, to link the five parts of the song together, starting with take nine of part one, choosing the final takes of parts two, three and four, along with the sole take of part five to produce a mono master that was 6'08" in duration.  There were no vocals on the track at this point, nor would there be for quite a while, as all focus now turned to the imminent Our World broadcast, on which the Beatles would represent Great Britain per manager Brian Epstein's arrangement.

Amazingly, almost two full years passed before Lennon remembered to pull You Know My Name (Look Up the Number) out of the EMI vaults to continue work on the track.  The Beatles were at Abbey Road Studios on April 30th, 1969 for a session that was primarily designated for George to overdub a new lead guitar solo on the song Let it Be.  Once this was complete, only John and Paul remained along with assistant Mal Evans to add vocals to what would eventually be the B-side to Let it Be, though no one knew this at the time.  With Chris Thomas in the producer's chair, the old friends had a blast singing the same few lyrics over and over in silly voices, changing from section to section according to the style of the instrumental backing.  Paul was particularly inspired playing the lounge lizard crooner in part three.

After this productive day, the song was once again forgotten until November 26th, 1969, when Lennon decided to pair it with What's the New Mary Jane for the single described at the top of this post.  He had recently told the other Beatles and manager Allen Klein that he was quitting the group following his exhilarating live appearance at the Rock and Roll Festival in Toronto with what was billed as an actual Plastic Ono Band lineup.  John and engineer Geoff Emerick dusted off the old four track mono tape of You Know My Name (Look Up the Number) and made some edits, cutting out sections of parts one and four, and completely omitting part two, until the song was down to a somewhat more manageable length of 4'20".

Though the single was not released, a master copy had been made.  Thus, when the song Let it Be was set to be issued in March of 1970, it was a simple matter to put You Know My Name (Look Up the Number) on the B-side.  Early British copies still had the unissued Plastic Ono Band single's catalog number in the run-out groove, crossed out, in addition to the new catalog number.  Early American copies had a different distinction - the subtitle of the song was erroneously printed on the label as (Look Up My Number).  

You Know My Name (Look Up the Number) did not appear again until the post career British album Rarities.  Though the lineup is substantially different, the American version of Rarities also features the song.  And it closes out the collection Past Masters Volume Two.  

The most interesting re-release of the song, by far, was its inclusion on Anthology 2.  This was the first time the song was ever presented in stereo.  More importantly, this version contained the previously unheard part two, which John had cut from the released version in 1969, as well as reinstating the cut sections of parts one and four.  Curiously, producer George Martin also chose to eliminate bits from some of the familiar sections.  The complete 6'08" version of the song has never been officially released.