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.
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