Got to Get You into My Life

In 2015, a letter written by George Harrison to American DJ Paul Drew in 1966 surfaced and revealed that the Beatles had considered going to Memphis, Tennessee to make their next album at Stax Records.  Of course, it never came to pass but, if it had, the sound and content of Revolver would no doubt have been quite different from what we now know.  There is one song on that album, however, that seems to have been inspired in part by the Soulsville sound - Got to Get You into My Life.

McCartney's ode to marijuana succeeds in masquerading itself as a love song.  One has to really read between the lines of the lyrics to uncover his true intent, but the words are not the selling point of this number in any case.  It is Paul's soulful delivery and the overall drive of the track that make this yet another high water mark on what may be the group's best album.

When they began work on the track on April 7th, 1966, it had a distinctly different feel from that finished version.  Anthology 2 gives us take five, which was considered best at the time.  It has a one note drone on an organ played by producer George Martin, simple drumming by Ringo, backing vocals by John and George, and a lead vocal by Paul that is completely unlike his singing on the master.

Takes six through eight recorded on the following day show that Paul had rethought how to perform the basic track.  Take eight was the keeper, featuring John on rhythm guitar and George playing a part on his lead guitar which the horn section would ultimately play instead.  A few days later, on April 11th, the glorious guitar flourish near the end of the song was added for the first time.  In his book The Beatles: Recording Sessions, Mark Lewisohn does not indicate who plays this part, but many believe that it is Paul's work and not George's.

The group did not return to the track until May 18th, by which time Paul had decided that a brass section was required to fill out the sound.  Session men playing two tenor saxophones and three trumpets experienced what many others would in the coming years, as Paul sat at a piano and George Martin translated his ideas into an arrangement while the musicians waited.  This was also the first time that engineer Geoff Emerick put microphones in the bells of the instruments to capture their sound as never before.

Once the session players had successfully completed their job, Paul recorded his sensational lead vocal.  A mono mix was done on this day, burying John and George's original guitar parts in the process (though they are still present).  Paul overdubbed another chiming guitar line on June 17th, making a new mono mix necessary.  This was done on June 20th, while also doubling the brass section by double-tracking it just slightly out of sync.  Curiously, the stereo mix done on June 22nd does not have this doubling effect.

After the group's career, the song was released as a single in the US in 1976, one week ahead of its appearance on the compilation album Rock and Roll Music.  This single reached number seven on the Billboard chart - an impressive feat considering that disco was all the rage at the time.