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.