Ticket to Ride

On February 15th, 1965, the first song to be recorded for the soundtrack of the group's second feature film was Ticket to Ride.  It was also immediately chosen to be the A-side of the next single, released well in advance of the film.  While all agreed that it was a terrific recording worthy of being a single, there was also a bit of worry involved, as it was considered to be rather progressive both musically and thematically at the time, and not in keeping with the image of the Beatles as the four lovable moptops.  This all seems trivial in retrospect, but it was a legitimate concern in that relatively conservative age - the 60's as we now think of them had not fully blossomed yet.

A good deal of rehearsal preceded the actual takes, with take one breaking down right away, and the complete take two serving as the keeper.  Numerous overdubs were then applied, including John double-tracking his lead vocal in places, Ringo adding a tambourine and handclaps, George switching guitars and playing a single note matching the bass line, and Paul playing the quirky lead guitar part that appears intermittently.  These overdubs certainly enhance the recording, but the best features remain those on the basic rhythm track - John's aching lead and Paul's soaring harmony vocals, George's towering guitar riff, Ringo's lopsided drum pattern, which Paul had suggested, and, of course, the delightful double time coda.

Before the single was even issued, the boys were in Austria where director Richard Lester shot the brilliant and inventive skiing sequence which would accompany the song in the movie.  Once the record was released in April, the band began promoting it on television appearances scheduled on some of their days off from filming, still maintaining the relentless pace demanded by manager Brian Epstein. 

The American version of the single on Capitol Records featured a label which stated that the song was from the United Artists release Eight Arms to Hold You, which had, indeed, been the working title of the film for some time.  Too late, it was learned that a new title had been chosen, and a new title song recorded within days of this US release.

The boys recorded a fresh version of the song on May 26th for their final BBC Radio special, entitled The Beatles Invite You to Take a Ticket to Ride, as can be heard on the collection Live at the BBC.  They then soon set out on a brief European tour in June, with the first stop being Paris.  I have a bootleg tape of the first performance, in which they give a spirited rendition of the song at a slightly faster tempo.  It was still their most recent release at the time, and the crowd goes wild for it. 

On August 1st, they played the song live on the television program Blackpool Night Out, which you can hear on Anthology 2.  By this time, they had dropped the second bridge and the repeat of either the first or second verse in concert, shortening the song considerably.  This continued to be the case on their North American tour, as you can hear on the 1977 album The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl.

Naturally, the song appears on both the US and UK versions of the album Help!  Though they stopped performing Ticket to Ride after 1965, the song popped up on several compilations over the years, starting with the British release A Collection of Beatles Oldies in late '66.  The Red Album from 1973, Reel Music from 1982, and the 2000 worldwide smash 1 all contain the song.

The group's final go at the song took place on November 23rd, 1965.  Tired of making television appearances as they had during the filming of Help!, they spent a long day at Twickenham Film Studios shooting videos which could be sent out in their stead to promote several of their recent songs.  The one for Ticket to Ride shows the three guitarists sitting and Ringo standing at a partial drum kit in front of a set depicting blown up tickets.  John, as was his habit, was unable to mime to the record accurately, so he merely laughs it off whenever he makes a mistake.  This video can be found on the collection 1+.

This Boy

Over the course of their career, the Beatles became known for pairing quality B-sides with their hit singles.  Many of those great songs never even appeared on albums in the UK, thus forcing the group's British fans to go out and purchase each and every single, just in case that turned out to be the only way to possess those hidden gems.  And such was indeed the case with their first truly great B-side, This Boy.

Only a few weeks after completing work on their second album With the Beatles, the boys were back in the studio on October 17th, 1963, to record both sides of their fifth single.  In the interim, an important upgrade had been made to Abbey Road Studios - four track recording.  The ability to more efficiently add overdubs would become increasingly utilized in the future, but it was used sparingly on this day.  In fact, on this occasion, producer George Martin, engineer Norman Smith and the Beatles pretty much stuck to the routine which they had only recently established.

After recording the sure-fire hit I Want to Hold Your Hand, the group concentrated on This Boy, Lennon's first attempt at writing a three-part harmony number.  John, Paul and George were no strangers to singing in this style.  To Know Her Is to Love Her had been part of their stage act for years.  And they had even recorded the song Chains, much of which is sung in three-part harmony, for their debut album Please Please Me.  On this day, they gathered around one microphone to sing, simultaneously playing their usual instruments.  It required fifteen takes to arrive at the master.  Minimal overdubs were then added - George playing a repeating lead guitar phrase for the end of the song, and John double-tracking his soaring lead vocal in the bridge.

As had been the case earlier in the year, the group now went about promoting both sides of their new single.  They mimed to the record on some television programs, but for the Morecambe and Wise Show, they performed the song live in the studio, as you can hear on Anthology 1.  The delicate harmonies are shaky in places, and John's voice cracks on his first high note in the bridge.  This performance did not deter them from adding the song to their stage act, however.  They played it for the full run of The Beatles' Christmas Show in London and during their three-week stint in Paris in January of 1964.  They performed it on their second appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show on February 16th, which was broadcast live from Miami.

And, of course, they recorded This Boy for BBC Radio.  The first instance, for a December '63 edition of the program Saturday Club, can be heard on the collection On Air - Live at the BBC Volume 2.  The second was for one of their From Us to You specials in early '64.

While the song was only available as a B-side in the UK, Capitol Records had a different approach in the US, replacing it with I Saw Her Standing There on the American single.  Instead, the song only appeared on the album Meet the Beatles!  An import single from Capitol of Canada, however, which featured This Boy as the B-side to All My Loving, did sell enough copies in the US to make the Billboard chart.  Such an impressive showing led Capitol to release both songs on an EP entitled Four by the Beatles in May of '64.

This Boy did not appear again until well after the group's career on the 1977 compilation album Love Songs.  Its next release was on the British version of Rarities.  This was followed by Past Masters in 1988, and a rather obscure release - on a bonus CD issued as part of the Compact Disc EP Collection.

Perhaps my favorite release of the song, however, is on the 1995 EP Free as a Bird, which was part of the Anthology series.  We get to hear the incomplete takes twelve and thirteen from the original session on October 17th, 1963, as the boys crack themselves up, mixing up the lyrics "that boy" and "this boy" a few times, resulting in a quick breakdown on the earlier take, and an oh-so-close take thirteen before they dissolve into laughter.