Words of Love

The Beatles were influenced by many of the early giants of rock and roll - Elvis, of course, plus Chuck Berry, Little Richard, and the Everly Brothers - but perhaps none of them was more influential than Buddy Holly and the Crickets.  John and Paul were extremely impressed by the fact that Buddy wrote his own material, which was not the norm at that time, and this encouraged them to try their hand at songwriting.  When the Quarry Men pooled their money to make their very first recording in 1958, they chose Holly's initial hit song That'll Be the Day, as can be heard on Anthology 1.  And, when his group was looking for a new name, John came up with one similar to the name of Holly's backing group because he liked that Crickets had a double meaning (even though the American group probably never gave a thought to the British game of cricket).  Still, he was inspired to combine another insect with beat music and give birth to the name the Beatles. 

When it came time for producer George Martin and the Beatles to select cover songs for their first few albums, Holly somehow never made the cut.  Finally, on October 18th, 1964, while working on their fourth album Beatles for Sale, they chose to record a song that had been a staple of their live act from 1958 to 1962 - Words of Love.  Being very familiar with the piece, they nailed it on the second take.  They then double-tracked the vocals and George's distinctive twanging guitar part, as Ringo added some more percussion by banging on what is reported to be a packing case, though this merely sounds like handclaps.

On the original recording from 1957, Holly double-tracked his vocals, harmonizing with himself, which was a first for any pop record.  John and Paul imitate his breathy vocal delivery, with John singing very low in his register.  Engineer Geoff Emerick worked on this session, and he claims that George also sang on the track, with the three Beatles gathered around a single microphone.

As stated above, Words of Love was recorded for the December 1964 British album Beatles for Sale, appearing as the second track on side two.  American fans had to wait until June of 1965 before the song was released on the album Beatles VI, as the final track on side one.  The song also appeared on the 1977 post-career compilation album Love Songs, where it had the distinction of being the only cover song.

They only played Words of Love on the radio on one occasion, recording it on July 16th, 1963, for the tenth edition of their program Pop Go the Beatles.  This can be heard on the collection On Air - Live at the BBC Volume 2.  To promote the release of this collection in 2013, a video of Words of Love was made, featuring some animation along with a lot of footage of the group from the early days of their career.  This can be seen on the video collection 1+.