The Beatles, album "The Beatles' Million Sellers"
mono: 06.12.1965
The Beatles' Million Sellers
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02:50 She Loves You (John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 04.11.1963
JOHN 1963: 'We wrote that two days before we recorded it, actually.'PAUL 1963: 'John and I wrote it together.
We were in a van up in Newcastle somewhere, and we'd just gone over to our hotel.
I originally got an idea of doing one of those answering songs, where a couple of us sing about 'she loves you' …and the other one sort of says the 'yes, yes' bit.
You know, 'yeah yeah' answering whoever is saying it.
But we decided that was a crummy idea anyway.
But we had the idea to write a song called 'She Loves You' then.
And we just sat up in the hotel bedroom for a few hours and wrote it, you know.'JOHN 1963: ''Yeah.' That's sort of the main catch phrase from 'She Loves You.' We'd written the song, and then suddenly realized we needed more… so we added 'yeah, yeah, yeah' and it caught on.'JOHN 1980: 'It was written together (with Paul) and I don't remember how.
I remember it was Paul's idea – instead of singing 'I love you' again, we'd have a third party.
The 'Woooo' was taken from the Isley Brothers 'Twist And Shout,' which we stuck into everything.'PAUL 1982: 'Occasionally, we'd overrule George Martin, like on 'She Loves You,' we end on a sixth chord, a very jazzy sort of thing.
And he said, 'Oh, you can't do that! A sixth chord? It's too jazzy.'
We just said, 'No, it's a great hook, we've got to do it.''PAUL 1988: 'We rehearsed the end bit of 'She Loves You' and took it to George.
And he just laughed and said, 'Well, you can't do the end of course… that sixth… it's too like the Andrew Sisters.' We just said, 'Alright, we'll try it without,' and we tried it and it wasn't as good.
Then he conceded, 'You're right, I guess.' But we were both very flexible.
We would listen to George's ideas too, because he was a producer and a musician, and he obviously knew what he was talking about.
There was good to-and-fro.
We loved that bit, and we rehearsed it alot.
John and I wrote that in a hotel room, on twin beds during an afternoon off – I mean, God bless their little cotton socks, those boys WORKED! Here I am talking about an afternoon off, and we're sitting there writing! We just loved it so much.
It wasn't work.' -
02:37 I Want to Hold Your Hand (John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 02.12.1963
PAUL 1964: 'Let's see, we were told we had to get down to it.
So we found this house when we were walking along one day.
We knew we had to really get this song going, so we got down in the basement of this disused house and there was an old piano.
It wasn't really disused, it was rooms to let.
We found this old piano and started banging away.
There was a little old organ too.
So we were having this informal jam and we started banging away.
Suddenly a little bit came to us, the catch line.
So we started working on it from there.
We got our pens and paper out and just wrote down the lyrics.
Eventually, we had some sort of a song, so we played it for our recording manager and he seemed to like it.
We recorded it the next day.'JOHN 1980: 'We wrote alot of stuff together, one on one, eyeball to eyeball.
Like in 'I Want To Hold Your Hand,' I remember when we got the chord that made the song.
We were in Jane Asher's house, downstairs in the cellar playing on the piano at the same time.
And we had, 'Oh you-u-u/ got that something…' And Paul hits this chord, and I turn to him and say, 'That's it!' I said, 'Do that again!' In those days, we really used to absolutely write like that – both playing into each other's noses.'PAUL circa-1994: ''Eyeball to eyeball' is a very good description of it.
That's exactly how it was.
'I Want To Hold Your Hand' was very co-written.' -
02:10 Can't Buy Me Love (Paul McCartney – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 29.01.1964
JOHN 1972: 'John and Paul, but mainly Paul.'JOHN 1980: 'That's Paul completely.
Maybe I had something to do with the chorus, but I don't know.
I always considered it his song.'PAUL 1984: 'We recorded it in France, as I recall.
Went over to the Odeon in Paris.
Recorded it over there.
Felt proud because Ella Fitzgerald recorded it, too, though we didn't realize what it meant that she was doing it.'PAUL circa-1994: ''Can't Buy Me Love' is my attempt to write a bluesy mode.
The idea behind it was that all these material possessions are all very well but they won't buy me what I really want.' -
02:20 I Feel Fine (John Lennon – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 17.11.1964
JOHN 1964: 'George and I play the same bit on the guitar together – that's the bit that'll set your feet a-tapping, as the reviews say.
The middle-eight is the most tuneful part, to me, because it's a typical Beatles bit.'JOHN 1972: 'This was the first time feedback was used on a record.
It's right at the beginning.'JOHN 1974: 'I wrote this at a recording session.
It was tied together around the guitar riff that opens it.'JOHN 1980: 'That's me completely.
Including the guitar lick with the first feedback anywhere.
I defy anybody to find a record… unless it is some old blues record from 1922… that uses feedback that way.
So I claim it for the Beatles.
Before Hendrix, before the Who, before anybody.
The first feedback on record.'PAUL circa-1994: 'John had a semi-acoustic Gibson guitar.
It had a pick-up on it so it could be amplified… We were just about to walk away to listen to a take when John leaned his guitar against the amp.
I can still see him doing it… and it went, 'Nnnnnnwahhhhh!' And we went, 'What's that? Voodoo!' 'No, it's feedback.' Wow, it's a great sound!' George Martin was there so we said, 'Can we have that on the record?' 'Well, I suppose we could, we could edit it on the front.' It was a found object – an accident caused by leaning the guitar against the amp.
The song itself was more John's than mine.
We sat down and co-wrote it with John's original idea.
John sang it, I'm on harmonies.'
