And I Love Her

CHART ACTION
UNITED STATES: Also released as a single, July 20, 1964. It entered the Top 40 on August 8, spent seven weeks there, and peaked at No. 12. Road and Billboard

AUTHORSHIP McCartney (.8) and Lennon (.2)
Jane Asher was probably the inspiration for a number of Paul's love songs, one of the most famous being "And I Love Her", written at Wimpole Street in the basement music room, not long after Paul moved in.
McCARTNEY: "It was the first ballad I impressed myself with. It's got nice chords in it, 'Bright are the stars that shine, dark is the sky. . .' I like the imagery of the stars and the sky. It was a love song really. The 'And' in the title was an important thing, 'And I Love Her', it came right out of left field, you were right up to speed the minute you heard it. The title comes in the second verse and it doesn't repeat. You would often go to town on the title, but this was almost an aside, 'Oh . . . and I love you.' It still holds up and George played really good guitar on it. It worked very well. I'm not sure if John worked on that at all." Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now

LENNON: "Both of us [wrote this]. The first half was Paul's and the middle-eight is mine." Hit Parader (April 1972)

McCARTNEY: "The middle eight is mine. I would say that John probably helped with the middle eight, but he can't say 'It's mine'. I wrote this on my own. I can actually see Margaret Asher's upstairs drawing room. I remember playing it there, not writing it necessarily." Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now

RECORDED
February 25, remade February 26 and again February 27, 1964, at Abbey Road

DICK JAMES: "They were laying down the tracks and doing the melody lines of the song 'And I Love Her'. It was a very simple song and quite repetitive. George Martin and I looked at each other and the same thought sparked off in both of our minds. It was proving to be, although plain and a warm and sympathetic song, just too repetitive, with the same phrase of repeating. George Martin told the boys, 'Both Dick and I feel that the song is just lacking the middle. It's too repetitive, and it needs something to break it up.' I think it was John who shouted, 'OK, let's have a tea break', and John and Paul went to the piano and, while Mal Evans was getting tea and some sandwiches, the boys worked at the piano. Within half an hour they wrote, there before our very eyes, a very constructive middle to a very commercial song. Although we know it isn't long, it's only a four bar middle, nevertheless it was just the right ingredients to break up the over repetitive effect of the original melody." The Beatles Off the Record: Outrageous Opinions & Unrehearsed Interviews

INSTRUMENTATION
McCARTNEY: acoustic guitar, lead vocal (occasionally double-tracked)
LENNON: acoustic guitar
HARRISON: acoustic guitar solo, claves
STARR: bongos

MISCELLANEOUS
This song was one of the most-covered Beatles compositions, with 372 different versions recorded by October 1972. The Long and Winding Road: An Intimate Guide to the Beatles

McCARTNEY: "It's just a love song; no, it wasn't for anyone. Having the title start in midsentence, I thought that was clever. Well, Perry Como did 'And I Love You So' many years later. Tried to nick the idea. I like that - it was a nice tune, that one. I still like it." Playboy (December 1984)