Eight Days A Week

CHART ACTION
UNITED STATES: Also released as a single, February 15, 1965. It entered the Top 40 February 27 and stayed at No. 1 for two weeks. It spent nine weeks in the Top 40. The Long and Winding Road: An Intimate Guide to the Beatles and Billboard
This song was originally one of those on the album being considered for release as a single in the United Kingdom before Lennon composed "I Feel Fine." The Long and Winding Road: An Intimate Guide to the Beatles

AUTHORSHIP McCartney (.6) and Lennon (.4)
Sometimes Paul would be chauffeured out to Kenwood. On one occasion this provided the impetus for a song. The driver was not one of the regulars that Paul knew, but as they were turning into John's driveway Paul casually asked him if he had been busy. 'Busy?' he said. 'I've been working eight days a week.' Paul went into John's house and told him, 'Well, I've got the title: "Eight Days A Week".'
McCARTNEY: "Neither of us had heard that expression before so we had that chauffeur to credit for that. It was like a little blessing from the gods. I didn't have any idea for it other than the title, and we just knocked it off together, just filling in from the title. So that one came quickly." Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now

McCARTNEY: "I showed up at John's house one day. I had driven out from London and, because I had lost my licence because of a speeding offence, I was being driven out there and we were pulling up in John's drive and I was talking to the driver and asked him, 'What kind of a week have you had? Have you been working hard?' He then said to me, 'I've been working eight days a week, Paul!' After hearing that, I literally fell into John's place, thinking, 'That's good!' " The Beatles Off the Record: Outrageous Opinions & Unrehearsed Interviews

A decade earlier, Paul stated the title came from something Ringo said.
McCARTNEY: "He said it as though he were an overworked chauffeur: [Heavy accent] 'Eight days a week.' When we heard it, we said, 'Really? Bing! Got it!' " Playboy (December 1984)

LENNON: "Both of us [wrote this]. I think we wrote this when we were trying to write the title song for Help! because there was at one time the thought of calling the film Eight Arms To Hold You . . ." Hit Parader (April 1972)

LENNON: "It was Paul's effort at getting a single for the movie. That luckily turned into 'Help!' which I wrote, bam! bam! like that and got the single." September 1980, All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono

RECORDED
October 6, 1964, at Abbey Road, with an outro edit piece taped October 18

INSTRUMENTATION
McCARTNEY: bass, lead vocal
LENNON: rhythm guitar, acoustic guitar, lead vocal
HARRISON: lead guitar
STARR: drums

MISCELLANEOUS
This song may be the first to begin with a fade-in. The Long and Winding Road: An Intimate Guide to the Beatles

COMMENTS BY BEATLES
LENNON: " 'Eight Days A Week' was never a good song. We struggled to record it and struggled to make it into a song. It was [Paul's] initial effort, but I think we both worked on it. I'm not sure. But it was lousy anyway." September 1980, All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono

Baby It's You

AUTHORSHIP Mack David (.33), Barney Williams (.33), and Burt Bacharach (.33)

RECORDED
February 11, 1963, at Abbey Road

INSTRUMENTATION
McCARTNEY: bass, backing vocal
LENNON: rhythm guitar, lead vocal
HARRISON: lead guitar, backing vocal
STARR: drums
GEORGE MARTIN: piano

MISCELLANEOUS
Original recording artist: the Shirelles. Their version was released December 4, 1961, on the Scepter label. The Beatles Book of Lists and The Long and Winding Road: An Intimate Guide to the Beatles
It was very successful, hitting No. 8 and staying in the Top 40 for eleven weeks, beginning in early January 1962. Billboard
This song was part of the Beatles' concert repertoire in 1962 and 1963. The Complete Beatles Chronicle

HARRISON: "We'd always loved those American girl groups, like the Shirelles and the Ronettes. So yeah, we developed our harmonies from trying to come up with an English, male version of their vocal feel. We discovered the option of having three-part harmonies, or a lead vocal and two-part back-up, from doing that old girl-group material. We even covered some of those songs, like 'Baby, It's You,' on our first album."

Etcetera

AUTHORSHIP McCartney (1.00)
McCARTNEY: "I knew Marrianne Faithfull so it was natural that I would be asked to write a song at some point. I did write a song but it was not a very good one. It was called 'Etcetera' and it's a bad song. I think it's a good job that it's died a death in some tape bin. Even then I seem to remember thinking it wasn't very good. There was always the temptation to keep your better songs for yourself and then give your next-best songs to other established people, so when it was someone like Marianne, who at that time was a newcomer, those people would tend to end up with fairly dreadful offerings of mine.
"I suppose, thinking back on it, after 'As Tears Go By' maybe they were looking for more sort of a 'Yesterday', something more poignant, more baroque. I probably thought, well, this is really all I've got at the moment. I'll send it round and hope it's all okay, and maybe they'll put a baroque thing on it and that'll make it okay. She probably did 'Yesterday' because they figured, 'Well at least it's better than "Etcetera"'." Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now

Back In The U.S.S.R.

AUTHORSHIP McCartney (1.00)
McCARTNEY: "'Back in the USSR' was my take-off of Chuck Berry's 'Back in the USA'. It's a typical American thing to say when they're away: 'I miss my doughnuts and my Howard Johnson's and my launderettes and I miss the convenience of the Hyatt Hilton and it's just so much better back home and the TV's got more channels ...' So I thought, Great, I'll do a spoof on that. This'll be someone who hasn't got a lot but they'll still be every bit as proud as an American would be. It's tongue in cheek. This is a travelling Russkie who has just flow in from Miami Beach; he's come the other way. He can't wait to get back to the Georgian mountains: 'Georgia's always on my mind'; there's all sorts of little jokes in it. It's a jokey song, but it's also become a bit of an anthem now. Every time Billy Joel goes to Russia, he plays it. Probably my single most important reason for going to Russia would be to play it. It was a good song and I liked it a lot. I remember trying to sing it in my Jerry Lee Lewis voice, to get my mind set on a particular feeling. We added Beach Boys style harmonies." Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now

MIKE LOVE: "I was sitting at the breakfast table and McCartney came down with his acoustic guitar and he was playing 'Back in the USSR', and I told him that what you ought to do is talk about the girls all around Russia, the Ukraine and Georgia. He was plenty creative not to need any lyrical help from me but I gave him the idea for that little section ... I think it was light-hearted and humorous of them to do a take on the Beach Boys." Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now

LENNON: "Paul [wrote it]. Maybe I helped a bit, but I don't think so . . ." Hit Parader (April 1972)

McCARTNEY: "I wrote that as a kind of Beach Boys parody. And 'Back In The U.S.A.' was a Chuck Berry song, so it kinda took off from there. I just liked the idea of Georgia girls and talking about places like the Ukraine as if they were California, you know?" Playboy (December 1984)
Mike Love, of the Beach Boys (who did their own pastiche of "Back In The U.S.A."), contributed the chorus while he was with McCartney in India in early 1968.

McCARTNEY: "It was also hands across the water, which I'm still conscious of. 'Cause they like us out there, even though the bosses in the Kremlin may not. The kids do. And that to me is very important for the future of the race." Playboy (December 1984) McCartney would later record a solo album, with this as its title song, and release it only in the Soviet Union.

RECORDED
August 22, 1968, at Abbey Road, without Starr. Overdubs were added August 23.

George arrived back from Greece on August 21, but the next day, as they began to lay down the backing track for 'Back In The USSR', Paul ticked Ringo off over a fluffed tom-tom fill. They had already argued about how the drum part should be played. Ringo was unhappy with the atmosphere in the studio; he did not like Yoko being there, and Paul's criticisms finally brought matters to a head. Announcing that he couldn't take any more, Ringo quit the group. He flew down to the Mediterranean and spent a fortnight on Peter Sellers' yacht, thinking about his future. Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now

INSTRUMENTATION
McCARTNEY: lead guitar, piano, drums, lead and backing vocal
LENNON: 6-string bass (Bass VI), backing vocal
HARRISON: jazz bass, backing vocal
basses from Guitar (November 1987)

McCARTNEY: ". . . I'm sure it pissed Ringo off when he couldn't quite get the drums to 'Back In The U.S.S.R.,' and I sat in. It's very weird to know that you can do a thing someone else is having trouble with. If you go down and do it, just bluff right through it, you think, 'What the hell - at least I'm helping.' Then the paranoia comes in: 'But I'm going to show him up!' I was very sensitive to that . . ." Musician (October 1986)

MISCELLANEOUS
Billy Joel performed this song as an encore to a Moscow concert in late July 1987 to thunderous applause and thousands in the audience singing along. AP (July 27, 1987)

COMMENTS BY OTHERS
BRIAN WILSON, of the Beach Boys, on this song being a parody/tribute to his group: "I didn't even recognize that until someone said something. I thought that was really adorable." Crawdaddy (July 1976)

Do You Want To Know A Secret

CHART ACTION
UNITED STATES: Also issued as a single more than a year after it was recorded, during the frenzied days of Beatlemania in the United States. The song, on Vee Jay, entered the Top 40 in mid-April 1964, hitting No. 2 during its nine-week run. Vee Jay re-released it August 10, 1964, but it didn't chart. The Long and Winding Road: An Intimate Guide to the Beatles

AUTHORSHIP Lennon (.5) and McCartney (.5)
It would be some time before George began writing his own material and 'Do You Want To Know A Secret' was written for him. Based on an original idea by John, it was essentially what Paul calls a 'hack song', a 50-50 collaboration written to order. John says that he based the tune on 'Wishing Well' from Walt Disney's 1937 cartoon Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs. Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now

LENNON: "I wrote this one. I remember getting the idea from a Walt Disney film - Cinderella or Fantasia. It went something like: "D'you wanna know a secret, promise not to tell, standing by a wishing well." Beatles in Their Own Words

LENNON: "[My mother] used to do this little tune when I was just a one- or two-year-old. . . . The tune was from the Disney movie. . . . So, I had this sort of thing in my head and I wrote it and just gave it to George to sing." September 1980, All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono

LENNON: "I wrote that one, but I can't say I wrote it for George. I was in the first apartment I'd ever had that wasn't shared by fourteen others. I'd just married Cyn and Brian Epstein gave us his secret little apartment that he kept in Liverpool for his sexual liaisons separate from his home life. He let Cyn and I have that apartment. Now my mother was a singer, not professional, but she used to get up in pubs and things like that. She had a good voice, and she used to do a little tune when I was one or two years old. The tune was from a Walt Disney film, Cinderella or Fantasia. It went something like, 'Do you wanna know a secret, promise not to tell, standing by a wishing well.' So, I had this sort of thing in my head and I wrote it and just gave it to George to sing. I thought it would be a good vehicle for him, because it only had three notes and he wasn't the best singer in the world. In those days, his singing ability was very poor because he hadn't the opportunity and he concentrated more on guitar. So I wrote that one, not for him, as I was writing it, but when I had written it, I thought he could do it." The Beatles Off the Record: Outrageous Opinions & Unrehearsed Interviews

Harrison said this song (or its recording) was inspired, to some extent, by "I Really Love You," a rhythm and blues hit for the Stereos in 1961. Musician (November 1987)

RECORDED
February 11, 1963, at Abbey Road

INSTRUMENTATION
McCARTNEY: bass, backing vocal
LENNON: rhythm guitar, backing vocal
HARRISON: lead guitar, lead vocal
STARR: drums

MISCELLANEOUS
This song was part of the Beatles' concert repertoire in 1963. The Complete Beatles Chronicle
Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas, also managed by Brian Epstein, recorded a version of this song. It was released in Britain on April 26, 1963 (backed with a McCartney song, "I'll Be on My Way"), and was a big hit: No. 1 for two weeks. Although it bombed in the United States, Kramer's U.K. success proved for the first time that Lennon-McCartney songs could be hits for other artists. That began a long and fruitful career for the pair as songwriters for other artists. The Long and Winding Road: An Intimate Guide to the Beatles
Lennon, solo on acoustic guitar, recorded the demo of this song for Billy J. Kramer in a lavatory. The toilet was flushed at the end of the tape. Lennon told Kramer that the lavatory was the quietest place he could find to make the recording. Lennon : The Definitive Biography

Baby's In Black

AUTHORSHIP Lennon (.5) and McCartney (.5)
Written by John and Paul at Kenwood. Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now
LENNON: "[We wrote it] together, in the same room."
September 1980, All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono

McCARTNEY: "We wanted to write something a little bit darker, bluesy, the title's dark anyway. It's in 3/4 time, one of the first waltzes we wrote, which was interesting for us because most of our stuff's in 4/4. It was very much co-written and we both sang it. Sometimes the harmony that I was writing in sympathy to John's melody would take over and become a stronger melody. Suddenly a piebald rabbit came out of the hat! When people wrote out the music score they would ask, 'Which one is the melody?' because it was so co-written that you could actually take either. We rather liked this one. It was not so much a work job, there was a bit more cred about this one. It's got a good middle." Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now

RECORDED
August 11, 1964, at Abbey Road. It was the first song recorded for the album.

INSTRUMENTATION
McCARTNEY: bass, lead vocal
LENNON: acoustic guitar, lead vocal
HARRISON: lead guitar
STARR: drums, tambourine

MISCELLANEOUS
This song was in the Beatles' live repertoire from 1964 to 1966. The Complete Beatles Chronicle
McCARTNEY: " 'Baby's In Black', we used to put that in there, and think, 'Well, they won't know quite what to make of this but it's cool." Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now

Day Tripper

CHART ACTION
UNITED KINGDOM: Released as a single December 3, 1965, backed with "We Can Work It Out." Both were hits, but "Day Tripper" was considered the stronger of the two. Five days after release, it entered the chart at No. 1, where it stayed for five weeks. The Long and Winding Road: An Intimate Guide to the Beatles

UNITED STATES: Released as a single December 6, 1965, backed with "We Can Work It Out," which got more airplay. "Day Tripper" was in the Top 40 for eight weeks beginning on December 25, 1965, and peaked at No. 5. The Long and Winding Road: An Intimate Guide to the Beatles and Billboard
The monthly Beatles Book revealed in its January 1966 issue that the Beatles preferred "We Can Work It Out" as the A side, but others preferred "Day Tripper."

AUTHORSHIP Lennon (.6) and McCartney (.4)
Lennon and McCartney said in a 1966 interview that "Day Tripper" was a "forced" composition, needed quickly for a new single. The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions: The Official Story of the Abbey Road Years 1962-1970

Co-written in October 1965 at Kenwood.
McCARTNEY: "This was getting towards the psychedelic period when we were interested in winking to our friends and comrades in arms, putting in references that we knew our friends would get but that the Great British Public might not. So 'she's a big teaser' was 'she's a prick teaser'. The mums and dads didn't get it but the kids did. 'Day Tripper' was to do with tripping. Acid was coming in on the scene, and often we'd do these songs about 'the girl who thought she was it'. Mainly the impetus for that used to come from John; I think John met quite a few girls who thought they were it and he was a bit up in arms about that kind of thing. 'She Said' was another one. But this was just a tongue-in-cheek song about someone who was a day tripper, a Sunday painter, Sunday driver, somebody who was committed only in part to the idea. Whereas we saw ourselves as full-time trippers, fully committed drivers, she was just a day tripper. That was a co-written effort; we were both there making it all up but I would give John the main credit. Probably the idea came from John because he sang the lead, but it was a close thing. We both put a lot of work in on it. I remember with the prick teasers we thought, 'That'd be fun to put in'. That was one of the great things about collaborating, you could nudge-nudge, wink-wink a bit, whereas if you're sitting on your own, you might not put it in. You know, 'I'd love to turn you on', we literally looked at each other like, 'Oh, dare we do this?' It was a good moment, there was always good eye contact when we put those things in." Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now

LENNON: "Me [I wrote it], but I think Paul helped with the verse." Hit Parader (April 1972)

LENNON: "That's mine, including the lick, the guitar break, and the whole bit. It's just a rock 'n' roll song. Day trippers are people who go on a day trip, right? Usually on a ferryboat or something. But it was kind of - you know, 'you're just a weekend hippie.' Get it?" September 1980, All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono

RECORDED
October 16, 1965, at Abbey Road

INSTRUMENTATION
McCARTNEY: bass, lead vocal
LENNON: rhythm guitar, tambourine, lead vocal
HARRISON: lead guitar
STARR: drums

MISCELLANEOUS
This song was part of the Beatles' live repertoire in 1965 and 1966. The Complete Beatles Chronicle