Can't Buy Me Love

CHART ACTION
UNITED KINGDOM: Originally released as a single, March 20, 1964. It had huge advance sales and entered the chart at No. 1 on March 24. The Long and Winding Road: An Intimate Guide to the Beatles

UNITED STATES: Originally released as a single, March 16, 1964. Entered the Billboard Top 40 March 28 and stayed for nine weeks, five at No. 1. The Long and Winding Road: An Intimate Guide to the Beatles There were advance orders of 2.1 million copies.

RULING THE CHARTS

This song headed the largest monopoly of the U.S. charts by any group or individual in recording history. The Beatles' positions on the Billboard Hot 100 chart of April 4, 1964:
No. 1: "Can't Buy Me Love"
No. 2: "Twist And Shout"
No. 3: "She Loves You"
No. 4: "I Want To Hold Your Hand"
No. 5: "Please Please Me"
No. 31: "I Saw Her Standing There"
No. 41: "From Me To You"
No. 46: "Do You Want To Know A Secret"
No. 58: "All My Loving"
No. 65: "You Can't Do That"
No. 68: "Roll Over Beethoven"
No. 79: "Thank You Girl"
At the same time, the Beatles also occupied the top two positions on the album chart, with Meet The Beatles and Introducing The Beatles. The Long and Winding Road: An Intimate Guide to the Beatles

AUTHORSHIP McCartney (.9) and Lennon (.1)
McCARTNEY: "This was written really when we was in Paris. We had to have a new record ready for recording in England and we were going to record a song in Paris as well, so we wrote 'Can't Buy Me Love' there and we recorded the first track of it in Paris and we finished it off in London. It's a two-country effort. It's double-tracked as well." The Beatles Off the Record: Outrageous Opinions & Unrehearsed Interviews

This song was written in Paris. The Beatles were playing their season at the Olympia Theatre: two and sometimes three shows a day for eighteen days, from January 16 until February 4, 1964. They were staying at the exclusive Goerge V Hotel on the Avenue George-V, in the expensive residential area between the Champs Elysees and the River Seine. In order to work on songs for their upcoming movie, John and Paul had an upright piano brought to the sitting room of their suite and installed in the corner by a window. Here Paul wrote "Can't Buy Me Love". They rehearsed it; George Martin flew over from London; and on January 29 they recorded it at the Pathe Marconi Studios on rue de Sevres. Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now

McCARTNEY: " '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. It was a very hooky song. Ella Fitzgerald later did a version of it which I was very honoured by." Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now

LENNON: "John and Paul, but mainly Paul." Hit Parader (April 1972)

LENNON: "That's Paul's completely. Maybe I had something to do with the chorus, but I don't know. I always considered it his song." September 1980, All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono

HARRISON: "They did 'Can't Buy Me Love' in Paris, and the other side over in Miami Beach. Ringo and I didn't chip in with any of it, except at the recording session, where we always try to help. We suggest little things here and there." The Beatles Off the Record: Outrageous Opinions & Unrehearsed Interviews

RECORDED
January 29, 1964, at Pathe Marconi Studios, Paris

GEORGE MARTIN: "When The Beatles first sang 'Can't Buy Me Love' to me, they started singing, 'da da da da', and that was the beginning of the song. So I told them, 'We need a tag for the ending and the beginning.' I then took the first few lines of the actual chorus and changed the ending, and said, 'Right. Let's just have thse lines and, by altering the end of the second phrase, we can get back into the verse pretty quickly.' They said, 'Hey, that's not a bad idea! OK, we'll do it that way.' So that, in fact, is the way it was done." The Beatles Off the Record: Outrageous Opinions & Unrehearsed Interviews

INSTRUMENTATION
McCARTNEY: bass, lead vocal (double-tracked)
LENNON: rhythm guitar
HARRISON: lead guitar (Rickenbacker 360/12 [12-string])
STARR: drums
guitar from Guitar (November 1987)

HARRISON: "For the first time ever on record, I play a 12-string guitar, which is much wilder! I had the guitar given to me in America and will be featuring it in some of the numbers we do on stage in the future." The Beatles Off the Record: Outrageous Opinions & Unrehearsed Interviews

DICK JAMES: "During the recording of this song, he was really having a ball, because it was the first chance that he had to record with the L300 12-string guitar which he had bought in the States. He thoroughly enjoyed himself, twanging and incorporating different effects." The Beatles Off the Record: Outrageous Opinions & Unrehearsed Interviews

MISCELLANEOUS
MARTIN: "The way they first sang 'Can't Buy Me Love' was by starting on the verse, but I said: 'We've got to have an introduction, something that catches the ear immediately, a hook. So let's start off with the chorus.' " All You Need Is Ears : The inside personal story of the genius who created The Beatles

"Can't Buy Me Love" was used for a pivotal scene in A Hard Day's Night. In the early scenes director Richard Lester had developed the feeling of confinement by shooting most scenes in enclosed spaces. (The idea had been spurred when Lennon replied to Lester's question of how he had liked Sweden on a recent tour: "It was a room and a room and a car and a room and a room and a car . . .") The movie led up to the point where the Beatles rebelled.

RICHARD LESTER: "We see them break out. We needed a visual example of that escape. Suddenly, the film opens up, and that's really the point of 'Can't Buy Me Love.' "

This song was part of the Beatles' repertoire for concerts in 1964 and 1965. Live
This song was played as a march by a military band as the Beatles received their MBEs in the Great Throne Room at Buckingham Palace, October 26, 1965. The Beatles Diary, Volume 1 : From Liverpool to London

McCARTNEY: "[We] felt proud because Ella Fitzgerald recorded it, too, though we didn't realize what it meant that she was doing it." Playboy (December 1984) The version by jazz singer Fitzgerald was a minor hit in May 1964. The Long and Winding Road: An Intimate Guide to the Beatles

COMMENTS BY BEATLES
LENNON: "This one is Paul solo. None of us sing on the track at all, except Paul. This is better than our other records. It's certainly the one we most enjoyed doing. This is a 12-bar number, which is what we've always wanted to do. You might say our other discs have led up to this one. People think this 12-bar stuff is easy, but it isn't! We really like this disc." The Beatles Off the Record: Outrageous Opinions & Unrehearsed Interviews

McCARTNEY: "Personally, I think you can put any interpretation you want on anything, but when someone suggests that 'Can't Buy Me Love' is about a prostitute, I draw the line. That's going too far." Beatles in Their Own Words

McCARTNEY: "Miami was incredible . . . MG Motors were trying to sell their convertibles down there, which was a perfect little Florida car, and lent us one each as a publicity thing. I remember meeting this rather nice girl and taking her out for dinner in this MG in the cool Florida night, palm trees swaying. You kidding? A Liverpool boy with this tanned beauty in my MG going out to dinner. It should have been 'Can Buy Me Love', actually." Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now

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)

Cry Baby Cry

AUTHORSHIP Lennon (1.00)
Original lyrics: "Cry baby cry, make your mother buy." Lennon said, in about 1968, that he got the words from an advertisement. The Beatles: Illustrated and Updated Edition

McCARTNEY: "Because John had divorced Cynthia and gone off with Yoko, it meant that I'd hear some of the songs for the first time when he came to the studio, whereas in the past we checked them with each other." This was an example of such a song; Paul liked it. Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now

RECORDED
Rehearsed July 15, 1968, at Abbey Road, then recorded July 16, with overdubbing July 18

INSTRUMENTATION
McCARTNEY: bass
LENNON: acoustic guitar, piano, organ, lead vocal
HARRISON: lead guitar (Gibson Les Paul)
STARR: drums, tambourine
GEORGE MARTIN: harmonium
guitar from Guitar (November 1987)

COMMENTS BY BEATLES
LENNON: "A piece of rubbish." September 1980, All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono

All I've Got To Do

AUTHORSHIP Lennon (1.00)
A Lennon solo effort, shown to Paul only in the studio just before recording. Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now

LENNON: "That's me trying to do Smokey Robinson again." September 1980, All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono

RECORDED
September 11, 1963, at Abbey Road

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

Come And Get It

AUTHORSHIP McCartney (1.00)
McCARTNEY: "I wrote this very late one night at Cavendish Avenue, leaving Linda in bed and saying, 'I've got an idea for a song.' I went downstairs and just whispered it into my tape recorder. I played it very quietly so as not to wake her. I knew it was a very catchy song." Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now

Recorded by Badfinger in August 1969. McCartney recorded an elaborate demo of the song in one hour on July 24 and then, on August 2, produced the Badfinger recording session that yielded this big hit. The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions: The Official Story of the Abbey Road Years 1962-1970

McCARTNEY: "I ran in and did it very quickly with Phil MacDonald, the engineer. And I said to Badfinger, 'You should copy this faithfully.' They said, 'But we'd like to change it a little bit.' I said, 'No, it's absolutely the right arrangement.' They said, 'But-' I said, 'Change the B side, or change all the other stuff on the album, make those all yours, but please don't change this. I can guarantee it's a hit." Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now

A Hard Day's Night

CHART ACTION
UNITED KINGDOM: Released as a single July 10, 1964. In five days it went to No. 1, where it stayed for four weeks. The Long and Winding Road: An Intimate Guide to the Beatles

UNITED STATES: Released as a single July 13, 1964, more than two weeks after the album debuted in the United States. Entered the Top 40 July 18, stayed twelve weeks, and held the No. 1 spot for two. The Long and Winding Road: An Intimate Guide to the Beatles and Billboard

AUTHORSHIP Lennon (.9) and McCartney (.1)
WALTER SHENSON: "We were really desperate for a title. The film was three parts finished and we still didn't have a good title. So, at 10:30 one night, when we were driving away from the studio, I asked John to write the title song. John called me at 8:30 the next morning and said that he and Paul had jotted one down on some scraps of paper. We recorded it that same night." The Beatles Off the Record: Outrageous Opinions & Unrehearsed Interviews

LENNON: "I was going home in the car and Dick Lester suggested the title Hard Day's Night [for the movie] from something Ringo'd said. I had used it in In His Own Write, but it was an off-the-cuff remark by Ringo. You know, one of those malapropisms. A Ringoism, where he said it not to be funny, just said it. So Dick Lester said we are going to use that title, and the next morning I brought in the song. 'Cause there was a little competition between Paul and I as to who got the A side, who got the hit singles." September 1980, All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono

McCARTNEY: "John said, 'I'll write it.' And he did, he came back the next day with it. I think he might not have had all the words. I might have been in on that middle eight. Something like that would only have taken twenty minutes. That would have been plently of time to run through it." Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now

WALTER SHENSON, film producer: "I told John that it would be great to have a song called 'A Hard Day's Night' to play over the title and credits . . .he just said he'd think about it. That night we were driving back into town together, and he asked the driver to let him off first becuase he had some work to do. The next morning at about eight-thirty, John asked me to step aside into this little room. Paul was in there, and they began playing their guitars, singing words John had written out on a matchbook. The song was 'A Hard Day's Night'." Classic Rock Stories : The Stories Behind the Greatest Songs of All Time

The film was probably named April 13, and the song played to Shenson on the 14th. The Beatles took time off from shooting to record it at Abbey Road on the 16th, a good example of the speed at which their lives were going. Shortly afterwards, while editing continued, they resumed touring. Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now

RECORDED
April 16, 1964, at Abbey Road
This song was written, arranged, rehearsed, and recorded in a little more than twenty-four hours. The Complete Beatles Chronicle

INSTRUMENTATION
McCARTNEY: bass, harmony vocal
LENNON: rhythm guitar, lead vocal (double-tracked)
HARRISON: lead guitar (Rickenbacker 360/12 [12-string])
STARR: drums
GEORGE MARTIN: piano
guitar from Guitar (November 1987)

LENNON: "The only reason [Paul] sang on 'Hard Day's Night' was because I couldn't reach the notes." September 1980, All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono

MISCELLANEOUS
This song was part of the Beatles' repertoire for concerts in 1964 adn 1965. The Complete Beatles Chronicle

Chains

AUTHORSHIP Gerry Goffin (.5) and Carole King (.5)

RECORDED
February 11, 1963, at Abbey Road.

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

MISCELLANEOUS
Original recording artist: the Cookies. Their version was released October 2, 1962, and entered the Top 40 in early December. It hit No. 17 during its eight-week stay there. The Beatles Book of Lists
This song was part of the Beatles' concert repertoire in 1963, and Harrison, Lennon, and McCartney shared lead vocals live. The Complete Beatles Chronicle