107.7 The Bone - Bone Up On The Beatles!

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Bone Up On The Beatles!

3-12-10
FOR NO ONE, 1966

For No One is a song written by Paul McCartney about the end of a relationship. He said it was "A love that should have lasted years."

For No One was written in the bathroom of a ski resort in the Swiss Alps while Paul was on holiday with his then girlfriend Jane Asher.

Perhaps the song was about that relationship. McCartney said, "I suspect it was about another argument."

With only Paul and Ringo participating, along with the "best French horn player in London," this is For No One.

3-11-10
ELEANOR RIGBY, 1966

Eleanor Rigby, which originally appeared on the Revolver album in 1966 is one of The Beatles' truly timeless compositions.

And it wasn't even a standard pop song!

None of the Beatles played instruments on it. Instead, Paul McCartney used a string octet - four violins, two cellos, and two violas - and it still hit the number one spot on the pop charts.

Eleanor Rigby, a song for all the lonely people.

3-10-10
SLOW DOWN, 1964

Slow Down is an old rhythm and blues number written and performed by Larry Williams.

Besides having a ton of hit records in the 60's, and heavily influencing the growing Rock & Roll movement of the time, Larry Williams will be remembered as a guy who pulled a gun on and threatened to kill his long-time friend, Little Richard, over a drug debt.

The Beatles loved his song, tough. The story of a hapless bloke who just can't keep up with his woman.

Slow down, baby, you're movin' way too fast.

3-9-10
SGT PEPPERS LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND, 1967

In 1967, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was a #1 record around the world. One of the first "concept" albums, it featured very elaborate arrangements and was recorded on a four-track tape machine.

The "concept" came about on a flight back to England after a vacation, where Paul McCartney had an idea in which an entire album would be role-played, with each of The Beatles assuming an alter-ego in the "Lonely Hearts Club Band", which would then perform a concert in front of an audience.

The inspiration came when their roadie Mal Evans innocently asked McCartney what the letters “S” and “P” stood for on the little shakers on their in-flight meal trays, and McCartney explained it was for salt and pepper.

Sgt. Pepper's.

3-8-10
BLACKBIRD, 1968

Paul McCartney recorded 32 takes of the song Blackbird, alone, with just a guitar and a metronome for accompaniment.

The last one was the best and appeared on The Beatles' 1968 White Album.

Actually, he did add some sounds of blackbirds singing which we're taken from a sound effects recording called Volume Seven: Birds of a Feather.

We we're only waiting for this moment to arise.

3-5-10
ANYTIME AT ALL, 1964

Even though the song Any Time At All was a last-minute composition, I think it is one of the most underrated songs in Beatles history.

This is one of those songs that was finished on the fly, so to speak. John Lennon had it half written when they went into the studio in 1964 and he just finished it up and recorded it there.

In 1988 John's handwritten lyrics for Any Time At All were sold for $9,000 at auction and contained one of the great Lennon lines ever, "All you've gotta do is call and I'll be there."

3-4-10
GOOD MORNING, GOOD MORNING, 1967

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band might just be the most influential album of popular music ever. The album cover is definitely the most famous ever.

Track 4, side 2, John Lennon's Good Morning Good Morning, starts with a rooster crowing, then later features a cat, dogs barking, horses, sheep, lions, elephants, a fox being chased by dogs with hunters' horns being blown, then a cow and finally a hen, all dubbed in from a sound effects disc and arranged in order of creatures capable of eating the one before, at Lennon's request.

3-3-10
ROCKY RACCOON, 1968

Rocky Raccoon, a campy song about a wimpy American kid seeking revenge against a love rival, was originally called Rocky Sassoon, but Paul McCartney changed it to Rocky Raccoon because he thought "it sounded more like a cowboy."

McCartney said, "I like talking blues so I started off like that. It's me writing a play, a little one-act play. Rocky Raccoon is the main character, then there's the girl whose real name was Magill, who called herself Lil, but she was known as Nancy."

The Old West-style honky-tonk piano was played by Beatles producer, Sir George Martin.

3-2-10
PLEASE PLEASE ME, 1963

Please Please Me was the first Beatles single to be issued in the US. It arrived in 1963, literally at the beginning of Beatlemania in this country.

When John Lennon wrote the song, he was listening to Roy Orbison sing Only The Lonely and thinking about a Bing Crosby song that went, 'Please lend a little ear to my pleas.' The double use of the word 'please'.

So, Lennon said that Please Please Me was a combination of Roy Orbison and Bing Crosby.

The song was recorded in 18 takes and when Beatles producer, George Martin completed the session, he told the guys, "You've just made your first #1."

47 years ago today, Please Please Me actually did hit #1 on the charts.

3-1-10
THINK FOR YOURSELF, 1965

Think for Yourself is a song which first appeared on The Beatles 1965 album Rubber Soul. Written and sung by George Harrison, it was Paul McCartney who would be remembered for a then-unique application of a fuzzbox to his bass, the first time that was ever done.

Think for Yourself is a song about someone that George Harrison had parted ways with, although he said he couldn't remember who that "someone' was.

Probably best.

2-26-10
YOU CAN'T DO THAT, 1964

Today, a vintage John Lennon song, You Can't Do That from 1964. This was one of Lennon's semi-autobiographical songs, about his own jealousy.

John himself has admitted to being somewhat controlling of his first wife Cynthia, so it's no surprise that You Can't Do That would be the story of a guy with a very hot but very flirtatious girlfriend.

He tells her, "If I catch you talkin' to that boy again I’m gonna let you down and leave you flat..... you can't do that "

2-25-10
SAVOY TRUFFLE, 1968

This song is about George Harrison and Eric Clapton.

Harrison formed a close friendship with Clapton in the late 1960s, and they co-wrote the song Badge, which appeared on Cream's Goodbye album with George on rhythm guitar.

Harrison wrote one of his compositions for The Beatles' Abbey Road album, Here Comes the Sun, in Clapton's backyard garden.

Eric Clapton also guested on George Harrison's While My Guitar Gently Weeps with The Beatles. They remained close friends even after Pattie Boyd (Layla) split from Harrison and married Clapton, referring to each other as "husbands-in-law".

Harrison wrote the song Savoy Truffle as a tribute to his friend Eric Clapton's insatiable chocolate addiction. Despite the fact that Clapton had cavities and suffered from toothaches, George admonished him; "You'll have to have them all pulled out after the savoy truffle."

2-24-09
I'M SO TIRED, 1968

I'm So Tired is a John Lennon song appearing on The Beatles White Album from 1968.

John wrote it while at a meditation camp in India. After three weeks of constant meditation and lectures, he missed his soon-to-be wife, Yoko Ono, and wrote I'm So Tired.

Lennon later regarded it as one of his favorite songs.

2-23-10
DO YOU WANT TO KNOW A SECRET?, 1963

Do You Want to Know a Secret, from The Beatles first album Please Please Me, was sung by George Harrison but was written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney together, inspired by the song I'm Wishing, a tune from Walt Disney’s 1937 animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which Lennon's mother, Julia, would sing to him as a child.

Do you want to know a secret? Do you promise not to tell?

2-22-10
STRAWBERRY FIELDS FOREVER, 1967

John Lennon pointed out on several occasions that Strawberry Fields Forever was his best Beatles song.

Strawberry Fields is a real place, a children's community home run by the Salvation Army, near where John grew up in Liverpool.

In 1966, Lennon and McCartney each wrote a song about their childhood in Liverpool.

One side of the resulting single was Paul McCartney's Penny Lane; the other was today's Classic Vinyl track, John Lennon's Strawberry Fields Forever.

2-19-10
THE FOOL ON THE HILL, 1967

The Fool on the Hill is a Paul McCartney song he wrote for The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour movie.

Keep in mind that the year was 1967, The Summer of Love, hippies, peace, love, dope and......unscripted movies with various "ordinary" people (including John Lennon's uncle Charlie), all traveling on a psychedelic bus and having unspecified "magical" adventures.

Not a great movie, btw, but The Fool on the Hill is a great Beatles song.

Paul McCartney said he was writing about someone like the Maharishi: "His detractors called him a fool. Because of his giggle he wasn't taken too seriously ... I was sitting at the piano at my father's house in Liverpool......and I made up Fool on the Hill."

2-18-10
THE ONE AFTER 909, 1970

The One After 909 was written primarily by John Lennon before The Beatles were even formed. This version is also the live performance from the legendary rooftop concert which took place on top of the Apple headquarters in London in 1969 and was featured in the movie Let It Be.

Paul McCartney always liked The One After 909, "because it has great memories for me of John and I trying to write a bluesy freight-train song."

2-17-10
WHILE MY GUITAR GENTLY WEEPS, 1968

While My Guitar Gently Weeps is a song written by George Harrison for The Beatles' White Album featuring his close friend Eric Clapton, on guitar.

At the time, George had been consulting the I Ching, the Eastern Book of Changes, which gave him the idea of writing a song based upon the first thing he saw when opening a book. At his parents' home, he just picked out a book at random, opened it and the first words he noticed were "gently weeps."

He put the book down and began writing the song, While My Guitar Gently Weeps.

2-16-10
EIGHT DAYS A WEEK, 1964

Apparently it was Ringo Starr, who was noted for his malapropisms (like "A Hard Day's Night" or "Tomorrow Never Knows"), who came up with the title Eight Days A Week.

Although it was a huge American hit, #1 in fact, the group didn't think highly of the song. John Lennon called it "lousy", and they never performed it live.

Nonetheless, Eight Days A Week ended up featuring what is probably the first fade-in to a pop record - as opposed to a record "fading out."

2-15-10
LOVELY RITA, 1967

Today, Lovely Rita from the Sgt Peppers album, 1967.

After receiving a parking ticket in London, Paul McCartney wrote a song that he said he was thinking "should be a hate song. but then I thought it would be better to love her and if she was freaky too, like a military man, with a bag on her shoulders. A foot stomper, but nice."

He ended up inviting her out to tea, and McCartney had just written another hit song for the Beatles.

2-12-10
HEY BULLDOG, 1969

For most of their career, The Beatles worked well together and always seemed to have fun, especially in the recording studio. Before they left for India, the fellas we're in studio to film a promo for Lady Madonna, but figured if they we're already there, why not record a song?

Paul McCartney wondered if John Lennon had any tunes laying around, asking, "Could you whip one off?" to which Lennon replied, "I had a few words at home, so I brought them in."

They began recording the song as Hey Bullfrog, but Paul started barking at the end making John laugh hysterically. (You don't think these guys we're smoking pot, do you?)

Goofballs that they we're, The Beatles kept in the barking and changed the title to Hey Bulldog.

Who knows what Hey Bulldog is about? According to John Lennon, it was "a good sounding record that means nothing."

2-11-10
COME TOGETHER, 1969

In 1969, LSD guru Timothy Leary decided to run for Governor of California, and asked John Lennon to write a song for him.

"Come Together, Join The Party" was Leary's campaign slogan and was the original title of the song. Leary never had much of a campaign, mostly because he ended up in jail on marijuana charges, but the slogan gave Lennon the idea for this song.

Calling it "gobbledygook," all Lennon did was add some nonsense lyrics and bring it to the Abbey Road sessions where it ended up being the first song on the disc.....and a #1 hit in America.

Come Together.

2-10-10
YESTERDAY, 1965

Today, Yesterday.

Paul McCartney composed the entire melody to Yesterday in a dream one night. When he woke up, he immediately played the song on the piano so he wouldn't forget.

Funny thing is, since the idea came to him in a dream, Paul worried that subconsciously he might have plagiarised someone else's work (known as cryptomnesia). As he put it, "For about a month I went round to people in the music business and asked them whether they had ever heard it before. Eventually it became like handing something in to the police. I thought if no-one claimed it after a few weeks then I could have it."

Yesterday was the first official recording by The Beatles with only a single member of the band: Paul McCartney was accompanied solely by a string quartet.

2-9-10
TILL THERE WAS YOU, 1964

Today on Bone Up On The Beatles!, a song the fellas didn't write. It was actually from a production called The Music Man, a Broadway show tune entitled Till There Was You.

Even though playing the song at their audition for Decca Records didn't get them the job, it sure worked everywhere else. They played Till There Was You constantly in concert, on the BBC, on The Ed Sullivan Show, and they recorded it for their Meet The Beatles album.

During the recording of Till There Was You, Beatles manager Brian Epstein was in the studio and remarked to their producer George Martin, that he thought there was a flaw in Paul McCartney's voice. John Lennon famously spoke into the microphone, "We'll make the records, you just go on counting the percentages."

2-8-10
ACT NATURALLY, 1969

Tonight, Ringo Starr will be honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. And, he's being honored today on Bone Up On The Beatles!

Ringo didn't get to sing lead on a lot of songs, but being the most documented and critically acclaimed movie actor-Beatle, the song Act Naturally was an ideal showcase for Ringo's good-natured vocals."

Act Naturally is a song originally recorded by Buck Owens and the Buckaroos (out of Bakersfield), whose version reached #1 on the charts.

It's all about a fellow who was the biggest fool that ever hit the big time. And all he had to do was act naturally.

2-5-09
LUCY IN THE SKY WITH DIAMONDS, 1967

You want psychedelic? Here you go. Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds from The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's album.

Everybody thinks the song's title stands for LSD, the hallucinogenic drug. John Lennon has denied it, but Paul McCartney said it was "pretty obvious" that the song was inspired by LSD.

What really happened though, was one day in 1966, Lennon's son, Julian, came home from nursery school with a drawing he said was of his classmate, Lucy O'Donnell, drawn with diamond-shaped eyes.

Showing the artwork to his father, young Julian described the picture as "Lucy — in the sky with diamonds."

Julian Lennon later said, "I used to show dad everything I'd built or painted at school, and this one sparked off the idea for a song about 'Lucy in the sky with diamonds'."

Turn on, tune in....how's that go?

2-4-10
SHE'S A WOMAN, 1964

She's A Woman, written by Paul McCartney, was his attempt at imitating the vocal style of Little Richard, one of his idols. Not sure if Little Richard was a pot smoker or not, but it was right around this time, 1964, that The Beatles became inveterate joint smokers and took great delight in sneaking in a "Turn me on" reference, as in "Turn me on when I get lonely, people tell me that she's only foolin', I know she isn't."

She's A Woman was written and recorded the same day, perhaps in a smokey Beatle haze.....

2-3-10
WITHIN YOU WITHOUT YOU, 1967

Today on Bone Up On The Beatles!, Within You Without You, the last song recorded for The Beatles' 1967 album, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Besides selling a gazillion copies, and being at the top of the charts for many, many weeks, Sgt. Peppers also won 4 Grammys including Album of the Year and (of course), for Best Album Cover.

Within You Without You features only George Harrison and a group of uncredited Indian musicians, and was written on a harmonium (which sounds alot like an accordion) at the house of long-time Beatles friend Klaus Voormann, while "there were lots of joints being smoked".

2-2-10
MARTHA MY DEAR, 1968

Martha My Dear is the first track on side 2 of The Beatles White Album and Paul McCartney is the only Beatle on the recording!.

McCartney double-tracked his vocals, also played piano, bass, lead guitar, drums, handclaps, and did the brass and string arrangements consisting of violins, violas, cellos, trumpets, a flugelhorn, a french horn, a trombone and a tuba - 15 musicians in all.

Martha My Dear was inspired by McCartney's Old English Sheepdog, also named Martha, but the song itself is about his old girlfriend, Jane Asher.

Jane and Paul split up shortly before the song came out. At least he still had Martha to keep him warm at night.

2-1-10
DRIVE MY CAR, 1966

Drive My Car, the first track on the Beatles' Yesterday and Today album, is a song written by Paul McCartney, with a little help from Psychedelic Rolls Royce owner John Lennon.

This is the same song that Sir Paul played at halftime of the 2005 Super Bowl, the year after Janet Jackson exposed her boobie on live TV. They figured McCartney wasn't likely to offend anyone.

Guess they never got what the girlfriend in the song was talking about when she said "Baby you can drive my car......and maybe I'll love you."

To which he replied, "Beep beep beep-beep yeah!!"

1-29-10
I'M A LOSER, 1965

John Lennon wrote I'm A Loser on a plane while The Beatles were touring in 1964.

He considered it one of his best early songs.

Lennon gave a very famous interview to Playboy magazine in 1980 where he said that I'm A Loser is "Me in my Dylan period... part of me suspects I'm a loser and part of me thinks I'm God almighty."

1-28-10
TELL ME WHY, 1964

Tell Me Why is a song by The Beatles from their album A Hard Day's Night from 1964, the year Beatlemania came to America.

John Lennon, whose parents separated when he was 3 years old, has said that the lyrics were about children whose parents split up.

That, and apparently he didn't put much effort into writing the song, saying, "They needed another upbeat song, and I just knocked it off."

1-27-10
OH! DARLING, 1969

Abbey Road became one of the most successful Beatles albums ever. In the UK, the album debuted straight at #1 and stayed there for 11 weeks. Incredible popularity.

The 4th track on Abbey Road, Oh! Darling, was Paul McCartney all the way.

Paul said, "When we were recording Oh! Darling, I came into the studios early every day for a week to sing it by myself because at first my voice was too clear. I wanted it to sound as though I'd been performing it on stage all week." He would only try the song once each day; if it was not right, he would wait until the next day, even practicing the song in the bathtub.

1-26-10
INSTANT KARMA!, 1970

Instant Karma! is one of three John Lennon solo songs, along with Imagine and Give Peace a Chance, in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It ranks as one of the fastest-released songs in pop music history, recorded the same day it was written, and coming out only ten days later.

Lennon said that he "wrote it for breakfast, recorded it for lunch, and we're putting it out for dinner."

Instant Karma! was produced by Phil Spector, who is currently serving 19 years to life for the murder of his girlfriend, proving the song's premise that "you better get yourself together or pretty soon you're gonna be dead."

1-25-10
GETTING BETTER, 1967

Getting Better is a song written by Paul McCartney and John Lennon for the Beatles' 1967 Sgt. Pepper's album, based on an original idea by McCartney. Most of John and Paul's collaborations had been written in the early days in Liverpool and by the mid-sixties they mainly wrote individually, but this was one of the few occasions later on when they did work together.

Still, they we're two totally different people. McCartney was an optimist, hence the line, "It's getting better all the time." Lennon, who might be described as more of a pessimist, replied, "It can't get no worse!"

1-22-10
PIGGIES, 1968

Piggies is a George Harrison song from The Beatles' White Album. They put the song in the middle of side 2, in the so-called "animals" segment, sandwiched in between Blackbird and Rocky Raccoon.

Not an anti-police anthem as some people have said, Piggies, a song that is still relevant 42 years later, is basically Harrison's social commentary on class and corporate greed.

Listen carefully for a Baroque-style harpsichord and string quartet — which suddenly starts playing a blues riff.

1-21-10
SOMETHING, 1966

Something is a song from The Beatles 1969 album, Abbey Road.

Something was the only George Harrison composition to hit #1 on the American charts while he was in The Beatles.

John Lennon and Paul McCartney both loved Something. McCartney said "For me, I think it's the best he's written." It's been covered by over 150 artists and is the second-most covered Beatles song after Yesterday.

Who cares if it took 52 takes in the recording studio to get Something right.

They got it right.

1-20-10
ALL MY LOVING, 1964

All My Loving is a song by Paul McCartney conceived while on a tour bus. He said, "It was the first song I'd ever written the words first. I never wrote words first, it was always some kind of accompaniment. I've hardly ever done it since either."

After The Beatles tour bus arrived at the gig, McCartney wrote the music on a piano backstage.

Can't you just see him kissing his girlfriend goodbye as he heads toward yet another mob of screaming teenagers?

1-19-10
A DAY IN THE LIFE, 1967

It was on this date in 1967 that The Beatles began recording a song with the working title of In the Life of.....

34 hours of studio time later, the song was finished at the Abbey Road studios and became the classic, A Day In The Life.

A 41 piece orchestra played on this. The musicians were told to attend the session dressed formally. When they got there, they were presented with party hats, fake noses, and gorilla masks to wear, which made it clear this was not going to be a typical recording session.

Excuse me Mr. Lennon, your morning paper has arrived.

1-18-10
YELLOW SUBMARINE, 1966

Yellow Submarine is a 1966 song by The Beatles with lead vocals by Ringo Starr. First appearing on the Revolver album, it later became the title song of the animated film, also called Yellow Submarine.

Shortly before he was murdered, John Lennon said, "Yellow Submarine is Paul's baby. Donovan helped with the lyrics. I helped with the lyrics too. We virtually made the track come alive in the studio, but based on Paul's inspiration. Paul's idea. Paul's title... written for Ringo."

Apparently Donovan added the words, "Sky of blue and sea of green" and while some people have tried to read drug connotations into Yellow Submarine (this being the psychedelic 60's and all), McCartney said, "It's a happy place, that's all. We were trying to write a children's song. That was the basic idea. And there's nothing more to be read into it than there is in the lyrics of any children's song."

1-15-09
BACK IN THE USSR, 1968

Paul McCartney wrote Back in the U.S.S.R. while The Beatles were in India, learning Transcendental Meditation. Back in the U.S.S.R. is the opening track on the double-disc album known as The White Album.

The title of the song is a tribute to Chuck Berry's Back in the U.S.A. but it's also a parody of the Beach Boys' song, California Girls. ("I couldn't wait to get back in the states. Back to the cutest girls in the world")

So, instead of hot chicks in California, it was those Ukraine girls that really knocked him out, including an invitation to "Come and keep your comrade warm."

"Excuse me Mr. McCartney, would you kindly raise your seatback to an upright position, get your paper bag on your knee; your "dreadful" flight is about to take off from Miami International Airport."

1-14-10
GOOD DAY SUNSHINE, 1966

Good Day Sunshine is a song from The Beatles 1966 album Revolver. It was written mainly by Paul McCartney, then just 24 years-old, though like all Beatles songs written by either of them, it's credited as Lennon/McCartney.

Sir Paul wrote the song after being inspired by the Lovin' Spoonful's hit, Daydream. He said it had that "old-timey vaudevillian feel."

Ladies and gentleman the hands-down most positive and uplifting song in the history of the universe, Good Day Sunshine.

1-13-10
HELLO GOODBYE, 1967

Hello, Goodbye, now a playable song in The Beatles: Rock Band, topped the charts in both the United States and Britain where it spent seven weeks at number one, and was the Christmas number one for 1967.

Alistair Taylor, who worked for the Beatles' manager, Brian Epstein, once asked McCartney how he wrote his songs, so Paulie took him into his dining room to give him a demonstration on his harmonium, which is a kind of keyboard/organ instrument.

He asked Taylor to shout the opposite of whatever he sang as he played the instrument—black and white, yes and no, stop and go, hello and goodbye.

Taylor later said, "I wonder whether Paul really made up that song as he went along or whether it was running through his head already."

Notwithstanding McCartney's greatness as a songwriter, we're guessing the former.

1-12-10
SUN KING MEDLEY, 1969

The climax of the Abbey Road album is a sixteen-minute medley, blended into a suite by Paul McCartney and their producer, Sir George Martin.

You Never Give Me Your Money is the first song of the Abbey Road medley, written by McCartney about The Beatles' financial problems with Apple, followed by Sun King (which showcases Lennon's, McCartney's, and Harrison's overdubbed harmonies), then Mean Mr. Mustard (written during The Beatles' trip to India), and Polythene Pam (a John Lennon song).

These in turn are followed by four McCartney songs, She Came in Through the Bathroom Window (written after a fan literally came into McCartney's house through the bathroom window), Golden Slumbers (based on the lyrics of a 17th-century song of the same name), Carry That Weight (featuring chorus vocals from all four Beatles), and the penultimate climax, The End.

1-8-10
WE CAN WORK IT OUT, 1966

In late 1966, The Beatles we're trying to decide which song they should release as their next single. John Lennon argued vociferously for Day Tripper, differing with the majority view that We Can Work It Out was a more commercial song.

As a result, the single was marketed as the first "double A-side," (like they we're expecting two big hits) but ultimately We Can Work It Out proved to be more popular, and it reached No. 1 on both sides of the Atlantic.

1-7-10
I'VE JUST SEEN A FACE, 1965

I've Just Seen a Face was written by Paul McCartney. The song also features McCartney on vocals and was recorded in 1965 at Abbey Road in London on same day that he recorded the Beatles classic Yesterday.

Dare we say, but I've Just Seen a Face was almost pure country, and if they threw in a banjo and fiddle, you might think this speedy little acoustic number was (gasp!) bluegrass!

1-6-10
I FEEL FINE, 1964

Today on Bone Up On The Beatles!, I Feel Fine.

By 1964, The Beatles had started to explore some new musical ideas. Like using noises that were recorded "mistakes," (electronic goofs, twisted tapes, talkback) and putting them on record.

And feedback too.

I Feel Fine was really the first time anybody had used feedback as a recording effect. Of course Jimi Hendrix and all the others perfected it later on, but John Lennon was always proud of the fact that The Beatles were the first group to actually put it on vinyl. He once said, "I defy anyone to find an earlier record...with feedback on it."

1-5-10
A HARD DAYS NIGHT, 1964

Once the title of the Beatles debut film, A Hard Day's Night, had been decided, John Lennon immediately made up his mind that he would compose the movie's title track. Lennon whipped out the lyrics in one night, saying "...the next morning I brought in the song 'cuz there was a little competition between Paul and I as to who got the A-side — who got the hits."

In the early days, The Beatles worked quickly. It took them less than three hours in the studio to record A Hard Day's Night, a song that begins with one of the most unmistakable chord's in Rock, as George Harrison's Rickenbacker 12-string guitar blasts out a "mighty opening chord," as producer George Martin called it; "We knew it would open both the film and the soundtrack LP, so we wanted a particularly strong and effective beginning."

1-4-10
I SAW HER STANDING THERE, 1963

When the Beatles first hit the scene in America, you heard their music on AM radio. Here in the Bay Area, you might have listened to the legendary Tom Donahue spin the Beatles on KYA radio - the same station that produced the Beatles final live concert at Candlestick Park.

I Saw Her Standing There was the first track on the first Beatles record, Please Please Me, from 1963. Originally titled Seventeen, the song was apparently conceived by McCartney while driving home from a Beatles concert in England.

On the subject of learning to play an instrument, McCartney always felt that rather than have a teacher, you should just steal bits and pieces from other musicians you heard on the radio.

"Here’s one example of a bit I pinched from someone: I used the bass riff from Talkin’ About You by Chuck Berry in I Saw Her Standing There. I played exactly the same notes as he did and it fitted our number perfectly. Even now, when I tell people, I find few of them believe me; therefore, I maintain that a bass riff hasn’t got to be original".