Upon entering Studio Two of EMI studios on February 11th, 1963 to record their first album, The Beatles chose to record this newly written song first. Although nearly half of the songs on this first British album were cover songs, emphasis focused on original material through the encouragement of their manager Brian Epstein. With the exception of “A Taste Of Honey,” all of the cover songs recorded for the album were done at the very end to fill the allotted 14 tracks on the album before the day was over.
Starting at 10:00 that morning, the first take was complete and with all the exact nuances already in place, except for the harmonica riff which appears to have been an afterthought. George Harrison played what we know as the harmonica riff as his lead guitar part. This take was flawless except for two things: George flubbed his introductory guitar riff, and Paul’s vocals were recorded louder than John’s. In spite of all the recorded vocals had entered onto the same track, this deemed the take unusable.
Concerning the vocal parts, Paul relates: "We both sang it. I took the high harmony; John took the lower harmony or melody. This was a nice thing because we didn't have to actually decide where the melody was till later when they boringly had to write it down for sheet music."
Take two corrected these two elements and was a complete run-through of the song. Upon listening, the only explanation as to why this wasn’t the finished version was that producer George Martin thought it could be improved upon somehow.
Take three was stopped immediately after the introductory guitar riff no doubt because George Harrison’s timing was a little late. Take four was complete but, even though it’s early in the session, you can hear John’s voice sounding a little strained already as he had a sore throat that day. They also experimented with some staccato rhythm guitar playing in the final verse, which may also have influenced George Martin to have them take another stab at the song.
Before take five began, the session tape caught George Harrison practicing his introductory guitar riff, which he played in octaves just like done for “Please Please Me.” In fact, he actually plays the “Please Please Me” riff here just to get himself acclimated to playing in this style. We also hear John instructing Paul on how to keep good timing during their a cappella line “the-e-e-e-ere.” John explains to Paul, “you gotta think the beat.” However, Paul himself stops the take after a few seconds because George was late on his guitar riff again.
Take six was also complete with near flawlessness. Take seven started off well also, but George Martin called it to a halt after George Harrison was late again with his riff at the end of the first verse. Take eight was also complete but, with Ringo’s fire-cracker-like drum fill before the bridge and George’s staccato rhythm guitar work in the final verse, this wasn’t good enough either.
Take nine was also complete, but this time you could hear Paul’s higher harmonies getting a little shaky. This and a very noticeable guitar flub in the final verse had them try it all one more time. Take ten, as it turned out, was nearly perfect and, with it being 11:30 already and a lot on the agenda that day, they deemed this as “best.”
However, at about 4:15 pm, a decision was made to return to the song to improve upon it. It was decided that John should overdub three harmonica riffs for the song. These were played using the exact notes that George Harrison originally played for his lead guitar riffs in the song. Therefore, one can barely hear these lead guitar parts in the finished song. The first attempt at this overdub, take 11, saw John’s harmonica work a little shaky, and take 12 didn’t get past the first few seconds because they accidentally didn’t have the harmonica volume up loud enough. However, take 13 was the keeper and therefore comprised the final completed version of the song. The harmonica riffs that John added were heard during the introduction of the song, at the end of the first verse, and then throughout the last 10 seconds of the song. By 4:30 pm, the song was complete.
The mono and stereo mixes of "There's A Place" were done by George Martin, assisted by Norman Smith and A.B. Lincoln, on February 25th, 1963. This mixing session was used to create both the mono and stereo masters for their first album, as well as editing the songs “I Saw Her Standing There” and “Please Please Me.” The fade out at the end of the song also accomplished well at this mixing session.
Song Structure and Style
As with the majority of songs on their first album, “There’s A Place” is written in the aaba format, which consists of 'verse /verse /bridge /verse.' But there is more to the song's structure than meets the eye. Much more.
To start out, a five-bar introduction begins the proceedings, which consists of the song's melodic riff repeated twice by Lennon’s harmonica and, if you listen carefully, Harrison’s lead guitar. At the beginning of the fourth bar, The Beatles trademark ‘break’ occurs and lasts for one and a half bars while the reverb of the last chord rings out. In the ensuing silence, John and Paul perform a harmonized five-note descending and then ascending performance of the word “there,” which acts as a clever anticipatory introduction to the first verse.
The 15 bar first verse flows in harmony throughout, John taking the lower melody while Paul takes the usual higher harmony. The eighth bar includes a triplet performed in unison by the whole group which acts as a transition into the second half of the verse. The 13th bar repeats the melodic harmonica/guitar riff once, which again leads us into a one and a half bar break, where John and Paul repeat their harmonized five-note run, but this time on the word “I.”
The second verse is different from the first in a few different respects. For one thing, it’s only twelve bars long and does not include the ‘group triplet,’ the break, or the harmonized five-note run. To create a proper transition from the verse to the bridge, an alteration of the verse structure was deemed necessary by the song's writers. Therefore, after the first seven bars of the second verse, which are identical in structure to the first verse, a complete change in the song occurs during the words “like I love only you.” The new chord pattern presented here allows for a more natural progression into the bridge. (An altered second verse occurs periodically in Lennon/McCartney compositions, such as in “I Should Have Known Better.”)
The ten-bar bridge creates a reflective mood which temporarily relieves the tension created in the song. This is achieved by Lennon singing two of the four lines solo for the first time in the song, alternating them with octave harmonies (Paul taking the higher harmony as usual) which also occur only during the bridge. With Lennon’s solo lines “In my mind, there’s no sorrow” and “there’ll be no sad tomorrows,” we’re allowed to see the intended gist of the lyrics as if the fog has lifted and we now know the moral of the story.
And then, once again, the final two bars of the bridge repeats the ‘break,’ and the harmonized five-note run on the word “there” identical to the introduction of the song. This naturally takes us to the final verse, which is nearly identical to the first verse, lyrics and all. Identical, that is, except that it is only 14 bars instead of 15. The difference reveals there is no harmonized five-note run. (Three times in a two-minute song is clearly enough; a fourth would have been a little much, as the writers or George Martin must have realized.) Therefore, the ‘break’ is only half a bar long, which then propels us into a conclusion to create a note of finality to the song. The conclusion consists of a continually harmonized repetition of the title of the song alternating with the harmonica/guitar riff as the song fades out.
A side note may be necessary here to explain why there was a need for a conclusion to be tacked on to the end of this song. Usually, Lennon / McCartney songs that have an aaba structure have verses that end with the title of the song, such as “I Saw Her Standing There,” “Love Me Do” and “I Want To Hold Your Hand.” Verses such as in these three examples were written with a note of finality ‘built in,’ so to speak, which didn’t need a conclusion tacked on at the end to make it sound complete. To understand this, imagine if “There’s A Place” ended directly after the final verse with the words “when I’m alone.” Since the end of the verse was not on the signature chord of the song, in this case, “F,” standard practice at the time usually required the signature chord to be returned to create a ‘resolve.’ Therefore, a separate conclusion needed to close the end of “There’s A Place.”
As for the musicianship of the song, both Lennon and Harrison basically play rhythm guitar throughout, except George’s hardly noticeable lead work on the signature riff of the song. Since there was no solo section written into this song, its musical highlight is Lennon's’ harmonica riff which occurs periodically throughout the song. The only other contribution from Harrison is backing vocals, which occur during the vocal line "love only you" in the second verse.
McCartney’s bass work is proficient at best, but while this was performed simultaneously with his spot-on high harmonies throughout the song, “proficient” is definitely worth recognition. Ringo performs his trademark “beat” style drumming, which appears as an identical but slower version of both “Boys” and “I Saw Her Standing There.” He gets to add his flams, his accents and his ‘awkward-but-lovable’ left-handed drum fills, which results in his putting in a noteworthy performance.
Lennon’s vocal delivery is timidly but effectively performed, including his warbly-but-classy accents in the verses, such as on the words “place,” “go” and “low” in the first verse. Motown artists, such as the influential Smokey Robinson, were no doubt the catalyst to this vocal gimmick, which Lennon performed flawlessly throughout this song.
It has been noted that The Beatles only wrote songs about love (and/or relationships) throughout their early career and that the first appearance of a song outside of this topic didn’t occur until 1966. Although this is debatable (or, should I say, incorrect, because “Nowhere Man” originally appeared in December of 1965…but if you say that it appeared first in the US in 1966, then I stand corrected), there are a few Beatles songs written before 1966 that only hint at a relationship. “One After 909” comes to mind. “There’s A Place” is another.
Although most say Lennon didn’t write about himself in his early work with The Beatles before “Help!,” we see here an example that blows that theory out of the water. This appears to be his first piece of self-analysis, which pre-dates the similar topic of the Beach Boys’ hit, “In My Room,” by a few months. Unfortunately, Lennon’s self-analysis turned into self-indulgence in his later solo years, which turned his songwriting sour in many people’s eyes.
After the first verse informs us that the place that the singer can go to cheer himself up is his mind; it’s the second verse that tells of a relationship. In his mind he thinks of the things that his ‘significant other’ does, such us her saying that she loves only him. But the general theme of the song is stated in the bridge. When he is alone, he thinks about when there is “no sorrow” and about a happy future. This topic is returned to and refined much later in his solo work “Imagine.”
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