I Wanna Be Your Man and Devil In Her Heart, a double dose journey inside their incredible recording process advancements revealed here and now.

For such a simple song, The Beatles had quite a difficult time recording it, probably due to just recently written and not exactly sure what kind of arrangement would suit it. September 11th, 1963, the day after they finished it in front of The Rolling Stones, they attempted to record it in Studio Two at EMI at 2:30 pm. After one take, it was decided to leave it for another day.

The next day, September 12th, they returned to the song during the evening session, which ran from 7:00 to 11:30 pm. After working extensively on both “Don’t Bother Me” and “Little Child,” The Beatles returned to “I Wanna Be Your Man” at approximately 10:45 pm for six more takes, numbered two through seven. Take seven was considered the best at this point, a composite of two takes edited together just before the final verse, and they called it a night, although much more work would need attending to on this track.

Two and a half weeks later, on September 30th, another recording session took place which included this song, although The Beatles were not involved. While they were out of the country, George Martin took it upon himself to try his hand at overdubbing a Hammond organ onto the song. Starting approximately at 8:30 am, he attempted six tries at this overdub onto the completed take seven from September 12th, and the last attempt was deemed best, which took the song to take 13. Interestingly, the liner notes from the British "With The Beatles" album state that John Lennon played the Hammond Organ, but official documentation confirms otherwise.

Three days later, on October 3rd, the group (minus George Harrison) reassembled in Studio Two of EMI for more work on the song. This three-hour session took place from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm and started with Ringo double-tracking his vocal and adding maracas to the song. These two overdubs now took the song to take 15.

With the deadline for their second British album perilously close, The Beatles convened once again in Studio Two of EMI on October 23rd, 1963 for their final contribution to the album, which was a final overdub for “I Wanna Be Your Man.” Although documents don’t reveal what this overdub included, it occurred at the beginning of this session, which ran from 10 am to 1 pm. After this final overdub appeared completed, The Beatles observed George Martin and Norman Smith preparing a mono mix with a fade for the song, as well as “Little Child” and “Hold Me Tight.” These were the final mono mixes for the album, which are the ones that are heard on the US album “Meet The Beatles!” The stereo mix with a fade for “I Wanna Be Your Man,” as well as for the rest of the album, was performed on October 29th by Martin, Smith, Geoff Emerick, and B.T.

The Beatles actually had one other recording session for “I Wanna Be Your Man.” This was on April 19th, 1964 to provide a pre-recorded soundtrack for the British television special “Around The Beatles,” aired by the BBC on May 6th and June 8th, 1964. The group lip-synced to this song in front of a studio audience for the broadcast. This session, which they recorded on three-track tape, took place at IBC Studios in London, with Jack Good producing, Terry Johnson engineering and Glyn Johns as second engineer and tape operator. Johns was to become the engineer/producer for the “Let It Be” album, released in 1970.

Song Structure and Style

We here see another example of Lennon and McCartney utilizing a chorus in a song, which wasn’t done to a great degree this early in their career. The song consists of a 'verse/ chorus/ verse/ chorus' format (or abab). After the second chorus, a guitar solo section is added before another verse and chorus is heard.

The introduction can hardly be viewed as a separate section of the song as it consists of a simple but rousing lead guitar flourish from George Harrison. We then jump headlong into the first verse, which is played in a bluesy style and sung solo by Ringo. The verse encompasses an odd 17 bars but is actually symmetrical in that the verse consists of two identical eight-bar sections with another bar thrown in to give Ringo time to take a breath before the chorus begins. The entire verse runs on the E major chord without any changes whatsoever, except the hint of a B chord in the seventh and fifteenth bar. The odd seventeenth bar actually consists of the customary Beatles ‘break’ with the beginning of the chorus sung acapella.

The eight-bar chorus, which lyrically only consists of the title of the song sung four times, brings in some unimaginative but effective chord changes that contrast nicely from the single chord verse. The chorus shows John and Paul harmonizing with Ringo, which would more appropriately be termed "overpowering" since we can almost not hear Ringo at all in the choruses. The seventh bar of the chorus shows off the “Fortune Teller” downturned final note.

After the second verse and an identical repeat of the chorus, we enter into a guitar solo section featuring Harrison’s simple but energetic guitar riffs. This solo work is all but overshadowed by Paul and John’s shouting and carrying-on. The solo section is 12 bars long and centers only on the E major chord, making it unlike either the verse or chorus of the song. This part of the song appears to be aimless vamping which ends somewhat embarrassingly with muffled talking as it segues to an edit into another performance of the first verse.

After another chorus enters, the group rides out the rest of the song on E major similar to the solo section of the song, but this time the title of the song repeats with a similar melody line as the chorus. As the song fades, we hear exuberant shouting and barking (?!?) from Paul and John. All in all, rock ‘n’ roll "energy" is the name of the game here and done very well.

Lyrically, though, there isn’t much to tell. In a nutshell, it appears that the singer wants to be someone’s “man.” His qualifications for this proposed job is that he can love the girl in question “like no other baby.” Unfortunately, the song goes unresolved because we never find out if he did indeed achieve his goal. One can only hope for Ringo to release a follow-up, hopefully, titled “I Got To Be Her Man!”

All kidding aside, the obvious thrust to this song is not in its lyrics, as McCartney relates, “we were in love with the sound, the music. We often used to say to the people; the words don’t really matter; people don’t listen to words; it’s the sound they listen to. So ‘I Wanna Be Your Man’ was to try and give Ringo something like ‘Boys.’” The high energy, free-spirited, bluesy, rock ‘n’ roll feel to the song fit perfectly with the image The Beatles wanted to portray to American audiences, and therefore fit perfectly on their first Capitol album.

Performance-wise, Ringo fit the bill perfectly as vocalist on this song. Although written with a specific limited range for the vocalist, and Ringo did stray off-key at times, this was a great vehicle for him to perform live, which was the intent of the song. Subsequently, his vocal work appeared to improve slightly during its performance life as he grew more accustomed to it. He even added different embellishments, as noted on the “Live At The BBC” and “Anthology 1” CDs. Ringo’s drum work is an excellent example of the "beat" style they spearheaded during their Cavern / Hamburg days, complete with the idiosyncrasies in his drum fills at the end of each verse.

George Harrison can next be mentioned for his stunning guitar licks heard throughout the song, as well as the subtle phrases played during the solo. The chromatic scale guitar riffs heard in the chorus adds a distinctive contrast to the bluesy tone heard in the verses. Lennon accentuates the Bo Diddley concept by adding tremolo to his rhythm guitar throughout. It appears that John is actually singing the lead vocals during the chorus, which fits the criteria of their usual habit of singing lead on whatever they predominantly wrote.

McCartney’s bass work is commonplace compared to what we’ve seen otherwise up to this point but fits well with the feel of the song. Since the song was recorded very shortly after it was written, Paul simply could have felt this was good enough for a “throwaway” number. Paul’s harmonies are of his usual high quality, while his excited wails and barks come across as a little much (or as comic relief). George Martin’s Hammond organ work, while a semi-essential ingredient to the mix, is more felt than heard except for his flourishes at the end of each chorus.

Next Song—Devil In Her Heart:

In the event the lads had just recorded “Devil In Her Heart” for the BBC radio show “Pop Go The Beatles” two days earlier (July 16th, 1963), The Beatles thought the song would be a good contender for being a track on their second album as they entered EMI studio two on July 18th, which was their first day of recording for the album.

This evening session, which ran from 7 to 10:45 pm, started with starting and completing “You Really Got A Hold On Me” and then laying the groundwork for “Money (That’s What I Want).”  At approximately 9:00, they started “Devil In Her Heart” as their third song of the evening.  Three live takes were made of the complete song with all four group members playing their usual instruments while singing lead and background vocals.  Take three was deemed the best.

The band then added three overdubs on top of take three, which included extra guitar flourishes from George Harrison, double-tracked lead vocals during the verses, and Ringo playing maracas.  This took the song to take six, which completed the song as we hear it today.  The song was completed by approximately 10:00 pm, which freed them up to attempt to record the ballad “Till There Was You,” although they ultimately left this for another time.

The mono mix of the song (from take 6) was performed on August 21st, 1963, as was the rest of the album that was completed by that point.  Only producer George Martin and engineers Norman Smith and Geoff Emerick were present for this session.  The stereo mix was made on October 30th, along with the rest of the album, in a quick three-hour session by the same three recording personnel, along with the unnamed B.T.

January 7th, 1969, saw The Beatles return to the song in Twickenham Film Studios during the rehearsing for the "Get Back/Let It Be" film.  This was a brief impromptu run-through, only done because the song they were rehearsing at the time, “Don’t Let Me Down,” featured George Harrison playing guitar work that similarly phrased to what he did on “Devil In Her Heart.”  It reminded them of the song, and they reminisced.

Song Structure and Style

The structure of this song is a unique one for The Beatles thus far.  We see here a back-and-forth pattern between a refrain and a verse.  Each refrain and verse contains subtle changes in lyrics, so there is no constant unchangeable “bridge” or “chorus” as we’re used to hearing in The Beatles catalog thus far.  So what we end up with is a 'refrain/ verse/ refrain/ verse/ refrain/ verse/ refrain' structure (or abababa), the final refrain extended for an appropriate conclusion.

After a percussive count-in from Ringo and a four measure introduction featuring “Latin” sounding guitar phrases, we delve right into the first eight-measure refrain with harmonic warnings from John and Paul to the lead singer (George) about the dangerous relationship he desires.  George replies to every warning with disbelief, as he does twice in the first refrain alone.  Also of note is the ‘break’ that occurs before each refrain, something well featured in most Beatles songs of this era.

Because of the chord structure of the verses, they actually act as a bridge between each refrain.  Bold background harmonies are heard against George’s double-tracked lead vocals throughout the verse until the last line, which brings all three vocalists harmonizing together “she’s an angel sent to me.”  The verses are actually nine measures long, extended during this last line to create an adequate segue back into the refrain.

This segues into another refrain identical in structure except for different replies from George in his answer lyrics.  Then into another verse which also is identical in structure and style apart from different lyrics.  This time the background vocals chime in on the final line “listen can’t you see.”

A third refrain is then heard, which is identical structurally and lyrically to the second refrain except for a couple extra “nos’” in George’s lead lines.  The third verse which follows changes things up a bit by having the background vocalists (Paul to the fore) sing the first four measures alone, while we get back to the regular three vocalist format for the last five measures, going back to the last line of the first verse, “she’s an angel sent to me.”

The final refrain is completely identical to the third refrain except it extends to sixteen measures to act as a suitable ending.  The final four measures continue the “warning/disbelief” dialog lyrically while we hear a return of the introductory “Latin” guitar phrases at the same time.  Instead of the fade-out ending of the original version by The Donays, the group brings the song to a full conclusion similar to how they ended it when played live at The Cavern and elsewhere.

As stated earlier, the lyrics are depicting friends warning the singer that his new love interest has a reputation of breaking hearts while the lead singer counters with disbelief and claims “she’ll never hurt me.”  The clever use of lyrics was no doubt a feature that attracted The Beatles to the song, one example being the repeated “devil” and “angel” comparisons.  Another is the clever rhyming of “don’t take chances if your romance is,” which is similar to many songs in the Lennon McCartney catalog, such as “it won’t be long till I belong to you.”

Concerning the lyrics, The Beatles purposely made the gender change from "Devil in His Heart" to "Devil In Her Heart" with all the necessary alterations throughout the song.  There was one inadvertent error made as well due to them trying to decipher the lyrics from the original 45.  "No, not me will he deceive" mistakenly became "no, no, nay will she deceive."  Interestingly, they sang the correct line during their BBC performance two days earlier but changed it to “no, no nay” when recording it properly in EMI studios.  And when The Beatles returned to the song six years later (January 7th, 1969) for an impromptu run-through of the song, Lennon is heard correcting McCartney's remembrance of the lyrics, still insisting the lyrics included "no no nay."

George Harrison gets the nod as the true highlight of the song, with his “Latin” guitar phrasings and suitable lead vocal work.  Ringo also impresses with his Latin-sounding “bam-boom-boom” drum fills that introduce the song as well as each refrain.  His drum style throughout has a rumba rhythm which, with the maraca overdub, creates a convincing Latin feel.  His open hi-hat sound, common with early Beatle songs, gives the song a fullness and drive that is lacking on the original version.

Also noteworthy is the background vocals of John and Paul, which emphasize an effective ‘nagging’ quality that is appropriate to the lyrics of the song.  Although the rhythm guitar and bass are rudimentary throughout, Lennon and McCartney provide these essential ingredients to create the full picture and round out an impressive cover version of an obscure song.

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