With the George Martin/Brian Epstein plan to release a new Beatles single every three months, their Manager ushered his band into the studio on March 5th, 1963, which was their only free day in weeks, to quickly record their next single. “Please Please Me” was still doing great on the British charts and their first album wasn’t even released yet, but the ‘powers that be’ were making sure that The Beatles’ name would continue to be on the minds of British fans.
Two recording sessions in Studio Two at EMI occurred on this day, the first (from 2:30 to 5:30 pm) utilized for recording both sides of their next single. After “From Me To You” was started and fully completed, “Thank You Girl” began at approximately 4 pm. Six full band takes of the song were recorded with the group playing their usual instruments as well as performing all of the vocals. No harmonica parts appeared on this day. The sixth take was considered the best.
The closing of the song needed some help, so the group, probably at the suggestion of George Martin, performed seven attempts of an edit piece to close the song. The edited piece consisted of the Buddy Holly-like “oh, oh” opening segment of the verses with a Sandy Nelson-like drum solo by Ringo. After this repeats twice, the “oh, oh” segment appears a third time followed by an energetic accentuated ending. Since Ringo has gone on record as stating that he despises drum solos, he relented and impressively performed the two solo sections. This is not to say that it came easily for him; hence the seven attempts to nail this edit piece. John can be heard on the session tapes between these takes saying that Ringo wasn’t “on the beat.” Nonetheless, they eventually got it right, the seventh attempt, or take 13, being the best. A decision was also made to increase the reverb on this ending section of the song, so a noticeable fullness permeates the last measures of the song.
The song appears to have had the working title “Thank You Little Girl” at this stage, although the word “little” only appears once in the song during the second verse. Since the documentation, which leads many to believe this was the working title, usually consisted of an engineers’ handwritten scribbles on a recording sheet at the time of the recording date, doubt can easily surface as to this title being actually considered by the group. Since the phrase “thank you girl” is repeated nine times in the lyrics without ever including the word “little,” it appears unlikely that they wanted this to be the title of the song. It might easily account that the engineer wrote it down incorrectly on the recording sheet.
The noteworthy harmonica parts on the song were actually recorded over a week later, on March 13th. John Lennon was the only Beatle to be in Studio Two on this day since he was the only one needed to perform this overdub. He could barely perform this overdub the way it was because he was suffering from a bad cold, which had him “croaking and wheezing, blowing his nose every few seconds” according to engineer Geoff Emerick. Lennon’s cold was so bad that he missed The Beatles performance the night before in Bedford during their second national tour with Chris Montez and Tommy Roe. The three-man Beatles had to rearrange the vocals of songs such as “Please Please Me” to cover up for John’s absence.
Nonetheless, John was game to record the harmonica parts necessary to complete the song. Only one problem remained, and that was that he forgot to bring his harmonica. Geoff Emerick remembered that his friend Malcolm Davies, who was employed by EMI and was currently in the mastering room, played harmonica and probably had it with him. John went up to the mastering room to borrow it, and the session was on its way.
There were six segments of harmonica needed to fill out the song, but it took 15 takes to get them all recorded. This wasn’t because John was incapable, but only because of his “sneezing and snuffling.” After his work ended, John went back up to the mastering room to return the harmonica to Malcolm, not thanking him, instead complaining that it “tasted like a sack of potatoes.”
This session started at 10:00 am with John’s overdubs completed probably around 11:00. Afterwards, George Martin and engineers Norman Smith and Geoff Emerick stuck around until 1:00 pm to edit in the harmonica overdubs onto the previously edited song, as well as to construct both mono and stereo mixes of the song. Since usually only mono mixes were required for songs issued as singles, they may not have been sure at this stage if the song would list on an album, which did require a stereo mix. Britain didn’t get an album release for the song in the ’60s, so the stereo mix was not released there at the time. America did get treated to this stereo mix on “The Beatles’ Second Album.”
When the stereo mix took place on this day, it included three harmonica segments unworthy to include on the mono mix. ‘Tender Loving Care’ usually went into the mono mixes since this was what most record buyers bought and radio stations played. For some reason, they took the extra work of including these other three harmonica segments, two of which occur in the bridge and one at the conclusion of the song. Another difference is with the fifth harmonica segment, which on the stereo mix begins before the one-beat of the measure, strategically covering up the edit previously made between the first and second sections of the song. This edit may have been more noticeable in stereo, so they picked a different take of that harmonica segment to cover it up.
This is the version millions of American record buyers were familiar with on “The Beatles’ Second Album.” Since Capitol constructed “mono Type B” versions of Beatles songs taken from the stereo masters received from George Martin, a method which combined both the left and right channels of the stereo mix to create a new mono mix, both the mono and stereo versions of this American album contained these harmonica segments. Capitol was also in the habit of adding reverb to Beatles songs to give them more fullness, and this is what they did to “Thank You Girl.” Since a fair amount of reverb was already present in the closing measures of the song, the ending became extremely full sounding. Although the song previously appeared on the flip side of both “From Me To You” and “Do You Want To Know A Secret” on the American Vee-Jay label with the original mono mix, most American Beatles fans were unacquainted with the original mono version without those harmonica segments and added reverb until the “Past Masters, Volume One” CD came out in 1988.
One noticeable difference between the actual session tapes and all of the released versions of the song is the tempo. The song was sped up slightly probably during the mastering process since EMI did not have the “vari-speed” capabilities in 1963 that were utilized later in The Beatles recording career.
Song Structure and Style
At first glance, “Thank You Girl” appears to have the same 'verse/ verse/ bridge/ verse' structure that most of the early Beatles catalog used. At closer examination, though, we see more intricate detail which makes this song unique. This detail encompasses the identification of two elements which are both repeated within the songs’ structure and therefore viewed as separate entities.
The first element we’ll analyze is the introductory four measures. Since this introduction is actually heard three times in the song, it cannot be dismissed as a ‘one-time thing’ or disregarded within the song’s structure. Also, since the introduction is sometimes heard introducing the verse, this is not always the case, so not identified as part of the verse. Therefore, this four-bar introduction needs to be viewed as a distinct element of the song. We’ll refer to this element as the “introduction.”
The second element under analysis is the four measures that encompass the key phrase, “and all I gotta do is thank you girl, thank you, girl.” While it may suggest that this is part of the verse, the bridge also ends with this same four measures, signifying that this also should be viewed as a distinct element of the song. Since identifying this element as a “chorus” is uncharacteristic due to its position within the structure of the song as well as the brevity of four measures, we’ll refer to this element as the “refrain.”
All this having been said, the structure of the song turns out to appear as follows: “introduction/ verse/ refrain/ verse/ refrain/ bridge/ refrain/ introduction/ verse/ refrain/ introduction.” (A shortened or abbreviated form would be abcbcdcabca, which of course doesn’t look very abbreviated.) No other Beatles song, nor any other song in the annals of recorded music (I would think), has this structure, which makes “Thank You Girl” very unique indeed.
To complicate matters, even more, the four-measure introduction is actually broken down into two distinct sections, two measures each. The first two measures feature Lennon’s harmonica flourish and Ringo’s tom-tom heavy drumbeat. The second two measures feature the appearance of the Buddy Holly-like “oh, oh, mmm” harmony vocals. This leads directly into the first eight-measure verse, which features unison singing from John and Paul in the first four measures and higher register harmony singing from Paul in the last four measures. We then hear the distinct four-measure refrain for the first time which hits home the title of the song. Unison vocals return for the refrain except for the strategic word “do” which shows Paul jump to a high register harmony note, which has already become somewhat of a trademark for Beatles songs as of mid-1963.
The verse/refrain pattern then continues, which is performed identically except for a different set of lyrics in this second verse. We now see the bridge appear for its only time in the song, which is eight measures long. The descending quarter note melody line of the bridge appears to be a repeat of the same idea used in the verses of their previous British hit “Please Please Me.” The vocals flow in unison throughout except for the repeat of the words “way that you do” in the fourth measure. A natural inclination points also to repeat the phrase “good to be true” in the eighth measure, but this was left blank in order to add that melodic phrase with harmonica at the later recording session. George Martin apparently decided this wasn’t needed for the predominant mono mix, so it was left off during that mixing session.
After we hear another identical refrain and a repeat of the introduction, we enter into the third verse, which is actually a repeat of the first verse performed identically. After the final refrain plays through, we go back to the introduction, which actually appears as an extended version that encompasses a whopping fourteen measures. After the first two harmonica measures, the Buddy Holly-like harmony vocals reappear, but this time repeating “oh” three times instead of two. Ringo then treats us to a two-measure “drum solo” accompanied by the rest of the group vamping along. This pattern is repeated, giving us a somewhat different “drum solo” from Ringo. The pattern appears to repeat for a third time, but after two “oh”s, the group goes in for the dramatic finish ending on the fourteenth measure. Lennon’s harmonica flourish adds a nice touch, but not nice enough for George Martin to include in the finished mono mix.
Lyrically the song can be viewed as pedestrian and with its’ share of clichés, such as “eternally I’ll always be in love with you” and a “love that is too good to be true.” Since the words were quickly written to thank their female fans for their support up to that point, the lyrics suit their purpose perfectly. Also, the words were slanted to sound like it was a love song between two people so it could be universally accepted. The irresistibility of the song rests on the displayed arrangement and unique songwriting talents, not to mention the harmonies.
Lennon is to the fore on this track, harmonica in hand as well as lead vocalist. Although the harmonica parts were overdubbed only in places where John wasn’t singing, it technically could have been performed live in this fashion. Since John apparently didn’t use a harmonica brace on stage until late 1964 when performing songs such as “I’m A Loser,” “Thank You Girl” was never performed live with a harmonica since his hands were busy playing rhythm guitar. The song was retired from their live repertoire well before that time.
McCartney performs his usual excellent job as lead vocalist on the track, popping into harmony in strategic places throughout the song. His bass work is rudimentary on the song, which indicated that not much time had been spent working out one of his usual impressive bass parts. He later redeems himself as expressive bass runs begin to surface during live performances of the song such as noted on the version appearing on the “Live At The BBC” album.
Ringo plays pretty straightforward throughout the song, riding on hi-hats and accenting the tom-toms on whenever the introduction is heard. That is to say until the two “drum solos” appear at the end of the song. The only other occurrences of anything close to a drum solo on a Beatles record would be on “Long Tall Sally,” “Strawberry Fields Forever,” “A Day In The Life,” “Birthday” and of course “The End” from the “Abbey Road” album.
Since no required guitar solo brought support for the song, George Harrison takes somewhat of a backseat, playing rhythm guitar along with John throughout. Very simple yet proficient chords do play throughout the song except whenever the introduction of the song takes place. Harrison then slips into a thumping rocking style which adds the right degree of excitement to the song, especially when performed on stage.
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