The first day that The Beatles utilized in earnest for recording tracks devoted to their upcoming first motion picture was February 25th, 1964. Two sessions were booked in EMI Studio Two for this day, the first of which finished off “Can’t Buy Me Love” and its B-side “You Can’t Do That.” The later session, from 2:30 to 5:30 pm, bore no real fruit except for the introduction of two new songs that would eventually be used in the movie; “I Should Have Known Better” and “And I Love Her.”
Two takes of “And I Love Her” were attempted on this day, only one of which made it through to the end. The song was much different from what we’ve come to know, being that they envisioned it in their usual guitar/ bass/ drums format. The song was viewed as completely written at that time, although it did not contain the bridge, only verses and a guitar solo section before the last verse. The song didn’t even have a suitable ending worked out at this point.
It was developed to a certain degree, though, as it contained George Harrison’s plucking guitar runs in most of the verses (played on his new Rickenbacker 12-string), as well as the rising key change for the solo section of the song as we’re used to hearing in the final version. The guitar solo was even identical to the finished version at this stage, however clumsily played, following the melody line of the verses. They probably felt that they could keep working out the arrangement in the studio like they did with other songs, but they apparently thought it just wasn’t feeling right and left it for the next day.
That next day, February 26th, saw The Beatles back in EMI Studio Two from 2:30 to 5:30 pm to work on the two songs left over from the previous day. “I Should Have Known Better” did get completed, but “And I Love Her” still wasn’t good enough. They recorded another 17 takes, takes 3 through 19, which saw the song evolving into what became the final arrangement. Midway through the sessions, Ringo switched to playing bongos instead of drums. It was apparently during this session that John and Paul wrote the bridge, which added a new dynamic to the arrangement and took the song’s length to over two minutes for the first time.
Their struggles on this day solidified the shape the song would eventually take, but they still weren’t happy. When engineer Norman Smith announced “Take 14,” Paul quipped “Ha, take 50!” indicating the frustration they were experiencing. Once again, they decided to leave it for the next day.
The Beatles entered EMI Studio Two the next day (February 17th) to finally complete the song. In Martin Scorsese’s documentary “George Harrison: Living In The Material World,” Paul explains much detail as to the group’s arrangement procedures during their early recording sessions and, in the process, reveals an interesting detail concerning “And I Love Her.”:
“We’d go in the studio, ten in the morning, and this was the first time George and Ringo had heard any of the songs. This is how good they were. So John and I would go, ‘It goes like this’… and they’d go, ‘um, hum.’ George would cop the chords…not writing them down, it’s just like ‘yeah, right…I can see what you’re doing, ‘cause I’m one of you, you know, I didn’t write it but I see what you did.’ And Ringo would just stand around with his sticks and just ‘tick-a-tic-tic,’ do a little thing.”
"And I was just thinking actually about my song, ‘And I Love Her.’ ‘I give her all my love,’ I had that. But then George comes in with, ‘doo-doo-doo-doo.” Now you think about that – THAT’s the song! But you know, he made that up on the session, ‘cause he nicked the chords and we just said, ‘it needs a riff.’ I didn’t write that!”
With the song’s signature riff in place, only two takes were needed during the first session booked for this day (10:00 am to 1:00 pm) to finish it off, this time with a completely acoustic arrangement. George skillfully played his parts on his Jose Ramirez acoustic guitar (as he used on his excellent solo in “Till There Was You” the year prior) while Ringo remained on bongos. The second take of this day (take 21) was deemed the best, which then required a couple overdubs; one to double-track Paul’s vocals and the other for the claves (percussive wooden sticks) overdub, which presumably was played by Ringo although some claim George may have played them. By approximately 11 am, this three-day project was finally completed.
The mono mix of the song was made on March 3rd in the control room of EMI Studio One by producer George Martin and engineers Norman Smith and A.B. Lincoln. As well as being used for the mono releases of the song America, it was shipped to United Artists Pictures for use during the making of their movie “A Hard Day’s Night.” The EMI staff took care to use Paul’s double-tracked vocals only in strategic places, which in this case was only when he sang the title of the song and during the bridge.
Work was also done on the song on June 9th in the control room of EMI Studio Three. Mono tape copies were made of all the movie soundtrack songs to distribute to both American record labels that would be releasing these songs, namely Capitol Records and United Artists Records. This was done by George Martin, Norman Smith and 2nd engineer Ken Scott.
June 22nd saw a marathon mixing session for the “A Hard Day’s Night” album, creating all the stereo mixes of the songs as well as many mono mixes not done yet. Two mixes of “And I Love Her” were made on this day; a mono mix for the British album and a stereo mix for general release everywhere. Less care was always taken for the stereo mixes, so Paul’s double-tracked vocals appear throughout the song (except for the lines “bright are the stars that shine, dark is the sky” in the third verse, where apparently Paul didn’t double-track his vocals). This mixing session was attended only by George Martin, Norman Smith and 2nd engineer Geoff Emerick.
A note should be made concerning some controversy regarding the German version of the album “Something New” that contains a stereo version of the song with six guitar riffs at the end instead of four as contained in all other releases of the song. No other stereo mix was made, so therefore an editing job must have been done for some unknown reason to artificially extend the song for this release. The guitar does appear a little softer on the left channel, but the centered vocals are a little more to the right of the mix, which indicates that the balance was off a little and not that there was a different mix sent to Germany. This version did get released in the US on the 1980 album "Rarities."
Song Structure and Style
"And I Love Her" appears to fall into the standard Beatle structure of verses and bridges, which is quite usual for this early time period in their songwriting career. But as we've seen through examination of their catalog, idiosyncrasies rule the day. One difference here is that the bridge only appears once whereas, when we expect it to appear again after a third verse, a guitar solo emerges in a raised key. Nonetheless, we have here a 'verse/ verse/ bridge/ verse' (or aaba) format with an instrumental section and a final verse added in.
We start out, though, with a four-measure introduction that nicely premiers the sparse acoustic arrangement of the song. Harrison's gentle guitar runs segue appropriately into the first ten-measure verse which, as does the rest of the song, emphasizes the intimate solo vocal performance of McCartney. A second verse then appears which mimics the first in structure and instrumentation except for George's delicate arpeggio that adds a degree of elegance to the proceedings. Since the first verse ends with the simple phrase "I love her," this second verse is the first time we hear the title of the song "And I love her."
The simple eight-measure bridge (which Dick James mistakenly referred to as a "four-bar middle") now appears for the only time in the song, which adds a beautiful variance to break up what could have become monotony, as witnessed in the earlier "Anthology 1" version taped two days before. Harrison adds even more variance by accentuating the one-beat of each measure with a Spanish-like strum on his Jose Ramirez guitar before transitioning the bridge into a third verse with his signature guitar run.
After a third identically structured verse, which features the same delicate guitar arpeggio from the second verse (although starting from the second measure to allow George to finish the introductory guitar run), the song takes a half-key shift upward for the guitar solo. This section is played to the chord structure of the verse right down to the actual melody line being performed exquisitely on acoustic guitar.
After a repeat of the final verse, which is identical except for the raised key, we now see the reappearance of the introduction to complete the cycle. This conclusion extends the concept of the introduction from four measures to six measures, ending with a Baroque-sounding twist; a resolve in a major key. This solidifies the question as to whether the song as a whole is in a major or minor key. Since all of the verses end in a major key when the title of the song is heard, as well as the song itself ending in a major key, the argument is settled. "And I Love Her" can be said to be in a major key. That's my story and I'm sticking with it!
Lyrically the song can be described as "moon-in-June," or quite cliché for a love song. Keeping in mind that this was a jumping-off point for McCartney into ballad writing, his intricate sensitiveness, such as that seen in his 1966 masterpiece "Here, There And Everywhere," was yet to come.
The entire lyric was written as if the female in question was not present, relating the singer's feelings to a third party (or to all of us). This is the case throughout, except for the later-written bridge which is sung directly to his girl, as evidenced in the line "as long as I have you near me." It can be assumed that this was unintentional, since the bridge was hastily written in the studio and contained the only input from John Lennon in the writing of the song.
As stated earlier, McCartney was quite proud of the simply stated lyrics in this song. He also was quick to notice when his idea for the title of the song was used elsewhere. "Having the title start in midsentence, I thought that was clever," Paul mused in 1984. "Well, Perry Como did 'And I Love You So' many years later. Tried to nick the idea. I like that."
Little did Paul realize, credit for 'nicking the idea' should actually go to Don McLean of "American Pie" fame who actually wrote the Perry Como song. Also of note, is John's 1966 composition "And Your Bird Can Sing," which also has a title that starts in mid-sentence.
Musicianship-wise, George gets the biggest nod for his simple-but-effective acoustic lead guitar work. After three days of practice in the studio, he came through well-rehearsed and impressive, adding a classy touch to an intimate ballad.
Paul deserves due credit for his melancholy vocal work which comes across with convincing sincerity. His bass work, while simplistic in comparison to what he's recorded even up to this point, is suitable to the occasion and was done simultaneously with his spot-on vocal delivery.
Lennon holds down the rhythm quite nicely with acoustic guitar throughout. He strums somewhat urgently at times, such as during the last two measures of each verse, but this adds a nice quality that I'm sure we wouldn't want to do without. Ringo's obligatory bongo playing works nicely to create the perfect ambience for this delicate piece of music.
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Great article. It's a gem of a song.
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