"We recorded it in France, as
I recall," McCartney remembers.
"Went over to the Odeon in Paris.
Recorded it over there."
What Paul was actually referring to was the EMI Pathe Marconi Studios in
Paris where they met on January 29th, 1964 for the only recording session of
their career outside of London. The
intention of this late-morning/afternoon session was to record German language
versions of two of their previous hit songs, namely "I Want To Hold Your
Hand" and "She Loves You."
Having accomplished this, they had approximately an hour of studio time
left, so they jumped head-long into something they were excited about, which
was Paul's
newly
written "Can't Buy Me Love."
Only four takes of the song were needed to get a suitable version down and ready for overdubs. These fully live performances, with all four Beatles playing their usual instruments while singing, showed that they had the arrangement down quite well, although some adjustments were made along the way.
"I thought that we really needed a tag for the song's ending, and a tag for the beginning, a kind of intro," explains George Martin. "So I took the first few lines of the chorus (bridge) and changed the ending, and said, 'Let's just have these lines, and by altering the end of the second phrase we can get back into the verse pretty quickly.' And they said, 'That's not a bad idea, we'll do it that way.'"
A second adjustment was scrapping the background vocals by John and George, which comprised them singing "ooooh satisfied," "ooooh just can't buy," etc., during the verses. McCartney also sang with a somewhat bluesy vibe, which was toned down in the later takes of the song. The first two takes with the early arrangement were edited for release on the 1996 album "Anthology 1," which comprised the entire Take 2 edited with George Harrison's solo from Take 1.
After an incomplete Take 3, they make it through the song on Take 4, which is the version that was deemed best. This take did feature a guitar solo from George Harrison, but it was viewed as inferior and worthy of overdubbing at a later time. As the recording session time ran out, this master tape was taken by George Martin back to EMI for further work.
February 25th was the next chance The Beatles had for recording, since they spent most of February conquering America. They entered EMI Studio Two on this date from 10 am to 1 pm to add overdubs to the song, which would bring the song to its final stage. Paul double-tracked his vocals and, according to Helen Shapiro who was in the studio on this day, Ringo added more cymbals "over the top" of the previous recording. Then George Harrison re-recorded his guitar solo, but there was a slight problem.
Regarding the song, George Harrison explains: "We took the tapes from that back to England to do some work on them. I once read something that tries to analyze 'Can't Buy Me Love', talking about the double-track guitar - mine - and saying that it's not very good because you can hear the original one. What happened was that we recorded first in Paris and re-recorded in England. Obviously they'd tried to overdub it, but in those days they only had two tracks, so you can hear the version we put on in London, and in the background you can hear a quieter one."
These overdubs were completed by approximately 11 am, which left the final two hours of this morning session to starting and finishing what would become the B-side of their next single, "You Can't Do That."
The next day, February 26th, George Martin and engineers Norman Smith and Richard Langham used the same three-hour time slot (10 am to 1 pm) to create mono mixes for both sides of their next single. The mono mix of "Can't Buy Me Love" made on this day is the same one released worldwide in 1964.
A mixing session was booked for March 10th in the control room of Studio Two, attended by George Martin and Norman Smith, to create the stereo mix of “Can’t Buy Me Love.” Mark Lewisohn’s book “The Complete Beatles Chronicle,” brings out a discovery concerning this mixing session: “An interesting document was uncovered at EMI in 1991 suggesting that a “drummer” participated in this 10 am – 1 pm session with regards to ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’ – which can only mean that he did some overdubbing. He was paid a Musicians’ Union session fee…but his name was not detailed on the document. This answers one question that has long puzzled some Beatles students: why the drumming on this song’s stereo mix differs slightly from the mono. But it also raises a new question about the drummer’s identity: Ringo’s ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ shooting schedule would seem to suggest that he had little, if any, opportunity to visit Abbey Road on this day.”
Geoff Emerick’s 2006 book “Here, There And Everywhere” sheds some new light that may very well reveal the identity of this mysterious drummer. Regarding the master tape of “Can’t Buy Me Love,” Emerick writes: “There was a technical problem to be overcome, discovered when the tape was brought back and played at our studios. Perhaps because it had been spooled incorrectly, the tape had a ripple in it, resulting in the intermittent loss of treble on Ringo’s hi-hat cymbal. There was tremendous time pressure to get the track mixed and delivered to the pressing plant, and due to touring commitments, The Beatles remained unavailable, so George and Norman took it upon themselves to make a little artistic adjustment.”
“As I eagerly moved into the engineer’s seat for the first time,” Emerick continues, “Norman (Smith) headed down into the studio to overdub a hastily set-up hi-hat onto a few bars of the song while I recorded him, simultaneously doing a two-track to two-track dub. Thanks to Norman’s considerable skills as a drummer, the repair was made quickly and seamlessly, and I doubt if even The Beatles themselves ever realized that their performance had been surreptitiously augmented.”
The next time the song was heard in the recording studio was not for recording purposes at all. In order to audition a replacement for the ailing Ringo Starr for their upcoming world tour, Jimmy Nicol was invited to EMI Studio Two on June 3rd, 1964 to run through six songs, including "Can't Buy Me Love," to see if he could fill the drummer's shoes. Having passed the audition, they were off to Copenhagen the next day.
With The Beatles out of the country, George Martin, Norman Smith and 2nd engineer Ken Scott assembled in the control room of EMI Studio Three on June 9th, 1964 to create two identical tapes of the finished songs for the "A Hard Day's Night" soundtrack. All eight of these songs, including "Can't Buy Me Love," were duly dispatched to both American record labels, Capitol and United Artists, for release in the US as they saw fit.
Finally, on June 22nd, EMI staffers George Martin, Norman Smith and 2nd engineer Geoff Emerick convened in the control room of Studio One to create stereo mixes of all the songs to appear on the British "A Hard Day's Night" album. This marathon session, running from 10 am to 9 pm, created the stereo mix of "Can't Buy Me Love" that was heard all around the world, presumably featuring the overdubbed drumming of engineer Norman Smith.
This is not to say that there were no further recordings of the song. On August 23rd, 1964, The Beatles played a concert at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, California that was recorded for possible release later that year. The entire concert was produced by Capitol vice-president Voyle Gilmore and George Martin with Hugh Davies engineering. Although this album never came to be, it was duly mixed on August 27th and apparently remains in the vaults somewhere.
On August 29th and 30th of 1965, however, Capitol Records once again attempted to properly record their performances during their return to the Hollywood Bowl. Although the recording made on the first date (produced by Engeman and engineered by Hugh Davies) was unlistenable, the one made on the 30th fared much better. This recording, which was produced by Voyle Gilmore and engineer Pete Abbott, also included "Can't Buy Me Love" and was suitable enough to eventually be released on the 1977 album "The Beatles At The Hollywood Bowl," after being cleaned up by George Martin and Geoff Emerick.
One final recording session was held in regard to "Can't Buy Me Love" on January 5th, 1966. Amid some secrecy, The Beatles came to CTS Studios in London to add some touches to their Shea Stadium concert on August 15th, 1965. Paul added a new bass track for "Can't Buy Me Love" to this live recording in preparation for the television film "The Beatles At Shea Stadium."
Sometime in 2015, Giles Martin (son of George Martin) and Sam Okell revisited the master tape in Abbey Road Studios to create a new stereo mix of "Can't Buy Me Love," the result appearing on the re-released version of the compilation album "Beatles 1" released that year.
Song Structure and Style
The Beatles songwriting now begins to shift its attention towards straight blues progressions. This is not to say that they hadn't tread on this ground before (even the early composition "One After 909" leaned this way), but their focus in 1964 appeared to veer toward many of their musical hero's use of the 12-bar blues format. Mid '64 saw them release a British EP ("Long Tall Sally") that consisted mostly of covers with this strict blues format, as well as "You Can't Do That," which appeared as the B-side of this single.
The structure of the song, though, is quite common for their early Beatles period, consisting of 'verse/ verse/ bridge/ verse' (or aaba) and then repeating a verse as a guitar solo before repeating the bridge and third verse again. Coupling this with an intro and conclusion from an alteration of the bridge (at George Martin's request), what we have is a nicely-rounded, brilliantly-written bouncy pop song.
The six-measure intro begins with Paul's vocals appearing three beats before the down-beat of the first measure. The home key of C is hidden throughout this section of the song just as many other Beatles' songs before it, such as "She Loves You" and "I Want To Hold Your Hand." Only when the actual first verse begins do we know where home-base is, so to speak. Coincidentally (or maybe purposely) the actual notes of Paul's melody line in the intro outline the triad of the C home key even before the C chord is played. This accomplishes a palatable transition from the intro to the first verse.
The first verse is welcomed by Ringo's switch from tom-tom fills to hi-hat sizzles, which unmistakably distinguishes the verse from the intro. The 12-bar blues progression begins at this point, but not without a touch of Beatles thrown in. One such touch being the trademark 'Beatles break' on the tenth measure, just before the words "much for money." Appearing as early as "Love Me Do," this little trick wasn't dropped entirely for years to come.
Another similarity heard here, as heard quite universally from The Beatles up to this point, is the title of the song appearing at the end of each verse. This habit, which began even before "Love Me Do," anchors the song's title as the hook-line, indelibly imprinting this catch phrase in our minds.
After a second structurally identical verse, we delve into an eight-measure bridge, which happens to repeat the title of the song twice, leaving many to identify this part of the song as a "refrain" or "chorus." Because of the chord pattern used, and the perfect segue it creates back to another verse, once can easily conclude this part as a "bridge."
After a third structurally identical verse, we enter into the guitar solo portion of the song, which is played against the same chord structure of the verses. Before this occurs, though, we see that the preceding verse has an additional measure, or thirteenth. The only purpose of this measure appears to be as a transition to the guitar solo (and for Paul to let out an ear-piercing scream).
Following this appropriately structured guitar solo we are revisited by the bridge and third verse of the song. This third verse now has the appropriate twelve-measure length, but is followed by an eight-measure conclusion, which is basically a repeat of the intro of the song. The only difference is the return to the home key of C in the final two measures, which brings the song to a resolving and satisfying conclusion.
Paul's vocal work is truly the main focal-point and selling-point of the song. This delivery may have transcended slightly from a bluesy mode in the earlier takes, but the vibrancy of the finished product creates the unbridled buoyancy needed to catapult The Beatles to the heights of Elvis Presley in the minds of teenagers. His bass work, played simultaneously with the initial track of his vocals, suitably displays the bounciness of a bluesy-swing style, with quarter note accents throughout.
George Harrison's guitar work is next to be commended, especially for it being one of his best early Beatles' guitar solos. It portrays itself as wholly ad-lib because it is not simply a re-run of the melody line of the verse, yet it was truly well-rehearsed, as evidenced by all the available concert versions we can hear today. Whereas the free-form Chuck Berry- or Carl Perkins-like solos we heard earlier from George (as in "I Saw Her Standing There" and "Boys") altered from performance to performance, "Can't Buy Me Love" began a trend of pre-writing the guitar solo for the song. In fact, Paul insisted from this point on that all guitar solos should be pre-arranged, not ad-libbed. The result, especially in this case, is the first truly memorable guitar solo in the Beatles catalog.
Ringo's work on the song may be perfunctory, but is quite suitable for the context. He shows himself to be quite a master of the swing style on this track, not muddying up the proceedings with extensive drum fills. In fact, when he does perform a drum fill, it's more felt than heard. His compliance with moving to the toms for the intro and conclusion of the song, probably also at the suggestion of George Martin, shows Ringo as wanting what was best for the song, not letting ego get in the way.
While Lennon takes a back seat on this song, just strumming away on his Gibson acoustic guitar, he definitely added to the fragrance of the song. He felt strongly about it as well, not at all an outsider. He stated in interview in 1964 that "Can't Buy Me Love" was among his favorite tracks on the movie soundtrack.
The song's lyrics are quite self-explanatory and universal, combining two elements everyone can relate to: money and love. In this case, love wins out, which is quite the opposite from the lyrics in "Money (That's What I Want)" from the previous year.
Paul insinuates that material things are more important to the weaker sex when it comes to expressing devotion. Although he doesn't "care too much for money," he's willing to capitulate for the sake of pleasing his "friend." What he would really want, though, is for his girl not to "need no diamond rings," but rather to "want the kind of things that money just can't buy." This may be a little easier on his wallet, but his sincerity shines through convincingly that his view of materialism is rooted deeply.
Although the odd use of the word "me" in the title is not clearly explained, one can only deduce that it was yet another example of Lennon and McCartney's including personal pronouns in their hit song titles. "It's the sort of thing that helps the listeners to identify with the lyrics," Lennon explained. "The fans like to feel that they are part of something that is being done by the performers."
But did the song project any deeper meaning to the lyrics? "Personally, I think you can put any interpretation you want on anything," McCartney stated, "but when someone suggests that 'Can't Buy Me Love' is about a prostitute, I draw the line. That's going too far."
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