Thursday, July 9, 2009

I'll Be Back

One of the fascinating Beatles facts about "I'll Be Back" is that this Lennon composition was originally conceived as a slow song in 3/4 time. As evidenced on Anthology, Vol. I, Lennon realized during Take 2 that the song wasn't working at this slow tempo, and the Beatles switched to 4/4 time on the next take.

The song was recorded during a single session at Abbey Road Studios on June 1, 1964 for the LP A Hard Day's Night (Parlophone issue), with a total of sixteen takes used to find the right sound. John frequently wrote his songs at a slower tempo only to speed them up later, with other examples being "Please Please Me" and "Revolution."

The song is a favorite of Beatles fans and has a distinctive sound because McCartney, Lennon, and Harrison all play acoustic guitars, giving the song a rich, full sound. McCartney played bass, Starr drums. Lennon handled the lead vocal, with McCartney doing the backing vocal.

Lennon was quite fond of the song, although he believed the middle eight to be "tatty." In the U.S., the song was issued on Beatles 65.

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