Christmas Time is Here Again

Released as a flexi-disc record only for the members of the Beatles Fan Club

Year: 1967

Written by: Lennon/McCartney/Harrison/Starr

Soon after their first single, Love Me Do, was released in 1962, the Beatles started receiving cards, letters, and gifts from a fast-growing group of admirers all over Great Britain. By the end of 1963, they were getting so much fan mail that they couldn't keep up and respond to it all. They decided to make a special recording just for the members of their fan club, sending out the flexi-disc records at Christmas as a way of saying "thank you" to their most devoted fans.

The idea was so popular that they decided to repeat it again the next year... and the next. In fact, at the end of each year, from 1963 until 1969, the Beatles got together to record a special Christmas flexi-disc for their British and also their American fan club members. These recordings were always less than 10 minutes long, but they included spoken messages from each of the Beatles, as well as silly songs and funny little skits.

The video above is based on their 1967 Christmas flexi-disc, but only part of the recording is included. The entire (very silly) recording can be found here.

Your Mother Should Know

Album: Magical Mystery Tour

Year: 1967

Written by: Lennon & McCartney

Written for the Beatles' third film, Magical Mystery Tour, Your Mother Should Know is a fun little song. Paul said he wrote it so that the band could perform an old-fashioned dance segment at the end of the movie. The movie played on British television on Boxing Day in 1967, and most people thought it was kind of silly and more than a little bit strange. I love the movie, however, and so do a lot of other people–including the Oscar-winning director Steven Spielberg, who has cited it as an influence in his own filmmaking.

Paul sings the lead vocal, with John, Paul, and George all providing the backing vocals.

Help!

** A TOP TEN FAVORITE **

Album: Help!

Year: 1965

Written by: Lennon & McCartney

It's hard to believe that this week marks 33 years since we lost John Lennon. I was in high school at the time, and I will never forget hearing the terrible news and witnessing the sadness people all over the world felt when this amazing artist died so young.

In honor of John, this week's song is one of his (and also one of my) favorites. Help! was a #1 hit song, written for the Beatles' second movie, which was also called Help! John once said that Help! was the first "honest" song that he wrote, because he was feeling a bit sad and confused at the time, and he felt he needed some help to get him through the tough time. The Beatles had become international superstars, and they had very little privacy or time to themselves. John was a very sensitive person, so the new-found fame seemed to affect him the most.

This video includes different scenes from the movie Help!, which is a funny film that shows the Beatles in many James Bond-like adventures. John sings a great double-tracked lead vocal and plays a really cool 12-string acoustic guitar. Paul and George sing a wonderful and quite complex backing harmony.

Can't Buy Me Love

Album: A Hard Day's Night

Year: 1964

Written by: Lennon & McCartney

Written in a hotel room while The Beatles were playing in Paris, France, Can't Buy Me Love was released as their sixth British single, and it went straight to #1. At the time that this song was written and recorded, The Beatles were exploding as a worldwide phenomenon. They were going to America for the first time, to appear on the Ed Sullivan Show–where a record 73 million viewers watched them–and a tour that would take them to eight countries was planned for later in the year. They were also getting ready to work on their first film, A Hard Day's Night.

Can't Buy Me Love was written to be included in the film. In this scene, The Beatles are shown escaping from a studio where they will be taping a television appearance. Bored by being locked up inside all day in "a car and a room and a room and a room," they run outside to frolic and have some silly fun, until chased away by a grumpy caretaker. "Sorry we hurt your field, mister," is George's famous response as The Beatles head back to the studio.

Paul sings the lead vocal, and George plays two different guitars: his newly-acquired 12-string Rickenbacker and one of his several Gretsch models.

Thank You Girl

Album: Not included on an original Beatles album; issued as the b-side of a single

Year: 1963

Written by: Lennon & McCartney

In the spirit of the Thanksgiving holiday, here is a song of gratitude. Thank You Girl was the b-side of The Beatles' third single, which featured From Me to You on the a-side. (From Me to You was the #1 song on the British pop charts on the day I was born.) Though not one of their truly great creations (John called it "just a silly song"), Thank You Girl is cute and fun, and it was written as a tribute to their female fans. As Paul once explained:

"We knew that if we wrote a song called Thank You Girl that a lot of the girls who wrote us fan letters would take it as a genuine thank you. So a lot of our [early] songs were directly addressed to the fans."

This video features some really terrific photographs of The Beatles rehearsing for their performances for the BBC, as well as some of John romping in a field with comedian Dudley Moore and actor Norman Rossington. In the song, John plays the harmonica and sings his famous double-tracked lead vocal in the song, with Paul joining him on harmony.

Penny Lane

Album: Not included on an original Beatles album; issued as a single 

Year: 1967

Written by: Lennon & McCartney

One of the best beloved Beatles songs, Penny Lane was issued as a double A-sided single with another classic, Strawberry Fields Forever. The theme of both songs is childhood nostalgia about The Beatles' home town of Liverpool, England.

Penny Lane is the name of a street and a district south of Liverpool's city center. John lived in the Penny Lane area as a young child, and later, when he was a teenager, he and Paul would often meet at the busy bus station "in the middle of the roundabout."

The Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields Forever single marked the beginning of an exciting new musical direction for The Beatles. Fashion and art were becoming more colorful by late 1966, when this song was written, and The Beatles' music reflected this trend. In fact, Paul began writing this song on his recently painted upright piano (which he still uses on stage to this day).

Paul sings lead vocal, with John joining him in the harmony. John, Paul, and George all sing backing vocals together. A number of brass and wind instruments are played in the song, most notably a piccolo trumpet, which can be heard in the memorable solo.

Baby, You're a Rich Man

Album: Magical Mystery Tour

Year: 1967

Written by: Lennon & McCartney

As was common earlier in The Beatles's career, Baby, You're a Rich Man was recorded in just one day. It was written as a hybrid of sorts, as John once described in an interview: 

"That's a combination of two separate pieces, Paul's and mine, put together and forced into one song. One half was all mine. [Sings] 'How does it feel to be one of the beautiful people, now that you know who you are, da da da da.' Then Paul comes in with [sings] 'Baby, you're a rich man,' which was a lick he had around."

Many fans believe that this song refers to Beatles manager and dear friend Brian Epstein, but neither John nor Paul ever confirmed that it was.

In keeping with The Beatles' wonderful tradition of experimentation, Baby, You're a Rich Man features an interesting instrument. John plays the clavioline, which is the wailing, Indian-like sound heard throughout the song (and which always sounded a little like the bagpipes to me). As usual, John double-tracks his lead vocal, while he, Paul, and George all provide backing vocals. It's possible, though unconfirmed, that Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones also sings along during outro.

If I Needed Someone

Album: Rubber Soul

Year: 1965

Written by: George Harrison

Last week was the first post featuring a song not written by Lennon-McCartney (John and Paul)... well, here's another one. The Beatles' lead guitarist George wrote If I Needed Someone, inspired by the jangly guitar riffs he had heard in songs by the folk-rock group The Byrds. The funny thing is, though, that Roger McGuinn of The Byrds admitted that George's cool guitar sounds on the 1964 album A Hard Day's Night had influenced him when he wrote those songs.

If I Needed Someone is the only George composition that The Beatles ever performed in concert. In this video, which was filmed when they played at The Budokan in Tokyo, Japan in 1966, the audio track is taken from the Rubber Soul version of the song, not from the concert itself... which explains why the audio and video are not in synch.

Like his bandmate John often does, George sings a double-tracked lead vocal, with John and Paul providing the harmonies. George also plays the newer version of his really cool 12-string Rickenbacker guitar on this track.

Octopus's Garden

Album: Abbey Road

Year: 1969

Written by: Richard Starkey (aka Ringo Starr)

"It's Ringo Starr Time!"* Ringo sang lead on only 11 Beatles studio-recorded songs, and he only wrote two of them (plus, he co-wrote one more). Octopus's Garden is generally considered the greatest of his songs.

The inspiration for this tune was a 1968 vacation to the Italian island of Sardinia. The band was recording The White Album at the time, and Ringo felt unhappy because the other three Beatles were working more independently rather than together as a group. He felt unloved by his musical brothers, so he took a trip to feel better. Ringo explains how he was out on a boat one afternoon, and "I stayed out on deck with [the captain] and we talked about octopuses. He told me that they hang out in their caves and that they go about the seabed finding shiny stones and tin cans and bottles to put in front of their caves like a garden. I thought this was fabulous, because at the time I just wanted to be under the sea too." 

While in Sardinia, he received a telegram from the other Beatles, begging him to come home and telling him they thought he was the greatest drummer in the whole world. When he returned to Abbey Road Studios in London to continue working on the album, he found that his drum kit was covered in flowers and that everyone was happy to see him. Ringo had a great time for the rest of the recording, and he wrote the song Octopus's Garden a few months later.

Ringo sings lead, with Paul and George providing the memorable backing vocals. Listen for the sound of bubbles that George makes by blowing a straw into a glass of milk.

* = Before joining The Beatles in 1962, Ringo, who had the reputation of being the best drummer in Liverpool, played with a group known as Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. During each of their shows, Ringo got to sing in a featured spot called "Ringo Starr Time." Although John and Paul did most of the singing in The Beatles, Ringo continued his tradition by singing lead in a song an average of once per album.

It Won't Be Long

Album: With the Beatles *

Year: 1963

Written by: Lennon & McCartney

Leading off The Beatles's second album, It Won't Be Long is a very lively tune, making it the perfect soundtrack to this fun video. The video, dubbed "Scousers by the Seaside" by Ringo ("Scouser" is a nickname for someone from Liverpool), contains footage taken by photographer Dezo Hoffman of The Beatles having fun on the beach in Weston-super-Mare in July of 1963.

John sings a powerful lead (double-tracked, once again), with Paul and George both singing backing vocals in a call-and-response format. It Won't Be Long is a fun song to sing along with; you should try it. Enjoy!

* = With the Beatles was titled Meet the Beatles when it was released by Capitol Record in the United States. In this blog, I always default to the British albums, because those were the original releases and the ones that The Beatles had more creative control over.

Martha My Dear

Album: The Beatles (also known as The White Album)

Year: 1968

Written by: Lennon & McCartney

Take a guess who Paul McCartney is singing about in this song. (As John Lennon said to Little Nicola, "Go on, have a guess!") He's singing about his 2 year-old Old English Sheepdog named Martha.

Paul started composing this cute song as a piano exercise. First he wrote the pretty little introduction and then he just started adding words to the tune. He is actually the only Beatle who sings or plays any instruments on this track, but Producer George Martin arranged the brass and strings.

Enjoy!

I'm Only Sleeping

** A TOP TEN FAVORITE **

Album: Revolver

Year: 1966

Written by: Lennon & McCartney

♥ October 9th is John Lennon's Birthday! ♥
My favorite Beatle would have been 73 years old this week, so in honor of his special day, I have chosen one of my favorite John Lennon songs to share with you. Enjoy!

John Lennon loved to sleep! He loved it so much that he wrote four songs with a sleepy theme while he was a Beatle. I'm Only Sleeping is not only my favorite of these sleepy songs (with I'm So Tired coming in a close second), it is one of my Top Ten favorite Beatles songs of all time!

By the Spring of 1966, when The Beatles recorded their seventh album, Revolver, the band members began to enjoy experimenting with different, often weird sounds in the studio. I'm Only Sleeping features a really cool new sound: George plays the guitar backwards! Actually, he plays two guitars that are recorded together–one is a regular electric guitar and the other has a fuzz effect. This weird sound gives the song a very dreamy feel. You can hear the guitar in the background throughout the song, but it's really obvious in the solo in the middle and at the very end.

John does the sleepy lead vocal, with Paul singing harmony. The background vocals (the "oohs") are done by John, Paul and George. Who does the yawn at 2:01 is uncertain, but most people think it's Paul because if you listen very closely at 1:57, you can hear John say, "Yawn, Paul."