Can't Buy Me Love

From BeatlesWiki

Jump to: navigation, search

Can't Buy Me Love is a song off The Beatles' 1964 album A Hard Day's Night. It was written by Paul McCartney and credited to Lennon/McCartney. In addition to appearing on A Hard Day's Night, it was also released as The Beatles' sixth British single.

Contents

[edit] Writing

Can't Buy Me Love was written (and recorded) when The Beatles were in Paris for a nineteen-day residency at the Olympia Theatre in January 1964. Paul McCartney said of the song in 1966, "Personally, I think you can put any interpretation you want on anything, but when someone suggest that Can't Buy Me Love is about a prostitute, I draw the line. That's going too far." The song is believed to have been written at the George V Hotel. The Beatles had an upright piano set up in the corner of the room for them to compose for their upcoming debut film, A Hard Day's Night. Paul recalled in Many Years From Now, his quthorized biography, "Can't Buy Me Love is my attempt to write a bluesy mode. The idea behind it was that all these material possessions are all very well but they won't buy me what I really want. It was a very hooky song. Ella Fitzgerald later did a version of it which I was very honoured by." Can't Buy Me Love would be the first Beatles single to feature just one lead singer. John Lennon recalled in 1980, "That's Paul's completely. Maybe I had something to do with the chorus, but I don't know. I always considered it his song."

[edit] Recording

Can't Buy Me Love was mostly recorded on January 29, 1964 at Pathe Marconi Studios in Paris. It was completed in four takes after the recordings of Sir Liebt Dich and Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand were completed. Producer George Martin suggested during rehearsals that the song should start with the chorus, a decision which, as described by writer Ian McDonald, was "so obvious that they would have made it themselves had they tried the tune out earlier". Martin recalled, "I thought that we really needed a tag for the song's ending, and a tag for the beginning; a kind of intro. So I took the first two lines of the chorus and changed the ending, and said 'Let's just have these lines, and by altering 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'." The first two takes were recorded in a more bluesy style, as the song was originally conceived. The 1995 compilation Anthology 1 includes a mix of Take 2 with the guitar solo taken from Take 1. On each take, Paul McCratney taped a guide vocal this day that would later be replaced at Abbey Road Studios. John Lennon and George Harrison had backing vocal parts where they sang "Ooh, Satisfied" and "Ooh, just can't buy." These were quickly discarded. The guitar solo recorded this day was also discarded. A new solo was overdubbed later, but the original one can still be slightly heard beneath the new one due to microphone 'bleed.' George Harrison recalls, "We took the tapes from that back to England to do some work on them. I once read something that tries to analyse 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." The second solo, as well as the lead vocals, were recorded on February 25, 1964, Harrison's 25TH birthday.

[edit] Recording Sessions

[edit] In The Film A Hard Day's Night

Can't Buy Me Love was actually played twice in The Beatles' 1964 debut film A Hard Day's Night. It first played in a scene where The Beatles escaped from a TV studio to play in a field. The other time it was played was when the group ran to and from a police station with police officers chasing them. The Beatles' producer George Martin composed the score for the film. Martin recalled, "It was the first film for which I wrote the score, and I had the benefit of having a director who was a musician. We recorded the songs for the film just as we would ordinary recordings, and Dick [Lester] used a lot of songs we'd already recorded. Can't Buy Me Love, for example, which was used twice in the picture."

[edit] Release and Reception

The Beatles were considered popular throughout the world by the time Can't Buy Me Love was released as a single with You Can't Do That as the B-Side. It topped the charts in almost every country it was released in. The single, issued slightly earlier in the USA than in Britain, sold over two million copies in it's first week of release. It was rewarded a gold disc on the day of release, March 16, 1964. It set four records on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. The first record was the biggest jump to number one, from number twenty-seven. The Beatles would also hold the top five positions on the April 4, 1964 chart, having Can't Buy Me Love, Twist And Shout, She Loves You, I Want To Hold Your Hand, and Please Please Me. This record has never been equalled again. Can't Buy Me Love gave The Beatles three consecutive number one singles, following I Want To Hold Your Hand and She Loves You. Also, during the single's second week at the top, April 11, 1964, they had fourteen songs on the Hot 100 simultaneously. It broke fewer records in Britain, but was still a big hit. It had advance orders of one million and became the group's fourth UK number one single.

[edit] Personnel

[edit] The Beatles

[edit] Production

[edit] Available Versions

[edit] The Beatles

[edit] Paul McCartney

To Be Completed...

[edit] Available On

[edit] Cover Versions

[edit] Source

Retrieved from "http://www.beatleswiki.org/wiki/Can%27t_Buy_Me_Love"
Personal tools