Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 15, 16 February 1965
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Norman Smith
Released: 6 August 1965 (UK), 13 August 1965 (US)
Paul McCartney: vocals, bass, lead guitar
John Lennon: harmony vocals, acoustic rhythm guitar
George Harrison: harmony vocals, electric rhythm guitar
Ringo Starr: drums
Available on:
Help!
Another Girl, released on the soundtrack to The Beatles' second film Help!, was written by Paul McCartney while on holiday in Tunisia.
The day before recording began for Help!, McCartney returned to England from Hammamet, a Tunisian resort where he was the guest of the British government. The embassy owned a secluded villa on the coast, which was discreet enough for someone as famous as a Beatle.
The villa had a bathroom decorated with Islamic tiles. McCartney composed Another Girl there, with its acoustics perfect for songwriting.
You'd be sitting there having a cup of tea when the Russian delegation would be shown through by the government. You didn't have any control over that. 'This is one of our cultural guests.' 'Hello, how are you?'
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles
Although little more than a filler on the album, McCartney has rightly claimed that very few Beatles songs were so cynically recorded.
It's a bit much to call them fillers because I think they were a bit more than that, and each one of them made it past the Beatles test. We all had to like it. If anyone didn't like one of our songs it was vetoed. It could be vetoed by one person. If Ringo said, 'I don't like that one,' we wouldn't do it, or we'd have to really persuade him.
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles
In the Help! film, the group performed Another Girl in the Bahamas, while standing on coral reef on Balmoral Island, near New Providence Island. In the sequence McCartney held a woman in a bikini like a guitar, pretending to play her.
Featuring unusually harsh, occasionally smug lyrics ("She's sweeter than all the girls and I've met quite a few"), Another Girl may have been about McCartney's relationship with Jane Asher. As noted in Ian MacDonald's book Revolution In The Head, throughout their relationship McCartney kept a secret flat in London which he used for encounters with other women.
In the studio
The Beatles began recording Another Girl on 15 February 1965, the same day they also worked on Ticket To Ride and I Need You. They recorded just one take of the song, after which George Harrison taped 10 edit pieces of a guitar flourish to end the song.
The next day McCartney overdubbed a lead guitar part. Harrison's ending, meanwhile, was dropped during the mixing stage.
Related articles:
- Paul McCartney and Jane Asher holiday in Tunisia
- You're Going To Lose That Girl
- Thank You Girl
- Filming: Help!, the Bahamas
- John Lennon celebrates his 26th birthday in Spain
