Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 29 January; 25 February; 10 March 1964
Producer: George Martin
Engineers: Norman Smith, Geoff Emerick
Released: 20 March 1964 (UK), 16 March 1964 (US)
Paul McCartney: vocals, bass
John Lennon: acoustic rhythm guitar
George Harrison: lead guitar, rhythm guitar
Ringo Starr: drums
Norman Smith: hi-hat
Available on:
1
A Hard Day's Night
Anthology 1
Live At The BBC
Can't Buy Me Love was The Beatles' sixth British single, released with the b-side You Can't Do That. It was written while the group were in Paris for a 19-date residency at the city's Olympia Theatre.
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 Hotel George V. The Beatles had an upright piano moved into the corner of their suite, to enable them to work on songs for their forthcoming début film.
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.
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles
Written by Paul McCartney, Can't Buy Me Love became the first of the group's singles to feature just one singer. John Lennon may have felt his position as The Beatles' leader was threatened by the move; following the release of the single, Lennon wrote the majority of songs on the A Hard Day's Night album.
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.
All We Are Saying, David Sheff
Can't Buy Me Love featured twice in the A Hard Day's Night film. The first was a scene in which they escape from the television studio to fool around in a field; the other involved the group running to and from a police station, with law officers in hot pursuit.
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.
Anthology
In the studio
Can't Buy Me Love was mostly recorded on 29 January 1964 at EMI's Pathé Marconi Studios in Paris. It was completed in just four takes following the recording of Sie Liebt Dich and Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand, which finished ahead of schedule.
George Martin suggested during preliminary rehearsals that they begin the song with the chorus. The decision was later described by writer Ian MacDonald as a change "so obvious that they would have made it themselves had they tried the tune out earlier".
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'.
Anthology
Related articles:
- Recording: Can't Buy Me Love, You Can't Do That, And I Love Her, I Should Have Known Better
- Tell Me Why
- I Should Have Known Better
- If You've Got Trouble
- I'm Happy Just To Dance With You
Norman Smith also added some hi-hat, according to Geoff Emerick:
"[T]here was a technical problem to be overcome .... the tape had a ripple ... resulting in the intermittent loss of treble on Ringo's hi-hat cymbal. There was tremendous pressure to to get the track mixed and ... the Beatles themselves were unavailable, so George [Martin] and Norman [Smith] took it upon themselves to make a little adjustment.
As I eagerly headed into the engineer's seat for the first time, Norman headed down into the [Abbey Road] 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...".
Here, There and Everywhere (2007), p. 81
That's really interesting. Thanks for the info. I might have to get hold of Geoff's book, although the accuracy of much of what he's written has been disputed by various people (see fellow engineer Ken Scott's blog entry here).
I doubt the validity because at Abbey Road in Feb. 64 they had 4 track machines
Smith probably did make a hi hat overdub however
Why should having a four-track recorder preclude a two-track to two-track dub?
See the above quote from George Harrison: "Obviously they'd tried to overdub it, but in those days they only had two tracks".
(When The Beatles recorded Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand, the original four-track tape of I Want To Hold Your Hand was mixed down to two tracks, leaving two tracks whereon they recorded their vocals in German, and dubbed hand-claps. George might have forgotten that they had been recording in four-track since This Boy, or he might have been thinking of their similarly having only two tracks out of four left for all later dubbing.)
The point is, all four tracks were full--hence the 'pentimento' of George's original lead break behind the dubbed lead break--, so superadding some hi-hat would have required another machine and a two-track dub (i.e., using two tracks out of four, not nece using a two-track machine) to retain the correct stereo picture; accordingly, Emerick's mention of the two-track dubbing, for me, gives more validity to the story, not less.
It was well known, before his book, that there had been a session whereat an unknown drummer seemingly worked on CBML, and Emerick's account identifies that previously mysterious figure.
That's all fine. A two track to Two track overdub only works on twin track machines like used on PPM and WTB. He would have simply dropped into the track with the drums (1, I'm presuming) and played the little hi-hat needed.
I think you missed the point: Emerick's account explains that the tape was damaged, necessitating a tape-to-tape dub simultaneously with Smith's overdub. Not only would dropping in a hi-hat part be almost impossible onto a complete drum track (supposing that only drums were on the track, even if the track were in perfect condition) but the track was damaged and included drums already mixed with other instruments.
True, but Ken Scott does acknowledge that the paperback (of 2007) corrects some of the faults he found in the (2006) original edition.
Wow!
I always thought that the guitar doubling had been done that way on purpose to create some sort of trailing echo. IMHO, it sounds spectacular! Some mistakes are precious.
I always wondered about that "other" guitar solo. It gives it a bit of a rockabilly feel.
Well, since it's the song of the day, I shall give it a spin...er click...
I just found a 45 labeled can't buy me love by the Beagles. (Lennon-McCartney)
it is on a HIT RECORDS 45 it also says Northern Songs Music, Ltd.
Anybody ever hear of this record? Is it just a missprint?
It's interesting that this is the first Beatles record released with only one singer, because the anthology version has a background chorus that was apparently dropped later on. I liked the version with the background singing better, in fact!