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The first two takes of Can't Buy Me Love, the second of which can be heard on Anthology 1, were recorded in the bluesy style in which the song was originally conceived. Paul McCartney taped a guide vocal which was later replaced at Abbey Road.
John Lennon and George Harrison's backing vocals, in which they sang "Ooh, satisfied", "Ooh, just can't buy" in response to McCartney's lead lines, were swiftly discarded. As was Harrison's original guitar solo, though it can still be heard underneath the version he later overdubbed, due to microphone 'bleed'.
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.
Anthology
The second solo was recorded on 25 February 1964 - George Harrison's 21st birthday - the same day that McCartney taped his final lead vocals.
The stereo mix also included a hi-hat overdub recorded by studio engineer Norman Smith. This was done on 10 March 1964, while The Beatles were filming A Hard Day's Night.
It had the same level of excitement as previous Beatles singles and was quickly slated to be an A-side, but first there was a technical problem to be overcome, discovered when the tape was brought back and played at our studios. Perhaps because it had been spooled incorrectly, the tape had a ripple in it, resulting in the intermittent loss of treble on Ringo's hi-hat cymbal. There was tremendous time pressure to get the track mixed and delivered to the pressing plant, and due to touring commitments the Beatles themselves were unavailable, so George and Norman 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 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
Chart success
By the time Can't Buy Me Love was released, The Beatles were a bona fide worldwide phenomenon. The song topped the charts of almost every country in which it was released.
Issued in the USA slightly earlier than in Britain, it sold over two million copies in its first week, and was awarded a gold disc on the day of release, 16 March 1964.
It set four records on the Billboard Hot 100. The first was the biggest jump to the top spot, up from number 27. The Beatles also held the entire top five positions on the 4 April 1964 chart - Can't Buy Me Love was accompanied by Twist And Shout, She Loves You, I Want To Hold Your Hand and Please Please Me. Such an achievement has never been equalled.
Can't Buy Me Love gave The Beatles a record-breaking three consecutive number one singles, the previous ones being I Want To Hold Your Hand and She Loves You. Furthermore, during the song's second week at the top, from 11 April, the group had 14 songs on the Hot 100 simultaneously.
In Britain it broke fewer records, but was still a phenomenal smash hit. Can't Buy Me Love had advance orders of over one million, and became the group's fourth UK number one single.
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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!