Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby

Written by: Perkins
Recorded: 18 October 1964
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Norman Smith

Released: 4 December 1964 (UK), 15 December 1964 (US)

George Harrison: vocals, lead guitar
John Lennon: acoustic rhythm guitar, tambourine
Paul McCartney: bass
Ringo Starr: drums

Available on:
Beatles For Sale
Anthology 2
Live At The BBC

Sung by George Harrison as the final track on the Beatles For Sale album, Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby was originally recorded by Carl Perkins in 1957.

The Beatles recorded two other Perkins songs for EMI - Honey Don't and Matchbox, both sung by Ringo Starr. They also played a number of his songs live: Lennon sang Tennessee, Bopping The Blues, Blue Suede Shoes and early versions of Honey Don't; McCartney performed Sure To Fall (In Love With You) and duetted with Lennon on Lend Me Your Comb.

George Harrison, meanwhile, was arguably the group's biggest Perkins fan. His early guitar solos deployed many of the same licks, and he had sung Your True Love and Glad All Over, as well as Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby.

Additionally, during The Beatles' first tour of Scotland in 1960, as the backing band for Johnny Gentle, they all decided to adopt pseudonyms. George became briefly known as Carl Harrison, after his idol.

The Beatles recorded Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby for the BBC radio programme Saturday Club in November 1964. This version can be heard on Live At The BBC. They also recorded it in June 1963 for the Pop Go The Beatles show.

The song returned to The Beatles' live set in 1965, following the release of Beatles For Sale. A version recorded at Shea Stadium on 15 August was included on Anthology 2.

In the studio

The Beatles recorded Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby in a single take on 18 October 1964.

For this album we rehearsed only the new ones. Songs like Honey Don't and Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby, we'd played live so often that we only had to get a sound on them and do them.

George Harrison
Anthology

The recording contained a large amount of echo on Harrison's vocals, which were double tracked to make them sound even fuller. For this, Abbey Road's engineers used a technique called STEED: single tape echo and echo delay.

The Beatles inserted a short pause between the lines in the first verse, an arrangement borrowed from Perkins' original recording of Blue Suede Shoes. The false ending, meanwhile, appears to have been the group's own invention: a version recorded at Hamburg's Star-Club in December 1962 features no fewer than four extra instrumental flourishes at the close.