Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 29, 30 September 1964
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Norman Smith
Released: 4 December 1964 (UK), 15 February 1965 (US)
John Lennon: double-tracked vocals, acoustic rhythm guitar
Paul McCartney: harmony vocals, bass
George Harrison: backing vocals, lead guitar
Ringo Starr: drums, tambourine
Available on:
Beatles For Sale
Although sung by John Lennon, I Don't Want To Spoil The Party had been written by Lennon and McCartney with Ringo Starr in mind.
It was composed as a country and western song. Starr was an aficionado of country songs, and I Don't Want To Spoil The Party follows on from I'll Cry Instead as one of The Beatles' first songs in that style.
Ringo had a great style and great delivery. He had a lot of fans, so we liked to write something for him on each album. I Don't Want To Spoil The Party is quite a nice little song, co-written by John and I. It sounds more like John than me so 80-20 to him, sitting down doing a job. Certain songs were inspirational and certain songs were work, it didn't mean they were any less fun to write, it was just a craft, and this was a job to order really, which Ringo did a good job on.
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles
Despite McCartney's recollection, Starr didn't sing the song. Why Lennon took the lead instead is uncertain, although he later claimed the song was written from the heart.
That was a very personal one of mine. In the early days I wrote less material than Paul because he was more competent on the guitar than I. He taught me quite a lot of guitar really.
In the studio
The Beatles recorded I Don't Want To Spoil The Party on 29 September 1964. They taped in 19 takes, although just five of those were complete.
The final attempt, take 19, was the one which appeared on the Beatles For Sale album.
Related articles:
- Recording: Every Little Thing, I Don't Want To Spoil The Party, What You're Doing
- Honey Don't
- Words Of Love
- Mixing: I'll Follow The Sun, Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby, Rock And Roll Music, Words Of Love, Mr Moonlight, I Don't Want To Spoil The Party, I'm A Loser, Baby's In Black, No Reply, I Feel Fine
- I'm A Loser
George is on backing vocals only. John's lead is double-tracked (Everett writes: "The fact that John chooses to duet with himself in the verses here and in 'Eight Days A Week', rather than harmonize with Paul, was brought to my attention by Tom Hartman in May 1999 correspondence."
But Paul sings the high harmony in the middle part.
To my ears it sounds as if Paul sings the high LEAD during the middle eight, while John does the low harmony.
Almost the same thing happened with If I Fell; with John singing the intro all by himself, but for the remainder of the song he's "relegated" to low harmony.
Sometimes it's hard to determine what's the lead and what's the harmony.
Baby's In Black springs to mind.
The " though tonight she's made me sad" lyric, Paul's voice is more dominant than John's, which then seems to dominate the next line. George's country and western playing and licks serve the song especially well, which is definetly his musical strength.
Everett:
Recorded in nineteen takes (only five of which were complete),
the texture includes drums, bass, and Jumbo on one track, one Lennon vocal
part on a second, the bright round sound of Harrison’s MRB-enhanced Tennessean
on a third, and Lennon’s self-duetting vocal, tambourine (in bridge, C
[0:50–1:04]), and backing vocals by McCartney and Harrison for the SRDC
verse’s D-gesture (B+1–4 [0:20–0:24]) on the fourth.
"THE BEATLES" IN 1960s I WENT TO SEE THEM AS I WAS ADDICTED TO THERE SONGS.I HAVE LOTS OF BEATLES ORIGIONAL ITEMS AND I STILL LIKE TO HERE THEM AS THEY ARE STILL THE BEST FOR SINGING THERE SONGS.I MISS JOHN & GEORGE.
I'd appreciate this comment a lot more if it was not all capitalized.
that is not john singing with himself. that is john singing with paul who is doing a lower harmony in the verse, but then switches to the higher in the middle eight. there is no doubling of the 'nasal' twang of john which would be very noticeable. the voice is either George or Paul, but after listening very carefully, i have concluded its most likely Paul. whoever is saying it is john is wrong.
This is one of my favorites songs, i think it's John in lead vocals, and Paul the backing vocals of John. Paul & George shares the ''aaaaaaah...'', and Ringo, and his excellent drumming.
I feel so much sad and happiness in this song.
I think you're right.
Mike Brown (http://wgo.signal11.org.uk/html/content/i.htm#idwtstp):
1:04
John comes in late on "want". He had sung the full line like Paul prior to "I don't want to".
2:15
John inserts a spurious "If I" after "I've waited far too long". Maybe he thought the next line was going to be "If she turns up while I'm gone" and converted to "I think I'll take a walk".
John is clearly harmonizing with himself, double-tracked, in the verse. Paul sings the high harmony in the chorus.
No question.
I have this song as well on the "French E.P." in supposedly mono. After listening to this song, it's apparently the stereo recording dropped down to mono. Does anyone else here this?
In accordance with your Discography page, it was released in US on 15 Feb 65 as the B side of the Eight Days A Week single.
Good point - thanks, I've amended the release date here. I forgot the single came out before Beatles VI in June 1965.
I have the original vinyl mono version of "Beatles for sale". I'm hearing the Fab Four since 1964 and I'm pretty sure that the notes on the original cover are right. It says that John& Paul are the singers, but I'm pretty sure that John sings lead and Paul harmonizes, not George. George appears on the middle eight and on the ooooohs.
In "Many Years From Now" Paul calls the composition of this song 80/20 John. Interesting to speculate what Paul's 20 percent might have consisted of. If you suppose that gorgeous middle "Though tonight she's made me sad..." was mostly Paul, wouldn't it be more like 60/40? Especially given that Paul didn't hesitate to claim 60/40 for less clear-cut songs, this would seem to be largely a John composition.
It might not have been a particular section, just a few lines or words here and there which helped complete the song. It wasn't uncommon for either of them to bring a song scrap to the studio which was finished off there and then. I agree, though, that this seems to be mostly a John song.
I've wondered this for years...
Does anyone detect "I still love her" and "I do love her" being sung simultaneously?