Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 27 February 1964
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Norman Smith
Released: 10 July 1964 (UK), 26 June 1964 (US)
John Lennon: vocals, acoustic rhythm guitar
Paul McCartney: vocals, bass
George Harrison: electric guitar
Ringo Starr: drums
Available on:
A Hard Day's Night
If I Fell was a ballad primarily written by John Lennon, which first appeared on the A Hard Day's Night film and soundtrack.
The song was a collaboration between Lennon and McCartney, with Lennon taking the lead.
That's my first attempt to write a ballad proper. That was the precursor to In My Life. It has the same chord sequence as In My Life: D and B minor and E minor, those kinds of things. And it's semi-autobiographical, but not consciously. It shows that I wrote sentimental love ballads, silly love songs, way back then.
All We Are Saying, David Sheff
The Beatles mimed to If I Fell during the A Hard Day's Night film. The scene takes place while the crew are setting up equipment prior to The Beatles' 'studio performance'. Amusingly, Lennon sings the love song to Starr.
The song became a part of The Beatles' live repertoire in 1964. As the only ballad performed by the group at the time, it often suffered for their inability to hear themselves above the screams of Beatlemaniacs.
The live versions were typically faster than the studio recording. Bootleg recordings also often show Lennon and McCartney vainly attempting to suppress laughter while singing the song - occasionally it was jokingly introduced as If I Fell Over.
The Beatles recorded If I Fell twice for BBC radio. The first was taped on 14 July 1964 at Broadcasting House, London, and was transmitted two days later on the Top Gear programme. The second performance took place on 17 July at the BBC Paris Studio, London, and was first broadcast on 3 August. Neither rendition was included on the Live At The BBC collection.
On 8 April 1988 John Lennon's lyrics for If I Fell, written on the back of a Valentine's Day card, were sold at Sotheby's in London for £7,800.
People tend to forget that John wrote some pretty nice ballads. People tend to think of him as an acerbic wit and aggressive and abrasive, but he did have a very warm side to him really which he didn't like to show too much in case he got rejected. We wrote If I Fell together but with the emphasis on John because he sang it. It was a nice harmony number, very much a ballad
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles
In the studio
If I Fell was recorded in 15 takes on 27 February 1964. On the same day they also recorded Tell Me Why and the second and final remake of And I Love Her.
The song's acoustic introduction - which is not repeated elsewhere in the song, musically or lyrically - made its first appearance on take 11. However, home demos recorded by Lennon early in 1964 contained the passage.
The two-part harmony vocals was sung by Lennon and McCartney into a single microphone. Lennon took the low harmony, allowing McCartney to dominate the verses.
Chart success
If I Fell was the third song on the UK version of the A Hard Day's Night album, which was released on 10 July 1964.
The US soundtrack LP was issued on 26 June. If I Fell was also the b-side of the And I Love Her single, which reached number 12 in the Billboard chart.
If I Fell performed better in Norway, where it was a chart-topping single in its own right.
A rare UK single, with Tell Me Why on the b-side, was pressed in the UK by EMI and released on 4 December 1964. It was made for export purposes, but a number of record dealers began shipping the discs back into the UK for resale. The catalogue number was Parlophone DP 562.
Related articles:
- And I Love Her
- Recording: And I Love Her, Tell Me Why, If I Fell
- Tell Me Why
- I Should Have Known Better
- UK single release: The Ballad Of John And Yoko
"That's my first attempt to write a ballad proper. In My Life was the first one that worked as a ballad. This one has the same chord sequence - just around D and D minor and E minor, those kinds of things. It is semi-autobiographical. It is really about this girl - not about Cyn. It has an intro like a Fifties song: "If I fell in love with you, would you promise to be true and help me understand..." Paul may have helped with the middle eight. So that shows I wrote sentimental love ballads, silly love songs, way back then."
Just wondering: Where did you find this quote of John's? I have the book 'All we are saying', by David Sheff -- which is basically just a long version of the Playboy interview John did just weeks before he died -- and what he says about his then wife, and, for me, more interestingly, Paul's input, isn't mentioned in the book at all.
Have you been given access to David Sheff's original tapes?
I originally found this one to be one of those songs John and Paul disagreed over when it comes to writing-credits, but given what you have written is true, it seems that they are basically on the same wavelength -- which of course DID happen from time to time...
I wish I had access to David Sheff's tapes! I need to come clean here, though. I wrote this article before I had bought the Sheff book, and you're right - that full quote isn't there. I don't know if it was in the original Playboy edition in 1980, but I suspect that All We Are Saying pretty much contains everything Lennon said in the interviews.
I've corrected the quote, to the one on pages 194-5 in David Sheff's excellent book. The previous version, which you mentioned, was taken from the rec.music.beatles newsgroup, but the person who posted it did say: "I think I got it from a Playboy interview somewhere". So I shouldn't have been quite so careless when reproducing it!
If we suggest John_did_state that Paul may have helped with the middle eight, that wouldn't really make too much sense, because the song doesn't have a middle eight; although -- as I've mentioned before -- John was never too much into the technicalities of music.
...unless we assume that he meant the section that goes: "...her, 'cause I couldn't stand the pain, and I would be sad if I knew love was in vain."
That section actually HAS eight bars.
About David Sheff's tape:
http://www.geocities.com/donaldsauter/yellow-submarine.htm
He appears to have listened to it.
Although, John -- seemingly -- taking credit for 'Two of Us' is on page 204 in my version of 'All We are Saying'.
Hang on, that section's lyrics, if I'm not mistaken, should read "and I/would be sad if our new love/was in vain. That's what I hear, anyway.
You're absolutely right.
On YouTube there is a demo of John doing 'If I Fell', where the section I've already mentioned appears to be a bit different melodically.
Slightly different chords used, as well.
I think I'm on to something here.
[While others, I guess, will think I'm just ON something.]
One of my favorite bits about this song is that if you listen to the LP, Paul's voice cracks on the second "was in vain".
This was fixed digitally for the CD release, which I honestly think was unnecessary and gratuitious.
I think you're probably right. Thanks for that.
just to expand on matt's comment - paul's voice cracks on the stereo version of if i fell, the mono version is a different take, with perfect vocal - one of those odd fabs mono / stereo oddities (see please please me as an example)
Actually the mono was just 'repaired' by copying and pasting Paul's earlier vocal of "in vain" over the second one. Not sure why they didn't do that on the stereo mix. Maybe it was just an oversite. The stereo mixes had less importance at the time.
You're all wrong. The original take was where Paul cracked. When they overdubbed, it was sung correctly. If you listen to the mono mix, the original vocal is mixed out and just the single track overdub is heard.
I can't claim to know which of you are correct, but on the 2009 mono re-mix (which I'm listening to right now on pro quality headphones) something is odd about it--the sound of Paul's voice warbles a little on that 2nd "in vain". It definitely is a different take than from the previous "in vain" and from the one where his voice cracks. But that warble doesn't sound like it's his voice, but either a problem with the original tape or it's been manipulated later somehow, or both. I haven't heard the original mono LP version isn over 20 years so I don't recall if that warble was there or not. But if it is, it may be due to the quality of the original tape of that take being compromised somehow. And if so, that's possibly why they had to keep the cracked version in the stereo mix (which is kept on the 2009 re-mix--I double-checked).
I can hear Paul's vocal cracking quite well in the newly master CDs. Even better than before!
Soon after the crack, you can also very clearly hear one of them taking in a deep breath.
The vocal harmonies to me are quite impressive. Being a guitar player and this being one of the songs I know by heart, it is hard to stay in the same vocal key as John without venturing into Paul's.
Totally agree... It was hard to get a perfect take of me singing john and playing at the same time without going to paul... Specially on "two... cause I couln't stand..."
Hear John working the song out on guitar for the first time on this Jan. 1964 composing tape: http://www.thebeatlesrarity.com/2010/08/30/beatles-rarity-of-the-week-if-i-fell-composing-tape-jan-1964/
Always intriguing to me was the closing chord-somewhat of a "chime" sound, presumably an overdub. I've never read anything to explain it.
This song is a monster - Lennon at a peak.