Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 30 July 1963
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Norman Smith
Released: 22 November 1963 (UK), 20 January 1964 (US)
John Lennon: vocals, rhythm guitar
Paul McCartney: backing vocals, bass
George Harrison: backing vocals, lead guitar
Ringo Starr: drums
Available on:
With The Beatles
It Won't Be Long kicked off The Beatles' second UK album, With The Beatles. It heavily featured the band's distinctive "Yeah, yeah" signature established with She Loves You, this time in a call-and-response style between Lennon on lead vocals, and McCartney and Harrison doing harmonies.
The song was written mainly by John Lennon, with help from Paul McCartney. They were especially proud of the juxtaposition of 'be long' and 'belong', which McCartney compared to the wordplay that influenced Please Please Me.
I was doing literature at school, so I was interested in plays on words and onomatopoeia. John didn't do literature but he was quite well read, so he was interested in that kind of thing. Like the double meaning of 'please' in a line like 'Please, lend a little ear to my pleas' that we used in Please Please Me. We'd spot the double meaning. I think everyone did, by the way, it was not just the genius of us! In 'It won't be long till I belong to you' it was that same trip. We both liked to try and get a bit of double meaning in, so that was the high spot of writing that particular song. John mainly sang it so I expect that it was his original idea but we both sat down and wrote it together.
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles
It Won't Be Long wasn't The Beatles' most polished studio performance; nor was it a fixture of their live set. It was, however, an attention-grabbing start to With The Beatles, proving to listeners that Please Please Me and She Loves You had been no flash in the pan.
The Beatles were more intellectual, so they appealed on that level, too. But the basic appeal of the Beatles was not their intelligence. It was their music. It was only after some guy in the London Times said there were aeolian cadences in It Won't Be Long that the middle classes started listening to it - because somebody put a tag on it.
All We Are Saying, David Sheff
In actual fact, in his article What Songs The Beatles Sang, The Times' music critic William Mann mentioned aeolian cadences in Not A Second Time, rather than in It Won't Be Long. Lennon, however, mentioned it once more in his 1980 interview with David Sheff.
It Won't Be Long is mine. It was my attempt at writing another single. It never quite made it. That was the one where the guy in the London Times wrote about the "Aeolian cadences of the chords" - which started the whole intellectual bit about The Beatles.
All We Are Saying, David Sheff
In the studio
The song was completed during the second day's recording for With The Beatles. On 30 July 1963 they did two sessions, bisected by a BBC recording and rehearsal for the programme Saturday Club.
In the morning they recorded 10 takes of It Won't Be Long, and a further seven in the afternoon. They then recorded five edit pieces, numbered 18-23; the final song was a combination of 17 and 21, spliced together on 21 August.
Related articles:
- Not A Second Time
- Recording: I'm Happy Just To Dance With You, Long Tall Sally, I Call Your Name
- Recording: Matchbox, I'll Cry Instead, Slow Down, I'll Be Back
- Dear Yoko
- The Night Before
Just listened to Anthology DVD in such a fantastic stereo mix: it destroys both mono and stereo 2009 cd remasters, where is this taken from?
From the same mix. Only that is rechanneled and remixed with the masters of that takes and not of the masters final mix. What i mean they maybe took the masters of Take 17 and 21 instead the combination on Anthology.
It could be. But i think is a tie for both.
does anyone else notice how selfish John Lennon is? He always has to make a point of saying a song is his with no recognition for Paul.
In "Many Years From Now", Paul claims he was the producer, the arranger, the musical director; he made statements abouts his contribution to every song in this planet. If it was for him, he created the whole universe.
John has been dead since 1980.
Therefore, only Paul's version of the song writing story is the last word on the subject.
"[D]oes anyone else notice how selfish John Lennon is? He always has to make a point of saying a song is his with no recognition for Paul."
I wouldn't say 'always', but I notice it as well occasionally.
But it's not unusual for two people to have disparate recollections of the same events.
John probably remembers it was his original idea, which, usually, is enough for him put his own stamp on it.
The Wikipedia-article about this song interprets Paul's comments about 'It Won't Be Long' as him pursuing the role of an arranger rather than an actual co-writer.
Sometimes it's hard to determine where the line between writer/arranger goes, especially on John Lennon songs where Paul helped out -- and maybe even finished the song.
John didn't mention Paul's input in any of the interviews I know[Hit Parader 1972, Playboy 1980], while Paul's comments may lead you to believe the song was about 60/40 in John's favour.
I'm perfectly happy to go with 80/20.
For people like me, who are into numbers, twenty percent for McCartney is sufficient for him to be acknowledged as co-writer of this excellent Lennon/McCartney song.
It is fairly easy to tell which Beatle wrote what. Their individual personalities are clearly reflected in the individual tunes. For instance "You've Got To hide Your Love Avay" vs."Here There and Everywhere". Not always crystal clear but a pretty good educated guess. Love them all, it was a magical alliance!
Many of Lennon's comments as to particular Beatle songs were pulled from the same interview, in which he was asked to provide a little background as to who was the primary writer. When read as a whole, he seems to give equal credit to both Paul and himself. The interviewer chose the songs and Lennon commented from the top of his head. He gives equal praise and equal criticism as to what he thought good and bad in the bands catalog.