Written by: Harrison
Recorded: 11, 13 April 1966
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Geoff Emerick
Released: 5 August 1966 (UK), 8 August 1966 (US)
George Harrison: vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, sitar
Paul McCartney: backing vocals, bass
Ringo Starr: tambourine
Anil Bhagwat: tabla
Other musicians: sitar, tambura
Available on:
Revolver
Yellow Submarine Songtrack
Following the sitar motif on Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown), Love You To was The Beatles' first full attempt at recording a piece of music in the classical Indian style.
At the time George Harrison was learning the sitar from Ravi Shankar, who inspired him to learn more about Indian music and Eastern religion.
I wrote Love You To on the sitar, because the sitar sounded so nice and my interest was getting deeper all the time. I wanted to write a tune that was specifically for the sitar. Also it had a tabla part, and that was the first time we used a tabla player.
Recorded under the working title Granny Smith, Love You To shows Harrison's burgeoning interest in philosophy, as well as his love for new wife Pattie whom he married on 21 January 1966).
A short extract from the song was included in the animated film Yellow Submarine, in the scene where Harrison's character first appears.
In the studio
Recording began on 11 April 1966. Take one was George singing while accompanying himself on acoustic guitar, and Paul on backing vocals. Take three saw the introduction of the sitar, which appeared again as an overdub onto take six, along with tabla, bass and fuzz guitar.
Love You To was finished on 13 April. George added more vocals, Ringo played tambourine and Paul contributed falsetto harmonies, left out of the final mix.
Related articles:
- Recording, mixing: Got To Get You Into My Life, Love You To
- Within You Without You
- It's All Too Much
- Recording, mixing: Love You To, Paperback Writer
- Hey Bulldog
"Love You To" is one of those Beatles songs that was tough to determine who played what. Some sources will say that George was the only Beatle on the recording, others will say that Ringo played tambourine, while still some others will say that John and Paul provided backing vocals. I prefer to call this song a George solo song, as I don't believe that there is real evidence of any other Beatle participating.
Any information on the title being a typo - Love You To(o)?
I always thought it was a transposition of words in the line "I'll make love to you".
It's not a typo, it's like:
"Would you like me to?"
"[I'd] love you to"
I can't hear any acoustic guitar nor bass guitar in this song. The only bass sound I can hear is the low "drum" of the tabla, all the time.
I can't detect any bass either, but I'm pretty sure that's an acoustic guitar being strummed throughout, often in tandem with the tambourine. It's most prominent in the right stereo channel during the instrumental section in the middle.
From the first day’s sessions we hear an Indian group on the centre channel, George electric rhythm guitar on the right and a dub in the centre that sounds like a volume-pedal-controlled fuzz guitar.
The Indian instruments included a svaramandal, a Punjabi table harp with between ten and thirty brass and steel strings, a tabla, a pair of hand-played drums, sitar and tamboura.
This was all reduced when vocals from George and Paul were added along with a tambourine.
In mixing ADT was applied to both vocals.
But did Harrison play the "lead" sitar? Some question as to whether he was accomplished enough to have handled that, or in fact it was more likely one of the uncredited Indian musicians.
'Ian McDonald suggests that the sitar part on Revolver's "Love You To",
although not credited, might have been played by [Harrison's] anonymous tutor, but it is more likely that Harrison played it himself with close supervision, according to Shankara Angadi.'
Ray Newman, Abracadabra!: The Story of The Beatles' Revolver (London, 2006), p. 25.
There is no way this is Harrison on sitar. He was a rather clumsy guitar player up until this point but he the picks up the sitar and plays so wonderfully! I think not.
Clumsy? Have a look at the Ed Sullivan Show performance of Till There Was You, and tell me his solo wasn't actually rather elegant.
He has few moments not many. He is not what you would consider a natural.
That is false to say. That was the style of electric guitar that everyone up to the mid sixties played. He could play very well and was improving every year. He was a natural and considered one of the premier guitarist in liverpool in the beginning.
There is obviously a percussion section in this song, but it's not listed.
In addition to tambourine and tabla? Let me know what you can hear and I'll try and verify it.
It also sounds like there's a string section too
Hmm, don't hear 'em myself. (Nor the "obvious" percussion section.) But the mix sounds kinda muddy to my ears, so who really knows?
George was exercising his sitar playing so much by the time, so he could play it really well for the recording of this song. Eventually there might be other musicians playing different instruments. I don´t think Paul was there for the ocassion. And I don´t think Ringo was needed just to play such a simple instrument as the tambourine.
Why wasn't John in on this one? He couldve added the acoustic guitar easy.