Written by: Holly
Recorded: 18 October 1964
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Norman Smith
Released: 4 December 1964 (UK), 14 June 1965 (US)
Paul McCartney: vocals, bass
John Lennon: vocals, rhythm guitar
George Harrison: lead guitar
Ringo Starr: drums, percussion
Available on:
Beatles For Sale
Written and recorded by Buddy Holly in 1957, Words Of Love was the only of his songs to be recorded by The Beatles.
A number of Buddy Holly's songs had been performed live by The Beatles from their earliest days. These included That'll Be The Day, Peggy Sue, Everyday, It's So Easy, Maybe Baby, Think It Over, Raining In My Heart, and Crying, Waiting, Hoping.
The Beatles' name was partly inspired by Holly's backing group, The Crickets. All four members were keen Holly fans, and in 1976 McCartney bought the publishing rights to his songs.
The group had performed Words Of Love between 1958 and 1962, with Lennon and Harrison singing. For the Beatles For Sale recording, however, Lennon and McCartney shared vocal duties.
Buddy Holly was completely different; he was out of Nashville, so that introduced us to the country music scene. I still like Buddy's vocal style. And his writing. One of the main things about The Beatles is that we started out writing our own material. People these days take it for granted that you do, but nobody used to then. John and I started to write because of Buddy Holly. It was like, 'Wow! He writes and is a musician'.
Anthology
Words Of Love was first released in the UK on the Beatles For Sale album, the group's fourth. In the US it was included on the Beatles VI collection.
Although Words Of Love was the only Buddy Holly song in The Beatles' canon, they did busk a version of Mailman, Bring Me No More Blues during the Get Back sessions in 1969. While not written by Holly, the song was originally released in 1957 as the b-side to Words Of Love. The Beatles' version was eventually included on Anthology 3.
In the studio
Words Of Love was the final song recorded on 18 October 1964, during which they recorded seven songs in nine hours in a rush to finish the album.
The Beatles recorded the song in two takes, along with a vocal overdub. Ringo Starr played a suitcase along with his drums, in homage to Jerry Allison's performance on Holly's Everyday.
Lyrics
Hold me close
And tell me how you feel
Tell me love is real
Words of love
You whisper soft and true
Darling I love you
Let me hear you say
The words I long to hear
Darling when you're near
Words of love
You whisper soft and true
Darling I love you
Related articles:
- Mailman, Bring Me No More Blues
- Peggy Sue
- Don't Ever Change
- Recording: Eight Days A Week, Kansas City/Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey!, Mr Moonlight, I Feel Fine, I'll Follow The Sun, Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby, Rock And Roll Music, Words Of Love
- Crying, Waiting, Hoping
Ringo drums only on the packing case. There's no drumset.
I beg to differ. If you listen to the mix on Beatles VI (Capitol remasters box set) it sounds a lot like muted drums. It's a far clearer mix than the muddy EMI (pre-2009 remasters) one. Listen for when the guitar bridge occurs at the one-minute mark: when the bass and percussion come back in, it sounds like two different drum sounds (snare then bass, though neither are miked up particularly well).
Ian MacDonald claims that the packing case was actually used on Mr Moonlight, not Words Of Love. Listening to the two songs, I'm inclined to agree.
I see, probably you're right!
On Mr. Moonlight is an african drum. Everett suggests Ringo beat his knees on this one.
Everett:
“Words of Love”:
1. Bass, Ringo’s drumming on packing case
2. John’s Capri
3. John / Paul vocal duet with handclaps in eighths
4. George’s Tennessean
MacDonald:
Starr slaps a packing case with a loose fastening, a noise resembling out-of-time clapping.
I think Everett is right.
What Rafael said translates to:
"The Beatles are part of my life. God created these little men so we keep believing love exists."
Very true
I remember how frustrated I was as a kid, listening intently, trying to pick out a sound that might be unfamiliar, but only ever hearing bass, drums, guitar, vocals and handclaps.
Then, one day as I was listening to "I'll Follow The Sun", it struck me: there it is! That gentle, mysterious tapping of hands on an unidentified object.
Derek Taylor had made a mistake in his liner notes, probably scrambling to make a deadline, or perhaps misinformed by someone as to which of the two songs recorded that day had this unusual feature.
For decades I have read noted authors' comments, lavishing praise on the sound, the performance, the brilliant idea, even going as far as claiming that the handclaps are the sound of a loose fastening.
Gentlemen, it's all in your mind, there is no packing case. It quietly beckons from another song...
This is a beautiful song. Best cover they ever did by far!
That clapping during the instrumental break (when it's most apparent) always kinda irritates me for some reason (or no reason.) Polite little golf-claps, four to the bar, with no real dynamics or differentiation between fore- and backbeat - they just make the track (already pretty fey) sound downright fussy. I still like it, but ultimately, I prefer Buddy's original. But I do approve of the unconventional percussion experiments throughout the album as a whole. (And "No Reply" and "Eight Days a Week" have got some GREAT handclaps.)
I've always heard that the reason the voice blends sound different is that this is a rare instance of Paul singing low harmony and John singing high.
Geoff Emerick ("Here, There and Everywhere"):
"They were clearly flagging by the time they got around to it, yet John, Paul and George sang beautiful three-part harmony, gathered around a single mic.
MacDonald:
"Lennon and Harrison sang the song live but the credits for this track show Harrison replaced by McCartney (though the actual sound suggests otherwise)."
Maybe John and George (or Paul and George) sang in unison?