UK EP release: Long Tall Sally

The Beatles’ fifth EP release in their home country was the first to feature previously unreleased material.

The EP contained four songs: ‘Long Tall Sally’, ‘I Call Your Name’, ‘Slow Down’ and ‘Matchbox’. The release number was Parlophone GEP 8913.

Only I Call Your Name was written by Lennon-McCartney – the rest were cover versions. Paul McCartney sang the title track; John Lennon took lead on Slow Down and I Call Your Name – the only Lennon-McCartney song on the EP, and which had originally been given to Billy J Kramer and The Dakotas. Matchbox was sung by Ringo Starr.

Long Tall Sally entered the UK’s EP chart on 4 July 1964, and spent seven weeks at number one. It also spent time in the singles chart, reaching number 11. By early 1965 it had sold more than 250,000 copies in the UK and over a million worldwide.