Written by the Brill Building songwriting team of Gerry Goffin and Carole King, ‘Chains’ was recorded during the 13-hour session of 11 February 1963 in which The Beatles recorded the bulk of the Please Please Me album.
‘Chains’ had been a minor hit in 1962 for The Cookies, Little Eva’s backing singers. Although not a huge commercial success, the song was frequently covered by Liverpudlian bands of the time.
The song remained in The Beatles’ live repertoire for only a short time, however, and was jettisoned once they assembled a superior set of their own songs. They did, however, record it for several BBC radio shows.
BBC recordings
The first BBC recording of ‘Chains’ was made on 16 January 1963, for the Here We Go show. The Beatles also taped new versions of ‘Please Please Me’, ‘Ask Me Why’, and ‘Three Cool Cats’.
They next recorded it on 1 April 1963, for the Side By Side show. This version of ‘Chains’ was included on the 2013 digital album Bootleg Recordings 1963, along with the same day’s recordings of ‘Long Tall Sally’, ‘A Taste Of Honey’, and ‘Boys’. Versions of ‘Thank You Girl’ and ‘From Me To You’ from the same day remain unreleased.
The third and fourth BBC recordings of ‘Chains’ were both for the Pop Go The Beatles programme. The first of these was done in a 17 June 1963 session, in which they also recorded versions of ‘Anna (Go To Him)’, ‘I Saw Her Standing There’, ‘Boys’, ‘PS I Love You’, ‘Twist And Shout’, and ‘A Taste Of Honey’.
This third version of ‘Chains’ was included on 2013’s On Air – Live At The BBC Volume 2, as was ‘Boys’ and ‘PS I Love You’. ‘Anna (Go To Him)’ was one of the songs issued on Bootleg Recordings 1963.
The Beatles’ final BBC recording of ‘Chains’ was made on 3 September 1963 for Pop Go The Beatles. It was also included on Bootleg Recordings 1963, along with versions of ‘You Really Got A Hold On Me’ and ‘Boys’ from the same day.
That BBC session also saw The Beatles record a version of ‘Lucille’, which was included on On Air – Live At The BBC Volume 2. That day’s versions of ‘Misery’ and ‘From Me To You’ remain unreleased.
In the studio
The Beatles recorded four takes of ‘Chains’ for the Please Please Me album, with the first attempt deemed the best.
George Harrison sang lead vocals – the first of two Please Please Me songs in which he took centre stage – with Lennon and McCartney providing backing harmonies.
John Lennon played the harmonica introduction, and the song was faded out during the album’s edit session on 25 February.
Lyrics
Chains, my baby’s got me locked up in chains
And they ain’t the kind that you can see
Whoa, oh, these chains of love got a hold on me, yeah
Chains, well I can’t break away from these chains
Can’t run around, ’cause I’m not free
Whoa, oh, these chains of love won’t let me be, yeah
I wanna tell you, pretty baby
I think you’re fine
I’d like to love you
But, darling, I’m imprisoned by these
Chains, my baby’s got me locked up in chains
And they ain’t the kind that you can see
Oh, oh, these chains of love got a hold on me
Please believe me when I tell you
Your lips are sweet
I’d like to kiss them
But I can’t break away from all of these
Chains, my baby’s got me locked up in chains
And they ain’t the kind that you can see
Whoa, oh, these chains of love got a hold on me, yeah
Chains, chains of love…
Worst song on the album by far.
You have to be kiddin!
Nah, I think “Anna” is worse. 😀
“Anna” sucks, I agree, but the dreadful line “And they ain’t the kind that you can see” just makes it impossible for me to listen to this song any further than that.
You mad, “Anna” is fab!
I agree …. A great cover of a Arthur Alexander tune. Sung with great emotion by Lennon. Nice back up vocals by Paul and George.
agree three. love George’s playing on Anna and Johns vocal;
By far?
What the heck…I’ll join the fray. “A Taste of Honey” is by far the worst from this album, followed (not too closely) by “Do You Want To Know A Secret”.
Case closed….. 😉
never liked Taste Of Honey Either also Till There Was You
I Think A Taste Of Honey
Not a bad song, but the lads went a bit too far with their girl group covers in the early going.
A huge part of the Beatle “sound” comes from the harmonies and pop feel of the early girl groups.
true, but i feel they could’ve better used those harmonies and skills with other songs more suited to them, drawing inspiration from girl groups to play something like a Ray Charles number or so forth
This song is awesome! Please Please Me didnt neccessarily have a great lineup of songs, but they were damn good to just sing along/ dance to.
It’s a typical filler song, but I see why it was given to George. It couldve gone to anybody not named Ringo & been about the same. It wasn’t one of their best cover choices, but it goes well with his voice & it’s a good chance to get George in the mix. If all else failed, which it didn’t, the harmonies are good.
The song was certainly filler for them, but I think they were also pretty savvy guys and didn’t pick it at random. The three-part harmony and harmonica combo for a rock group was rare and made them stand out at the time. The Beatles were always looking to set themselves apart from the pack, visually and sonically, and the arrangement on this song made it easy to do so.
the song is great, and the vocal lead of George too
George’s voice retains its huskiness from all those gigs played in the Cavern and elsewhere. And that’s why I like Chains – it’s full of youthful exuberance – the boys’ excitement is clearly audible.
And as M. Whitener says above, the harmonies are good.
But is that an organ I can hear just before the second bridge (“I want to tell you pretty baby..”)? Sounds like someone sweeping their hand across the keyboard.
It’s the Beatles demonstration of mastering the sound style of those Brill Building songs or Motown, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, etc. They loved American music to the core. They embraced those depths as treasure and surfaced with the details & nuances as bounty. They brought back to America what they were given and they did it with wit & style which means that just about everything they did in those early days was outstanding.
Love the way the guitar amp breaks up throughout this recording. I don’t think this was an effect they went after and perhaps if they weren’t so busy they may have redone it, but it remained their grittiest record until the “Revolution” single five years later.
absolutely.. i wondered why nobody ever comments on that , the Guitar is devastating when it comes in….I never really figured out if it was John or George’s amp that goes on the blinker…..
You have to remember, when The Beatles were still a club band, not only did they play what they liked, but they also played the hits of the day, and in the early ’60’s, girl groups were quite popular. To a point, you have to compromise & play something for the audience too. When this was cut, the boys were not yet the world-shakers they later became. Once they hit it big, songs like this were dropped. You never saw them returning to songs like “I’ll Remember You”, “Beautiful Dreamer” or “A Picture Of You ” either.
To expand on this, once they became famous, the majority of their pre-fame stage repertoire was never returned to, as far as commercially-released recordings were concerned, anyway.
I think it’s a sweet song, and George sang it sweetly as well..
Say what you will of the song’s objective quality, what can’t be denied is how much the Cookies’ original version of Chains, produced by co-writer Gerry Goffin, contains so many aspects that we think of as characteristically Beatles.
That “yeah” at the end of each chorus, the arrangement of the harmonies, the feel of the lead vocal (listen to those bridges), the drum fills, are shockingly “Beatles.”
It’s wrong to suggest that they either preformed or recorded these songs out of a compromise obligation to cover the hits of the day. Lenmac obviously loved and emulated this stuff and absorbed it into their DNA. Takes nothing away from their fabness to acknowledge that. They were never shy about it.
The Beatles learned some of their best moves from the girl groups.. and their songwriters… and their producers.
Whooooo!
xo
Bad lyrics were then, and are now, a dime a dozen. Who cares?! It’s an excellent performance, listen to Ringo’s groove. That hi-hat! Those fills!
Any legitimate criticism has to be taken in context with the time frame in which this was recorded. In other words, given what we know today, we can’t accurately look at this through the lens of 1963. At that time – it was pretty groundbreaking stuff.
I’ve never enjoyed this song. I’ve tried countless times to warm up to it but just can’t do it.
The song itself is not special by any means and it is no surprise that it was never a commercial success.
As mentioned above by Nico, the Beatles soaked in what they learned with their covers and created Beatles music.
As a somewhat professional musician myself, I know that most songs you write are going to undoubtly draw from things you’ve listened to or covered.
So in conclusion, as much as I dislike this song, it clearly was one of the many tunes that taught the Beatles the groundwork for their own material.
When I was a young lad of 13 I remember hearing a burb/belch in this song. It comes at 1:28 into the song and right before “please believe me when I tell you your lips are sweet”. I’m now 65 years old and have listened to this song many, many times and I still hear it. Can anyone verify?
And no drugs were involved. 🙂
I was listening to this song today and also heard the noise before I read your comment! It sounds like a soft chuckle to me.
According to the book “All The Songs: The Story Behind Every Beatles Release”, you are supposed to hear “Is that enough?” or “Is that the rhythm?”, either spoken from the control room or possibly from John. However, my old ears can only hear a single syllable. Another very excellent book called “The Beatles Through Headphones” by Ted Montgomery says that it appears that George says “yow”. Interestingly, Montgomery notes that there are several songs that have some sort of quirk (mistake, something spoken, change in mixing, etc) around the “1:27” mark. These are predominantly heard when listening through headphones. Others include Roll Over Beethoven, Things We Said Today, Good Day Sunshine, and All You Need Is Love. The book points out many such anomalies, which happen at various places in the songs, but for some odd reason, the 1:27 mark is far and away the point at which these happen. Weird.
Look enough Please Please Me bashing! It’s The Beatles, the record was recorded in ONE DAY, and climaxes with Twist and Shout, arguably one of the most legendary Rock N Roll vocals put to tape up to that point and possibly after that too? And yep, if it wasn’t for The Shirelles and other girl groups, I would argue that the Beatles would be worse off in the vocal harmony department. And nobody seems to make the point that this is the first vocal appearance of a certain George Harrison, ever!
You’re so right and it has to be noted that The Beatles were still novices in the studio at this point in time, so it was understandable that they would make mistakes that would require retakes, hence that having George Martin as their producer was very beneficial to them and he did a very good job as their studio teacher.
George did a very good job at singing “Chains”, so I don’t get why Ian MacDonald felt compelled to unfairly denigrate it in his book.
Not a great song, silly lyrics but men, I love the Harmonica on the beginning
and yes George first lead, he will get better.
In my personal opinion, the song is way damn goood, if you are a new Beatles song digger I bet you might find this song a bit tricky as it is not the signature voice of them printed in your ears but it has a certain feeling that you may feel that it is actually so damn great.
Here’s a bit of trivia: Carole King, who cowrote the song with her then-husband Gerry Goffin, went on to become one of the most prominent singer-songwriters of the early 1970’s alongside Jackson Browne, James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, Randy Newman, Carly Simon, fellow Brill Building singer-songwriter Neil Diamond, Cat Stevens, Neil Young, Don McLean, Paul Simon, Janis Ian, Melanie, Billy Joel and Elton John to name just a few.
Additionally, James Taylor’s first album was on Apple Records and on the song “Carolina in My Mind”, Paul played the bass guitar and George contributed some uncredited backing vocals.
The Everly Brothers did the original version of “Chains” in 1962, but their recording was left un-issued at the time.