George Harrison took lead vocals on The Beatles’ version of The Donays’ little-known 1962 song – originally ‘Devil In His Heart’. It was one of a number of cover versions recorded for With The Beatles.

The Beatles discovered the song through Brian Epstein’s NEMS store.

Brian had a policy of buying at least one copy of every record that was released. If it sold, he’d order another one, or five or whatever. Consequently he had records that weren’t hits in Britain, weren’t even hits in America. Before going to a gig we’d meet in the record store, after it had shut, and we’d search the racks like ferrets to see what new ones were there… ‘Devil In Her Heart’ and Barrett Strong’s ‘Money’ were records that we’d picked up and played in the shop and thought were interesting.
George Harrison
Anthology

It isn’t hard to see the similarities between the song and ‘Chains’ on Please Please Me, suggesting that in 1963 Harrison was being groomed for the role of the US teen pop and doo-wop singer, just as McCartney was happy being a balladeer of Broadway and mainstream standards (see ‘A Taste Of Honey’ and ‘Till There Was You’). Both notions were short lived once Beatlemania broke out and the members’ own personalities came to the fore.

‘Devil In Her Heart’ was the final girl group song recorded by The Beatles. Their own songwriting matured soon after, and the A Hard Day’s Night album would contain only Lennon-McCartney originals. From then on, when The Beatles covered songs written by others, they tended to be rock ‘n’ roll favourites from their live shows.

In the studio

The Beatles took six takes to get ‘Devil In Her Heart’ right.

It was taped on 18 July 1963 – the first session for the With The Beatles album – in which they also recorded ‘You Really Got A Hold On Me’, ‘Money (That’s What I Want)’ and ‘Till There Was You’.

Lyrics

She’s got the devil in her heart
But her eyes they tantalise
She’s gonna tear your heart apart
Oh her lips they really thrill me

I’ll take my chances
For romance is
So important to me
She’ll never hurt me
She won’t desert me
She’s an angel sent to me

She’s got the devil in her heart
No, no, this I can’t believe
She’s gonna tear your heart apart
No, no nay will she deceive

I can’t believe that she’ll ever ever go
Not when she hugs and says she loves me so
She’ll never hurt me
She won’t desert me
Listen can’t you see?

She’s got the devil in her heart
Oh, no, no, no, this I can’t believe
She’s gonna tear your heart apart
No no nay will she deceive

Don’t take chances if your romance is
So important to you
She’ll never hurt me
She won’t desert me
She’s an angel sent to me

She’s got the devil in her heart
No, no, no, no this I can’t believe
She’s gonna tear your heart apart
No, no nay will she deceive

She’s got the devil in her heart
No she’s an angel sent to me
She’s got the devil in her heart
No she’s an angel sent to me


Previous song: ‘I Wanna Be Your Man’
Next song: ‘Not A Second Time’
Published: |