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.
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
I really like George’s voice, one of my favorite tracks from With The Beatles.
In the beginning George had a nice raspy voice.
Why did it change?
George was a smoker. It might explain why his voice changed. Same thing happened to Joni Mitchell.
i noticed something cool about this song…in every verse of this song (the beatles version at least) George Harrison adds a “no” to the line : “no this i cant believe”
listen to it, its pretty cool and interesting…i think it starts with 2 “no’s” then ends up 4 “no’s” by the end….
not important but cool i think.
In the early days George already showed his fine and exquisite guitar playing style. I love how sweet and soft he plays on this song.
George was only 20 when he recorded this, probably why his voice changed a bit. If you listen to Dylan songs off his first two albums and then listen to Blonde and Blonde and John Wesley Harding, you can hear his voice matured, notwithstanding stylistic differences.
George’s voice was changing naturally. Dylan’s voice may have changed between Blonde On Blonde and JWH because he broke his neck in that motorbike accident in 1966.
plus the more you smoke the more your voice will change over time as well
C´mon you really pay attention to Dylan´s voice ? There are no voice ! Any way I really adore him
Been looking for years for the Donays’ version on a 45. Never could find it…
The style of this almost reminds me of one of the ballads Paul liked to cover early on. Really pleasant early song.
Listening to it while reading to this article, I noticed that George fluffs a bit at 2:04 — he comes in slightly early on his downward run of chords and quickly cuts himself off.
George also fluffs a line on ” Here comes the sun” he says seels instead of feels. Surprised they never re-recorded it
The song sounds like Yoko.
Nobody sounds like Yoko, least of all any of the Beatles. I love this song. George once said no one taught him how to sing. I think he learned well from his bandmates. Sometimes he sounds a bit like John and other times a bit like Paul.
Would loved to have been there when Richard P Drapkin got his royalty check after The Beatles released his non-hit song.
its shameful that u would compare George to Yoko. Nothing wrong with that song.
I believe he meant that the subject matter (“devil in her heart”) refers to Yoko…
back in 1998 I was living in St Louis in an apartment complex, and got to know one of my neighbors, a guy who was originally from Detroit, named Mark Drapkin. I thought, his name sounds familiar, but I couldn’t place it. Then, one day, he told me his uncle wrote a song sung by a girls Motown group that the beatles bought from him. And immediately I remembered that Devil in Her Heart was written by ‘Drapkin’.
It almost sounds like George is giving a subtle nod to the original artists: When he sings “No no nay will she deceive” -you can almost hear “No Donay will she deceive” *Now you will always hear it that way! 🙂
I always thought he said no knave will she deceive there!
Bob Dylan never had a natural voice he kept changing it depending on the music he was doing. Listen to his first album then “another side of Bob Dylan up until “Blonde on Blonde”. Nobody’s voice changes that much naturally. Hes voices were all impersonations. Still love him though.
Without knowing it was George, three of my favorites are “Devil in Her Heart,” “Do you Want to Know a Secret,” “I’m Happy Just to Dance with You.” As a teen, all the songs were the Beatles sound. It’s hard to sing when you are trying to be all the voices at the same time. It was a wonderful time to be young!
I would think
This song was released in the U.S. on The Beatles’ Second Album–in case anyone is wondering (I was!).
For many years, my brother thought that this was a Lennon/McCartney original given to George to sing (ala “Do You Want To Know A Secret”), until I pointed out the writer’s credit on the record label.