Memorably performed during a train carriage scene in the A Hard Day’s Night film, ‘I Should Have Known Better’ was written by John Lennon, and was the second song on the soundtrack album.
That’s me. Just a song; it doesn’t mean a damn thing.
All We Are Saying, David Sheff
‘I Should Have Known Better’ was written in January 1964, and shows the emerging influence of Bob Dylan upon Lennon’s writing. George Harrison had acquired a copy of The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan in Paris that month, which the group greatly admired.
The song opens with an approximation of Dylan’s harmonica style. The song was one of The Beatles’ last to feature the instrument, which had been prominent on their earlier hits ‘Love Me Do’, ‘Please Please Me’, and ‘From Me To You’.
John Lennon played a Gibson Jumbo J-160E electro acoustic guitar. Harrison, meanwhile, used his new Rickenbacker 360/12 Deluxe 12-string, which quickly became a trademark sound on the A Hard Day’s Night album.
‘I Should Have Known Better’ was featured in a memorable scene in the A Hard Day’s Night film. The Beatles mimed to the song and played cards in a train, while actors, including George Harrison’s future wife Pattie Boyd, looked on.
The scene was actually filmed in a stationary van at Twickenham Film Studios, London, on 11 March 1964. The van was rocked by members of the film crew to mimic the movements of a train.
In the studio
The Beatles began recording ‘I Should Have Known Better’ on 25 February 1964, a day which also saw them record John Lennon’s ‘You Can’t Do That’ and Paul McCartney’s ballad ‘And I Love Her’.
That day the group recorded three takes of ‘I Should Have Known Better’. At this stage the song was quite different to the final version, containing a Dylanesque harmonica solo and ending on a lead guitar line.
Only one of the three takes was complete; the second attempt was a false start which ended when Lennon collapsed into hysterics over his harmonica playing.
The Beatles returned to the song the next day, recording 18 takes. Again there were many aborted attempts, and the final version was take nine.
Lennon double-tracked his lead vocals and overdubbed his harmonica part to complete the song. The final version, including these additions, was take 22.
Chart success
In the UK, ‘I Should Have Known Better’ was the second song on the A Hard Day’s Night album, which was released on 10 July 1964.
There are four I really go for: ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’, ‘If I Fell’, ‘I Should Have Known Better’ – a song with harmonica we feature during the opening train sequence – and ‘Tell Me Why’.
Anthology
In the US it featured on the film soundtrack album of the same name, which was released on 26 June 1964. The album also contained an orchestrated version, scored and conducted by George Martin.
‘I Should Have Known Better’ was also released on 13 July in the US, as the b-side of the ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ single.
The song was released as a single in a number of European countries, including Norway, where it topped the charts, and West Germany, where it reached number six.
John says on the first take of this song “I feel like I’m singing in a sock”
After his voice cracks
Hahaha
I’ve never heard any outtakes to this song, only takes 8 and 11, just a few
seconds – on the anthology ?
Do the other takes still exist?
Does anyone else hear the cough at 02:02 on the second “can’t you see?” phrase?
Does anyone NOTICE John sings I Chould have known better at the beginning of the song I should known better ? And can give me any trivia details about 🙂 <3 Thank's
Yes I heard it
The Beach Boys cover this on their Party album. According to Brian Wilson, I Should Have Known Better was Carl Wilson’s favorite Beatles song.
I love, love this song. Paul’s usually known as the heart of the band, but this song proves that John had an equal heart to match.
I thought McCartney was known as the brain of the band, and Lennon as the heart.
I always thought that John was the heart, Paul was the brains, George was the soul, and Ringo was the drummer. lol
I always thought that John, Paul, and George were the talent, and Ringo was the heart.
I kid, I love Ringo and I think he’s fantastic.
Perhaps John, Paul, George, AND GEORGE MARTIN were the talents in the band. Do people know how much of the “Beatle sound” is owed to G. Martin? He was the fourth Beatle -in my humble opinion.
More important than Ringo? Come on, dude.
I so agree. George M. should have been credited with the Beatles’ success.
Yet he couldn’t produce the same success with America and Gerry and the Pacemakers. Martin was perfect for the Beatles, but he wasn’t the Beatles.
And yet, Ginger, just Gerry and Billy J alone had 5 top-ten singles under George M’s tutelage. He had others with other Brian Epstein groups and performers.
He had a lot to do with the Beatles early success and his continued guidance was of continued to their later successes.
There´s some sound (maybe percussion or bass) marking twice the beat along the song. Does anybody know what is it ?
Its the hi-hat and acoustic guitar that marks the double beat.
I can’t see why no mention is made in this entry of the (heavy) influence of the 1961 Bruce Channel hit ‘Hey Baby’ with harmonica player Delbert McClinton. Not to say it’s a straight rip-off by Lennon looking for some inspiration to meet another deadline. Check this all you Beatles aficionados: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hey!_Baby
Well there was Bob Dylan, whom the Beatles were getting into in 1964, who was playing the harmonica. In 1960 there was Buster Brown’s Fannie Mae as well.
This song was always one of my favorites. I knew when I first heard it, The Beatles music would be forever part of my life.
This was my favorite song in high school. I had not remembered that until recently. Now I have so many other favorites.
Anybody who can tell, witch harmonica brand Lennon used in I Should Have Known Better ?
I believe he normally used a Hohner Marine Band harmonica. There’s a lot of info on this page, though it doesn’t mention the precise brand.
Hey Joe.
Thanks for your reply and the link.
When I play the number with my band, I use a Hohner Blues Harp, and it does a pretty good job.
I find it quite weird with how John played the harmonica on this song and it says he played acoustic guitar as well. In the movie when they performed “I Should Have Known Better” on stage, he wore his guitar but he didn’t play it, and when they performed it on the train, he didn’t even have his guitar with him. He just sang and played harmonica, I find that weird.
If you watch both videos from A HArd Days Night closely, you will see John is using a chromatic harmonica which requires both hands, one pressing the button with his left hand. That’s why he couldn’t play the guitar at the same time. You can use a Hohner C harmonica for the main riff, but you won’t be able to play the last two notes John plays on the harmonica during the guitar solo.
It also says that it is the last Beatles song with one which is not true in any world- they have completely forgot about Rocky Raccoon which is four years later
This Lennon song is a masterpiece. In the pop music before the Beatles, the songs tension usually disappear in the middle part, you only are waiting for the good first bit to come back, but here the tension increases!, the transition to the middle part goes by a new key and very unique you have another changes of key in the middle part …oh oh oh ohoe…and the long middle part ends with a falsetto. It is absolute marvellous. The more you listen, the better. It´s best the second part.
I can see no influence from Dylan here. This song from 1964 is from the period 1963-1965 when Lennon´s compositions dominated the singles and the albums.
A masterpiece? Oh, comon Johan! A good song OBVIOUSLY influenced by Dylan’s harmonica playing. As I’ve said, I really think you’ve just been trolling here.
Oh, comon Mike!
You mean the m e l o d y is “obviously” influenced by Dylan´s way, or m e t h o d, of playing the harmonica? Interesting. Is it your own observation, or have you read it somewhere? Can you point out some special record by Dylan, where he plays in that way? Or you mean that some melody by Dylan has inspired Lennon here?
LOL! A guy who constantly puts forward his biased and blatantly factless-based opinions as fact throughout these blogs, wants to challenge my assertion (a minor one at that) about John’s influence – of which NEITHER of us knows for sure? You’re something else fella…..
My main point was your “opinion” that this song is “masterpiece” (a word you throw around rather loosely here).
How is that trolling? It is a fantastic song and other than the fact that John plays harmonica, I don’t see any similarities to Dylan.
MikeP is the biggest troll on here. It gives him great pleasure to say John stole some style from someone else to support his constant “McCartney is the real genius behind the Beatles” trolling. I think MikeP was hired by Macca to troll these pages and insert “Lennon can’t write a song without McCartney”propaganda… or in this case without the Dylan harmonica influence. Is Love Me Do influenced by Dylan? Rubbish!
But you know what… MikeP is an obsessed fan just like I am. So for that commonality I love him.
Ha!
No, Mike is just a devoted fan who – like quite a lot of others – is just SICK of “Johann”s constant biased blabbering, hardly ever failing to thrown in some good Paul bashing.
I’m very grateful Mike kept calling him out and saved us the work.
Agreed.
agreed 100%. I love this song, and the way Lennon’s pleading voice breaks towards the end.
I’ve always thought it curious that John doesn’t necessarily get the response he was looking for after
“….and when I ask you, to be mine…..you’re gonna say you love me too.”
Paraphrasing the lyrical conversation, I interpret:
“will you marry me?
“I love you too”
If I asked a girl to marry me, the response of “I love you too”, seems a little like the old “I like you as a friend brush off.
Just wondering if anyone else had pondered that…
Fortunately, in my case, 25 years ago this December, I got the response I had hoped for!
Great web site, and commentators are actually civil in their disagreements. How refreshing.
All great comments already mentioned here about this fantastic Beatles’ song. Upon close listening through headphones or ear-buds, we also get to experience an “intimate appreciation” of actually hearing John Lennon taking a deep breath as he prepares to sing the next line of the song. The Beatles were all often seen smoking cigarettes in those early days, so perhaps this shortness-of-breath may have added to the fact that his microphone (usually the Neumann U47 Tube) was easily able to detect this detail with ease. I will never tire of anything by The Beatles!
Just to be clear(er) regarding my previous comment about being able to hear John Lennon taking a deep breath before singing the next line of “I Should Have Known Better.” I failed to mention that I was referring to only the stereo version of this song, where John’s opening harmonica solo also suffers, compared to the mono (original) recording of the song. On the original mono recording, the opening harmonica solo is perfect, and it is nearly impossible to hear John gasping for air as he prepares to sing the next verse. I especially can appreciate the many differences between some of their mono and stereo versions. I nearly always prefer their earliest songs left in the “original” mono!
Same here Phil. The mono versions are much better than the stereo.
totally agree. very very rarely do i hear a stereoized verson of a song that was origionally recorded mono, that sound better.
Has anybody ever heard the handclap overdubs for I Should Have Known Better? In this video at 0:23 they are doing hand clap around the microphone. I can tell it it for this song because it is on beat with the music. The handclaps would have been a very fine addition.
One of the pure fun Beatle songs, and I’ll always luv it … it’s like a campfire song.
Great song. It some ways it’s a lot like the song “A Hard Day’s Night”–key of G, simple melody sitting on the D note for long stretches, just a tad slower in tempo–but it has a totally different feel, relaxed and happy instead of hectic and excited.
This is one of a bunch of John’s songs on AHDN that don’t have a chorus (also AHDN, If I Fell, I’ll Be Back). And a few other AHDN songs have just a line at the end of the verse that functions like a chorus (You Can’t Do That, And I Love Her, I’ll Cry Instead). Not unheard of for a pop song, but it does seem like this album has a particularly high concentration of chorusless song that are nevertheless instantly catchy and memorable.
Mmmmm get real people and stop arguing . One band Many amazing sounds and one conclusion . The very best
Arguing? You must be part of a different conversation.
Frank Cegelski´s comment from last year about the lyric is interesting! It is indeed a nonsense lyric. Still a good but not great song -both versions of it, one with correct and one with less-than-perfect harmonica intro. Only time it was done in concert was for the Oct-Nov 1964 UK tour from which there sadly are no known recordings at all.
I’ve always been curious about the last note in the guitarsolo cause it sounds so “wrong” like it’s out of tune. Is it suppposed to be like that? To me it’s a bit “weird” note.
I think that last note was done on purpose. and maybe it sounded odd was because George played it on his Rickenbacker 12 string. I personally love how the solo ended.
it;s played on the 12th fret just cover the first three strings
I play it covering just two strings… still sounds cool
I agree Richard. I think George intended the solo to end the way it did to differ it from the vocal.
I first heard this song on the American compilation LP they called “Hey Jude”, a really great collection of songs spanning years. I always thought it a shame the album was not considered “canon” and discontinued, I really enjoyed every single song on that compilation (other than Old Brown Shoe), and for a long time it was the only LP that contained “Rain” – Can’t Buy Me Love, I Should Have Known Better, Paperback Writer, the heavy version of Revolution, Rain, Lady Madonna, Hey Jude, Don’t Let Me Down and Ballad of J&Y, all great songs and some hard to find otherwise (at the time)
the beauty of the digital age means you can make it canon in your own write
Probably the reason it is not considered canon is because Past Masters Vols. I and II carry the non-album released stuff, and more comprehensively than the American Hey Jude album. So, if you have all 12 of their regular UK studio released albums, the Magical Mystery Tour LP, plus Past Masters, you’ve pretty much got everything covered.
I also heard this song for first time when I bought the Hey Jude at age 13, and instantly fell in love with it. Rain, too, and I really like Old Brown Shoe! I remember in third grade in 1970 another student brought in the Hey Jude album that had just been released and I thought the hat on the statue was the coolest thing.
Great song, written by John Lennon. I love this when it is played in the scene from the film “A Hard Days Night” on the train. Knew this song well from the radio when I was a kid. Got it twice within months from the “Hey Jude” and “A Hard Days Night” albums. The latter of course it was originally off being the album and soundtrack of the same name, “A Hard Days Night”. It is such a damn catchy song and I love Lennon’s harmonica on it.
What I want to know is why did George Martin (I’m assuming) overdub the fourth bar of the harmonica intro to sound identical to the first three for the CD era. The original vinyl intro has a lovely little percussive stop or gap in the fourth bar. It might have been a mistake but it still sounded good. Shouldn’t have been tampered with or “corrected”.
I grew up during the golden age of The Beatles and was 10 when AHDN was released. Just like in the movie I Wanna Hold Your Hand we would run down the street with our transistor radio in hand screaming with excitement at each new release. A blessed time to be alive.
Hi, as an ex recording engineer, that break has always caught my attention…it seems possible that somebody messed up in the mix down and turned the harmonica off prematurely, as it clicks back in a second after disappearing…but it was decided to leave it that way….that’s my take on it anyway,,,still love the song and vocals
Just an amazingly infectious pop song with truly incredible vocals from John. Almost gives me chills on the second bridge, where his voice is not double tracked as it is throughout the rest of the song. “That when I tell you that I love you, oh…” Such a pure rock n roll vocal in such a straight pop tune. Amazing!
I agree. Johns aching in his voice on that part is so damned good…Especially the “ohhh” parts.
Are there any live versions of this song available? I’ve seen many claim that it was on certain setlists from late 1964 but I’ve yet to hear the proof
The only live version you canfind is the one in the film A Hard Day´s Night, but what we hear is not an actual live performance of it. The only time it was used in concert was for the 27 city tour in the UK during October and November 1964. Not a second of this song from any of the 54 shows are known to exist on audio or video. Unfortunately, very little exists of The Beatles performing in Britain after 1963.
Thank you for the reply and fascinating info Jonas. It’s pretty amazing to think that none of those shows were recorded considering how big they were at that point, it’s a shame really 🙁
live radio rehearsal
Thank you Dan 🙂
Even if it didn’t mean a damn thing (in John’s characteristically withering self-assessment), it’s still irresistible!
No, not a great great song, but a typical fun sing-along that John and Paul could churn out in their sleep.
Always enjoyable to hear.
MikeP — I wouldn’t mind waking up in the morning and discovering I’d written this!
The middle eight is pretty amazing though, I think it’s pure beauty.
I apologize in advance for my OCD, but hey, this is the Beatles, one of the few things in life I know a little about. A thousand years from now, a transcript of this thread may be found, and we don’t want them to have the wrong information. Read on if you want the boring details, or to summarize, John plays a diatonic harmonica, key of C on this song. (He ALSO sometimes plays a chromatic harmonic with a side button, most notably on ‘Love Me Do’, but not here)
The subject is harmonicas. John is NOT playing a chromatic harmonica on the recording. The combination of double-stop notes you hear are not possible with the chromatic. It is a diatonic, sometimes called blues harp. It has a slightly different layout of notes so you can easily get chords by drawing in or blowing out almost anywhere on the ‘harp’. This is why Dylan or Neil Young favors these, they don’t require a whole lot of virtuosity to sound good on. (or great musicians like Paul Butterfield play can amazing blues scales on them).
It appears John MAY have been playing with us, by substituting a chromatic on the movie; as mentioned, it does look like he may be pressing the pitch change button on the side. (But if he was, the notes would be much different than what we were hearing). Or, he also may have been cupping the smaller diatonic, and getting a vibrato effect by shaking his hands. This would correspond to the recorded sounds.
OCD rave officially over…
And if you watch the live YouTube reunion, Delbert McClinton is playing a diatonic, or blues harp for his excellent backing on Bruce Channel’s ‘Hey Baby’. And John does also play a chromatic harmonica, using the button to change some notes in the bridge part of ‘Love me do’.
Once again, NO DISRESPECT INTENDED, just trying to contribute as an experienced musician..
AND YES THIS IS AN AWESOME SONG!!
There’s no additional percussion listed on this song anywhere that I’ve seen, so I’m assuming that “clank clank” in the opening is somehow created by the J-160E, and not an anvil or something?
Love this song, and in particular the middle eight which is musically glorious, with John’s passionate singing, the melody and chord changes and George’s jangling 12 string chords.
good melody, excellent vocals I also love this song
I’m not sure why this song is usually described as showing a Dylan influence. Is it just the harmonica? They’d used the harmonica frequently early on, so I don’t really see that. Is it that the acoustic guitar is more prominent? I just don’t get it. I’m a second generation Beatle fan; born in ’63. They must have been everywhere when I was a little kid, but I only remember discovering them when I was 10 or 11 or so; a few years after they ended. Maybe this was kinda like “you had to be there.” Maybe in the context of the times, it sounded kinda Dylan-y, but I’ve always been puzzled about that description.
Heard this song played on the radio this morning, and though I’ve always been a huge Beatle fan and loved this song, something struck me for the first time.
It’s how, even though all four Beatles perform on the song, none of the others contributes vocally.
It’s starting to make me wonder how unique this is? Can’t think of any others off hand. I’m not thinking of those songs like Yesterday which weren’t performed as a group for their recordings, but the ones where all four are performing on the record.