Inspired by Roger McGuinn’s guitar work for The Byrds, ‘If I Needed Someone’ was written by George Harrison and first appeared in the UK on the Rubber Soul album.
‘If I Needed Someone’ is like a million other songs written around a D chord. If you move your finger about you get various little melodies. That guitar line, or variations on it, is found in many a song, and it amazes me that people still find new permutations of the same notes.
In 1965 The Beatles’ publicist Derek Taylor started his own public relations company, moving to America and representing, among others, The Byrds. Harrison asked Taylor to pass a message on to McGuinn to acknowledge the debt ‘If I Needed Someone’ owed to The Byrds’ ‘She Don’t Care About Time’ and ‘The Bells Of Rhymney’.
McGuinn was already aware of the similarity. It is, additionally, interesting that Harrison’s own 12-string guitar work on 1964’s A Hard Day’s Night album had played a key role in the development of The Byrds’ own Rickenbacker-led jangling sound.
The song also revealed Harrison’s burgeoning interest in Indian music. The song is based largely around a single chord, which anticipated the droning styles of later songs such as ‘It’s All Too Much’ and ‘Blue Jay Way’.
‘If I Needed Someone’ was the only one of Harrison’s songs to have become a part of The Beatles’ live repertoire. It is believed to have been performed at every Beatles concert in 1966, and was played at their final show at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park on 29 August 1966.
In the studio
The Beatles recorded ‘If I Needed Someone’ over two sessions. In the first of these, on 16 October 1965, they recorded just the basic rhythm track, nailing it in a single take.
Two days later they completed the song with a number of overdubs. These included George Harrison’s lead vocals, harmonies from John Lennon and Paul McCartney, and tambourine by Ringo Starr.
There’s no harmonium on the record. George plays his Rickenbacker 12-string electric guitar.
Thanks – I couldn’t hear one either. I guess Ian MacDonald got it wrong.
It may be that Roger McGuinn was inspired for Rhymney by George’s circular guitar riff at the close of “A Hard Day’s Night,” the phrasing is quite similar. Dana ; )
I find it hard to believe that anything by The Beatles would be inspired by The Byrds or any American for that matter….
Like chuck berry? Or buddy holly? Or elvis? Or zappa and what about beefheart? Or Smokey Robinson….or Brian wilson…etc. What I’m trying to say is you have no clue at all what you’re talking about. Tons of Americans had a heavy affect of the Beatles. They were mostly influenced by Americans, actually. America is, and has been for a while, the creative center of the world, The Beatles knew it.
Little Richard especially.
Almost ALL The Beatles Music was inspired by American influennce]
Two example …..”Good Day Sunshine” from Lovin Spoonfuls Day Dream and “The Long And Winding Road From Simon and Garfunkels “Bridge Over Troubled Waters “
Long and Winding road doet denken aan een nummer van Herp Alpert.”This guys in love”???
Wrong _ “…Winding Road” is written before ” Bridge over . . . “
This is a numbskull remark. There wouldn’t have been a Beatles without the pioneers of American rock’n’roll.
i though that the hollies got in an argument with the beatles about this song because their cover version didnt do well in the charts or something like that.. is there any info on that?
Wikipedia has some info about this single cover version.
It was a comparitive failure for the Hollies reaching #20 in the UK whereas some previous Hollies singles reached top 10 UK.
Boo-hoo those poor Hollies.
George Harrison publicly criticised the song, saying: “They’ve spoilt it. The Hollies are all right musically, but the way they do their records, they sound like session men who’ve just got together in a studio without ever seeing each other before.”
The Hollies’ Graham Nash countered by saying: “Not only do these comments disappoint and hurt us, but we are sick of everything The Beatles say or do being taken as law. The thing that hurts us most is George Harrison’s knock at us as musicians. And I would like to ask this. If we have made such a disgusting mess of his brainchild song, will he give all the royalties from our record to charity?”
For the record, I don’t generally mention Beatles cover versions in these articles as there are simply too many out there.
Pretty assholish remark there from George, I gotta say. (Hollies were great!)
Maybe George would have donated royalties from this song to charity if Graham Nash and the rest of the Hollies led by example.
History has proven that George gave more to charity by INVENTING large scale rock and roll benefits.
Everyone, including a Beatle, is entitled to their opinion.
Yeah, when he wasn’t complaining about having to pay taxes… 🙂
What do you want–perfection?
I guess George Harrison was the only person in the U.K. in 1966 complaining about paying supertax to Inland Revenue.
The line in Taxman–“one for you, nineteen for me”–was the tax-rate The Beatles were paying: 95%.
Would you be happy paying 95% of your earnings as tax?
Harrison is allowed to say that the hollies took one of his first songs and destroyed it. Graham Nash (who i am a fan of) probably regrets his charity remark now that Harrison is the pioneer of rock benefits. Go Beatles
Of course he’s *allowed* to criticize anybody’s performance of one of his songs, notwithstanding how big or small a hit it is, or how much or little he earns in songwriting royalties from that hit. I’m saying he could’ve been less dickish about his opinions, and more diplomatic, like Paul probably would’ve done. If Bob Dylan had complained to the press about George’s version of “If Not For You” in a similarly imperious fashion, I’d have been equally offended (and so would you).
1. Dylan taught Harrison if not for you
2. Dylan co- wrote 2 songs for all things must pass
3. Harrison didn’t ruin a classic like the hollies
Harrison didn’t sugar coat his public statements. He didn’t say things to please the press
He spoke THE TRUTH
I’m sure they preferred both versions to Olivia Newton John’s, hah
Just hold on. George wrote the song for Pattie, who he was deeply in love with. The fault for George’s remark can be laid directly at the feet of the snarky little reporter who got in George’s face and claimed George wrote the song for the Hollies.
For George to complain about The Hollies spoiling his song is simply petulance, and his comment that The Hollies were ‘alright’ musically is ridulous! Harrison was never more than an average guitarist and was very lucky that Paul introduced him to John. Harrison and Starr couldn’t compete with Tony Hicks and Bobby Elliott as musicians. As for ‘If I needed someone’ – the only criticism I can make of The Hollies record is their choice of material! They usually went for much stronger songs!!
Mr. Hargrave, Mr. Clapton disagrees with your assessment of George’s skills on the guitar. Since I’ve never heard any of your guitar work, I’ll have to side with Mr. Clapton.
Talk about petulance…! George was a great player and writer. Also, a good person. He even forgave Yoko. One thing I will never do, not even on MY deathbed. (But, John must shoulder much of the blame…) Sorry George, for my being not as forgiving. You took the high road, here.
Well played, Kelvin!
I have listened to both versions (not many times for the Hollies’ version) and really do not like the Hollies treatment of the song. I do like the Hollies, for the record, no pun intened. But, I wholeheartedly agree with George, ‘…they spoilt it.’ Right off the bat the intro is thin and (without looking at the score) seems to have missing notes. And, honestly, didn’t even sound as good “session musicians” would do. George got it right. Really. Critically listen to the song’s versions side-by-side and tell me you really think the Hollies’ version is even close. No disrespect intended. As a guitar player I do know that different players like to add their own “touch.” I just think the Beatles’ version is best. One of their best songs. Thank you.
George was right. Hollies version sounds like a bunch of non-connected studio musicians. I just heard it for the first time….and hopefully, the last.
yes, McGuinn & McGuire couldn’t get no higher, but that’s what they were aiming (for).
You seem to have missed my point. I KNOW Dylan wrote “If Not For You”, obviously; that’s why I’m using it for an example. And I’m saying that IF George recorded Dylan’s song, and IF Dylan didn’t like George’s version, and IF Dylan decided to declare his displeasure to some widely-circulated music magazine rather than to his friend & colleague’s face…well, that’s a supremely dickish move, and you’d probably recognize it as such. And as for “not saying things to please the press”, that’s ridiculous – what paper would prefer a headline like “Harrison: ‘Everything’s Fine!'” to “Harrison: ‘Hollies Suck!'”
Hey they were only 23 years old at the time!
George must have been severely disappointed at the first important cover of one of his own songs!
Since Graham appeared in the All You Need Is Love broadcast, they must have made amends by that time.
I guess you’re right. And speaking of making amends, let me apologize for acting fairly dickish myself on this page. Bottom line is: I’ve never heard the Hollies’ version myself, but I have no doubt it doesn’t compare to the original, one of my absolute favourite Harrisongs.
Listen to this song from the Tokyo concerts in ’66. McCartney throws a harmony not on the original that is so awesome it’s a shame they didn’t record it that way. Surprisingly, it is a very Indian flavored change, from Paulie. Amazing! It’s the little things.
@BeatleCharlie. Thanks for your rec on the Tokyo concert. Those harmonies are a thing of beauty! And you’re right, what a shame it’s not on the album (or LP as a 24 year-old Paul would say, bless him).
One of the best opening guitar riffs in rock history…….distinctive and memorable.
John´s ryhthm guitar sounds like the Gibson semi-acoustic, can anybody clear that to me ?
No, John was playing his Fender Stratocaster and George was obviously playing his Rickenbacker 12-string electric guitar – the tone is obvious.
Paul, on the other hand, was playing his Rickenbacker 4001S bass, not his Höfner 500/1, and Ringo obviously used his Ludwig drum kit.
A true Beatles classic. The vocals, guitars, lyric, drums, everything very good. George classic.
Roger McGuinn admited himself on stage many a time that he was inspired by The Beatles when re arranging Bob Dylans Mr Tambourine Man
In defense of The HOLLIES, Tony Hicks, is without question a legendary guitar wizard. And Bobby Elliott, is a world class drummer, but to be fair, The Hollies version by comparison sounds well, a bit ” tinny”, if you will, and not quite as rich & full as The Beatles recording. The Hollies Producer Ron Richards, is probably the culprit here. Additionally, I do believe it has been revealed that George, never made those comments and that they were issued by a publicist to create a stir and sell periodicals. Graham Nash, is known to have been present at subsequent Beatles endeavors. George’s son Dhani and Tony Hicks, son Paul, are long time childhood friends who grew up across the street from each other They are in a band together called The Newno2 Additionally, Paul Hicks has won Grammy awards for his work remastering the Beatles catalog. Don’t buy into the hype. It’s only hype. 😉
In addition, one has to assume that Beatles, Braintrust, Inc., a/o Harrisongs, gave permission to the Hollies to record George’s song. Not like they stole it. Given how few of George’s songs made it onto Beatle records, you can imagine him giving consent. And you can imagine that after the Beatles heard the cover they rushed to get it recorded and put on Rubber Soul, probably realizing they (maybe, more accurately, John and Paul) underestimated the song. Besides, it is my understanding that the Beatles and the Hollies BOTH recorded at Abbey Road, so it is conceivable that bandmembers ran into and talked to each other on ocassion.
The Hollies’ version isn’t earth-shaking, but it’s not bad. Truth be told, at this stage in his career, George should’ve been grateful that someone else thought one of his songs was worth covering. He really hadn’t blossomed as a songwriter yet.
BTW, Harrisongs didn’t come into existence until 1968, after George’s songwriting contract with Northern Songs had expired.
I really don’t think George Harrison would have said anything bad about anyone’s musicianship , I think he would have been happy that someone was playing his music.
It does sounds like something he might have said off the cuff, commenting the record with friends, and a journalist then embellished and wrote it down, without his consent. Let’s face it, he’s pretty much spot on, they do sound like a backing band of sessionmen. You can understand why John hated the Hollies (apart from being mancunians!): great musicians, but always stayed on the safe side and rarely took any chances musically.
One of the few tracks of the era where the stereo mix bests the mono. The biggest advantage in stereo is during the instrumental break: there is a great deal of intricate mid-range guitar work, as well as a great low part by John in the three-part harmonized wash of “aaaaah”s that get completely wiped out in mono by the overly-bright and -loud top strings of the electric guitar.
For the record – it was Beatles producer George Martin who suggested The Hollies cover George’s ‘If I Needed Someone’ (Martin & Hollies producer Ron Richards were close colleagues at EMI)
Graham Nash opposed The Hollies covering the song (like ‘Sing Dylan’ a few years later) but was out voted
The Hollies ‘rocked it up’ where as The Beatles version was a gentler ‘Byrds-ish’ approach purely an album track
George Harrison (then just prior to his wedding to Patti) was caught by a UK music paper writer just prior to going onstage in Glasgow (so George may have had both pre-wedding nerves & pre-show ones too) he said he disliked the way The Hollies had done his song because the guy asked if he had written if FOR The Hollies (which annoyed George)
George’s ‘souless sessionmen’ remark WAS out of order (Bobby Elliott could blast Ringo offstage, Hicks was as good a guitarist as George, Eric Haydock was a faster bass player than Paul using a six string bass !)
Clarke-Hicks-Nash harmonies were even more powerful vocally than The Beatles (hence The Hollies not Beatles were tagged ‘Britain’s answer to The Beach Boys’ by the press – that might have miffed the very ‘touchy’ John Lennon – who used to vocally ‘attack’ anyone he perceived as being a “threat” – as both Paul & Yoko later felt: ‘How Do You Sleep ?’ / ‘Move Over Ms. L’ !)
The Hollies worked in the studio a more ‘workmanlike’ manner – often nailing a hit single in a few takes (unlike The Beatles) which might have given George a wrong impression re their musical ability
whatever George’s negative remarks STOPPED The Hollies single selling (it stalled at no.20 in the UK chart)
– tho’ The Hollies had, nevertheless, put a Harrison song into the UK Top Twenty in 1965 (George never managed that himself until ‘Something’ in 1969 !)
The Hollies Top Twenty hit hit cover DID give George’s songwriting a big boost in the eyes of George Martin (he got to lead off ‘Revolver’ with ‘Taxman’) and John & Paul must have taken note
at his wedding press conference George had a ‘dig’ at the music press writer (who asked if he’d invited The Hollies ? – to press laughter) saying he wished the guy hadn’t written what he’d said (George learning a lesson as he cut off his own royalties from the single !)
Paul healed any lingering ‘friction’ between the EMI groups when he praised up ‘I Can’t Let Go’ the next Hollies single – Lennon invited Nash to singalong on ‘All You Need is Love’ (they remained friends with the designers of The Hollies LP ‘Evolution’ sleeve Simon & Marjike then doing ‘Sgt Pepper’ cover with Peter Blake in 1967)
Later John praised up The Hollies single ‘Hey Willy’ (1971) when he did a disc review saying ‘it will shoot up the charts like a rocket’ (which proved wrong as that one stalled at no.22 !)
Paul & Linda loaned The Hollies their ‘Band on The Run’ synth’ for ‘Another Night’ (1975) so there was no real ‘rift’ between them after 1965…
Later Hollie Terry Sylvester from Liverpool once worked for George’s brother
George lived near to Tony Hicks later & their sons Dhanni & Paul Hicks are good friends
the Hollies were a glorified cover band
re charity work:
The Hollies were doing charity shows for children along with fellow artists back in 1965-66….
Graham Nash’s final sixties Hollies concert at The London Palladium was ‘The Save Rave’ on 8 December 1968….
that was a charity concert for the underprivileged children’s charity
both Beatles ‘Across The Universe’ (original version) and Hollies ‘Wings’ were included on the budget charity LP;
‘No One’s Gonna Change Our World’ released in November 1969 by EMI’s Starline label, to raise funds for The World Wildlife Fund.
The Hollies also donated ‘Stop Stop Stop’ to a follow up EMI Charity LP too.
Later they wrote & recorded ‘Find Me A Family’ (1989) as theme song for the TV show; ‘Find A Family’ that sought homes for orphaned children
while a branch of the New York Fire Dept later adopted The Hollies version of ‘He Ain’t Heavy…He’s My Brother’ as their anthem post 9/11
So The Hollies have “done their bit” for charities too, and were doing charity concerts at the same time as The Beatles did in the early sixties.
Love this song but feel that the production is a bit under-done here. I think this song would have benefited from a heavier, more psychedelic approach similar to “rain” or “paperback writer”. In fact I think IINS mIght count as the first psychedelic song by the Beatles, although the production is too understated.
Paul’s harmony in the 1966 show is the same he did in I want to tell you.
Another great song off the classic”Rubber Soul ” album. George Harrison really blossomed as a songwriter in this period.From the moment I first heard “Rubber Soul” I loved this song, especially the harmonies and guitar.
This song is a fine example for the “bass-revolution” that happened, when the bassist and the producer stuck their heads together. For a direct comparison play a “Harrisong” form “Help!” e.g. “I need you” and try to get as much bass as possible from your equipment. Then with the same adjustment play this song. It also works for “In my life”. Kind regards!
This is one of my favorite of George Harrison Beatles songs.Great harmonies and lyrics. George’s 12 string electric guitar work is brilliant. This would have been a big hit if released as a single, but adds just another great song to the brilliant “Rubber Soul” album. The Byrds were very influenced by The Beatles and in turn The Beatles were similarly influenced by the Byrds as this song proves.
“The Hollies”? Really? All these characters wasted on thebeatlesbible.com on “The Hollies”? How “The Turtles”? Anyone want to drone on about how “talented, yet misunderstood” that paedophile monster John Philips was (seeing as someone through in the “McGuinn and McGuire…” lyric above)? Some of the Monkees were invited to sit in on Beatles sessions, maybe we could create a new daily subsection on groups fronting actual work performed by the Wrecking Crew?
Can we stick to Beatles?
A song that once gets into your head, is hard to get out of. Fantastic.
It’s an amazing song, and surely one of the best Harrison wrote during his Beatles years. Just listen to those magnificent off-beat three-part harmonies and that truly glorious ending. And his guitar work is nothin short of superb throughout.
Fantastic harrisong! 😉
George is a true master with a 12 String Guitar. And he was supposedly influenced by Roger Mcguinn. Maybe but he really made that guitar shine.
The first classic Harrison song.
A Mixolydian that´s right. The riff used on the 12string guitar centers around a chord that can be prominently heard, before the text passage “… if I needed someone….”, it is a G major accord slash with bass A, it is played on the seventh fret and you use the same pattern as for the normal D major accord on the 2nd fret. That is to what George refers to, he didn´t think, that he had to point it out especially to people who know one thin or another about guitar playing.
Interesting reading about the Hollies comments here. I like the comments by George actually cause they sound honest. You gotta think the Beatles were the most famous people on earth at the time so they all had massive egos. George was probably insecure about his writing anyway so he lashed out a bit. No offense to Hollies fans but their music is pretty off brand comparatively (except Long Cool Woman)
For all the talk of John, Paul and George Martin constantly ignoring or not even acknowledging George’s songwriting efforts up until “Abbey Road”, here are some facts:
a) At the Tokyo concerts in 1966, Paul announced that “If I Needed Someone” was sung by George – I think he meant written and sung by George.
b) After George criticized The Hollies’ cover of “If I Needed Someone”, he was not alone, because John also criticized The Hollies’ performance – hardly typical of a musician who was indifferent to their junior bandmate’s songwriting efforts.
c) The other Beatles held “The Inner Light” in very high regard, especially Paul, and according to Walter Everett, John admired the track and this was evident when he wrote “Julia”; besides, both Paul and John had to motivate George and boost his confidence to sing in a higher than normal register.
d) George did say that initially, he didn’t mind just contributing two songs per album, but it later became a problem around The White Album.
e) John said that he encouraged George like mad and he cited “Something” as his favourite track on “Abbey Road”.
f) George was lucky to get three songs on “Revolver” and four on the White Album. His songs got recorded fairly early on for the “Help!”, “Rubber Soul” and Revolver” sessions, according to studio paperwork, so his talk about having to do eight of John’s or Paul’s before they’d even listen to any of his was clearly an exaggeration – I don’t know if he was referring to the White Album period or not.
g) John and Paul never made any effort to keep George’s songs off their records, let alone be the only writers for the group.
h) In an interview as early as 1962, Paul acknowledged that John and George wrote the instrumental “Cry for a Shadow”.
i) John praised “Within You Without You” as a great Indian one and described the session as a great swinging evening – again, hardly typical of someone who belittles their junior bandmate’s talents in writing, singing or musicianship.
j) George was not forced to record his songs self-reliantly or play all the instruments himself – this never happened – nor did George Martin, Norman Smith or Geoff Emerick purposely go AWOL from those sessions.
It’s worth noting that “If I Needed Someone” was among the songs playable in the Shea Stadium stage in The Beatles: Rock Band. The Beatles performed at the stadium on August 15, 1965, but the song was not recorded until October 16 and 18 that year as part of Rubber Soul, which wouldn’t be released on December 3 also that year. Ironically, the next stage after that, the Nippon Budokan, is where the band did include the song in their setlist.
Another thing I would like to point out, “Taxman”, another George Harrison song, this time from Revolver, was among the songs playable in the Budokan stage in the aforementioned game. While the song was indeed recorded before their performance, the band did not include the song on the setlist, as none of the Revolver songs were ever performed live during their 1966 tours, both worldwide and in America.