One of the more uptempo rockers on the A Hard Day’s Night album, ‘Tell Me Why’ was written by John Lennon for the concert sequence in the film.
They needed another upbeat song and I just knocked it off. It was like a black-New-York-girl-group song
All We Are Saying, David Sheff
Although Lennon dismissed ‘Tell Me Why’ as a throwaway, Paul McCartney later suggested the song, along with others written for A Hard Day’s Night, was partly autobiographical.
I think a lot of these songs like ‘Tell Me Why’ may have been based in real experiences or affairs John was having or arguments with Cynthia or whatever, but it never occurred to us until later to put that slant on it all.
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles
‘Tell Me Why’ was featured in the ‘studio performance’ sequence of the A Hard Day’s Night film. The Beatles mimed to it in front of 350 screaming fans at the Scala Theatre, London, on 31 March 1964.
There are four I really go for [in the film]: ‘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’, a shuffle number that comes at the end of the film.
Anthology
For reasons unknown, Lennon’s vocals in the film are different from either the mono or stereo studio versions.
In the studio
The Beatles recorded ‘Tell Me Why’ on 27 February 1964 in Abbey Road’s Studio Two. It took them eight takes to perfect.
During the same session they also completed ‘And I Love Her’ and ‘If I Fell’.
I don’t have Lewishon book right here, but I think George didn’t sing on this one. The harmony was too high for him, so it’s John on lead vocals and John and Paul on harmony.
I think you’re right. George is listed as doing harmonies in Revolution In The Head, but I’m not sure he did.
He did. See my post below with isolations of the three parts.
This song just doesn’t sound like it was recorded very well, even the remastered version doesn’t sound good…or maybe I’ve just heard it in stereo, does it sound better in mono?
It all sounds better in mono
Lennon sang lead and harmony vocals. Everett says the piano was wiped.
No, the piano is clearly there, especially the low octaves are well audible (maybe he plays only the bass notes).
I hsve to check the backing vocals with headphones. Some are John, but I think I can at least hear Paul.
The piano sounds like mic bleed to me. Maybe it was wiped. But survived due to vocal mics picking it up
You can defintely hear the piano at the end of the middle eight or bridge. Whatever it’s called.
I always thought that Ringo’s drumming on this track was fantastic, and should have been brought up more in the mix. It is such a shame that most of the fills are buried. Still a great track though.
This is one of my favorite Beatle songs of all time – it really is very different and the syncopated breaks make the song take off like a rocket – along with Riingo’s manic drumming.
Seeing AHDN for the first time in 64 – I can tell you when that song come on at the end – the theater went nuts.
At the same time, I have always felt the production clarity was somewhat mushy – in particular the falsettos seem to overload and burn a bit.
But this song takes off from the first beat and never stops – imagine trying to write this one!
Great song! To my ears, this one always sounded more Motown-ish than “Got To Get You Into My Life”, even.
George sings harmony on this, all on one note like a drone.
Harmony is a strange animal when you isolate it.
Another thing about this track is that it features a particularly resonant vocal by John, a sort of perfect harnessing of nasal resonance or something. Something about his voice just seems to have a little more oomph than usual. It also doesn’t appear to be double-tracked, right? Perhaps this has something to do with it.
Does anyone else notice anything like this?
I agree with you about John’s driving voice, I think it sounds kind of agonized and begging and perfectly matches the lyrics. But his voice IS double-tracked which can be heard very easily as it wasn’t double-tracked too precisely. At around 0:45 you can hear the “t” (of “Tell me why”) twice, for example.
There’s somebody talking and clapping in the background in the intro.
George NOT doing harmonies? Should that even be questioned? His voice is so apparent in middle almost droning harmony. Hate to be harsh but if you can’t recognize his voice, you don’t know…ahh never mind. And sure sounds obvious that John is double tracked too.
I agree fully that George’s vocals are more than obvious on Tell Me Why. I consider this track as one of the Beatle’s all-time Best. If you ever get to hear the isolated vocal track, you find that it’s more than impressive. This “one- off”, as John once described it, is a pop masterpiece.
is there a bad song on this album? I don’t think so, another good song by John, catchy and fun
it does have great Harmonies and Ringo’s drumming here is really good.
A beautiful song. Beautiful melody, It stickes in the head. Complexities. John’s beautiful love song. “She tells me thigs I want to know.” Who hasn’t experienced that? One of the most underrated Beatles’ songs. It sends me to a place I like to be.
I believe you are referring to Ask Me Why, these comments are for Tell Me Why. Either way, both great songs.