First released as the b-side to ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’, ‘This Boy’ was written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney as an exercise in three-part harmony.
Just my attempt at writing one of those three-part harmony Smokey Robinson songs. Nothing in the lyrics; just a sound and harmony.There was a period when I thought I didn’t write melodies, that Paul wrote those and I just wrote straight, shouting rock ‘n’ roll. But of course, when I think of some of my own songs – ‘In My Life’, or some of the early stuff, ‘This Boy’ – I was writing melody with the best of them.
All We Are Saying, David Sheff
The song was composed while The Beatles were on tour in 1963.
‘This Boy’ was another hotel-bedroom song, twin beds, one afternoon somewhere; we had arrived around one o’clock. We had a couple of hours to kill, so we thought, Well, let’s write one. Rather like the hotel where we wrote ‘She Loves You’. It’s funny, I remember the room and the position of the beds: John and I sitting on twin beds, the G-Plan furniture, the British hotel with olive green and orange everywhere, that marvellous combination, the colours of vomit.
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles
Based on the circular chord sequences that were a staple of American doo-wop recordings, ‘This Boy’ showcased the group’s skill at singing in close harmony, along with a blistering middle eight sung by Lennon.
It was very co-written. We wanted to do a close-harmony thing, we liked harmonies and we were quite good at them. We used to do a close-harmony version of the Teddy Bears’ ‘To Know Her Is To Love Her’, which was good for the versatility in the band. We weren’t all rock ‘n’ roll, we could change the pace, which was always nice after you’d played for three hours. We wrote it in two-part harmony and then put the third part in for George to sing; we’d never actually tried to write something like that. Nice middle, John sang that great, then we’d go back into the close-harmony thing.
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles
The song drew notable attention from The Times newspaper’s music critic William Mann. In a famously florid article on Lennon and McCartney’s songwriting, published on 27 December 1963, he wrote:
The slow, sad song about ‘This Boy’, which features prominently in Beatle programmes, is expressively unusual for its lugubrious music, but harmonically it is one of their most intriguing, with its chains of pandiatonic clusters, and the sentiment is acceptable because voiced cleanly and crisply.
An orchestral version of ‘This Boy’, scored by George Martin, was included in the A Hard Day’s Night film. It later appeared on his 1964 album Off The Beatle Track, and on the film’s US soundtrack release.
I had scored an instrumental version of ‘This Boy’ as part of the background music, and I used it for the sequence where Ringo is wandering by the river. We called it ‘Ringo’s Theme’, and it got into the charts in America as an orchestral record – that pleased me somewhat.
Anthology
The incomplete takes 12 and 13 of the song were released on the ‘Free As A Bird’ single in 1995. A live version from the Morecambe And Wise Show, recorded on 2 December 1963, was included on Anthology 1.
In the studio
‘This Boy’ was recorded on 17 October 1963, after The Beatles had completed ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’. It took them 15 takes to complete the basic track. After that two overdubs were added, mainly of the three-part vocal harmonies.
The arrangement was largely in place before they began. One difference, however, was the inclusion of a guitar solo in the middle eight, which was later dropped. The song also had a full ending, although it was given a fade-out during the mixing stage.
The vocal harmonies in this song are great. It sounds like 4 part sometimes cause the way its written, when its really only three. Just overall great harmonies. John had a tough time with a high note in this song. You can hear his voice crack multiple times during a session on anthology dvd and then if you watch them perform this live you see john raise his eyebrows in approval after he nails the high note. Wooohoooo john
I dunno about that. John’s hair was to long to really see his eyebrows.
That, my friend, was the best comment I’ve ever read on this site. +9, +9, +9, +9, +9, +9, +9. . .
Actually , that early on , the hair wasn’t long enough yet to cover the eyebrows
I put this slightly behind the harmonies in “If I Fell”, which are, in my opinion, more interesting, and always gave me fits trying to sing the harmony properly after the key change. Still a bangin’ harmony song, though!
John’s voice is double tracked thats why it sounds like a 4 part harmony at times. You can really hear it in the middle eight of the song where John’s voice is quite prominently double tracked. But its a subtle double track, not like Ozzy double tracking which sounds more like a chorus effect. In this Johns double track only runs with something like a 1 or 2 ms separation, this is done to get rid of the hollow sound it tends to produce. John’s method is perfect for being subtle about it.
I never thought the Beatles ever got enough credit for their harmony singing, but they were wonderful. This song is a great example.
I always thought that This Boy had some similarities with Ritchie Valen’s We Belong Together with the exception of the middle section.
And to think this song was written in 1963 is mind boggling. Nothing close to this had ever been attempted up to that time.
I agree whole heartedly, This Boy is one of my favorite early songs. John’s middle eight solo is heart wrenching!
The Beatles always did beautiful harmonies. They must have learned them from doing covers of the Everly Brothers, or Smokey Robinson and The Miracles.
Should anyone care to get just a glimpse at the enormous talent these “lads” had, one need only watch a live performance of This Boy (Ed Sullivan is a great one).
Not only are the harmonies as spot on as if in the studio, plus they are playing their instruments whilst singing AND – watch how relaxed they are – watch their eye contact – smiles and inside jokes all while singing incredible harmonies that people today can’t imitate or replicate.
All this live, no in ear monitors, no fold back monitors, Ringo keeping solid time when he can barely hear the guitars. Heck they could barely hear their own guitars. Oh – not to mention “self-mixing” by gauging their distance from a single shared mic!!
Singing and playing an incredibly intricate song (listen to the guitar triplets played while singing) under conditions today’s “super stars” would never tolerate.
Go on, youtube a live performance of This Boy and be amazed!
The “inside joke” they are smiling at the beginning of the track for is not an inside joke at all, it’s a pretty funny fumble – in the first line, as paul and george sing “That boy”, john mistakenly sings “This boy” – after which he exchanges a look with paul, trying not to laugh. On the anthology DVD you can hear them make the same mistake in the studio, this time during the fade-out part of the song, when one sings “this” and two sing “that”, after which they all break out laughing. 🙂
isn’t that called an inside joke…?
No, not that particular one I suppose, because everyone can be in on it.
do you guys know who sang the low, mid and high parts of the vocals? They blend a little, so im having a hard time determining who sang which part.
Well I think it’s obvious who sang high…Ringo of course. But I think John sang low, you can definitevely hear his voice on some of the tooooooooo’s. So that would leave George for the middle, although those could definitely be the other way around.
I hope you are joking…
thanks, i dont know why i had trouble with that. Its really clear to me now.
Ringo’s harmonies are beautiful 😉
Who else But Ringo!?
*family guy quote*
John’s the low. Paul’s the high, George in the middle.
So John switched from lead to bass when they all sang together? Never knew that!
In this video, an italian guy shows how to sing the three parts. I think he´s quite good.
I like this video. But if it’s accurate, then you can infer that J, P and G all sang backing vocals during John’s middle eight, not just P and G. If so, John merely overdubbed his middle eight solo on a separate track.
“If” is the operative word. Just because this guy says it’s so doesn’t mean it has anything to do with how the Beatles did it.
John sings low melody, George on middle harmony, Paul high end harmony. Interesting to listen to John’s low melody, it is almost felt & not heard! He was saving himself for that “blistering middle-eight”
John sang low, Paul High and George down the middle.
does anybody think that there is an edit after the bridge? it sounds like there is a cut right as they go back into the verses.
I’ve never noticed that, but I see no reason to believe that’s not the case. As early as “I Saw Her Standing There” they’d already discovered the benefits of splicing together different takes to create a master. If I think of it, I’ll give it a close listen tonight.
This is an edit, yeah.
Yes, there is an edit at the end of the solo from a previous take. I read about it on another website.
Yes, an especially bad edit. Norman Smith usually did a great job with that. Maybe they let it slip through because it was the B-side.
Agree.
I remember reading somewhere the speculation that this was one of John’s first songs about Julia – that it expressed some version of his little-boy feelings when men would take his mom out. It definitely has an incredible tragic ache in the lead vocals.
I can’t seem to find take 15 with the full ending anywhere. Does anyone have any suggestions?
It’s been a long time since your request. You can listen to the full ending (without fadeout) here.
More proof that the Beatles were first and foremost a vocal combo. Who else could sell this song? Who else would? have attempted it?
A 4 Seasons version would be interesting. Those guys could sing and actually rocked pretty hard – given the day, the time.
“But of course, when I think of some of my own songs – In My Life, or some of the early stuff, This Boy – I was writing melody with the best of them.”
As someone who’s always preferred Paul over John — although the ‘who-wrote-what debate’ is beginning to bore me — I must admit I love the ambiguity of John’s statement.
What’s ambiguous? John said that he wrote “This Boy,” and “In My Life.” Paul disagrees, and claims to have written all the songs that he sang, and that he co-wrote everything (at least the hits) that John sang, too. That’s not ambiguous either.
Lennon was the dominant composer before Yesterday, and that embarrased McCartney. Therefore McCartney had a tendency to claim he was co-writer of Lennon´s songs before Yesterday.
I am guessing you were there when these songs were written so you can tell us precisely who wrote what. I look forward to your definitive book on this subject. If none of the aforementioned is true then stop your speculation and Paul bashing-it’s counter productive.
To quote Ronald Reagan (during a debate with Jimmy Carter):
“There you go again………”
Johan, you haven’t a clue what was going on with the two, what was in their heads, what each’s motives were, nor who actually wrote what. And you never will. But, in total and blissful ignorance, you just keep trying. Sad.
You gotta admit, there is something suspicious when Paul says that John had nothing to do with any his songs, but that he co-wrote all of John’s most beloved songs. And then concludes that it was an equal partnership. It is a pattern I see repeatedly and it’s not a good look. There is nothing ambiguous about the John quote cited by Mr. Cunning, as much as he would like it to be.
“… Paul says that John had nothing to do with any his songs…”. That little quote discredits your entire comment. Paul FREQUENTLY gives John credit, even in cases where John said he had none. Between you and Johan, you two really need to get a grip. You “substantiate” your ridiculous claims with pure falsehoods….says much more about you than it does Paul and John.
MikeP – You quoting Ronald Reagan on the BeatlesBible discredits everything you ever wrote on this site. Lennon claims he wrote This Boy and In My Life in 1972. Paul claims he co-wrote those songs in 1997 after Lennon’s death. It took him 25 years to dispute this?
I believe Lennon. You can keep waiting for those trickle down economics to reach you wallet.
Excellent answer. Paul took 25 years to dispute authorship. It is true that we will never know for sure. But you would have to be non-observant to realize that Paul is now claiming an extensive amount of authorship that he never did before. His partner remains dead and cannot respond. This leaves a nasty impression to Lennon fans who have still loved Paul McCartney for years.
Ian MacDonald judges this to be a John-composed song. He groups it with two early Lennon-penned songs, “If I Fell” and “Yes It Is,” which, like “This Boy,” combined poignant melodies with an undercurrent of wounded pride and vindictiveness lyrically. I’ve tended to view this as primarily a John song, but the way Paul describes it, it could have been a 50/50 song like “She Loves You” or “I Want To Hold Your Hand”. We’ll never know for sure.
My sense is that John wrote the melody and Paul has a huge hand in writing the harmony part (later perfected by George Martin). Paul’s ability to write harmony and counter-melody is one of his many staggering gifts (to paraphrase Ringo).
im not sure if its against the rules to post youtube links here. if it is, im sorry and somebody can delete this post.
i have made multitracks for This Boy.
GEORGE
PAUL
JOHN
I think this song & Happy just to dance with you defined the Beatles in the early 60’s. I don’t know why this song NEVER charted on it’s own individual artistry & brilliance I think This boy showed so MUCH more depth and reflection in a lyrical sense than the “A” side i want to hold your hand.
Couldn’t agree with you more Bob!! “I Want To Hold Your Hand” was so obviously commercial to sell records, but “This Boy” really showed their chops as musicians & vocalists!
What a great song! One of the best,if not THE best. Thanks Utamia for the break down
Why is there a “handclaps” credit for Ringo? I don’t hear any. You might wanna correct that, Joe. 🙂
John’s singing on the middle eight to This Boy…I’ve always thought this one of the most moving, and exhilarating, vocals in the history of pop music. And I’ve always found it a pity that they didn’t find room for a second go-round of that middle eight — which the song really called for.
Actually my mate and I do this song, in two part harmony. We do come around and do the bridge the second time. I like how it feels. I also believe that time constraints for radio play probably led to only one go round.
In my opinion, if the middle-eight was twice in the song, it would dilute some of its’ specialty. John punches you right in the gut with the double-tracking and then never does it again. THAT is perfect to me.
I see your point, Julian, and you may be right (although I suspect their main purpose was to keep the song from going too far beyond two minutes). Still, would you say that the emotional impact of “Yes It Is” – something of a successor to “This Boy” – was diminished by the double-use of John’s middle eight in that number?
I think by early 1965 The Beatles weren’t that concerned about keeping a song short. That said, “Yes It Is” to me is more mature and compositionally refined than “This Boy”. Just amazing.
First heard this as the B side of I Want To Hold Your Hand on a family members 45 and soon after on The Love Songs compilation. This is a song I love with such a beautiful harmony , courtesy of John, Paul and George. A great solo singing effort by John Lennon in the middle eight. Whilst this is a collaboration, I always considered this slightly more a Lennon song.
If we analyse the song musically, we have to differ the melody from harmony. Lennon always said he composed the melody, and McCartney said “we did it together”. ( McCartney is not clear and distinct – consciously? He could have meant he did the harmonies). But the press people is always more positive to McCartney (because he did Yesterday and always is smiling?) and call it a co-composition. The melody is wonderful even without the harmonies. Listen to “Ringos theme” in A Hard Days Night.
You convince nobody, Johan. We all recognize your sad Lennon-love, which is surpassed by your McCartney-hate. It’s a sad way to go through life.
One indisputable fact, Johan, is that over the years, Lennon often told myriad stories about the same event. It is HIS stories that have credibility problems because his stories so often changed, often (seemingly) in jealousy toward his former writing partner.
My take is that John did that because he didn’t want to churn out the same tired anecdotes during interviews, much like Paul who has about four songwriting stories that he pulls out of his hat of recycled quotes, all of which we can recite in our dreams. John said as much to May Pang. He deliberately contradicted himself in interviews to make them less boring. That does not mean he wasn’t the main writer of this song, with Paul merely helping out on the harmony. Neither does describing a cookie-cutter hotel room give credibility to Paul’s claims. If John was jealous of Paul, he had no reason to be. But he was often self-deprecating.
John later admitted that his songwriting partnership with Paul was a lot more collaborative than he was prepared to admit in his Lennon Remembers of 1971. Unless it was one of John’s “deliberate” contradictions, lol. You must remember this all-important publication. After all it’s the one that Ginger, Slave, and many other Lennon fans take as gospel and are angry that Paul doesn’t.
Johan is spot on. MikeP brings no logic to this equation but bullying and name calling. McCartney “wrote Yesterday and is always smiling “is brilliant. One would think such a talented musician as Macca wouldn’t have to rewrite history but the author of the Beatles book Shout went on record during a TV interview accusing Macca of re-writing history. So there’s something to this. Beatles fans just want to know the truth. Macca’s claims sometimes raises red flags to us Beatles detectives
There are many people who object to Johan Cavalli’s opinions actually. Discussion of the lovely This Boy yet again descends into the destructive John vs Paul argument instigated by Johan and his like. Interestingly enough, it was McCartney’s Like Dreamers Do that was pivotal in securing the Beatles their audition with George Martin (and probably told to shut up about it). So there goes your ‘Paul wrote nothing before Yesterday’ nonsense. As songwriters, John and Paul were equally dominant in the early days but John had the more dominant personality. Ironically, it is people like Philip Norman and Beatles fans who are the greatest revionists of Beatles history.
I came to realize that the whole Ringo’s Theme aspect of this song is entirely because George Martin’s instrumental of the song was used in Ringo’s wandering around scene in the movie A Hard Day’s Night, but for awhile it got me to wondering if maybe the lyric was a taunt from John toward Pete Best. It kind of worked, Pete wanting the group to drop Ringo and take him back in the band. Just silliness.
Paul is the top voice, John’s on the middle, and George is singing the bottom.
GEorge is middle, John bottom…it’s amazing though how George sounds a lot like Lennon on his own songs .
the first Beatle song i ever heard, was still in grammer school. George said, before he passed away that the guitar he is playing, he gave away later on.
This is my first comment. Just want to say thanks to the creators of the site, first of all. I think it’s odd that John cites this and In My Life as songs where he was, “writing melody with the best of them” – is he suggesting it has melody cause it’s a slow song? I think ALL his songs (and the other Beatles songs) are full of melody… he was obviously really paranoid about it.
Well I think that McLennon is real 🙂
Another clue for us all?
One my all time favorite Beatles songs. I am a huge fan of harmonies and this is superb. I could never pick out the George part until I listened to the Italian guy singing who breaks down the song on YouTube do George’s part. Now I can’t help but hear it. The mark of a good harmony is when parts seem to disappear into one sound. This Boy does that for me. Love singing it !
Has anyone heard Born To Be A Loser (Neil Sedaka with The Tokens & Coins) from 1958? Isn’t the signature electric guitar theme in this track very similar to what George plays in This Boy?
When was the Neil Sedaka song released? All it tells me is the year (1963), but This Boy was also released in 1963 so I’m not sure which came first.
To me, Lennon and McCartney were ten, or a hundred times better as writers together than apart. They were both geniuses, in different ways. But put those two geniuses together and you got genius to the third power. I have had the feeling sometimes that Paul is insecure about getting equal recognition with John, an insecurity I find hard to fathom, as Paul was obviously, like John, an incredible, awesome, incomparable talent. Paul’s vocal gifts, at least while he was with the Beatles, were kind of astonishing: so natural sounding, yet so versatile, so unbelievably pleasurable, and he had a thousand different voices, all of them gorgeous, from the incredibly smooth, creamy sound of the ballads, to the still clear, but assertive masculine strong sound, to the screaming glory of Oh Darling. To me, within a few years of leaving the Beatles, Paul’s vocal chords were already losing versatility — maybe that comes from a over a decade of really not sparing them, using them to the max, and the screaming in things like Helter Skelter and so on.