October 13, 2023 —– Chart #215
Hello Music Friends,
Hey folks, welcome to another edition of Chart of the Week. Folks, I just love The Beatles if you haven’t figured that out yet. So may brilliant songs written by these 4 guys, it’s just amazing. “And I Love Her” is a another great song recorded by the Beatles, written primarily by Paul McCartney and credited to the Lennon–McCartney partnership. It is the fifth track of their third UK album A Hard Day’s Night and was released 20 July 1964, along with “If I Fell”, as a single release by Capitol Records in the United States, reaching No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The Beatles performed “And I Love Her” just once outside EMI Studios; on 14 July 1964 they played it for an edition of the BBC’s Top Gear radio show, which was broadcast two days later. “And I Love Her” has been covered by a variety of artists, including Esther Phillips, Kurt Cobain and Cliff Richard.
A majority of the composition shifts back and forth between the key of E and its relative minor C#m. It also changes keys altogether just before the solo, to F. The final chord is a D major.
McCartney called “And I Love Her” “the first ballad I impressed myself with”. Lennon called it McCartney’s “first ‘Yesterday'”. Though the song was written mainly by McCartney, John Lennon claimed in an interview with Playboy that his major contribution was the middle eight section (“A love like ours/Could never die/As long as I/Have you near me”).
Beatles publisher Dick James lends support to this claim, saying that the middle eight was added during recording at the suggestion of producer George Martin (an early take of the song was released on Anthology 1 in 1995, and the middle eight had not yet been added). According to James, Lennon called for a break and “within half an hour [Lennon and McCartney] wrote … a very constructive middle to a very commercial song.” McCartney, on the other hand, maintains that “the middle eight is mine … I wrote this on my own. I would say that John probably helped with the middle eight, but he can’t say ‘It’s mine’.” McCartney has credited George Harrison with composing the signature guitar riff, saying it “made a stunning difference to the song”.
A brilliant live version by Paul McCartney and band, slower tempo: https://youtu.be/awexsAcncAI?si=9a3CX5sfJxymnFp3
“The ‘And’ in the title was an important thing – ‘And I Love Her,’ it came right out of left field, you were right up to speed the minute you heard it,” McCartney said. “The title comes in the second verse and it doesn’t repeat. You would often go to town on the title, but this was almost an aside: ‘Oh … and I love you.'”
Pat Metheny crushing the song on instrumental classical guitar: https://youtu.be/MYcZ6s3z1jg?si=DcvtY-uJTlnUo1qK
An instrumental version of “And I Love Her”, orchestrated by George Martin, was released as a single with “Ringo’s Theme (This Boy)” as the B-side on 18 July 1964. It failed to chart on the US Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 105, while “Ringo’s Theme (This Boy)” peaked at number 53 later that year. “And I Love Her” was included on Martin’s Parlophone album Off the Beatle Track and the EP Music From A Hard Day’s Night by the George Martin Orchestra, released on 19 February 1965. It was also included on the American A Hard Day’s Night soundtrack album.
Well all that said, it’s just a beautiful little song and a great addition to our Chart of the Week archive. Check out the entire history of our charts here: https://songchart.space/songchart-archive/
See ya next week and keep jammin’
Keep Rockin’,
Stan Bradshaw