Every Little Thing

Song facts

From Wikipedia:

“Every Little Thing” is a song written by Paul McCartney (credited to Lennon–McCartney) and performed by the Beatles on their 1964 British album Beatles for Sale. In North America, Capitol released it as the last track on Beatles VI.

Composition

McCartney wrote the song in a music room at the home of Jane Asher, where he was living at the time. He hoped that it would be released as a single, but it “didn’t have quite what was required“, and was released on Beatles for Sale instead.

“Every Little Thing” is a rare example of a Lennon/McCartney tune in which one member of the partnership was primary composer (here McCartney) but the other sang lead vocal (here John Lennon). McCartney sings harmony, although one can hear him better in the refrain. The song’s composer is not in question: McCartney claimed the song as described above, and Lennon said in an interview with Playboy that McCartney wrote it.

Recording

The released version was recorded by the Beatles in four takes at EMI Studios on 29 September 1964, and then five more on 30 September. They were enjoying themselves on the second night; take six was aborted due to McCartney burping his vocals, and take seven was finished but ended in loud laughter. It is one of few early Beatles tracks to feature “exotic” instrumentation: Ringo Starr plays the timpani on the track to add punctuating one-two flourishes to the refrains. This appeared for the first time on the ninth take, along with a guitar intro and piano piece.

Reviews

Music critic Ian MacDonald praised the song’s “emotional depth” and used this song and others as counter-arguments to the caricature of McCartney as an emotional lightweight. Richie Unterberger of AllMusic also praised the song and its “infectious chorus“.

This song was revisited briefly during the stressful rehearsals that were recorded for the Beatles’ Get Back/Let It Be project – Harrison describes it as “a good one” before starting to play the lick, McCartney joining in on vocals.

Paul McCartney, in Many Years From Now, by Barry Miles:

Every Little Thing, like most of the stuff I did, was my attempt at the next single. I remember playing it for Brian backstage somewhere. He had assembled a few people. It was one of those meetings – ‘Oh, we have to do some recordings, who’s got what?’ and we played a few at Brian. We didn’t often check things with Brian, in fact I just remember it in connection with this because I thought it was very catchy. I played it amongst a few songs; it was something I thought was quite good but it became an album filler rather than the great almighty single. It didn’t have quite what was required.

Paul McCartney, in The Beatles Off The Record, by Keith Badman:

John and I got this one written in Atlantic City during our last tour of the States. John does the guitar riff for this one, and George is on acoustic. Ringo bashes some timpani drums for the big noises you hear.

From The Usenet Guide to Beatles Recording Variations:

• [a] mono 27 Oct 1964.
  UK: Parlophone PMC 1240 For Sale 1964.
  US: Capitol T 2358 Beatles VI 1965.
  CD: EMI CDP 7 46438 2 For Sale 1987.
• [b] stereo 27 Oct 1964.
  UK: Parlophone PCS 3062 For Sale 1964.
  US: Capitol ST 2358 Beatles VI 1965.

Paul wrote that on tour. Yeah. That was a nice one. I was helping but I’m not taking much credit for it.

John Lennon – Interview with Ray Connolly, 1970 – From “The Ray Connolly Beatles Archive”

Last updated on January 26, 2022

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