Recording "It's Only Love"

On this day, The Beatles recorded, from start to end, the track “It’s Only Love“, mainly written by John Lennon, in a session from 2:30 pm to 5:30 pm.

The backing track featured John on acoustic guitar, Paul McCartney on bass, George Harrison on acoustic guitar, and Ringo Starr on drums. All instruments were recorded on track one of the four-track tape. Six takes of the backing track were recorded. The first takes also featured John on lead vocals. Take 2, preceded by the false start that was Take 3, was released on “Anthology 2” in 1996. Take 6, the best take, didn’t have any vocals on it.

Issued on the non-soundtrack side of the Help! album, the master version of John’s composition It’s Only Love was Take 6, with a prominent lead guitar overdubbed by George Harrison. The previously unreleased version featured here is Take 2 – acoustic guitar, bass, drums and Lennon vocal only – preceded by the false start that was Take 3.

From the liner notes of “Anthology 2“

Overdubs on Take 6 followed. John recorded his lead vocals on track three, and double-tracked them in part along with Ringo on tambourine on track four. On track two, John added some guitar parts and George some electric guitar lead parts.

This completed the track, which was mixed in mono and stereo on June 18.

During this session, The Beatles were visited and interviewed by Hoshika Rumiko, from the Japanese magazine Music Life. The interview was published in the August 1965 edition of the magazine. Rumiko would meet The Beatles on several further occasions over the following years.

I met the Beatles in June 1965. I boarded a plane for the first time in my life and flew to London for an exclusive interview with John, Paul, George, and Ringo at EMI’s legendary Abbey Road studios. A year later, the Beatles came to perform in Japan, at the Nippon Budōkan. Following that original interview in 1965, I was able to meet and interview the Beatles every year until the band split in 1970. This wonderful opportunity gave me a precious glimpse of the personalities beyond these icons of my generation. […]

It was just after five in the afternoon of June 15 that I set out for the EMI studios in Abbey Road, where the Beatles were recording. Producer George Martin welcomed me to the mixing room of Studio 2. The Beatles were downstairs in the studio. Curious about this new arrival, dressed in a kimono, they stopped their conversation and looked up toward me in the mixing room. Paul McCartney pointed to the staircase and gestured at me to come down into the studio.

They’d been told that a journalist was coming to interview them, but probably hadn’t expected someone like me: a small (150-centimeter) woman dressed in a kimono. George Harrison rushed over and started asking me questions. Why was I wearing such a huge belt? And why were my sleeves so long? My decision to wear a kimono turned out to have been an inspired decision, proving an ideal icebreaker and talking point.

I think the sight of me—around the same age as they were, speaking hesitant English, small, and obviously harmless—put them at ease. They opened up right away. I’d been told I had only thirty minutes for my interview, but in the end I was with them for three hours. We’d solicited questions for the four Beatles from Music Life readers. When I handed a piece of paper with around ten questions to Paul, he took one look at it and said, “With your English, this’ll take all night,” and hurriedly passed question sheets to his bandmates. They all started dutifully writing their answers to our readers’ questions.

The most talkative of the four was John. At first he’d struck me as a bit reserved, but he soon relaxed and started cracking jokes. He seemed to know a fair bit about Japan, and told me he wanted to meet a sumō wrestler if he visited the country. He said a friend at art college had shown him a collection of old photos of Japan, including some “beautiful” photos of sumō wrestlers. “I can speak Japanese, you know,” he told me, before launching into a demonstration of pseudo-Japanese babble. […]

Hoshika Rumiko – From When Beatlemania Came to Japan | Nippon.com, July 28, 2016

I knew I wouldn’t have much time, but then it turned out that they were very welcoming. They had never interacted with the Japanese before. The Beatles had already toured the United States, but they were not well known in the East. Therefore, they were glad when an offer came from the magazine “Music Life”. They said we could take as many photos as we wanted. Movie stars are usually not very open. But the Beatles were very friendly and they were interested in us. They were like a new type of creature in the celebrity world. Their approach was different. So my first impression of them was very positive.

Koh Hasebe – Photographer – Unknown source. Translation from Russian, From beatles-chronology.ru

Session activities

1. It's Only Love

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Recording • Take 1

2. It's Only Love

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Recording • Take 2

   AlbumOfficially released on Anthology 2

3. It's Only Love

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Recording • Take 3

   AlbumOfficially released on Anthology 2

4. It's Only Love

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Recording • Take 4

5. It's Only Love

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Recording • Take 5

6. It's Only Love

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Recording • Take 6

Staff

Musicians on "It's Only Love"

Production staff

Visitors

Going further

The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions • Mark Lewisohn

The definitive guide for every Beatles recording sessions from 1962 to 1970. We owe a lot to Mark Lewisohn for the creation of those session pages, but you really have to buy this book to get all the details - the number of takes for each song, who contributed what, a description of the context and how each session went, various photographies... And an introductory interview with Paul McCartney!

Buy on Amazon

The Beatles Recording Reference Manual - Volume 2 - Help! through Revolver (1965-1966)

The second book of the Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC)-nominated series, "The Beatles Recording Reference Manual: Volume 2: Help! through Revolver (1965-1966)" follows the evolution of the band from the end of Beatlemania with "Help!" through the introspection of "Rubber Soul" up to the sonic revolution of "Revolver". From the first take to the final remix, discover the making of the greatest recordings of all time.Through extensive, fully-documented research, these books fill an important gap left by all other Beatles books published to date and provide a unique view into the recordings of the world's most successful pop music act.

Buy on Amazon