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Released in 1963

Hold Me Tight

Written by Lennon - McCartney

Last updated on February 9, 2016

Album This song officially appears on the With the Beatles (Mono) LP.

Timeline This song was officially released in 1963

Master album

Related sessions

This song was recorded during the following studio sessions:

From Wikipedia:

“Hold Me Tight” is a song by the Beatles from their 1963 album With the Beatles. It was first recorded during the Please Please Me album session, but not selected for inclusion and re-recorded for their second album.

History

“Hold Me Tight” was composed principally by Paul McCartney in 1961, and was part of the Beatles’ stage act until 1963. They attempted to record it for their début Please Please Me but the thirteen takes recorded were deemed unsatisfactory, and the tape was destroyed. Seven months later, they recorded a further nine takes, and the final version is an edit of the sixth and ninth takes from the second attempt, varispeeded up a semitone to F major.

Both McCartney and John Lennon, at one time or another, shared their distaste for the song, and in a 1980s interview with Mark Lewisohn, McCartney says, “I can’t remember much about that one. Certain songs were just ‘work’ songs, you haven’t got much memory of them. That’s one of them.” In Barry Miles’ Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now, the songwriter calls it “a failed attempt at a single which then became an acceptable album filler.” Lennon in 1980 said “That was Paul’s….It was a pretty poor song and I was never really interested in it.”

In their book The Beatles: An Illustrated Record, Roy Carr and Tony Tyler call it the album’s poorest track, saying it “fails because McCartney’s vision of the complete tune obviously sagged somewhat.” They also claim that McCartney’s singing was “out of tune“.

However, Ian MacDonald redeems it in his book Revolution in the Head, in which he writes: “Play it loud with the bass boosted, and you have an overwhelming motoric rocker strongly redolent of the band’s live sound.”

McCartney wrote a different song called “Hold Me Tight” for a medley included on the 1973 Wings album Red Rose Speedway. […]

From The Usenet Guide to Beatles Recording Variations:

  • [a] mono 23 Oct 1963. edited.
    UK: Parlophone PMC 1206 With the Beatles 1963.
    CD: EMI CDP 7 46436 2 With the Beatles 1987.
  • [b] stereo 29 Oct 1963. edited.
    UK: Parlophone PCS 3045 With the Beatles 1963.
  • [b1] stereo remixed from [b] 1963, by Capitol.
    US: Capitol ST 2047 Meet the Beatles 1964.
  • [b2] mono made from [b] 1963, by Capitol.
    US: Capitol T 2047 Meet the Beatles 1964.

Lewisohn reports two takes are edited together, and from evidence of bootlegged tapes, the two are both complete takes of a 2d generation overdub onto the same earlier take. In stereo [b], “you you you” at the end has a harmony vocal missing in mono [a], so there was at least one difference in the editing.

Lyrics

It feels so right now, hold me tight,

Tell me I'm the only one,

And then I might,

Never be the lonely one.

So hold me tight, to-night, to-night,

It's you, you you you, oh, oh, oh, oh.

Hold me tight,

Let me go on loving you,

To-night to-night,

Making love to only you,

So hold me tight, to-night, to-night,

It's you, you you you, oh, oh, oh, oh.

Don't know what it means to hold you tight,

Being here alone tonight with you,

It feels so right now.

Hold me tight,

Tell me I'm the only one,

And then I might,

Never be the lonely one,

So hold me tight, to-night, to-night,

It's you, you you you, oh, oh, oh, oh.

Don't know what it means to hold you tight,

Being here alone tonight with you,

It feels so right now.

Hold me tight,

Let me go on loving you,

To-night, to-night,

Making love to only you,

So hold me tight, to-night, to-night,

It's you, you you you, oh, oh, oh, oh.

You oh oh

Officially appears on

See all official recordings containing “Hold Me Tight”

Bootlegs

See all bootlegs containing “Hold Me Tight”

Live performances

Paul McCartney has never played this song in concert.

Going further

Paul McCartney writing

Talk more talk, chat more chat

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