I Call Your Name

From Wikipedia:

“I Call Your Name” is a song written primarily by John Lennon and credited to Lennon–McCartney. It was released in the US on The Beatles’ Second Album on 16 May 1964 and in the UK on the Long Tall Sally EP on 19 June 1964.

Overview

Lennon wrote the song prior to the formation of the Beatles. In 1963, he gave the song to Billy J. Kramer of The Dakotas, another Liverpool band who were signed to Parlophone by George Martin. Kramer released it as the B-side of the single “Bad to Me“, another Lennon–McCartney composition.

Lennon was reportedly dissatisfied with the Dakotas’ arrangement of his song as well as its position as the single’s B-side, so the Beatles recorded their own version. The song features George Harrison playing the Rickenbacker 360/12 guitar, offering the distinctive sound of the famous guitar to the world for the first time.

The opening guitar riff differs slightly between the mono and stereo mixes. The cowbell also starts earlier in the mono mix. It first appeared in the United States on the Capitol Records release The Beatles’ Second Album, appearing later in the United Kingdom on the EP Long Tall Sally.

The song’s instrumental bridge is the Beatles’ first attempt at ska.

The song was never added to the 1964 film A Hard Day’s Night because director Richard Lester rejected it for sounding too similar to “You Can’t Do That,” which was recorded five days prior and featured on the non-soundtrack side of the album release.

“I Call Your Name” was re-released in 1988 on the compilation album Past Masters.

The Beatles recorded the song for the BBC radio programme Saturday Club on 31 March 1964 (transmitted 4 April 1964). However, this performance has not been commercially released.

From earlybeatlessongs:

Written at the start of 1958, as a stab at the blues idiom, Lennon developed this song with McCartney in his bedroom at Mendips (251 Menlove Avenue). The Quarry Men/Beatles apparently never performed it, but in 1963 is was exhumed for one of Brian Epstein’s acts – Billy J Kramer and the Dakotas – who used it as a B-side (to Lennon-McCartney’s “Bad To Me”).

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

We worked on it together, but it was John’s idea. When I look back at some of these lyrics, I think, Wait a minute. What did he mean? ‘I call your name but you’re not there.’ Is it his mother? His father? I must admit I didn’t really see that as we wrote it because we were just a couple of young guys writing. You didn’t look behind it at the time, it was only later you started analysing things.

From The Usenet Guide to Beatles Recording Variations:

• [a] mono 4 Mar 1964. edited.
  US: Capitol T 2080 Second 1964.
  Canada: Capitol T 6063 Long Tall Sally 1964.
• [b] stereo 10 Mar 1964. edited.
  US: Capitol ST 2080 Second 1964.
• [c] mono 4 Jun 1964. edited.
  UK: Parlophone GEP 8920 (EP) Long Tall Sally 1964, Parlophone PSLP 261 and PCM 1001 Rarities 1978-79.
  CD: EMI EP box set 1991.
• [d] stereo 22 Jun 1964. edited.
  UK: Parlophone PCSP 719 Rock and Roll Music 1976.
  US: Capitol SKBO-11537 Rock and Roll Music 1976.
  CD: EMI CDP 7 90043 2 Past Masters 1 1988.

All versions have edits, but different edits. The take (7) used for the main part of the song has a cowbell track that distinguishes it from other takes. The cowbell track is itself mixed more or less loudly. Take 7 also has a double track vocal.

Both stereo mixes [b] [d] have a different, better guitar intro edited in, but done differently, so there are three versions of the intro. In the original intro as heard in mono [a] [c], the cowbell starts right away. The older stereo mix [b] with the better guitar intro has no cowbell until the edit, which comes just before the vocal starts. In the newer stereo mix [d], the edit comes after the first line (“I call your name, but you’re not there”), so it has neither cowbell nor the second vocal track until that point.

A second, obvious stereo difference is that the older stereo mix [b] has the vocal over on the right while the newer one [d] has the vocal and cowbell centered.

All mixes have an edit for the guitar solo, but the edit into the solo comes at two different places. In the older mono mix [a] and the newer stereo mix [d] it comes after the vocal, evidenced by the cowbell through the words “I call your name”, but in the other two [b] [c] it comes just before that last line of vocal. The edit at the end of the solo is at the same place but there are slight variations in how well it was done.

There was a March 3 mono mix for the film, but the song was not used in the film and United Artists did not use it on their LP either.

Lyrics

Officially appears on

Bootlegs

Live performances

“I Call Your Name” has been played in 1 concerts.

Latest concerts where “I Call Your Name” has been played

Going further

• http://somethingelsereviews.com/2015/06/26/the-beatles-i-call-your-name-deep-beatles/