I Got a Woman

Song facts

From Wikipedia:

“I Got a Woman” (originally titled “I’ve Got a Woman“) is a song co-written and recorded by American R&B/soul musician Ray Charles and released as a single in December 1954 on the Atlantic label as Atlantic 45-1050 b/w “Come Back Baby.” Both sides later appeared on his 1957 album Ray Charles (subsequently reissued as Hallelujah I Love Her So).

The song builds on “It Must Be Jesus” by the Southern Tones, which Ray Charles was listening to on the radio while on the road with his band in the summer of 1954. He and a member of his band, trumpeter Renald Richard, penned a song that was built along a gospel-frenetic pace with secular lyrics and a jazz-inspired rhythm and blues (R&B) background. The song would be one of the prototypes for what later became termed as “soul music” after Charles released “What’d I Say” nearly five years later. […]

From The Beatles Bible:

Charles released the song as a single in December 1954. The Beatles performed it live on many occasions in the early 1960s, prior to their record deal with EMI, with John Lennon on lead vocals.

Although the group never recorded it in the studio, they performed I Got A Woman twice for BBC radio shows. Their arrangement was more similar to Elvis Presley’s 1956 version, which The Beatles most likely heard on his debut UK album Rock ‘N’ Roll No 1.

The Beatles first recorded I Got A Woman on 16 July 1963 at the BBC Paris Theatre in London, for the ninth edition of the Pop Go The Beatles programme. It was first broadcast on 13 August. This version can be heard on the Live At The BBC collection.

They performed it again on 31 March 1964, for the Saturday Club radio show. It was recorded at the Playhouse Theatre, London, and first transmitted on 4 April that year.

Currently available [on “On Air – Live at the BBC Volume 2”], this second version was faster than the 1963 take, with a double-tracked vocal by John Lennon but without the stop-start rhythms and the delayed appearance of the drums.

From the sleeve notes of On Air – Live at the BBC Volume 2:

The Beatles heard this Ray Charles song on Elvis Presley’s first British album called Rock ‘n’ Roll released in October 1956. Elvis was described in the sleeve note as ‘the jazz phenomenom to end all phenomena’. The group’s first version, recorded for Pop Go The Beatles in August 1963 was on the first volume of Live At The BBC. For this later version, John duets with himself by overdubbing a second lead vocal.

Last updated on August 11, 2015

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