I'll Be Back

Song facts

From Wikipedia:

“I’ll Be Back” is a song written by John Lennon (credited to Lennon–McCartney), and recorded by the English rock band the Beatles for the soundtrack album to their film A Hard Day’s Night (1964) but not used in the film. This song was not released in North America until Beatles ’65 five months later.

Structure

According to musicologist Ian MacDonald, Lennon created the song based on the chords of Del Shannon’s “Runaway” which had been a UK hit in April 1961. Author Bill Harry also wrote: “He just reworked the chords of the Shannon number and came up with a completely different song”.

With its poignant lyric and flamenco style acoustic guitars “I’ll Be Back” possesses a tragic air and is eccentric in structure. Unusually for a pop song it oscillates between major and minor keys, appears to have two different bridges, and lacks a chorus. The fade-out ending also arrives unexpectedly, being a half stanza premature.

The metric structure also is unusual. The verse is in 6-measure phrases in 44 time. The first and third bridges have a four-measure phrase in 44 followed by a phrase with 2 measures of 44 and one of 24; the second bridge has a 4-measure phrase followed by 5 measures of 44 and one of 24.

Producer George Martin preferred to open and close Beatles albums using dominant material stating: “Another principle of mine when assembling an album was always to go out on a side strongly, placing the weaker material towards the end but then going out with a bang”. Ian MacDonald points out however: “Fading away in tonal ambiguity at the end of A Hard Day’s Night, it was a surprisingly downbeat farewell and a token of coming maturity”. Music journalist Robert Sandall wrote in Mojo magazine: “‘I’ll Be Back’ was the early Beatles at their most prophetic. This grasp of how to colour arrangements in darker or more muted tones foreshadowed an inner journey they eventually undertook in three albums’ time, on Rubber Soul“.

Recording

The Beatles recorded “I’ll Be Back” in 16 takes on 1 June 1964. The first nine were of the rhythm track, and the last seven were overdubs of the lead and harmony vocals, and an acoustic guitar overdub.

The Anthology 1 CD includes take two of “I’ll Be Back”, performed in 68 time. The recording broke down when Lennon fumbled over the words in the bridge, complaining on the take that “it’s too hard to sing.” The subsequent take, also included on Anthology, was performed in the 44 time used in the final take. […]

“I’ll Be Back” was co-written but it was largely John’s idea. When we knew we were writing for something like an album he would write a few in his spare moments, like this batch here. He’d bring them in, we’d check ’em. I’d write a couple and we’d throw ’em at each other, and then there would be a couple that were more co-written. But you just had a certain amount of time. You knew when the recording date was and so a week or two before then we’d get into it.

Paul McCartney, in “Many Years From Now”, by Barry Miles

From The Usenet Guide to Beatles Recording Variations:

[a] mono 22 Jun 1964.
UK: Parlophone PMC 1230 Hard Day’s Night 1964.
CD: EMI CDP 7 46437 2 Hard Day’s Night 1987.

[b] mono 22 Jun 1964.
US: Capitol T 2228 Beatles ’65 1964.

[c] stereo 22 Jun 1964.
UK: Parlophone PCS 3058 Hard Day’s Night 1964.
US: Capitol ST 2228 Beatles ’65 1964.

US mono [b] runs slower than [a] and actually wobbles at a few points [b] also has a little echo while [a] has none. Capitol’s stereo version has an unusually large amount of added echo even for them. Late in the LP era (black label) a new master was made for Capitol with a version sounding like the UK version.

Last updated on May 9, 2021

Lyrics