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Released in 1964

What You're Doing

Written by Lennon - McCartney

Last updated on January 26, 2022

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

Timeline This song was officially released in 1964

Master album

Related sessions

This song was recorded during the following studio sessions:

From Wikipedia:

“What You’re Doing” is a song by the Beatles written by Paul McCartney (credited to Lennon–McCartney). One of eight originals of fourteen songs on the 1964 album Beatles for Sale, it also appeared on the 1965 U.S album Beatles VI.

Music

The song begins, uncommonly for the band, with a drum intro. It is followed by a guitar sequence used throughout the song as an ostinato figure after each verse. The atmosphere of the song is heavily syncopated.

According to Richie Unterberger, the performance includes a “chiming 12-string guitar that sounds uncannily like the kind of sounds that became identified with the Byrds’ Roger McGuinn, although ‘What You’re Doing’ was recorded in late 1964, about six months before the Byrds became famous with ‘Mr. Tambourine Man.’“

The song lacks a chorus, so the verses become the melodic focus of the song. In the first half of the verse, the ostinato figure continues to play and the first word of each line is punctuated by exclamatory background vocals. The second half of each verse is harmonized with “oohs“, and the ostinato figure begins before the last line finishes. The overlapping of the ostinato figure contributes to the slightly disordered feel of the song. Each verse ends with a repetition of the phrase:

There is a bridge that occurs twice to provide a reprieve from the more anxious verses and an instrumental breakdown with a double-tracked guitar solo and a tumbling piano keeping rhythm underneath.

Lyrics

The lyrics are generally believed to concern McCartney’s relationship with Jane Asher. Between McCartney and Lennon, McCartney had typically been the more optimistic of the two when it came to songwriting. However, with this song he is expressing feelings of loneliness and doubt in his relationship, a theme he would be forced to develop more over time as his relationship soured, with songs like I’m Looking Through You and You Won’t See Me from Rubber Soul, and For No One from Revolver.

Throughout the song, McCartney adds to the rhyme scheme by combining a single, two-syllable word with two one-syllable words (i.e. “Look what you’re doing, I’m feeling blue and lonely…You got me runnin’, and there’s no fun in it…“), a technique he also used on She’s a Woman which was also recorded during the Beatles For Sale sessions. […]

Sampling

This song is sampled as part of a medley of “Drive My Car” / “The Word” / “What You’re Doing” on the November 2006 remix album Love. “What You’re Doing” shares a number of characteristics with (the also predominantly McCartney-written) “Drive My Car”, particularly the home key (D major), meter (4/4), and chord progression (alternating between B minor and G major).

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

What You’re Doing was a bit of a filler. I think it was a little more mine than John’s, but I don’t have a very clear recollection so to be on the safe side I’d put it as 50-50. It doesn’t sound like an idea that I remember John offering, so it sounds like a way to get a song started, some of them are just that. ‘Hey, what’cha doing?’ You sometimes start a song and hope the best bit will arrive by the time you get to the chorus… but sometimes that’s all you get, and I suspect this was one of them. Maybe it’s a better recording than it is a song, some of them are. Sometimes a good recording would enhance the song.

From The Usenet Guide to Beatles Recording Variations:

  • [a] mono [27 Oct 1964 – Edit]
    UK: Parlophone PMC 1240 For Sale 1964.
    US: Capitol T 2358 Beatles VI 1965.
    CD: EMI CDP 7 46438 2 For Sale 1987.
  • [b] stereo [27 Oct 1964 – Edit]
    UK: Parlophone PCS 3062 For Sale 1964.
    US: Capitol ST 2358 Beatles VI 1965.

[b] has a handclap in the intro missing in [a], and the drum and rhythm track is mixed softer.

Another one Paul wrote on tour in Philadelphia or somewhere.

John Lennon – Interview with Ray Connolly, 1970 – From “The Ray Connolly Beatles Archive”

Lyrics

Look what you're doing

I'm feeling blue and lonely

Would it be too much to ask of you

What you're doing to me?

You got me running

And there's no fun in it

Why should it be so much to ask of you

What you're doing to me?

I've been waiting here for you

Wondering what you're gonna do

And should you need a love that's true

It's me

Please, stop your lying

You've got me crying, girl

Why should it be so much to ask of you

What you're doing to me?

I've been waiting here for you

Wondering what you're gonna do

And should you need a love that's true

It's me

Please, stop your lying

You've got me crying, girl

Why should it be so much to ask of you

What you're doing to me?

What you're doing to me

What you're doing to me

Officially appears on

See all official recordings containing “What You're Doing”

Bootlegs

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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