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She Loves You
The Beatles
Written in a hotel room in a call and response style it was the song that inspired Beatlemania in the UK in late 1963. At the time of its release it was the biggest selling single ever issued.
In the US the song was a complete flop on its first release but when it was |  Song facts | | Composer | John Lennon/Paul McCartney | | | Genre | Pop | | | Album | 1962-1966 | | | Released | 1963 | | | UK Chart | 1 |
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released a few months later, after I Want To Hold You Hand, it became as big a hit Stateside as elsewhere.
Paul McCartney had the idea of a call and response song with him and John singing the 'She loves you' and the rest calling back 'yeah, yeah'. The idea came in a tour van on the way to Newcastle and John and Paul finished it in the hotel room.
Originally the song did not begin with the chorus but they switched it at George Martin's suggestion. The usual boy/girl situation that is such a staple of early Beatles numbers became a third person narrative with someone scolding a friend for abandoning the love of a lifetime.
The song was layered with block harmonies and clever alternation of major and minor chords. These 'old fashioned' harmonies recalled the songs of the '30s and '40s and Lennon and McCartney were especially proud of ending the choruses (and the song itself) on a sixth chord. When they played an acoustic version of the song to producer George Martin, it was this chord that struck him as rather dated. He told them that others had used it, such as Glenn Miller, but they decided to leave it in anyway. The fact they had never heard it before meant they had brought something new to a rock context.
Old fashioned chords meet new fangled rock | |
Alan Freeman narrates in this 1974 documentary on the history of pop music. A young Paul McCartney describes writing the song while George Martin remembers hearing it for the first time.
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Other versions | |
 More well known is his Richard III version of 'A Hard Day's Night' but, for this, Peter Sellers brought the mad scientist Dr Strangelove in from the cold war satire of the same name.
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Songwriting tips Your manager can be as influencial as any musician - find out more in our Songwriting Guides Before going into the studio is as important as when you are in it. More in The Songwriting Guides
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