The Beatles – “She Loves You” (1963) Review | Are The Beatles Great? Yeah, Yeah, Yeah.

Kronomyth 1.5: Message of love.

What amazed me about The Beatles as a kid was how critical each member was to the final product. Replace Ringo’s drums, George’s lead guitar, Paul’s lead vocals or John’s harmony vocals on this song and the whole thing falls apart. Now, truth be told, She Loves You was more or less a refinement of “Please Please Me.” But there’s something magical about it. Rolling Stone ranked it #64 on the top 500 songs of all time, while “Please Please Me” placed at #184. It was the first song I could recall where The Beatles transcended the realm of mortals and created something godlike. The B side, I’ll Get You, returns to the world of mortals. John takes the lead this time, the song moves along well enough, a harmonica follows along, but the harmonies never click. As I’ve pointed out before, the song reminds me more than a little of Elvis Costello’s “No Dancing.”

The Product

A1. She Loves You (John Lennon/Paul McCartney) (2:18)
B1. I’ll Get You (John Lennon/Paul McCartney) (2:04)

The Players

George Harrison (lead guitar, harmony vocal), John Lennon (vocal, rhythm guitar), Paul McCartney (vocals, bass), Ringo Starr (drums). Produced by George Martin; engineered by Norman Smith.

The Plastic

Released on 7-inch single on August 23, 1963 in the UK (Parlophone R5055) and New Zealand (Parlophone, NZP-3148), on September 13, 1963 in the US (Swan, S-4152) and in Japan (EMI/Odeon, EAR-20224) with regional picture sleeve. Reached #1 on the UK charts and #1 on the US charts (charted on 1/25/64 for 15 weeks).

1. Re-issued on 7-inch single in Canada (Capitol, 72125).
2. Re-issued on 7-inch single in Japan (Apple, AR-1058) with picture sleeve.
3. Re-charted#45 in 1983 in the UK.
4. Re-issued on compact disc and cassette single in 1988 in the US (Capitol, 44281).
5. Re-issued on red vinyl 7-inch single in 1993 in the US (Capitol, S717688).