I’ll Get You (Lennon/McCartney)
Quotes
“That was Paul and me trying to write a song…and it didn’t work out.” – John Lennon, from All We Are Saying
“It’s got an interesting chord in it. ‘It’s not easy to pre-tend…‘ That was nicked from a song called ‘All My Trials’ which is on an album I had by Joan Baez.” The first line of each verse contains a similar melody line over the same chord change, such as the fourth verse which states “If living were a thing that money could buy…” “It’s like D, which goes to an A minor, which is unusual. You’d normally go from a D to an A major. It’s a change that had always fascinated me, so I put it in. I liked that slightly faggy way we sang. ‘Oh yeah, oh yeah,’ which was very distinctive, very Beatley.” – Paul McCartney, from Many Years From Now
“To me and John, though I can’t really speak for him, words like ‘imagine‘ and ‘picture‘ were from Lewis Carroll. This idea of asking your listener to imagine, ‘Come with me if you will…’, ‘Enter please into my…’, ‘Picture yourself in a boat…‘ It drew you in. It was a good little trick, that. Both of us loved Lewis Carroll and the Alice books and were fascinated by his surreal world so this was a nice song to write.” – Paul McCartney
BBC Performances
See THERE WILL BE A SHOW TONIGHT: The BBC Performances for complete information on BBC performances and recordings
- Pop Go The Beatles – recorded July 16, 1963, broadcast August 13, 1963
- Saturday Club – recorded July 30, 1963, broadcast August 24, 1963
- Pop Go The Beatles – recorded August 1, 1963, broadcast September 3, 1963
- Pop Go The Beatles – recorded September 3, 1963, broadcast September 10, 1963 and released on Bootleg Recordings 1963 (2013)
- Saturday Club – recorded September 7, 1963, broadcast October 5, 1963 and released on On Air: Live At The BBC Volume 2 (2013)
Personnel
- John Lennon – lead vocals, acoustic guitar, harmonica
- Paul McCartney – lead vocals, bass guitar
- George Harrison – electric guitar, harmony vocals
- Ringo Starr – drums
Release history
- She Loves You / I’ll Get You (single) (1963)
- “Rarities” (1978)
- Past Masters (1988)
- Anthology 1 (1995) [live at the London Palladium, October 1963]
- Mono Masters (2009)
- On Air: Live At The BBC Volume 2 (2013) [live at the BBC, September 1963]
- Bootleg Recordings 1963 (2014) [live at the BBC, September 1963]
