Can't Buy Me Love

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Can't Buy Me Love
The Beatles
publication March 16, 1964 (USA)
March 20, 1964 (UK)
length 2 min 13 s
Genre (s) Rock 'n' roll , pop
Author (s) Lennon / McCartney
album A hard day's night

Can't Buy Me Love ( German  " Can't Buy Me Love " ) is a song by the British band The Beatles , which was released as a single on March 16, 1964 in the USA and on March 20, 1964 in Great Britain and immediately became the number one one hit. On the B side of the single is You Can't Do That .

history

Most of the title was recorded on January 29, 1964 in the Pathé Marconi Studios in Paris . The producer was George Martin . The Beatles were in the city for an 18-day engagement at the “ Olympia ”. It was the first and only time the band made recordings outside of the UK . The recording of Can't Buy Me Love was preceded by the recordings for the two German versions of the songs She Loves You and I Want To Hold Your Hand (She loves you and Come give me your hand) . Since these recordings took place faster than planned, there was still time in the studio to record Can't Buy Me Love , which had just been written by Paul McCartney at the Hôtel George-V in Paris. Four recordings of the piece were made during this session. On February 25, 1964, a new guitar solo by George Harrison and a vocal track by McCartney were added to the fourth recording by overdubbing in London's " Abbey Road Studios " . Harrison used his new twelve-string Rickenbacker 360-12 for the solo .

The song was one of the first in pop music to begin with the chorus instead of the verse .

Can't Buy Me Love was the Beatles' fourth single to hit number one on the UK singles chart, and their third single, which sold over a million copies. The single also reached first place in the charts in the USA. There, more than two million copies of the single were sold in the first week after it was released. There were over a million pre-orders for the single in the UK.

When the single rose to number one on the US singles chart on April 4, 1964 , the Beatles occupied the top five positions on the charts; an event never seen since in the singles charts; this was the climax of the British invasion :

1st place - Can't Buy Me Love
2nd place - Twist and Shout
3rd place - She Loves You
4th place - I Want to Hold Your Hand
5th place - Please Please Me

A week later, the Beatles had a total of 14 titles in the US singles charts.

Can't Buy Me Love appeared on the album A Hard Day's Night in July 1964 . The piece was part of the Beatles' live repertoire in 1964 and 1965.

When in 1966 the suspicion arose that the song was about prostitution , McCartney countered that the song only described that, despite the commercial success of the Beatles, he could not buy everything he wanted. In later years he relativized this statement and remarked rather jokingly that he could actually have called the song Can Buy Me Love .

Can't Buy Me Love also opens the 1970 compilation album Hey Jude .

Anthology

An alternative version of the piece has been published as part of the Anthology series. The second version of the four recordings from January 29, 1964 was selected for this. This version differs through the more blues-oriented vocals from McCartney and through the backing vocals that came from John Lennon and George Harrison.

Cover versions

Well-known cover versions come from the following artists, among others:

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Mark Lewisohn: The Complete Beatles Chronicle , p. 143
  2. ^ Mark Lewisohn: The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions , p. 43
  3. ↑ Barry Miles : Paul McCartney. Many Years From Now , p. 195
  4. ↑ Barry Miles: Paul McCartney. Many Years From Now , p. 197
  5. ^ Mark Lewisohn: Booklet for Anthology 1 , p. 32