The Beatles: Single By Single

Things We Said Today - I think the vocal harmonies on the "someday when we're dreaming" part are among the Beatles loveliest. Such a wonderful melancholy. Also, I find this song difficult to sing. I tried to cover it and had a real tough time finding the low note in the verses "you say you will love ME". Melodically it comes out of the blue and I didn't have anything to anchor it to. The switch to rock on the bridge is still unexpected. Great dynamics. This song it very much ahead of its time, which is appropriate for a track whose lyrics are nostalgic for the future.

How can a song so good be hidden away on a b-side?

 

I Should Have Known Better - is one of the reasons why the Hey Jude album was one of my favorites. This song really swings. It's got a fantastic melody with thrilling swoops on "and I do, hey hey hey, and I dooooo!!!!" If I ever write a song as good as this, I'll quit writing. It doesn't get much better than this.

 

Things We Said Today. Brilliant, timeless, beautiful. A haunting verse section into an exquisite kind of combined middle eight and chorus then into a driving bridge. Strange, wonderful lyrics. A 22yo composed this.

 

I Should Have Known Better is top-tier early years Beatles for me, brings back memories of the film every time I hear it, perfect for the scene it's in.

 

In the UK, where it wasn't a single, it was recorded by at least one other group. Notice that they throw in a couple of extra chords in the bridge:

 

Almost 40 years since I first heard the AHDN album, I still feel just about every song could have been a single. I have a fetish for ISHKB. I first "heard" it on the Stars on 45 medley. When you're a kid, you can never get enough of the songs you love, and I loved just about every snippet in the medley. When I first heard the complete song on the radio, I forced myself to memorize the bridge and every bit that wasn't in the medley so I could hum it to myself.

I finally bought the album a few months later and drowned in the bridges of ISHKB and TWST, another song that hypnotized my teenage brain.

 

And it swings.

 

Ouch. That is awful.

 

It's my favorite song in the movie. And for what it's worth, I like its' 45 Capitol pairing with AHDN better than the UK single which has Things We Said Today on the flip.

 

I'll Cry Instead


Single Released: 20 July 1964 (US)
B-side: I'm Happy Just to Dance With You

Lennon wrote the song for the "break-out" sequence in the film.[2] The song was recorded on 1 June 1964 in two sections, A and B,[3] which could then be spliced together at a later date to achieve the required length to fit the film. However, director Richard Lester eventually decided he preferred the livelier "Can't Buy Me Love" with its upbeat lyric, and that was used instead.[4] When Walter Shenson re-released the film in 1981, "I'll Cry Instead" was included in an opening sequence as a tribute to Lennon, consisting of a "Swingin'" early to mid-1960s-style collage of photos of the Beatles in 1964, around the time they were shooting the film.[5]

Although the song was not part of the original movie, the label of the American 45 lists the song as being "From the United Artists Picture, 'A Hard Day's Night'".

References: Wikipedia

 

I’ll Cry Instead:
Not really a stand-out tune and quite wordy for it’s short running time, but it speeds along nicely.
It’s urgency is also it’s main strength.
Joe Cocker covered this for his debut single.

 

I prefer the 1:44 length of I'll Cry Instead. It jumps in, moves along quickly and ends before you get tired of it. A good album track but not single quality, IMO.

 

I love "I'll Cry Instead", short, fun, and has that nice little bass fill at the end of the bridges.

 

I'll Cry Instead

I like it well enough but it doesn't work for me as a single. Capitol records sure mined the album though.

 

I love the EP that places it as the opening song. It's a pure jolt of joy to start off a record. Both sides are very well balanced, with an uptempo song and a ballad each.

 

How on earth did I’ll cry instead beat I’m happy just to dance with you for an A side?

 

I'll Cry Instead has always been one of my fav Beatles tunes to play on guitar and sing. Just love It.

 

Just a comment - no intention of hijacking this great Beatles discussion.

One of my favorite CD mixes is an alternate song Beatles / Stones thing. Listen to it every couple of years.

An under the radar song from the first Beatles album then an under the radar song from the first Stones album. So on and so forth. IMHO a sweet 4 cd set.

Listening to CD 1 now.

First 2 Stones songs that measure up to the Beatles in my song rotation are Lady Jane and then Backstreet Girl.

 

I'm with you on that. but either way, as a 45, it didn't do much of anything by Beatles standards in 1964. Capitol really tried cashing in on this but "everyone" already had the soundtrack album so the single didn't get any higher than the mid-20's or so. They tried the same thing with and I Love Her b/w If I Fell with similar results. Even an oversaturated Beatles market could only go so far. That said, these are unique U.S. singles pairings which would be nice to have. Now *there's* an idea for a Beatles singles box...the American singles, only.

 

Good tune, but the bridge would definitely have benefited from some Paul harmony or some Paul & George harmonies.

 

I love both "Things We Said Today" and "I Should Have Known Better".
Here's another case where the US got it right as "I Should Have Known Better" has more of a catchy single
feel to it as the flip of"A Hard Day's Night", where I think of "Things We Said Today" as more of a well crafted album track.

"I'll Cry Instead" is not as strong as either of the other two songs, but does have a nice slightly countryish feel. Never thought of this as a single and never heard it on the radio. I was very surprised to find out it had been released as one in the US. The fact that it wasn't a very big hit even in the Beatles crazy year of 1964 shows it wasn't quite up to the quality of their big hits.

 

"When I Get Home" would have made a great A side as well

 

That's really good, in my opinion. I already posted in the UK Number Ones of the '60s thread (where it has turned up on a chart already) that not only did they cover the Beatles, but they sounded like an alternate Beatles take.

 

Great song, but I think the live version on the Hollywood Bowl album is the definitive one.

 

Like "All My Loving," it sounded good with George singing the lower harmony. Perhaps they should've tried that on the studio recordings instead of just double-tracking Paul's voice.