You Know What to Do
"You Know What to Do" | |
---|---|
Song by the Beatles | |
from the album Anthology 1 | |
Released | 20 November 1995 |
Recorded | 3 June 1964, EMI Studios, London |
Genre | Rock |
Length | 1:59 |
Label | Apple |
Songwriter(s) | George Harrison |
Producer(s) | George Martin |
"You Know What to Do" was the second song written and recorded by George Harrison with the Beatles. It was recorded on 3 June 1964 but remained unreleased until its inclusion on the band's 1995 outtakes compilation Anthology 1.
Background
During a photographic assignment on the morning of 3 June 1964, Ringo Starr was taken ill with tonsillitis and pharyngitis, 24 hours before the Beatles were due to leave for a six-country tour.[1] The recording session booked for that day was originally intended to produce a fourteenth song for the band's A Hard Day's Night album, but this activity was cancelled so that a replacement drummer, Jimmie Nicol, could be brought in and rehearse with the group. After running through six songs in a one-hour rehearsal in EMI's Studio Two,[1] everyone felt satisfied with Nicol's drumming, so he left to pack his suitcase.[2]
That evening, in a four-hour session in Studio Two, each of the three present Beatles recorded a demo of a newly written song. Harrison recorded "You Know What to Do"; John Lennon did "No Reply", which eventually ended up as the opening track of their next album, Beatles for Sale; and Paul McCartney did "It's for You", a song which was written specifically for Cilla Black to sing. The tape of the session was subsequently misfiled, but was rediscovered in 1993.[2]
Harrison's first contribution to the Beatles' output was "
Musical structure
The song is in the key of A major. After an introduction in D chord on the guitar the verse begins in A (I) on "When I see you I just don't know what to say" ending that line with E (V). The verse also features a D (IV) chord. Musicologist Dominic Pedler cites the song as an example of how "one of The Beatles' greatest contributions to pop songwriting was their skill in combining the familiarity of simple I-IV-V sequences with dramatically new harmonic material".[6] The bridge features an "8-7-flat7-6" glide in consecutive semitones down the chromatic scale, a device subsequently used by the Beatles in "Michelle", "Cry Baby Cry", "Got to Get You into My Life", "And Your Bird Can Sing" and "Mother Nature's Son".[7]
Release
In anticipation of the track's release on Anthology 1, McCartney announced: "there will be a bunch of people interested in hearing the George Harrison song from thirty years ago that no one to this day has heard – it's not the greatest thing George ever wrote, but it's an undiscovered nugget. If you find a little Egyptian pot, it doesn't have to be the greatest Egyptian pot. The fact that it is Egyptian is enough."[8]
Personnel
- George Harrison – vocal, rhythm guitar
- John Lennon – tambourine
- Paul McCartney – bass guitar
References
- ^ a b Lewisohn 1988, p. 45.
- ^ a b Lewisohn 1995, pp. 40–41.
- ^ Lewisohn 1988, pp. 35–36.
- ^ Lewisohn 1988, p. 54.
- ^ Unterberger 2006, p. 96.
- ISBN 9780857123466.
- ^ Dominic Pedler. Songwriting Secrets of the Beatles. Omnibus Press. 2003. pp311-314
- ISBN 978-0-7535-0822-0.
- ^ https://ultimateclassicrock.com/every-beatles-song/ All 227 Beatles Songs Ranked Worst to Best
- Lewisohn, Mark (1995). Anthology 1 (CD Booklet). The Beatles. Apple Corps Ltd. 7243-8-34445-2-6.
- ISBN 0-600-55784-7.
- ISBN 0-87930-892-3.