Recording: She Loves You, I’ll Get You

Studio Two, EMI Studios, Abbey Road
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Norman Smith

On this day The Beatles recorded both sides of their fourth UK single, which was released on 23 August 1963.

The group began recording at 5pm at Abbey Road’s studio two, and finished at 10pm, although the session had been booked for 2.30-5.30pm. The two songs worked on were ‘She Loves You’ and ‘I’ll Get You’ – the latter under its working title Get You In The End.

Although documentation for the session no longer exists, it is known that The Beatles filled three reels of recording tape. The precise number of takes for each song is unknown.

I was sitting in my usual place on a high stool in studio two when John and Paul first ran through the song on their acoustic guitars, George joining in on the choruses. I thought it was great but was intrigued by the final chord, an odd sort of major sixth, with George doing the sixth and John and Paul the third and fifths, like a Glenn Miller arrangement. They were saying, ‘It’s a great chord! Nobody’s ever heard it before!’ Of course I knew that wasn’t quite true!

Also on this day The Beatles posed for photographs in and around the studio, for an EMI photographer.