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Read the original blog post12.30pm
31 March 2008
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Written by: Scott-Marlow
Recorded: 11 February 1963
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Norman Smith
Released: 22 March 1963 (UK), 22 July 1963 (US)
Paul McCartney: vocals, bass
John Lennon: backing vocals, rhythm guitar
George Harrison: backing vocals, lead guitar
Ringo Starr: drums
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A favourite of Paul McCartney ‘s, A Taste Of…
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10.40pm
9 March 2017
Offline I’m listening to this song right now and it’s got a nice almost Spanish vibe to it.
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11.45am
12 December 2019
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Ironically, it was the song which would become a seven-million-selling instrumental in the U.S. in 1965 (after trumpeter Herb Alpert must’ve scanned through Capitol’s “Early Beatles” album released that March and he’d record it around the same time).
I never liked Paul doing that “schweeter than wine” vocal affect, though. It detracts from the sophistication of the song’s slightly naughty undertone.
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7.51pm
5 December 2019
Offline BeatOfTheBrass said
I never liked Paul doing that “schweeter than wine” vocal affect, though. It detracts from the sophistication of the song’s slightly naughty undertone.
I particularly enjoy the vocal effect. It adds a playfulness that I find enhances the “naughty undertone.” 
Also, the “sh” vocal effect is not just unique to this song but can be found in a lot of the Beatles’ early tracks. A lot of the time, I’ll listen for the effect in their songs just because I find charming and fun. It also carries a particular purpose.
Geoff Emerick talks about in his book Here, There, and Everywhere (a personal favorite of mine):
“As I listened to the playbacks of ‘Misery ‘ that afternoon, I was also struck by the way John and Paul sang the word ‘send’ as ‘shend’ (‘Shend her back to me…’). Changing an ‘s’ to an ‘sh’ was an affectation you heard on some American records, so it helped make the Beatles sound more like their musical idols, plus it removed any kind of potential ‘de-essing’ problems, where, if there was too much top end (treble), the sound on vinyl would distort. That was a great little vocal trick, and they used it on a lot of their songs from then on, most notably on ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand ‘ (‘When I / shay that shomething…’).”
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4.17pm
25 November 2024
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Daily Beatles Song Review Day 12/213: A Taste Of Honey
This is another song I’d just call okay. I think it’s interesting, at least. It’s a cover of the theme to a film. Due to this, the song has a layer of artificiality to it. Even more than most covers, it is inauthentic. That isn’t a bad thing, however. The artifice works, given how the song sounds. It doesn’t sound like a show-tune exactly, but it does sound cinematic.
I would say the strongest part of the song is the vocals. Paul is double-tracked, and his performance is great. His voice has always been so good for ballads, and that is certainly the case here. The echo effect from George Martin is less egregious than on the previous song, but this is probably the second worst use of it on the album.
I think the weakest part of the song is the instrumentation (which is rare for a Beatles song, given how great of musicians they are). I think the drumming from Ringo is some of his weakest from this album. It sounds a bit tinny, and also sometimes feels too much for what the song is. The guitars are also just okay, although better than the drumming.
Score: 5/10.
Favorite cover: The Temptations did a great R&B cover of this one. One of the best covers of a song from Please Please Me .
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4.10pm
Reviewers
Moderators
1 May 2011
Offline Have always found this to be a complete bore of a song and fall into agreement with George and John who also weren’t big fans of the track; John would often call it “A Waste Of Money”.
Not the worst Beatles song but certainly the worst on the album.
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