Hello Little Girl | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

I was listening to this song the other day, and it made me wonder how much the song would have changed between 1957 and 1962 when it was recorded at Decca.

A few things stand out for me.

1. The chords used are ‘advanced’ for a beginner, which John was in ’57. Especially the use of barre chords and the quick changes. You have to remember that up until at least July of that year, he only knew ‘banjo’ chords. This leads me to believe the song may have been written another key at first (perhaps G  or C major?) and then transposed to A major later on.

2. The song is streets ahead of Paul’s ‘In Spite Of All The Danger ‘, which was written around the same time, both in terms of originality and musicality. Considering Paul was the more ‘musical’ of the two, it would again point to the theory that John wrote this and then developed it on-and-off over the next five years.

3. There is a version from 1960 which I’m yet to hear. How does that differ?

4. The ending is definitely something the group thought of later. They definitely liked it, because it features at the end of Like Dreamers Do too (written in 1959).

Thanks for that. I think the version from 1960 sounds slighty downbeat compared to the Decca recording. I’m not clever enough to know if the chords are different though.