Written mainly by Paul McCartney, ‘The Night Before’ was featured in the Help! film during a scene filmed on Salisbury Plain, England.
McCartney most likely composed the song at the flat in Wimpole Street, London, owned by Jane Asher’s parents.
That’s Paul again. I’ll just say it’s Paul, meaning I don’t remember anything about it except it was in the movie Help!
One of the most notable features in ‘The Night Before’ was the guitar solo, double tracked an octave apart and played by McCartney and George Harrison. John Lennon, meanwhile, played a Hohner Pianet electric piano, which gave the song much of its drive.
In the studio
The Beatles recorded ‘The Night Before’ in just two takes, on the afternoon of 17 February 1965 at Studio Two in EMI Studios in Abbey Road, London.
The session began at 2pm and ended at 7pm. Paul McCartney’s lead vocals were double tracked. The song completed, from 7pm they turned their attention to George Harrison’s ‘You Like Me Too Much’.
“One of the song’s most notable features was the guitar solo, double tracked an octave apart, and played by McCartney.”
That’s not quite right. We have a quote from Lennon: “George and Paul are playing the same break exactly, both playing but in different octaves” (Ray Coleman: “Here we go again”. Melody Maker, Feb 27 1965).
So you should name both, George an Paul, on lead guitar!
Well thanks for that! I never knew it was G&P together. Thanks for the quotation.
This song is overlooked for a reason. Paul with the exception of Yesterday and I’ve just seen a face just does not have it in 1965. Meanwhile Lennon is on fire: Ticket to Ride, Help, You’ve got to hide your love away, Norwegian Wood, In My Life, Girl. Then Paul really shines in 66
Your comment make me laugh a little. “With the exception of Yesterday” Um..perhaps the greatest ballad ever written. I think he’s okay with 1965.?
Wow AND Wowser ! You must review “the Beatles” great volumed body of works just in that year & possibly reevaluate your opinion, possibly.
Hola Julio!
Hmm, well I really like ‘the Night Before’- it is like good Soul, and he sings it so Heartily… There is aso ‘I’m looking through you’ and ‘you won’t see me’ and ‘Another Girl’ (which are OK/pretty good) , also ‘Michelle’, ‘We can work it out’ (with John); I’ve just seen a face -again -prety good, but yesterday was his finest 1965 moment maybe. But all-in-all quite a good year for him!
I’m surprised this song doesn’t get more attention from the world. Were it on Rubber Soul I’m sure it would fit in very easily, and be a strong favourite
Lennon says he doesn’t remember anything about it, but says he knows who played what on the recording.
There was two quotes involved. One quote from 1965 and the second quote was from 1980. Fifteen years gone by can play tricks on the memory.
This song always seemed like one of a pair with You’re Gonna Lose That Girl, especially the way the background vocals are arranged. Good song.
I think this is one of the oft-overlooked gems from this period of their career. It’s overshadowed by a lot of their less lightweight material, but the Hohner and double guitars on the solo give it a great, unique sound, and I have to once again cop to being a sucker for the call-and-response vocals.
I agree heartily with metzgermeister77 – this is a fantastic song from the Beatles’ mid-period. To me, it’s the VOCALS that drive this raver: Paul’s powerful, ragged-edge lead, augmented with John and George’s backup harmonies. Simply wonderful!
Its one of my top 10 overlooked fav Beatles songs.
When was a Beatle composed song just filler? There has been No act on this planet with more complete albums. They were to good realy.
Has anyone else noticed that there’s a marked lyrical similarity between “The Night Before” and “Yesterday”? Think about it: “Everything was fine the night before, but now she’s left me & I’m regretful;” “Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away, but now she’s left me & I’m regretful.” I suppose it makes sense; the two songs were both written by Paul, at around the same time.
Of course, “Yesterday” is about a hundred times more poignant-sounding because it’s a slow, sad ballad backed by a string quartet rather than an upbeat rock number.
Really like the progressive 8-bar intro. Many of the intros and fade-outs they created are very catchy, like “I’ll Be Back”..many more, too.
This is during the period of Paul’s relationship with Jane Asher which was deteriorating painfully for Paul. The songs, Things We Said Today, And I Love Her, The Night Before, You Won’t See Me, We Can Work It Out, I’m Looking Through You and the goodbye song. . Yesterday.
This is such a catchy song by Paul. It is one of my favorites off the album ” Help!” and I love it in the film on the Salisbury Plain.
George said how he’d felt like Rubber Soul and Revolver were like one big album.
To me, if we are to pair off albums, I’d say Help and Rubber soul are that. And revolver could easily be a double album with Pepper.
I couldn’t agree more Julie. I posted a similar comment on the Help! album article.
George also played a rhythm guitar. It’s hard to hear, but you can hear it pretty well between 0:54 and 0:56
That’s true on the basic track and John’s Hohner Pianet effectively served as his own rhythm guitar part in a way.
George and Paul both played the guitar solo in unison, as John revealed in his 1965 interview.
Paul was really inspired by this time . The night before another girl and that means a lot that was left out. it was a waste and a crime to left such a great song and not release it at least as flip side of a single . I think it was the biggest mistake they made.
To me, this great song is the first Paul Mac vocal where he sounds like a grown-up. To me, also, this song has everything Beatle in it – call-and-response vocals, twangy guitars and, finally, a real groove as opposed to the very “square” sort of beats some of the Fabs were fond of.
Harrison is daft when he says Rubber Soul and Revolver were part of one big album – the two discs couldn’t be any more dissimilar and it’s almost hard to believe one came after the other. Maybe he meant “Help” and “Rubber Soul,” which makes more sense. After all, in later years, sometimes, he couldn’t remember which album had which songs.
mmm, I think ‘Rubber Soul’ has similrities with both Help and Revolver, but I think the MINDSET of ‘Rubber Soul’ and ‘Revolver’ were similar; -that’s what he meant! (their LSD period)
Anyone else hearing what almost sounds like two bike horns in the into, bar 4 beats 3 then 4 , notes B and C leading it into the G7 ?You have to listen with headphones but something is there. And then later it almost seems to be answered , though this time it is obviously Pauls blues scatting, right before the guitar solo? Whatever the case these things are like little buried treasures .
I’ve always wondered what those sounds were. To me it sounds like the one before the solo is one of them is saying ” bum bum”. Most likely another Beatle in joke.
I was hoping someone would come up with a deconstructed/alternate take with isolated vocals or studio chat so maybe we could get a clue.
Besides you I’ve yet to hear anyone anywhere bring this one up
Thanks for posting.
By “lead guitar” attributed to Paul and George you mean both the “solo” and rhythm? Cause the listed instrumentation gives the impression that the rhythm is only drums bass and the Electric piano, that’s totally wrong. In my humble opinion we have two scenarios. First: rhythm section with two guitars panned left (smoothier) and right, that strum along during the entire song, plus drums n bass and then overdubbed electric piano (possible due to Lennon’s incapability at keys) , solos and vocals. Second, rhythm section with a guitar strum (panned extreme right with reverb panned to left) electric piano drums n bass then overdubbed solos and vocals. In both cases there’s guitar at the rhythm section. The claxon effect is a leftover kinda jammed bends during the overdubs. McCartneyims
The latter scenario sounds more plausible and BTW, John was not an incapable or inept keyboardist – just listen to his playing on “Imagine”, “I am the Walrus”, “Flying”, “Baby You’re a Rich Man”, “Something”, “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”, “Mean Mr. Mustard”, “Mr. Kite!” and “Penny Lane”. I did read somewhere that he had piano lessons in his younger years and it’s clear that he was good enough to play keyboard parts that were within his playing abilities.
The term incapable musician is more applicable to Sid Vicious – he was a completely inept bassist.
A GREAT SONG which should have been a double A side with either “Help” or “Ticket To Ride”
“The Night Before” is a very good song and I must say that it made a nice change for John to play the Hohner Pianet electric piano while George played rhythm guitar on the basic track and of course, Paul was on bass and Ringo was on drums.
I don’t care if John’s piano playing was Beethoven or not, because he wasn’t just a good guitarist, but also a very good keyboardist in his own right, and he clearly put in the effort to develop his own technique.
This song is such a great example of the Beatles firing on all cylinders as a band. I have always wondered whether Paul got the idea for this song from the Goffin and King classic “Will you love me tomorrow” which was recorded about 1964, I think, by the Shirelles. Lennon once said that they (McCartney-Lennon) wanted to be the Goffin and King of Britain.
Yes, the doubled guitar and Hohner pianet are wonderful. But let’s not forget about John’s fantastic harmony and vocal inflections in the response lines, “ah, the night before.” Let’s me just ride the wave through the song.