The first song recorded for The Beatles’ second album was a cover version of Smokey Robinson and The Miracles’ ‘You’ve Really Got A Hold On Me’, originally a hit in 1962.
The Beatles’ subtly-retitled version of Robinson’s Motown million-seller featured John Lennon on lead vocals, with George Harrison providing close harmonies and Paul McCartney on backing vocals.
A lot of our tracks may not have been ‘cool’. I think if we’d just been cool, we wouldn’t have made it how we did. But that was a great aspect of us. John would do ‘A Shot Of Rhythm And Blues’ or ‘You Really Got A Hold On Me’ – you could call that cool.
Anthology
Although ‘You’ve Really Got A Hold On Me’ wasn’t yet a big hit in the UK, The Beatles were aware of it through imported copies arriving in Liverpool from America, where The Miracles enjoyed continued success with it throughout the winter of 1962.
The second album was slightly better than the first, inasmuch as we spent more time on it, and there were more original songs. We did ‘Money’ for that album, and other cover versions: ‘Please Mister Postman’, ‘You Really Got A Hold On Me’ and ‘Devil In Her Heart’.
Anthology
The Beatles first recorded ‘You Really Got A Hold On Me’ on 24 May 1963, for an episode of the BBC radio show Pop Go The Beatles. It was first broadcast on 4 June.
The group recorded it three more times for the BBC, on 16 July, 30 July, and 3 September 1963. The 30 July attempt can be heard on Live At The BBC.
A live version, recorded at the Karlaplansstudion in Stockholm, Sweden on 24 October 1963, was included on Anthology 1 in 1995.
In the studio
The Beatles recorded ‘You Really Got A Hold On Me’ on 18 July 1963. It was the first song attempted during the first session for the With The Beatles album. That day they also recorded ‘Money (That’s What I Want)’, ‘Devil In Her Heart’, and ‘Till There Was You’.
The group took seven attempts to perfect it, though only four were complete takes. They then recorded four edit pieces, numbered takes 8-11, which including overdubs of the word ‘baby’ and the instrumental coda which closes the song.
On 17 October 1963 they attempted a re-recording of ‘You Really Got A Hold On Me’. They taped just one attempt – take 12 – but quickly gave up and moved on to other songs.
The version on With The Beatles was an edit of takes 7, 10 and 11 from 18 July. The final master edit was made on 21 August; the same day the mono mix for the LP was made. The stereo mix was made on 29 October, ahead of the album’s 22 November UK release.
Lyrics
I don’t like you, but I love you
Seems that I’m always thinking of you
Oh, oh, oh, you treat me badly
I love you madly
You’ve really got a hold on me
(You’ve really got a hold on me)
You’ve really got a hold on me
(You’ve really got a hold on me)
Baby
I don’t want you, but I need you
Don’t want to kiss you but I need to
Oh, oh, oh, you do me wrong now
My love is strong now
You’ve really got a hold on me
(You’ve really got a hold on me)
You’ve really got a hold on me
(You’ve really got a hold on me)
Baby
I love you and all I want you to do
Is just hold me, hold me, hold me, hold me
Tighter
Tighter
I want to leave you, don’t want to stay here
Don’t want to spend another day here
Though, oh, oh, I want to split now
I just can’t quit now
You’ve really got a hold on me
(You’ve really got a hold on me)
You’ve really got a hold on me
(You’ve really got a hold on me)
Baby
I love you and all I want you to do
Is just hold me, hold me, hold me, hold me
You’ve really got a hold on me
(You’ve really got a hold on me)
You’ve really got a hold on me
(You’ve really got a hold on me)
Lennon sings lead in this song, Harrison is doing the harmony with McCartney providing backing vocal.
are there any lead vocal changes to George on the line “my love is strong now?” it doesn’t sound like John..
That’s definitely John singing that line. It’s pretty shocking to hear the album version versus the version played during the Let It Be movie. John’s voice was a million times stronger in 1963.
In 1963, they played it in A, but for Let It Be it wound up in the Miracles’ higher key of C. Lennon probably couldn’t have sung that high back then anyway. They probably only changed it so Billy Preston could play it.
Bullshit!…Billy Preston could play anything in any key!
Sadly John’s voice, an amazing instrument, began degrading gradually after they stopped touring and continued to fray until his death, though that did add to the vulnerability of his many beautiful, softer solo songs, and he could still belt it when he needed to (“I Want You”, “Don’t Let Me Down”), you can really hear how much his singing power and control had been lost by listening to the “Let It Be” sessions (whereas Paul was possibly better than ever-no wonder they broke up), esp if you compare to earlier recordings, or, even more starkly, the early live performances, esp of songs like “Twist And Shout”. No way could he have pulled off those kind of performances in ’69, esp with no monitors and what not like back in the day.
I give you Cold Turkey and Yer Blues.
I always thought it was John harmonizing with himself, all these years! Amazing how similar his and George’s voice could be in the earlier years (or was it just George mimicking John, a la “Do You Want To Know A Secret?” – he did have a history of following J+Cyn to the theater in their youth).
Heroin can do nasty things to a person’s voice…..
Not to mention a three-pack-a-day cigarette habit.
Why there is any reference to the let it be film version of this song? That should be great.
I have a feeling that the cut on With The Beatles was actually performed in G or G#, which was then sped up on the tape machine to A – there are a lot of unnatural sounding runs for John. And though, while his voice may well have been stronger voice in 1963 compared to say 1970, the deftness at which he sings certain passages is slightly difficult to comprehend. Try slowing the track down 5% in a DAW, it instantly lifts a veil from John’s voice and the sound of the band (John was notorious for asking the Abbey Road engineers to find new ways to masque the natural sound of his voice, and possibly with this cut in an attempt to make it sound more like the Smokey Robinson version – it’s all over Beatles records, Magical Mystery Tour, Lucy In The Sky, Strawberry Fields Forever).
May spark a debate, but it’s a theory backed by gut intuition.
Interesting theory which Jack proposes (varispeeding up from key of G to A… I doubt that any guitarist would volunteer to play a song in Ab/G#, except by detuning their instrument!) — if this is the case it is surely (by a couple of years) the first use by the Beatles of varispeed?
Listen to the live performances they did (with no monitors and thousands screaming) – John was an incredible singer in those years, most of the studio changing of voices was done for particular sound results (“Strawberry Fields” to make it more strange and druggy), not to mask deficiencies. And changing of speeds and things for vocal purposes was done for Paul as well.
There are live versions of ” You Really Got a Hold On Me ” and they are played in A. The highest note is a F# ( Gb ) in most of the song, accept in the end where John takes an A, I believe it was dubbed on afterwards to top the song in the end; it is possible for John to sing normally I think, if you take it down a bit it might loose the frenzy. In the live version I listened to, it works fine with George harmonizing with John, George sounds backed up with another voice and of course that must be Paul who disguises his normal voice sound a bit I believe, so I believe that is how the album version also was done; John could go in here and there and sing double with his own voice also I suppose, like they use to do often. John is doing a very good job on this one I think. The final version on the album, I read here in the comments was also edited from takes 7, 8 and 11. You got to save some time now and then in a recording situation.
Someone would’ve spilled by now had this been done. Probably John himself actually.
A perfect song for the beatles to pick from circa 1963. I like the miracles version but I feel the beatles wrung out all of the beauty contained in this song.
like both versions for different reasons
Although I love the Canadian Capitol version of this (as well as the U.K. LP, same song list), it’ s just a great rocking album, and this song is just another great song in their arsenal!
My guess is this song was sung by both together John Lennon and George Harrison not even Paul or Ringo
The Beatles rocked the song. Smokey was great but John was hot with that incredible soulful voice of his!
The MIRACLES are UNBEATABLE…by The Beatles or ANYBODY ELSE.
That’s why SO MANY ARTISTS cover their tunes.
Others may have had bigger Pop success, but The MIRACLES were the group to beat in the Sixties.
That’s why they’re THE MOST COVERED and SAMPLED MOTOWN ACT of ALL TIME !!!
DON’T BELIEVE IT ?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What%27s_So_Good_About_Goodbye
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%27ve_Been_Good_to_You
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cover_versions_of_Miracles_songs
Can’t just think both are great? That’s very sad…
It’s funny you should say that, because it was The Beatles’ cover of “You Really Got a Hold on Me” that made me a fan of The Miracles and Motown in the first place – this happened when I was 12 going on 13.
Smokey Robinson, as a matter of fact, said in a 1968-1969 interview that he actually loved The Beatles’ version of it, so it was nice for one of the boys’ heroes to endorse their cover of one of his songs.
The line-up needs to be corrected: it’s actually John and George who are sharing the lead vocals, not John alone, and even Tony Barrow’s album liner notes confirm this.
After reading the comments and the debate around John ‘and’ George performing lead vocals I listened to the song again and again until I heard George’s voice come through in the verses, it’s quite hard to hear as John is singing in a higher key than George but it is noticeable. It’s very interesting and makes me consider that other songs may have secret duet vocals.
Eddie Money did a great cover.