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And I Love Her

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"And I Love Her"
Song by The Beatles
Album A Hard Day's Night
Released 10 June 1964 (mono)
10 July 1964 (stereo)
Recorded 25–27 February 1964
Abbey Road Studios
Genre Pop rock
Length 2:32
Label Parlophone
Writer Lennon/McCartney
Producer George Martin
A Hard Day's Night track listing
“And I Love Her”
“And I Love Her” cover
Single by The Beatles
B-side "If I Fell"
Released 20 July 1964 (US)
Format 7"
Label Capitol
The Beatles singles chronology
"A Hard Day's Night"
(US-1964)
"And I Love Her"
(US-1964)
"I'll Cry Instead"
(US-1964)
'And I Love Her' is Paul again. I consider it his first 'Yesterday.' You know, the big ballad in Hard Day's Night. The middle eight, I helped with that.

—John Lennon, The Playboy Interviews, p.146, 1980

It was the first ballad I impressed myself with. It's got nice chords in it. 'Bright are the stars that shine, dark is the sky ...' I like the imagery of the stars and the sky. It was a love song really. The 'And' in the title was an important thing, 'And I Love Her', it came right out of left field, you were right up to speed the minute you heard it. The title comes in the second verse and it doesn't repeat. You would often go to town on the title, but this was almost an aside, 'Oh ... and I love you.' It still holds up and George played really good guitar on it. It worked very well. I'm not sure if John worked on that al all.

The middle eight is mine. I would say that John probably helped with the middle eight, but he can't say 'It's mine.' I wrote this on my own. I can actually see Margaret Asher's upstairs drawing room. I remember playing it there.

—Paul McCartney, Many Years From Now, p.123-24, 1997

Do you recall any stand-out moments where George brought something in or made a song click?

PAUL: Oh yeah, sure. There were quite a few. I would think immediately of my song "And I Love Her" which I brought in pretty much as a finished song. But George put on do-do-do-do [sings the signature riff] which is very much a part of the song. Y'know, the opening riff. That, to me, made a stunning difference to the song and whenever I play the song now, I remember the moment George came up with it. That song would not be the same without it.

—Paul McCartney, Mojo Magazine, 2011

The first two takes of 'And I Love Her', only one of which was a complete version, were much heavier than the final version, with a different guitar intro, Ringo on drums and a lead guitar solo in the middle eight. A great song is a great song in any guise, but the Beatles were wise to re-make this one with a simpler, acoustic sound.

'And I Love Her' was quite problematical however. Ringo swapped his drums for bongos and claves midway through the session but the sound was still not quite right. When Normal Smith announced 'Take 14', over the talkback, Paul jokingly replied 'Ha! Take 50!' Again, they ended up leaving it for another time, and yet another re-make. ... At last [On Feb 27 1964], they got 'And I Love Her' right.

—Mark Lewisohn, The Beatles Recording Sessions, p.39-40, 1988

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