To begin with, “And I Love Her” is a Beatles’ song which is on their 1964 album, “A Hard Day’s Night”. It was also a single release in the United States with the B-side being “If I Fell” where it got to number 12 in the charts.
In Detail
Albums
Format: Album track (UK), also a 7-inch single in the US
Recorded: 25th-27th February, 1964
Studio: EMI studios, London
Track Duration: 2:32
Record Label: Parlophone (UK) Capitol (US)
Songwriters: Lennon-McCartney
Producer: George Martin
Performers
Paul McCartney: vocals, also the bass guitar
John Lennon: acoustic rhythm guitar
George Harrison: classical lead guitar
Ringo Starr: bongos, as well as the claves
Track Source
A Hard Day’s Night
Anthology 1
On Air – Live At The BBC Volume 2
And I Love Her
Paul McCartney wrote the song while living with Jane Asher in her parent’s home in London. However, John Lennon had a small input and the credit, as usual, goes to the Lennon-McCartney songwriting partnership. Be that as it may, Jane Asher would have been the main inspiration for the love song. Hence, “And I Love Her”.
“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.
A Hard Day’s Night Album (1964)
Anthology 1 Album (1995)
On Air – Live At The BBC Volume 2 Album (2013)
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.”
Paul McCartney
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles
While on holiday in Greece during September 1963, Paul McCartney took a liking to the music style there. We see that Greek music influence in this song together with the songs, “Michelle” and “Girl”
Recording Studio
The Beatles began recording “And I Love Her” on 25 February 1964 in Studio Two of the EMI Studios, London, during the 2.30pm-5.30pm session. However, even though they recorded 2 takes, they decided to record it again the next day. Take 2 is what we hear on the 1995 album, “Anthology 1” and the band’s instrumentation that day is as follows:
Paul McCartney – lead vocal, 1963 Höfner 500/1 bass guitar through Vox AC-100 bass amp
John Lennon – 1964 Rickenbacker 325 electric guitar through Vox AC-50 guitar amp
George Harrison – 1964 Rickenbacker 360-12 12 string electric guitar through Vox AC-50 guitar amp
Ringo Starr – Ludwig drum kit
The next day they recorded takes takes 3-19 during the 7.00pm-10.00pm session using the following instruments, but they were still not happy at the results:
Paul McCartney – lead vocal, 1963 Höfner 500/1 bass guitar through Vox AC-100 bass amp
John Lennon – Harrison’s 1962 Gibson J-160E acoustic-electric guitar through Vox AC-50 guitar amp
George Harrison – 1964 José Ramírez Guitarra de Estudio classical guitar
Ringo Starr – Ludwig drum kit, but then, switching to bongos and claves
On the 27 February, there were 2 final takes with take 21 being suitable as the master rhythm track for overdubbing. So, on their “A Hard Day’s Night” soundtrack album, the song is on side 1, track 5, coming after “I’m Happy Just To Dance With You” and before “Tell Me Why“.
Other Recordings
The Beatles regularly performed in shows for BBC Radio and they would obviously reach out to fans this way. While in the past they would sing some of their songs for different programmes, they only sang this track once only. This was for the BBC’s “Top Gear” radio show airing on 16th July 1964, but they recorded this programme on the 14th July.
Because it was a BBC recording, it is on their 2013 album, “On Air – Live At The BBC Volume 2” where it sits between 2 speech tracks on disc 2. The full song is also in the 1964 film, “A Hard Day’s Night” where band rehearse it in the studio scene.
