I Need You (The Beatles song)

"I Need You"
Song by The Beatles from the album Help!
Released	6 August 1965
Recorded	15–16 February 1965, EMI Studios, London
Genre	Pop rock
Length	2:28
Label	Parlophone
Writer	George Harrison
Producer	George Martin
Help! track listing
14 tracks Side one "Help!" "The Night Before" "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" "I Need You" "Another Girl" "You're Going to Lose That Girl" "Ticket to Ride" Side two "Act Naturally" "It's Only Love" "You Like Me Too Much" "Tell Me What You See" "I've Just Seen a Face" "Yesterday" "Dizzy Miss Lizzy"

"I Need You" is a song by The Beatles and appears on the album Help!. It is the second George Harrison song the band released after two albums without any songwriting contribution from Harrison. The song was performed in their second film, Help! and is the second video produced showing George Harrison singing lead vocal on a song (after "I'm Happy Just To Dance With You" from "A Hard Days Night").

Composition

The song, simple in arrangement, was recorded on 15 and 16 February 1965. It is often considered to address Harrison's relationship with Pattie Boyd, whom he had met in March 1964 while filming A Hard Day's Night (they married in January 1966).

Musical characteristics and recording

The song is in A major and the recording's distinctive lead guitar cadences, achieved by Harrison's first recorded use of a volume pedal, are based on common guitar suspended chords in the key of A, forming the introduction and most of the verse of the song and giving a quasi-modal effect that is relieved in the verse by a line in the relative minor (with a simple backing harmony from Lennon and McCartney), the whole making a fourteen-bar ternary verse-structure. This, after a repeat, segues easily into a second, bridge melody that introduces a cowbell for contrast and is based on a simple IV-V-I chord progression that passes through the dominant key to resolve back on the verse. An interesting feature is the use of an imperfect cadence (imperfectly resolving on a tonic A chord) in the climax of the bridge (on "I just can't go on anymore") which uses II (B7) and V (E7) chords. Many such aspects of the song are developed in Harrison's song "If I Needed Someone" on the group's next album, Rubber Soul.

Personnel

• George Harrison – double-tracked vocal, lead guitar with Volume Pedal (1961 Fender Stratocaster)
• John Lennon – harmony vocal, nylon-string acoustic rhythm guitar
• Paul McCartney – harmony vocal, bass
• Ringo Starr – drums, cowbell

Personnel per Ian MacDonald

Cover versions

• Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers played the song in tribute to Harrison at 2002's Concert for George.
• A progressive rock supergroup Transatlantic recorded a mix of two songs called "I Need You" (this one and America's 1972 single) on their 2009 album The Whirlwind. The first part (America's cover) is sung by Neal Morse while the Beatles's part features vocals by the band's drummer Mike Portnoy.

References

• (2002) Album notes for Concert for George [booklet]. London: Oops Publishing (R2 745/16).
• Harry, Bill (2000). The Beatles Encyclopedia: Revised and Updated. London: Virgin Publishing. ISBN 0-7535-0481-2. 
• Lewisohn, Mark (1988). The Beatles Recording Sessions. New York: Harmony Books. ISBN 0-517-57066-1. 
• MacDonald, Ian (2005). Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties (Second Revised Edition ed.). London: Pimlico (Rand). ISBN 1-844-13828-3. 
• Pollack, Alan (7 December 1992). "Notes on "I Need You"". Notes on ... Series. http://www.icce.rug.nl/~soundscapes/DATABASES/AWP/iny.shtml.