Girl (Beatles song)
| "Girl" | |
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| Song |
"Girl" is a song written by John Lennon[1] [2] (credited to Lennon/McCartney) and performed by the Beatles on their 1965 album Rubber Soul. "Girl" was the last complete song recorded for that album.[3][4]
History
"Girl" was probably one of the most melancholic and complex of the Beatles' earlier love songs.[5] The song's instrumentalization has specific similarities to Greek music; similar to "And I Love Her" and "Michelle".[5] Lennon and George Harrison played acoustic guitars on the basic track and in addition, Harrison overdubbed the acoustic 12-string.
McCartney claimed that he contributed the lines "Was she told when she was young that pain would lead to pleasure" and "That a man must break his back to earn his day of leisure."[2] However, in a 1970 interview with Rolling Stone, John Lennon explained that he wrote these lines as a comment on Christianity which he was "opposed to at the time". Lennon said: "I was just talking about Christianity, in that - a thing like you have to be tortured to attain heaven. [...] - be tortured and then it'll be alright, which seems to be a bit true but not in their concept of it. But I didn't believe in that, that you have to be tortured to attain anything, it just so happens that you were."[6] McCartney also stated that the song's backing vocals were influenced by a recent work by the Beach Boys:
The Beach Boys had a song out where they'd done 'la la la' and we loved the innocence of that and wanted to copy it, but not use the same phrase".[7]
Lennon said that the fantasy girl in the song's lyric was an archetype he had been searching for his entire life ("There is no such thing as the girl — she was a dream") and finally found in Yoko Ono.[8] In an interview for Rolling Stone magazine on 5 December 1980, Lennon said his 1980 song "Woman":
Reminds me of a Beatles track, but I wasn't trying to make it sound like that. I did it as I did 'Girl' many years ago. So this is the grown-up version of 'Girl.'"[9]
In November 1977, Capitol Records scheduled the United States release of "Girl" backed with "You're Going to Lose That Girl" as a single (Capitol 4506) to accompany the release of Love Songs, a Beatles' compilation album that contains both of these songs. However, the single was cancelled before it was issued.
Cover versions
- Dalida recorded "Girl" in Italian and released it as "Amo" on her 1967 Italian album Piccolo Ragazzo
- Johnny Hallyday recorded "Girl" in French and released it as "Je l'aime" in 1967
- Cathy Berberian included it in her 1967 album Beatles Arias
- Jim Sturgess sang "Girl" in the film musical Across the Universe
- Rhett Miller recorded a version of "Girl" that can be found on the album This Bird Has Flown – A 40th Anniversary Tribute to the Beatles' Rubber Soul
- St. Louis Union recorded a cover version in 1965, that was released in January 1966, and reached #11 on the UK Singles Chart[10]
- Tiny Tim recorded a dramatic reinterpretation with the band Brave Combo in 1996
- The Truth recorded a cover version on the Pye label (7N.17035) in 1966 (b/w "Jailer Bring Me Water")
- Ronnie Von recorded a Portuguese version called "Meu Bem" in 1966; his version was released in Brazil before The Beatles version, and made such success that when The Beatles version arrived, the radios used to do this announcement: "And now Ronnie Von's song 'Girl' in the voice of The Beatles"
- Serj Tankian has covered the song live numerous times
- Joe Jackson covered the song on numerous stops on his 2003 tour for Volume 4, and this version appeared on the bonus disc of Afterlife
- Roberts Gobziņš recorded a version of the song with Latvian lyrics, appearing on his first album in 1993
- Chris de Burgh covered the song in his 1995 album "Beautiful Dreams"
- Paul Carrack recorded the song for his 2007 album "Old, New, Borrowed and Blue"
Personnel
- John Lennon – lead vocals, acoustic guitars
- Paul McCartney – backing vocals, bass guitar
- George Harrison – backing vocals, classical acoustic guitar, twelve-string acoustic guitar
- Ringo Starr – drums
- Personnel per Ian MacDonald, except as noted.[4]
Notes
- ^ Sheff 2000, p. 197.
- ^ a b Miles 1997, pp. 275–276.
- ^ Lewisohn 1988, p. 68.
- ^ a b MacDonald 2005, p. 181.
- ^ a b Unterberger 2009.
- ^ http://www.beatlesbible.com/people/john-lennon/songs/god/
- ^ Cross 2005, p. 353.
- ^ "62 - 'Girl'". 100 Greatest Beatles Songs. Rolling Stone. Retrieved 18 June 2012.
- ^ Cott 1980.
- ^ Roberts 2006, p. 479.
References
- Cott, Jonathan (5 December 1980). "Rolling Stone Interview with John Lennon". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 27 October 2006.
{{cite web}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Hertsgaard, Mark (1995). A Day in the Life: The Music and Artistry of The Beatles. New York: Delacorte Press. ISBN 0-385-31377-2.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Lewisohn, Mark (1988). The Beatles Recording Sessions. New York: Harmony Books. ISBN 0-517-57066-1.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - MacDonald, Ian (2005). Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties (Second Revised ed.). London: Pimlico (Rand). ISBN 1-84413-828-3.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Miles, Barry (1997). Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now. New York: Henry Holt & Company. ISBN 0-8050-5249-6.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Sheff, David (2000). All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-25464-4.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Cross, Craig (2005). The Beatles: Day-by-day, Song-by-song, Record-by-record. ISBN 0-595-34663-4.
- Unterberger, Richie (2009). "Girl". Allmusic. Retrieved 15 June 2009.
{{cite web}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help)
External links
