Hold Me Tight
By:
The Beatles
Lyrics:
Hold Me Tight Lyrics
Lead vocals:
Paul McCartney
Songwriter(s):
Lennon/McCartney
First released on:
With The Beatles
U.S. release date:
January 20, 1964
U.K. release date:
November 22, 1963
Length (≈):
2:28
Label:
Capitol
Label:
Parlophone
Produced by:
George Martin
Recording date(s):
September 12, 1963
Recorded at:
Abbey Road Studios (EMI)
Musicians :
- Paul McCartney – vocal, bass, handclaps
- John Lennon – harmony vocal, rhythm guitar, handclaps
- George Harrison – backing vocal, lead guitar, handclaps
- Ringo Starr – drums, handclaps
This nominally Lennon-McCartney song was predominantly a McCartney composition written at Paul's family home (Forthlin Road, 20, Allerton) some time in 1961. It was a pretty standard tune in the Beatles' performance repertoire but was dropped in 1963 once the band started writing its unprecedented string of hits.
The group recorded Hold Me Tight on February 11, 1963 for their first album, Please Please Me but the consensus was that none of the 13 takes was good enough and so the recordings were scrapped as the song was not needed to complete the debut release. The tape of this February 11 version was lost, destroyed, or over-recorded and, sadly, doesn't exist today.
Some seven moths later The Beatles then re-recorded the song on September 12, 1963 for their second album, With The Beatles.
The song starts abruptly with a two-bar intro, then pursues two 16-bar verses, an eight-bar bridge, a third verse, and then a repeat of the bridge and the third verse. The last bar of verse 2 is also the first bar of the bridge. No solos are heard in this song. The verses are in F major (on the album), and the bridge in D minor.
The song also speaks to the very high standards of The Beatles who felt the song was a disappointment and one of their weaker tracks:
I can't remember much about that one. Certain songs were just 'work' songs, you haven't got much memory of them. That's one of them.- Paul McCartney in Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now
a failed attempt at a single which then became an acceptable album filler- Paul McCartney in The Beatles Recording Sessions
Some critics point to this song as an example of the capabilities of Lennon and McCartney as a composer team, and their understanding of song composition even at an early stage in their career.
This version of Hold Me Tight shouldn't be confused with another song called Hold Me Tight that appears on McCartney's 1973 album Red Rose Speedway.
Recording
September 12, 1963 in five (new) takes plus overdubs and edit pieces. The original was speeded up to make the song "tighter" and to raise it one half-tone to the key of F.
Post a comment about Hold Me Tight
I happen to like the song,
I happen to like the song, but I can certainly see why The Beatles had their reservations. It's structurally very simple and very formulamatic though there was no intro to speak of. The bridges were vocally a little shaky which is surprising because McCartney's voice is typically as strong as it is melodic. Take a listen... Verse Chorus + Verse Chorus + Bridge + Verse Chorus + Bridge + Verse Chorus + Bridgey-outro ...
"A leaky house can fool the sun, but it can't fool the rain." - A Haitian Proverb
Post new comment