She Loves You

John Lennon and Paul McCartney collaborated to write She Loves You in late June of 1963. The concept for the song came from Paul after a performance in Newcastle with Gerry & The Pacemakers and Roy Orbison. They worked on the tour bus and in the hotel room in Newcastle, finishing it the next day back in Liverpool. The Beatles recorded She Loves You on July 1, 1963 for release as a single record, with I'll Get You on the b-side, in the UK (in August) and the US (in September). It became so popular that it set several records in both countries. According to BBC 2 in 2009, this song is the all-time best-selling Beatles hit in the UK. In the US, it was one of five Beatles songs that held the top five chart spots simultaneously. Before She Loves You came out in the US, the only Beatles song to have been released was From Me to You, which rose only as high as 116. She Loves You strongly contributed to the momentum that would become known as "Beatlemania." In 2004 Rolling Stone ranked it 64th in the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

One of the ground breaking aspects of the song is its use of "Yeah," an informality that at the time chafed the proper British establishment types, much in the same way that Elvis had unhinged the stuffier strata of American culture with "Uh-huh." The Beatles puckishly threw in everything, including the Scouse "yeahs," a little Elvis, and the Isley Brothers' trademark "woooo." Another innovation for popular music was the last chord, a major sixth, suggested by George Harrison. George Martin felt that ending the song on a major sixth was a violation of some rule of musical composition, but the Beatles persuaded him on the point, and it stayed in. (This chord is the sound made by strumming the four thinnest strings of a guitar without pressing any frets, in this case, a G6.)

Recording was accomplished on a two-track machine. Once the two tracks were "mixed down" to a mono master, the tracks would be erased. This made it impossible to go back and create a stereo mix. Four Beatles songs met this fate, including She Loves You.

The Beatles recorded this song in German in January of 1964. Meanwhile, in the US, Capitol was putting together The Beatles' Second Album as a sequel to Meet the Beatles! They put She Loves You on this album, and it became a number one seller in the US on May 2, 1964, bumping Meet the Beatles! to number two. This was the first time a group succeeded itself in the number one slot in the album charts. She Loves You also was reproduced in several compilations, including A Collection of Beatles Oldies, 1962–1966, 20 Greatest Hits, The Beatles 1 and The Capitol Albums, Volume 1. It also came out on the US promo for Rarities, which was a bonus in the boxed set The Beatles Collection.