Words of Love

The only Buddy Holly cover in the Beatles catalog, Words of Love is a tribute to this great entertainer. The Beatles perform it much like Buddy Holly's original (with the same chords in the same key). The song is essentially three verses, with an instrumental solo before the last verse, all of which is sandwiched between an intro and a fade-out outro. The chord pattern is the conventional I-IV-V of 12-bar blues, but the song was written in shorter, eight-bar phrases. The Beatles add "guitar case" percussion (Ringo's overdub above the drums) and open-fifth harmonies, typical of Paul and John. George Martin added his piano in the mix.