The Band Who...Needed No Introduction

So here I am working my way through With The Beatles and I’m blown away all over again by the Beatles' economy when it comes to intros. Here’s a survey of what happens before the vocals come in.

2 songs have no intro whatsoever

It Won’t Be Long – (song starts with chorus vocals)
All My Loving - (song starts with verse vocals)

6 more tracks have only a single note before the vocals enter

She Loves You – ½ bar drum fill (0.5 sec)
I’ll Get You – one bass note
Please Mr Postman* – single hi-hat
All I’ve Got To Do – single free time guitar chord
Not A Second Time – single piano bass note
I Wanna Be Your Man – single guitar string bend

The rest have intros ranging between 1 and 17 seconds. 

5 of these (including the 3 longest) are cover versions*.

Hold Me Tight – band intro (1 sec)
Don’t Bother Me – guitar solo (4 sec)
Little Child – harmonica solo (6 sec)
I Want To Hold Your Hand – band intro (6 sec)
Devil In Her Heart* – guitar solo (6 sec)
Till There Was You* – guitar solo (7 sec)
This Boy – band intro (9 sec)
You Really Got A Hold On Me* – band intro (14 sec)
Money (That’s What I Want)* – band Intro (15 sec)
Roll Over Beethoven* – guitar solo (17 sec)

Author Jay Frank devotes a whole chapter in his FuturehitDNA book to explaining why intros got progressively longer after the 60s (longer intros suited radio ident jingles) and peaked in the early 90s when the rise of mp3s and the 'skip' function in streaming once again began to reward shorter intros.

2:6 With The Beatles - It Won't Be Long/All My Loving

Next up on our whistle stop journey through the Lennon & McCartney back catalogue two classic songs. It Won’t Be Long & All My Loving.

Things in common.

Neither has an intro of any description! The first sound you hear are the vocals (Chorus on IWBL, verse on AML). That really grabs you by the throat.

They both have a chromatic descending thing happening in the bridge chords. They used this a lot on songs like Michelle, Got To Get You In My Life. (Ticket 32)

Neither song starts on the root chord (Ticket 6). IWBL on the m6 (iv), AML on the m2 (ii). Unusual (except for the Beatles). Try it.

Both songs end simply on the first beat of the bar (IWBL on a ringing Emaj7). Ticket 18 is another way not to outstay your welcome.

It Won’t Be Long

Has the cool echoing in the verse that we first heard in Please Please Me. It propels the song along and emphasises your key words (although in this case it’s only yeah!)

The twangy descending guitar hook in the verse is interesting in that it’s played twice, then once, then twice. It’s very Lennon to just drop a bar, or a beat (see the verse of All You Need Is Love). He’s in too much of a hurry to get back to singing the verse.

The verse is made up solely of the bVI & I (C & E). This same 'out of key' chord change occurs in their cover of Carl Perkins’ Honey Don’t.

All My Loving

Lennon’s rhythm playing really adds to the groove. He contributes a fantastic 12/8 strumming pattern over the verses and a contrasting off part on the choruses.

McCartney’s vocal line is characteristically wide ranging. He really was (is?) a master melodisist (spellcheck is telling me I made that word up). Spending time playing his melodies certainly won’t do you any harm as a songwriter.

I’ll revisit some of these points in the future, but for now just listen to ‘em and play ‘em. They’ll do your songwriting good!

Related Post: With The Beatles (pt1)