The Beatles, “Thank You Girl” (1963): Deep Beatles
Take one part R&B, one part Buddy Holly, and another part Everly Brothers and the result is “Thank You Girl,” the B-side to the 1963 single “From Me to You.” Ringo Starr’s pounding drumming, John Lennon’s bluesy harmonica, and Lennon and Paul McCartney’s tight harmonies make for an unfairly unappreciated early track.
Originally intended as an A-side, “Thank You Girl” was eventually replaced with “From Me to You.” Drawing from past interviews, Anthology quoted Lennon’s summary of the song’s fate: “We’d already written ‘Thank You Girl’ as the follow-up to ‘Please Please Me.’ This new number [‘From Me To You’] was to be the b-side. We were so pleased with it, we knew we just had to make it the a-side, Thank You Girl the b.” As Lennon stated in one of his last interviews, “‘Thank You Girl’ was one of our efforts at writing a single that didn’t work.”
According to the Beatles Bible, the song was a true collaboration between Lennon and McCartney, with the former writing the verses while the latter contributed the chorus and middle eight. Paul McCarney claimed the inspiration for “Thank You Girl” was the fans themselves: “We knew that if we wrote a song called ‘Thank You Girl’ that a lot of the girls who wrote us fan letters would take it as a genuine thank you. So a lot of our songs were directly addressed to the fans,” he said in 1988.
Originally titled “Thank You, Little Girl,” the song was recorded over March 5 and 13, 1963. John Lennon assumed lead vocals, rhythm guitar, and harmonica; McCartney played bass and sang harmony vocals; George Harrison took over on lead guitar; and Ringo Starr played, of course, the drums.
By: Kit O'Toole
Source: Something Else Reviews
