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The Ultimate Collection Vol. 2

Studio Sessions, March 5, Sep 12, 1963

Disc Three of "The Ultimate Collection Vol. 2
Yellow Dog, YDB203, 1994

1From Me To You, Takes 1/23:32 At Abbey Road Studios: March 5, 1963
2From Me To You, Takes 31:57 At Abbey Road Studios: March 5, 1963
3From Me To You, Takes 41:54 At Abbey Road Studios: March 5, 1963
4From Me To You, Takes 52:18 At Abbey Road Studios: March 5, 1963
5From Me To You, Takes 6/72:19 At Abbey Road Studios: March 5, 1963
6Thank You Girl, Take 12:12 At Abbey Road Studios: March 5, 1963
7Thank You Girl, Takes 2/3/42:37 At Abbey Road Studios: March 5, 1963
8Thank You Girl, Take 52:08 At Abbey Road Studios: March 5, 1963
9Thank You Girl, Take 62:23 At Abbey Road Studios: March 5, 1963
10Thank You Girl, Edit pieces takes 7-134:07 At Abbey Road Studios: March 5, 1963
11From Me To You, Track 2 take 82:13 At Abbey Road Studios: March 5, 1963
12From Me To You, Edit piece 1/2, takes 9-131:55 At Abbey Road Studios: March 5, 1963
13One After 909, Takes 1/24:27 At Abbey Road Studios: March 5, 1963
14One After 909, Takes 3/4/55:41 At Abbey Road Studios: March 5, 1963
15Hold Me Tight, Track 2, take 212:44 At Abbey Road Studios: Sept. 12, 1963
16Hold Me Tight, Track 2, take 22/23/244:04 At Abbey Road Studios: Sept. 12, 1963
17Hold Me Tight, Track 2, take 25/263:03 At Abbey Road Studios: Sept. 12, 1963
18Hold Me Tight, Track 2, take 27/281:56 At Abbey Road Studios: Sept. 12, 1963
19Hold Me Tight, Track 2, take 292:52 At Abbey Road Studios: Sept. 12, 1963
20Don't Bother Me, Remake take 102:52 At Abbey Road Studios: Sept. 12, 1963
21Don't Bother Me, Remake takes 11/12/133:55 At Abbey Road Studios: Sept. 12, 1963

Liner Notes from Booklet

Legend has it that the composing duo John and Paul penned their next number one hit From Me To You whilst resting in the back of a coach which took them from York to Shrewsbury, the next stop in their tour with Helen Shapiro. A million-seller in the making: Thursday February 28, 1963. "If composing is that easy, let's go write our own songs as well", friends Mick Jagger and Keith Richards must have commented to this tale. Anyway, having finished their Shapiro trip, The Beatles took to the Abbey Road studios on Tuesday March 5, 1963, to record their third successive UK single release. The A-side was to be Thank You Little Girl, backed with the newly-penned From Me To You. Even during the session, it was decided to change round and give the A-side to From Me To You. All in all, a total of thirteen takes of both tracks were recorded down in Studio Two. Twenty six songs in just over six hours, and still they had time left to record five different takes of another Lennon McCartney original: One After 909, taped as a noticeably slower version. However, producer George Martin deemed the final result unsatisfactory. One After 909 was archived for almost twenty years before being planned for release on the scrapped 'Sessions' project in 1984. The boys themselves held on to this song until a further six years later, when taping for their final album 'Let It Be'.
From Me To You b/w Thank You Girl, The Beatles' third single in the UK, was released on Thursday, April 11, 1963. It topped the charts for weeks after. Yellow Dog Records is now pleased to present this historic recording date as complete as can be. It's all here and saved: 13 takes of From Me To You, 13 takes of Thank You Girl and 5 full takes of One After 909. Sit back and enjoy.

Track 1 The first seven takes of From Me To You and all thirteen takes of Thank You Girl lack John's accompaniment on harmonica. These were recorded one week later, on Wednesday, March 13 during a fourteen take long overdub session. Take #1 sounds like a very good first try until Paul, following the first verse, breaks down during his harmony vocals: "What happened?" "You tell me." "Oh I just thought I heard you talking actually, heard you whistle. Sorry!" Paul counting in for another try, a far from finished take #2, an enjoyable outtake which distinguishes itself by retaining a bluesy quality, despite the lack of any harmonica. Note that the opening vocal chorus has also been omitted in favour of strict instrumentation. Paul shouts: "Aaah, you missed the end..."

Tracks 2 and 3 Two new and previously unheard takes #3 and #4. Again, it's Paul counting in for two very well renditioned versions. Also, the song seems to get some more tempo now.

Track 4 A quite enjoyable, previously unheard take #5 of still the same song. John starts with explaining to the control room that George is now to play the first bit of instrumental, not the second. And to Paul: "Keep right into your harmonies this time." And indeed Paul does keep his harmonies and George doesn't solo on the second bit, which gives the song a totally different character.

Track 5 Takes #6 and #7. The first is nothing more than a two-second long false start, the second a far from finished full take. Pretty much the same as the previously recorded hke #5.

Track 6 The very first take of a song called Thank You Little Girl in this stage of recording. It starts off with John and Paul practising their Ooohs and Aaahs. There's some slight differences in the lyrics: "All I wanna do", instead of "All I gotta do". And: "That seems too good to be true", where it would later end up to be, "That is too good to be true." Also note that there's still a very sober oah mmm oah mmm outro to the song.

Track 7 Paul counts in for another try, take #2. John: "Oooh and Aaah, the same as we did before." Takes #2 and #3 are brief false instrumental drum-solo starts by Ringo, with take #4 being a full-length version, still lacking John's accompaniment on harmonica. The sober fade-out outro is still there.

Track 8 A previously unheard take #5 of still the same song. This time it's George counting in: one, two, three, four. Coming to the end of the tune, both John and Paul are messing up the right tone of their harmonized "Thank You Girl" verse, forgetting all about the Ooohs and Aaahs.

Track 9 Yet another unique bit from this historic session. Having run down five takes already, the boys are now getting more and more into their own composition, every now and then favouring creatively impromptu solos. This is most noticeable during the outro, which has now changed from sober to quite energetic, no longer a clean fade-out but a banging drum stint by a raging Ringo.

Track 10 A collection of seven edit pieces to be mixed in with the previously recorded full versions. More Ooohs and Aaahs, heavy drum parts, occasional coughing and George Martin counting the different takes from the control room. John: "Can you hear me, if we went Oooh Aaah, to keep it on the beat." To Ringo obviously: "Just on D, we'd be whole together but you'd be so loud. Let's do the G one." The commercially released version of Thank You Girl was an edit of takes #6, #13, #17, #20, #21 and #23.

Track 11 And back to the A-side of a new hit in the making - once more it's From Me To You, track 2, take #8. Da da da da da dom dom da. A finished, delightful rendition, going straight into edit pieces 1 and 2, take #9. Note that this take #8 is the first one to include John's harmonica solos in the middle and final parts of the song. John: "Was I meant to be playing there?"

Track 12 As with Thank You Little Girl, the boys also taped a long series of edit pieces for the final mixing of From Me To You. Saved here are takes #10 to #12. This features a rehearsal of an alternative mmm mmm intro, with John practising his harmonica solos.

One After 909 is in every way a Lennon-McCartney original. Composed in their Quarrymen days, the song was first perforrned at EMI on September 4, 1962 whilst recording How Do You Do It, their planned first single on Parlophone Records. On this particular day, Tuesday, March 5, 1963, the boys spent some spare studio time returning to their 1959 classic once again. And again fate decided that their One After 909 recording efforts remained unreleased. Officially, that is. Yellow Dog Records now presents all five of the different versions recorded that Tuesday. A unique piece of musical history.

Track 13 This first take starts with John practising the first chords of the song, explaining to the other three to "just come in somewhere". Paul counting in. All goes well until the second part of the song - a sudden stop with a seemingly angry John shouting: "What are you doing, you're out of your mind. Pom pom pom. Get that bass- drum softer." Straight into a second take. A very clean, well-renditioned full version. The most notable arrangement difference in these five 1963 takes, compared to the officially released version from the 1970 Let It Be album is, besides a slowed-down tempo, strong lead guitarwork from George, used to accent the verses. Also note John quite frequently pronouncing the word Said as Shed, whilst on various occasions flubbing a lyric.

Track 14 Take #3. And again towards the end of the song Paul is the one to blame for messing things up. "What are you doing?" "It's murder, I can't keep it up, just go...." "Get a plec." "I haven't got one." "Well your clothes have been brought in hours ago." Then asking George to count in for take #4. It is John going the wrong way this time: "Bloody hell, I told you..." Paul, desperately trying to defend himself: "It's you who's messing up George, you're coming in wrong halfway through the solo." George: "Well, was it twelve-bar?" "Yeah." The following take #5 picks up where they left take #4.

We now move on to the boys' second album With The Beatles', released on November 22 1963. The album collects seven new Lennon-McCartney numbers (now evergreens), George's composing debut Don't Bother Me and a selection of six cover- versions. Work on this million-seller LP started as early as Thursday July 18, 1963. Recordings continued the following week, on Tuesday, July 30. Followlng a tight programme of live performances, it wasn't before the second week of September that the lads picked up sessions for 'With The Beatles' again. Wednesday, September 11 and Thursday, September 12 were spent inside studio two, taping Ringo's classic-to- be I Wanna Be Your Man and seven takes of Don't Bother Me. The following afternoon was largely used for work on one of Paul's: Hold Me Tight. Saved here are nine of ten recorded re-make takes. Also saved is a selection of four re-make takes of Don't Bother Me, taped later that evening.

Track 15 This is re-make take #21 from a total of 29 different versions recorded. Recordings for Hold Me Tight had started as early as February 11, when taping their debut album 'Please Please Me'. The lads needed another ten new takes before George Martin called the tune a completed one.

Track 16 Re-makes takes #22 and #23 are both incomplete run-throughs with Paul messing up his own lyrics: "Oh bloody hell, I keep forgetting these first words." The following take #24 is a complete, alternative version.

Track 17 Track 2, takes #25 and #26 start with trying out where to add the handclaps. Then singing the first words: "It feels so right..." Take #26 is another full length version, John and George sharing harmonized backing-vocals.

Track 18 "Stand by lads, 27 track 2." Take #27 is a false start, straight into a promising, though incomplete take #28.

Track 19 And still George in the control room wasn't pleased enough. On for a tiring twenty-ninth try, sounding mostly like the previous twenty-eight to be really honest. The commercially released version of Hold Me Tight was an edit of takes #26 and #29, to be as complete possible.

Track 20 George takes the lead in take #10 of his composing debut. At this stage of recording, the brilliance of the middle solo-part sounds a lot clearer when compared to the official release. George is in obvious good humour, singing: "Rock 'n' Roll now, oh yeah" on the outro.

Track 21 Re-make takes #11 and #12 are false starts. "Hang on, hang on, it's going too fast." A final take #13, (takes #14 to #19 were overdubs onto this version) is another far from finished full rendition. One of these overdubs, take #15 to be precise, was the one used for commercial release.

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