She's a Woman

Paul McCartney began composing the lyrics and melody to "She's a Woman" on 8 October 1964, the same day that it was recorded, and finished it quickly. Appearing on the radio programme Top Gear on 17 November 1964, he explained that he only had "about one verse" ready on the morning of the session, finishing the rest of the song once in the studio. In his authorised biography, Many Years from Now, he recalls that the initial idea came to him while walking around the streets of St John's Wood, but is unsure whether he finished the song at home, on his way to the studio, or once actually there. Comparing it to his earlier composition "Can't Buy Me Love", he further recalls the song as an attempt to write "a bluesy thing" in the style of one of his favourite singers, Little Richard. In a 1972 interview, John Lennon identifies the song as McCartney's, but suggests that he may have helped with the middle. In a 1980 interview with Playboy, he again identifies the composition as McCartney's, but suggests he likely contributed some lyrics. in London, where "She's a Woman" was mostly written and then recorded. "She's a Woman" is mainly in the key of A major, with brief shifts to C-sharp minor, and is in time. Besides its two short bridge sections, the song only uses the chords I, IV and V. The Beatles had one of their earliest experiences with the drug six weeks earlier – smoking with Bob Dylan in New York City during their 1964 North American tour – with Lennon reflecting in 1980 that "[w]e were so excited to say 'turn me on' – you know, about marijuana and all that, using it as an expression". == Recording ==

The Beatles recorded "She a Woman" on 8 October 1964, during the sessions for their fourth album, Beatles for Sale. Recording took place in EMI's Studio Two, with George Martin producing the session, assisted by balance engineer Norman Smith. The basic track features guitars, drums, bass and a lead vocal from McCartney. Everett suggests that Lennon's damped Rickenbacker 325 Capri results in a sound like "a Motown offbeat 'chick' rhythm guitar". The song's first take was in a rockabilly style, not yet using the syncopated chords heard on the completed version. On take five, the band moved into an extended jam with McCartney screaming, the complete take lasting over six minutes. Journalist Mark Hertsgaard calls the take "a spirited, if somewhat ragged, jam", while Everett suggests it comes closer to Lennon's 1969 song "Cold Turkey" than any other pre-1968 recording. After two more attempts, take six was marked "best". tack piano McCartney plays on "She's a Woman". After breaking for dinner, the band completed the track with overdubs onto take six. Ringo Starr added further percussion with a chocalho – a shaker made of metal and filled with either lead shot or peas. Along with double tracking his original vocal, McCartney played Studio Two's Steinway Vertegrand tack piano – dubbed "Mrs Mills" in reference to the music hall pianist Gladys Mills – substituting it on the second verse in place of a lead guitar. George Harrison did not play on the basic track, but instead overdubbed a double tracked guitar solo with his Gretsch Country Gent. Playing the solo nearly identically each time – capturing the same ornamental hammer-ons, pull-offs and portamento slides – the double tracking alters the guitar's tonal qualities. McCartney was pleased with the final recording, calling it "a nice little R&B thing". On 12 October, Martin and Smith returned to Studio Two to remix the track for mono and stereo. McCartney's prominently featured bass, to that point the loudest bass heard on a Beatles track, necessitated the mix be ducked whenever it left the home triad. The mono mix made on 12 October was meant exclusively for UK release, while a later mono remix made on 21 October was made for the US market, the latter fading out one second earlier. The 21 October mix was made in EMI's Room 65, typically designated as the studio's "experimentation room". After receiving the US master, Capitol executive Dave Dexter Jr. added heavy echo to the tape, drowning out the sound of McCartney's piano. The stereo version heard on US releases is fake stereo, reprocessed from the mono American masters. == Release and reception ==

Capitol released "She's a Woman" in the US as the B-side to "I Feel Fine" on 23 November 1964. EMI's Parlophone label released the same single in the UK four days later. Journalist Neil Spencer suggests that the song would have been an album track on Beatles for Sale were it not for the dearth of new Lennon–McCartney compositions. In the US – where Capitol reconfigured the Beatles' albums, reducing the number of songs and using single A- and B-sides to create further LP releases – the song appeared on the North American album ''Beatles '65, released on 15 December 1964. It has since appeared on the 1978 British compilation album Rarities, while the first true stereo mix of the song to be released in the US appeared on the 1988 compilation Past Masters, Volume One. The mono mix was subsequently included on the 2009 Mono Masters'' compilation. Among contemporaneous reviews, Derek Johnson in the NME described "She's a Woman" as "arresting and ear-catching", and highlighted the track's "pounding beat" and blues-inflected vocal. Billboard predicted an immediate chart hit for both sides of the single and recognised the record as a "gift to Capitol on the group's first anniversary with the label". The UK single release sold 800,000 units within five days and over a million by 9 December. In the US, where five albums and sixteen singles had been released in the first seven months of 1964, the ensuing lull of new Beatles material led to fans highly anticipating the next single's release. The US release sold more than a million copies in its first week. "She's a Woman" became a hit in its own right, mostly on the strength of point of sale requests, peaking at number four on the Billboard Hot 100 and remaining on the chart for nine weeks. In a retrospective review for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine says the song demonstrates the Beatles' ability to "rock really, really hard". MacDonald describes the track as "the most extreme sound the Beatles had manufactured to date". Writing that it is the first Beatles song to feature a high profile bass line, he opines that it foreshadows McCartney's later "striving to get his instrument 'up' in volume, tone, and octave". He further characterises the recording as outré, and groups it with "What You're Doing" and "Eight Days a Week" as one of McCartney's late-1964 recording experiments. Everett writes that his piano playing on the song "[took] his keyboard work to a new level", while describing Harrison's guitar solo as rockabilly in style, heavily influenced by guitarist Carl Perkins. Rolling Stone critic Rob Sheffield opines that the song's "power-chord thud" anticipates the sound of the heavy metal band Black Sabbath. Spencer calls the song McCartney's "stoned out-take on his Little Richard legacy", and musicologist Alan W. Pollack describes the song as McCartney's "most outrageous vocal performance" since "Long Tall Sally", anticipating that of the 1969 songs "Get Back" and "Oh! Darling". He further writes that as the song progresses, the vocal gets "steadily freer, louder, and more extroverted". Calling the song a "throaty McCartney rocker", Hertsgaard describes the line, "My love don't give me presents / I know that she's no peasant" as "one of the most awkward rhymes in the Beatles' catalogue". MacDonald also dismisses the lyrics, calling them "[k]nowingly functional" and only notable for the marijuana reference. Riley writes that, were it not for Starr's cymbal smashing in the four-bar break, the song would be "almost too tightly strung". == Other versions ==

The Beatles British law in the 1960s compelled BBC Radio to play material recorded especially for the medium. In keeping with this practice, the Beatles played "She's a Woman" twice for radio, recording for the BBC Light Programmes Top Gear and The Beatles (Invite You to Take a Ticket to Ride) on 17 November 1964 and 26 May 1965, respectively. The latter, broadcast on 7 June 1965, was among the last set the Beatles contributed to BBC Radio. EMI included the November 1964 performance on the 1994 album Live at the BBC. The Beatles regularly performed the song during their 1965 and 1966 tours, sequencing it second in the set list after "Twist and Shout", "I Feel Fine" or "Rock and Roll Music". Though the band performed the song on 15 August 1965 at Shea Stadium in New York City, it was omitted from the documentary film The Beatles at Shea Stadium because the film cameras were being reloaded during the song. The 1977 live album The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl includes a performance of "She's a Woman" from the 30 August 1965 show at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. Author Jonathan Gould describes this performance as the "definitive version" of the song, while pop historian Robert Rodriguez writes that the combination of "Twist and Shout" and "She's a Woman" "[kicks] things off with a bang". In 1996, Apple Records included the Beatles' 30 June 1966 performance from the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo on the compilation Anthology 2. Author John Winn describes the concert as a particularly poor performance, and Beatles road manager Neil Aspinall later suggested that the lack of screaming from the respectful Japanese audience caused the group to realise they were playing out of tune. McCartney has occasionally performed the song in his live shows, British guitarist Jeff Beck covered "She's a Woman" on his 1975 album Blow by Blow, produced by George Martin. Months earlier, he played the song with the band Upp for the BBC documentary Five Faces of Guitar. Keyboard player Max Middleton suggested the song for the album, having come up with a calypso-like arrangement on his own. Middleton later recalled that "George hated it, but Jeff loved it, so we did it". Beck further altered the arrangement into a reggae instrumental, following the original vocal melody with his guitar, and incorporated a talk box. Mark Kirschenmann of AllMusic describes the arrangement as clever, Reaching number twenty on the UK Singles Chart and number 14 on the UK Airplay Chart in April 1991, the recording immediately preceded a lengthy hiatus from Scritti Politti frontman Green Gartside, who did not return to recording until 1999. Later included on the band's 2011 compilation album Absolute, Terry Staunton of Record Collector magazine describes the track as a "trenchtown jolly-up" cover. == Personnel ==

According to Ian MacDonald, except where noted: • Paul McCartney double tracked vocal, bass, piano • John Lennon rhythm guitar • George Harrison double tracked lead guitar • Ringo Starr drums, chocalho == Charts ==

Weekly charts Year-end charts == Notes ==