MusicRadar

The Beatles in early '68. Creative highs and personal lows (© Bettman/Corbis)

View in gallery

I'll Get You might be considered lightweight by some, but it's one of the first real examples of the high (Paul) and low (John) harmony that would inform much of The Beatles' output.

Lennon, however, takes the high lead vocal break in the breathtaking This Boy – if anybody needs a crash course in heartstring-tugging songwriting, singing or understated drumming, they need look no further. Ditto for the tearjerker Yes It Is (check out Harrison's fine use of the volume pedal on his guitar swells). Both stereo and mono versions are treasures.

The one-time only German-language versions of I Want To Hold Your Hand (Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand) and She Loves You (Sie Liebt Dich) are curios that reveal how difficult it is to sing your own song in a tongue not native to you. He might have picked up some of the lingo during his time in Hamburg, but Paul strains to nail some of the harmonies.

I Feel Fine, with its much-celebrated 'first feedback on record,' carries much more impact in stereo. The opening note, plucked on guitar and bass in unison, roars like a buzz saw (there's the faint sound of Ringo putting his foot on his hi-hat pedal), and Lennon's double-tracked, dead-center vocal brims with authority. He's king of the world here in late '64, and he's still cool with that.

I Call Your Name is prime Lennon – he manages to be by turns heartbroken and full of swagger. The stereo mix displays both traits in glorious Technicolor. And man, you can't beat that cowbell.

Next to his larynx-shredding vocal performance on Twist And Shout, there's Bad Boy (written by Larry Williams, who also penned Slow Down), in which Lennon brings down the house. George Harrison's double-tracked guitar solo is rollicking good fun.

Around the web: