"Can't Buy Me Love" is a song composed by Paul McCartney
(credited to Lennon/McCartney) and released by The Beatles on
the A-side of their sixth British single, "Can't Buy Me
Love/You Can't Do That."
When pressed by American journalists in 1966 to reveal the
song's "true" meaning, McCartney denied that "Can't Buy Me
Love" was about prostitution, stating that, although it was
open to interpretation, that suggestion was going too far,
saying: "The idea behind it was that all these material
possessions are all very well, but they won't buy me what I
really want." Although he was to later comment: "It should have
been
'CanBuy Me Love' " when reflecting on the perks that
money and fame had brought him.
While in Paris, The Beatles stayed at the five star George V
hotel and had an upright piano moved into one of their suites
so that song writing could continue. It was here that McCartney
wrote "Can't Buy Me Love." The song was written under the
pressure of the success achieved by "I Want to Hold Your Hand"
which had just reached number one in America. When producer
George Martin first heard "Can't Buy Me Love" he felt the song
needed changing: "I thought that we really needed a tag for the
song’s ending, and a tag for the beginning; a kind of intro. So
I took the first two lines of the chorus and changed the
ending, and said 'Let's just have these lines, and by altering
the second phrase we can get back into the verse pretty
quickly.'" And they said, "That's not a bad idea, we’ll do it
that way".
The song's verse is a twelve bar blues in structure, a
formula that The Beatles seldom applied to their own
material.
"Can't Buy Me Love" was recorded on 29 January 1964 at EMI's
Pathe Marconi Studios in Paris, France, where The Beatles were
performing 18 days of concerts at the Olympia Theatre. At this
time, EMI's West Germany branch, Odeon, insisted that The
Beatles would not sell records in any significant numbers in
Germany unless they were actually sung in the German language
and The Beatles reluctantly agreed to re-record the vocals to
"She Loves You" and "I Want to Hold Your Hand" prior to them
being released in Germany. George Martin travelled to Paris
with a newly mastered rhythm track for what was to be "Komm,
Gib Mir Deine Hand". "Sie Liebt Dich" (She Loves You) required
The Beatles to record a new rhythm track as the original two
track recording had been scrapped. EMI sent a translator to be
present for this recording session which had been hurriedly
arranged to tie in with The Beatles Paris commitments. This was
accomplished well within the allotted studio time allowing The
Beatles an opportunity to record the backing track, with a
guide vocal, to the recently composed "Can't Buy Me Love".
McCartney's final vocal was overdubbed at Abbey Road Studios,
London, on 25 February.
The song also included some vocal harmonies in the
background, which at the time became characteristic of the
Beatles. After listening to the first take of the song, the
band concluded that the song didn't need them. Therefore,
Can't Buy Me Lovebecame the first single the Beatles
released without their characteristic background harmonies.
Also re-recorded on this day at Abbey Road was George
Harrison's modified guitar solo, although his original solo can
still just be heard in the background. Harrison said: "What
happened was, we recorded first in Paris and re-recorded in
England. Obviously they'd tried to overdub it, but in those
days they only had two tracks, so you can hear the version we
put on in London, and in the background you can hear a quieter
one." Helen Shapiro, a friend of The Beatles and present at
this overdub session, says that Ringo Starr also added extra
cymbals "over the top" and that "apparently this was something
he did quite often on their records". "Can't Buy Me Love" is
also the only English-language Beatles track that The Beatles
themselves recorded in a studio outside the UK, although the
instrumental portion of The Beatles' B-side "The Inner Light"
was recorded in India by Indian session musicians.
The Beatles established four records on the Billboard Hot
100 with "Can't Buy Me Love" at number one:
Rolling Stoneranked "Can't Buy Me Love" at #289 on their
list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
Can't Buy Me Lovebecame The Beatles' fourth UK
number-one single and their third single to sell over a million
copies in the UK.
The song was also released in the following albums:
A Hard Day's Night(both the American United Artists and
British Parlophone versions);
Big Hits From England And The U.S.A., a various artists
compilation album from Capitol issued in 1964; the British-only
LP release
A Collection Of Beatles Oldies; the 1970 compilation
Hey Jude(also known as
The Beatles Again); the 1973 double disc collection
1962–1966(the Red Album); the 1982 release
Reel Music, which features songs from Beatles films; the
1982 compilation
20 Greatest Hits(both in England and America); and
1, released in November 2000.