I Need You

I was at a work conference the other day and there was this peculiar man who had his ukulele with him and in between sessions of the conference (as people moved in and out go the rooms) he began to play 'I Need You' on his ukulele. Now I have always enjoyed this song but hearing it played on a ukulele during a typically boring conference (on a Saturday mind you when all you want to do is be doing your own stuff) really piped up my day! It also made me realise that this is indeed a fantastic song. Found on the 'Help!' album, this is George's second entry into the Beatle canon and it has a gorgeous structure and feel to it. I have always been impressed by his double use of the word 'to' in this song, you know, the bit that goes, '...said you had a thing or two to tell me...' The support in vocals from John and Paul are exquisite and really support the song, and in essence allow it to have a life of it's own! A great song!

All I've Got To Do

I love the assuredness of this song. A young group, knowing they are onto a good thing, knowing they ARE good and just knocking out this little gem in a day just to fill their second album, 'With The Beatles'. Delving a little more into the history of this song I realised that The Beatles in fact only performed this once! Well, this version took 15 takes, the 15th being some overdubs, BUT they played this song ONCE!!!! Never before the recording session and NEVER after the recording session! This is crazy. Any band worth their salt would realise that this song is a cracker and we are going to flog it for years (how many times have U2 played 'With Or Without You'?). Not The Beatles though. They had far too much on and far too many other majestic creations to create! Legend has it that John had this song floating in his head for sometime and when it came for The Beatles to produce another song for the upcoming album he put this one up and the other three Beatles learnt their part there and then on the day and ..... that was it! Never to be played again!!!! The harmonies, the drumming, the guitars..... and THE VOICE! BRILLIANT.