Video: 'The Beatles - Can't Buy Me Love (2009 Mono Remaster)'

(Tuesday, February 25, 1964, approximately 11:00 a.m.-1:30 p.m. GMT) — For the first time since October, The Beatles returned to EMI Studio 2 in London today to complete “Can’t Buy Me Love” and record “You Can’t Do That,” the band’s sixth British single.

Paul McCartney double-tracked his vocals and, according to Helen Shapiro who was in the studio on this day, Ringo Starr added more cymbals “over the top” of the previous recording. Then George Harrison re-recorded his guitar solo, but there was a slight problem.

Regarding the song, George Harrison explains: “We took the tapes from that back to England to do some work on them. I once read something that tries to analyze “Can’t Buy Me Love,” talking about the double-track guitar – mine – and saying that it’s not very good because you can hear the original one. What happened was that 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.”

These overdubs were completed by approximately 11:00 a.m. GMT (note: recording for the stereo mix of “Can’t Buy Me Love” was not completed until Mar. 10, 1964, with a tiny correction), which left the final two hours of this morning session to starting and finishing what would become the b-side of their next single, “You Can’t Do That.”

Video: 'You Can't Do That (Anthology 1 Version)' (take 6, mono)

“You Can’t Do That” was the first Beatles song to feature a 12-string guitar, the introductory and concluding guitar riff being written by George Harrison in the studio on this day.

When asked by musician Tom Petty how he came up with this riff, as detailed in the December Rolling Stone “100 Greatest Guitarists” issue, George responded, “I was just standing there (in the studio) and thought, ‘I’ve got to do something.'”

George’s new Rickenbacker 12-string guitar (the second one ever produced, worth $900 in 1964) was acquired by the guitarist in New York City on February 8, 1964, while sick in bed at the Plaza Hotel the day before the group’s first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, Rickenbacker owner and President Francis Hall bringing it to the hotel room for George to get acquainted with.

John Lennon sang lead vocals live along with rhythm guitar, as well as the guitar solo, during the takes recorded at this recording session.

Video: 'You Can't Do That (2023 Mix)'

Four complete takes were taped, along with five false starts, before everyone was satisfied. One of the complete takes, “take 6,” can be heard on Anthology 1 which shows John as the only one singing at this point. This is not a “guide vocal” as authors claim, but their usual practice of getting a perfect recording live.

A decision was made to include backing vocals from Paul McCartney and George, so by “take nine,” which ended up being the keeper, all three vocalists were singing live on this basic recording.

Onto this they performed three overdubs; Paul playing cowbell throughout the song, Ringo playing bongos, and John double-tracking his vocals during the bridges. This then was used as the finished master version of the song.