Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 15, 16 February 1965
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Norman Smith
Released: 6 August 1965 (UK), 13 August 1965 (US)
Paul McCartney: vocals, bass, lead guitar
John Lennon: harmony vocals, acoustic rhythm guitar
George Harrison: harmony vocals, electric rhythm guitar
Ringo Starr: drums
Available on:
Help!
Another Girl, released on the soundtrack to The Beatles' second film Help!, was written by Paul McCartney while on holiday in Tunisia.
The day before recording began for Help!, McCartney returned to England from Hammamet, a Tunisian resort where he was the guest of the British government. The embassy owned a secluded villa on the coast, which was discreet enough for someone as famous as a Beatle.
The villa had a bathroom decorated with Islamic tiles. McCartney composed Another Girl there, with its acoustics perfect for songwriting.
You'd be sitting there having a cup of tea when the Russian delegation would be shown through by the government. You didn't have any control over that. 'This is one of our cultural guests.' 'Hello, how are you?'
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles
Although little more than a filler on the album, McCartney has rightly claimed that very few Beatles songs were so cynically recorded.
It's a bit much to call them fillers because I think they were a bit more than that, and each one of them made it past the Beatles test. We all had to like it. If anyone didn't like one of our songs it was vetoed. It could be vetoed by one person. If Ringo said, 'I don't like that one,' we wouldn't do it, or we'd have to really persuade him.
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles
In the Help! film, the group performed Another Girl in the Bahamas, while standing on coral reef on Balmoral Island, near New Providence Island. In the sequence McCartney held a woman in a bikini like a guitar, pretending to play her.
Featuring unusually harsh, occasionally smug lyrics ("She's sweeter than all the girls and I've met quite a few"), Another Girl may have been about McCartney's relationship with Jane Asher. As noted in Ian MacDonald's book Revolution In The Head, throughout their relationship McCartney kept a secret flat in London which he used for encounters with other women.
In the studio
The Beatles began recording Another Girl on 15 February 1965, the same day they also worked on Ticket To Ride and I Need You.
They capturing the rhythm track for Another Girl in a single take. Track one contained McCartney's bass guitar and Starr's drums; track two had Lennon's Fender electric and Harrison's Gibson acoustic guitar; track three contained McCartney's lead vocals, with backing from Harrison and Lennon; and track four had more vocals from Lennon and McCartney, tom-tom from Starr, and Harrison on Gretsch electric guitar. This last overdub was a guitar flourish, recorded 10 takes for the song's ending, to be edited onto the song at a later date.
The next day McCartney overdubbed a lead guitar part. Harrison's ending, meanwhile, was dropped during the mixing stage.
Few folks would mistake this for one of their most cutting-edge, profound or even most musically impressive efforts, but I marvel at how these “fillers” are still SO dang catchy. What other group has throways that can immediately make you tap your feet and sing along with gusto?!
I like Pauls’s sort of unhinged lead guitar fills. Sounds like a kid who will never get another chance to play lead, so he’s making the most of it. Especially the ending.
I dunno, this songs is just a great guilty pleasure of mine.
George Harrison taped 10 edit pieces of a guitar flourish. Is there a chance to hear it or was it erased from the recording tapes ?
Is there a Beatles song that is closer to The Monkees blueprint than this?
One of the best song, Beatles 1965. Guitars, drums, bass, vocals. Everything is great.
One of the best songs from “Help!”, in my opinion. Actually, the guitar work was quite advanced for early 1965. Didn’t hear too many licks like this on Top 40 radio back then. This (like “I’ve Just Seen A Face”) is a song that could be worked up with a very credible C&W arrangement also. Just imagine the guitar licks being replaced by a steel guitar…
In the Beatles’s movie, “Help!” made in 1965, Paul plays a woman as if she’s a guitar during the “Another Girl” song sequence. Who is that woman?! I don’t want to be creepy or anything, I just want to know. Like, send her a postcard saying, “Good job 43 years ago!” or something.
That’s creepy Jose.
Not a serious song. A very fun song. Underrated.
This is a great, underrated Beatle song. They may call them fillers…but it rocks. And the overdubbing or double tracking that’s out of sync on the voices creates that boss echo chamber effect that mark so much of their early work ..
A good track from a solid album. I feel AHDN and WTB to be superior albums although I know that most people would disagree.
I have always thought of this as an early reggae type song, the same way She’s a Woman does as well.
According to George Martin’s production notes George plays the rhythm acoustic on Gibson J-160e and John plays the off beat electric guitar on Fender Stratocaster. (And of course Paul plays the lead guitar fills on his Epiphone Casino).
Like many, many Beatles songs, if this one appeared today for the first time it would be a huge hit. Greatest band ever. Greatest songwriters ever. Simply the best.
My favorite Help song to listen to and to play. Love the vocal beginning and Paul’s lead guitar
As some else said if this had been released as a single, it would have been a huge hit.Paul McCartney really is the master of catchy tunes and this is just another example. It is great in the film “Help” with this song, when The Beatles are in the Bahamas.
I always thought the lyric was “She’s sweeter than all the girls, and I’ve HAD quite a few,” making the “harsh, occasionally smug” lyrics more harsh and smug.
According to notes written by George Martin in 1965, George played acoustic guitar while John played electric rhythm on his Fender.
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I agree with many statements here and that this being a “filler” song is ridiculous. They didn’t have to revolutionize songwriting with every track they recorded. I enjoy these little gems in their catalogue that are not as familiar as some on rotation.
It would have been interesting to hear George Harrison’s original solo and compare it to McCartney’s. One of the reasons George was so annoyed with Paul was that he did stuff like this. Pity that Paul was so focused on his work that sometimes he’d forget the bigger picture was keeping the band enthusiastic about playing with one another.
If George was annoyed with Paul for making the swap, then it was really George who was forgetting the big picture – because Paul’s imaginative, funky guitar work is what makes the song really unusual and great. George’s solo I’m sure was fine but it couldn’t have been as good and memorable as Paul’s.
It couldn’t?
I absolutely love this song, such a great song from the Help! album.
Hear him play this live in State College a few years ago, and it still rocks. Long live “filler” so sparkling as this!