Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 9, 16, 19 May 1966
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Geoff Emerick
Released: 5 August 1966 (UK), 8 August 1966 (US)
Paul McCartney: vocals, bass, piano, clavichord
Ringo Starr: drums, tambourine, maracas
Alan Civil: horn
Available on:
Revolver
Paul McCartney's meditation on the end of a love affair was one of the highlights on the Revolver album.
For No One was written in March 1966 while Paul McCartney was on holiday with Jane Asher in Switzerland. It was originally called Why Did It Die?
I was in Switzerland on my first skiing holiday. I'd done a bit of skiing in Help! and quite liked it, so I went back and ended up in a little bathroom in a Swiss chalet writing For No One. I remember the descending bassline trick that it's based on, and I remember the character in the song – the girl putting on her make-up.
Occasionally we'd have an idea for some new kind of instrumentation, particularly for solos... On For No One I was interested in the French horn, because it was an instrument I'd always loved from when I was a kid. It's a beautiful sound, so I went to George Martin and said, 'How can we go about this?' And he said, 'Well, let me get the very finest.'
Anthology
George Martin wrote down the understated melody that Paul sang to him, and Alan Civil performed it. Always pushing boundaries, Martin and McCartney decided to insert a top note into the score outside the instrument's normal range.
We came to the session and Alan looked up from his bit of paper: 'Eh, George? I think there's a mistake here – you've got a high F written down. Then George and I said, 'Yeah,' and smiled back at him, and he knew what we were up to and played it. These great players will do it. Even though it's officially off the end of their instrument, they can do it, and they're quite into it occasionally. It's a nice little solo.
Anthology
The song was admired by John Lennon, who spoke positively about it in a 1980 interview for Playboy magazine.
One of my favourites of his. A nice piece of work.
All We Are Saying, David Sheff
The distinctive chords were played by McCartney on George Martin's clavichord, brought in to Abbey Road from his house.
It was a very strange instrument to record, and Paul played it. But we wanted a very special sound, and French horn was what he chose.Paul didn't realise how brilliantly Alan Civil was doing. We got the definitive performance, and Paul said, 'Well, OK, I think you can do it better than that, can't you, Alan?' Alan nearly exploded. Of course, he didn't do it better than that, and the way we'd already heard it was the way you hear it now.
Anthology
Recording for the song began on 9 May 1966, with 10 takes of the rhythm track recorded: McCartney on piano and Starr on drums. To the last of these they added clavichord and percussion.
McCartney's lead vocal was added on 16 May, and Alan Civil's horn solos were recorded on 19 May.
I played it several times, each take wiping out the previous attempt... For me it was just another day's work, the third session that day in fact, but it was very interesting.
The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, Mark Lewisohn
What always fasinates me about the Beatles, even to this day, is their ‘play on words’ wolven into the titles, songs mentioned or suggested in other songs. They kept their consistent’ Sun King:(RA), theme all the way through their albums: The Beatles-Rolling Stones ‘Backwards’….(Eternal Themes) all!! I was very shocked when I 1st heard ‘I’m a loser’ + even ‘She’s leaving home’, but when I heard ‘For no one’, I actually cried! The song almost foreshadowed the bands break-up if only lyrically/symbolically! Richard 2009′
You’ve misattributed George Martin’s quote there (the third one, about Paul’s reaction to Alan’s solo) to Paul.
Oops – so I did. Thanks, fixed now.
In Geoff Emrick’s book, he recounts a similar story of Paul being unsatisfied with a stellar horn performance, except that is involved David Mason and the piccolo trumpet solo in Penny Lane. I wonder if either George or Geoff is confused, I’d imagine they’re referring to the same event.
Based upon Ken Scott and others’ reaction to Emerick’s book, I’m betting it was Geoff that got confused. Before he began the book he stated he could hardly remember anything specific about sessions. So it’s not surprising there are so many misquotes and errors in the book itself.
Everett’s take:
The basic take has Paul on Steinway and Ringo on drums, each on separate tracks but with some acoustic leakage. The piano is given some added reverb from the control room.
Track three adds Paul’s clavichord, Ringo’s hi-hat, maracas and a tambourine that doubles the maracas in the second bridge.
Paul’s compressed and sped-up vocal was recorded to track four, when the tape was then transferred, reducing all to one vocal and instrumental track.
The new third track was filled with bass and second tambourine.
Alan Civil’s horn solo was put onto track four.
I suspected pauls vocal was sped up! sounds far too ‘bright’ for his usual tone.
One of my favourite Beatles songs showcasing Paul McCartney’s brilliance. The lyrics are amazingly understated. She doesn’t need him yet still she cries. So, she cries for no one.
However he is implying she cried for him but her tears were not sincere or real.
I don’t think that’s what he’s saying. The emptiness is why she’s crying. So she’s crying for no one. She doesn’t need him(she doesn’t love him anymore, the relationship is used up, empty, over in all but name really) but she’s crying because of the loss of what once was hoped to be but now no longer exists. It’s not the same thing as crying for someone, as though you still have feeling specifically for the person in some way. It’s more about crying over the loss of a way you’d pictured your life would be(and most likely not knowing what to do now to move on which is why the relationship still exists, empty and unfullfilling as it is). Her tears are real but they aren’t for him or anyone in particular.
In a way though it’s a good illustration of what’s happening in the song, you’re doing the same thing the guy in the song is “And when she says her love is dead, you think she needs you”. Paul’s actually tackling a pretty complex issue in these lyrics.
NIna, you nailed the meaning, I echo everything you stated regarding this extraordinary song.
The lyric is very very good.
Besides much of what he is, Paul is a poet.
Yes. It makes you wonder why McCartney couldn’t have done more of it. Had all his lyrics been on this level, there would be just no discussion as to who of Lennon or McCartney was more talented.
Why do we compare who had more talent? Without both of their talents combined, there are no Beatles. They both had tremendous talent that complimented each other. Everything else is just one’s opinion anyway.
That’s an excellent analysis!
I get more than a little tired of the Lennon vs. McCartney nonsense.
Before I’d even heard this song, I’d looked at the album cover – seen the background photo – seen the song titles – I knew we were in for something different.
In particular this song title “For No One” made think – what the heck is this song going to be about?
Maybe the most underrated song the Beatles ever recorded. Not underrated by Beatles buffs like us here, but by casual fans of the band. Such beauty
I think this is a well-written song, but…that french horn solo. Ugh. With all due respect to Mr. Civil, it was a bad call. It just doesn’t mesh with the arrangement, IMO, with the stripped down instrumentation centered around the piano/clavichord part. It just sounds stuffy and incongruous. But then again, as a classically trained musician, my loathing for the french horn is highly refined and extensive. I confess a bias.
Just to clarify. That solo was not written or improvised by Mr. Civil. That was Paul’s choice all the way and Paul and George Martin put the arrangement together. I think it’s a great addition and not meant to stay within traditional boundaries. The Beatles were all about expanding.
I think the horn solo works perfectly as it feels cold and lonely – like Paul in the song.
Probably the finest song Macca wrote with the Beatles, it’s stunning and George Martin captured the raw feel of emotion in the recording.
Love the question mark ending; the story is not complete yet!
I have to agree; i believe the horn makes the song.
such a Beautiful yet sad song, i understand Paul what he tried to say…he was actually very hurted…i felt the same now
The chord progression here in the verses is very similar to the chorus chords in Hello Goodbye.
I was 9 when this song came out and remember thinking, “What a completely different type of song”
It’s not a ballad, it’s a dirge – yet a beautiful dirge at that (I didn’t think that last part at 9!)
Perfect word…dirge. He is in mourning as the horn solo bends to that grief.
This song is classic PM. It just reverberates the harmonic style that he has. Love it.
I thing that this song is about John and Cyn.
This song is about Paul and Jane Asher.
Agreed. I think Paul loved Jane but he couldn’t stop screwing around, what with his age and all the women about. They were in the break-up /make-up stage at this point, I believe? He was selfish and admitted as much.
She got cheated on too many times and removed herself emotionally from him. In the end he needed her more than she needed him IMO.
But they both found lasting love after this, so it ended up OK and Macca got a great song out of it!
Good evening all I am trying to track down the horn used in for no one. Alan civil was my cousin and it was not in his personal possessions when he passed. His brother Dave Civil would love to know what happened to it. Get in touch: ss.freeman [at] hotmail.co.uk
Emmy Lou Harris did a GREAT rendition of this on her 2nd (?) album in the 70’s.
It substitutes a weeping, wailing harmonica solo for the French Horn’s, and it
works just as well…
I’m no music expert but as I play some guitar, I’ve noticed that the top note in the horn solo is actually G# and not F. Maybe someone with more expertise could clarify the quote for everybody?
In those days the UK had a different tuning reference than we did in The States. Our G# would have been an F for them, as they were tuning to “435” and not our standard A-440 reference. They later tuned to 440 to accommodate the songs where they used orchestras..
With respect, Donny, your information makes no sense, and is factually incorrect. Most orchestras tune their ‘A’ to anywhere from 435 to 444hz, but it’s still an ‘A’, and the difference is barely discernible to the untrained ear. This chart http://mathman.biz/html/piano.html shows the nearest notes below and above A-440 (G# and A#) are at around 415 and 466, respectively; and F# is down around 370. There are various reasons, most based on temperature fluctuation, to choose different references. (There is also a controversial theory that A- 432 is ideally suited to the natural vibration of our environment. see: http://www.viewzone.com/432hertz222.html )
Donny: To use a George Martin quote (among many others): “That’s codswollop”.
I wondered about that, too. First, I read that Alan Civil said the track had been recorded “in the cracks, between B-flat and B” — probably having been vari-speeded down from C, which is where Macca plays it on his “Yesterday” guitar (tuned down a whole step) here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idqxslV4w-c — putting it in B-flat for the strings & horn, WHOSE HIGH NOTE IS CONCERT ‘G’ (written ‘D’). Possibly, for the REVOLVER horn session, they slowed it down to A-flat, making the high note an ‘F’; it does seem to have a thinner, quasi-flugelhorn tone which would result from playing back the recording whole-step higher (in B-flat). (Anyway, I learned it in B, same as Penny Lane, which I guess was lowered from C, and probably further lowered to B-flat for the trumpet solo, but I haven’t researched that. Having digressed this far, I might as well add that I associate B-major with the intro and interlude to “…Walrus” and the interlude to “Day Tripper”. I also happens to be the easiest scale , ergonomically, to play on piano.)
Has anyone noticed the ending notes if this song? One of the most fascinating things to me is the fact the song ends on the F sharp sus and Paul intentionally seems to have not returned to the B which would have been a logical and traditional ending to place it in the proper ending since it is in the key of B major. Instead the song ends, lingering just as the theme of the lyrics describe- an unfinished, unrequited love song, almost yearning for a proper resolution that is never delivered. I always wonder if that was intentional?
Of course it was intentional!
Anyone else here the similarities between the the bridge here and in Wings’ “With a Little Luck”? Dminor to A7. “And in her eyes…” versus “There is no end…”
I like to read the responses here.. the folks discussing the Beatles canon at the molecular level…the sus” notes and the F to G progressions… did I get that right? . These are the architects of the experience, the ones who know how to build the bridge… myself, and I suspect many others, are not, and only able to be the ones who walk upon and cross the bridge… I learned here tonight why I always was haunted by the horn in this song….the high F note – so carry on, there is a time and a place for the molecules of a song…
I’m an amateur musician (guitar) and I feel the same as you about the theoretical discussions here. I suspect that approximately half of what people say is at least partially incorrect (or inexact) but I love all of it.
There is a rare video of “For No One” on YouTube where Paul is in the studio, playing the song on his acoustic guitar for the first time for George Martin (who was in the sound booth), to see if he liked it. It gives you chills to see the birth of a Beatle song in this manner.
That’s not from 1966, though. I think it was shot in 1982/83 when George was producing “Tug Of War” & “Pipes Of Peace”.
Actually I think that was done for the Give My Regards To Broad Street film.
Easily one of their finest songs. The original and one and only JPM was a poet and great musician. The replacement isn’t capable of such beauty that’s why we haven’t more songs like this. Sadly, this was months before we lost him.
Except “Hey Jude,” “Golden Slumbers,” “Blackbird,” “Mother Nature’s Son,” and “The End” are just as fine. (Just to mention a few that are in the same vein.) (By the way, just as an FYI, a major psychology scholar who studies compulsive behavior is considering launching a large–scale study of people who build their lives around crazy conspiracy theories. She will offer free confidential counseling and therapy.)
Brilliant Paul McCartney composition. The lyrics and delivery by McCartney are full of an aching pathos. One of many gems off the “Revolver” album, one of the greatest albums ever.First heard it when I got “Love Songs” compilation in 1977 and in 1980 when I obtained ” Revolver”, could see it’s place as part one of the great albums.
Listening to this in the car tonight, for the first time I heard a guitar chord strummed at the very end. I replayed the whole song on the right channel and believe there is also an acoustic guitar doubling the descending bass line on the piano.
Anyone else catch this?
I’d say that you’re hearing the bass notes on the clavichord doubling same on the piano. The clavi’s sustained notes sound similar to acoustic gtr.
Along with Eleanor Rigby, this song, produced in a more “academic, refined, classical” way, gives Revolver its unique and distinctive touch among the other tracks in it. Pure shiny melancholy. The French horn, two thumbs up!
Perhaps McCartney´s best composition. But what about the lyric bit: “…a love that should have lasted years…”? Like a slogan from a insurance company. Pitty McCartney´s voice. He sounds like a child.
Pity your posts constantly sound like that of a child. Shame you are such a blinders-on hater of Paul that you always feel the need to offer your utterly valueless opinions on the matter wherever and whenever you can. You’re either trolling or vainly trying to convince others you know more than they do, but in any case it is very immature and frankly, boring (not to mention flat-out wrong).
SMH…….
Other than your first comment, what an absolutely stupid post.
When I was a grade 3 pupil in primary school in 1973, a neighbor house beside the school, I always hear a trumpet player doing or practicing the For No One solo.
As a kid I was already familiar with Beatles songs so I knew it was For No One solo did on trumpet. He done it perfectly note for note. That was only for some days in weekdays not everyday, after some months it’s gone and I miss hearing that man practicing again.
I love “For No One” so much. Yes, much of the humanity of “Eleanor Rigby” is here, too. I have played that French horn bit on the trumpet as often as I can since1966… I can play a little French Horn, but I do vastly prefer the trumpet. Yes, I also like and play “Penny Lane”, but I play that part an octave lower! Paul isn’t there in the room when I play trumpet to try to get me to play the upper register. LOL
I want to draw fans of the French Horn’s attention to “Tommy” by the Who… and to the French Horn, there, in the overture and beyond… and of course to the Stones’ single version of “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”… delightful French Horn, there.
But, above all, Mozart’s concertos for French Horn are fabulous.
I like Dale Clevenger and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra… and recommend those versions of Mozart.
Cheers, all!
Intriguing, how some of Paul’s most acclaimed Beatles’ compositions — For No One…Here, There, and Everywhere…Eleanor Rigby…Yesterday — have minimal if any participation from the other Beatles. I’ve just noticed this, and am not sure what to make of it.
I left out my admiration for French Horn virtuoso Dennis Brain, who tragically died young in an accident, driving one of his beloved motor cars. He of course is the standard by which all French Horn players are judged… I meant to add that however much I enjoyed the CSO and Clevenger versions, the image of Dennis Brain lurks in these pieces, as it does in Alan Civil’s horn on “For No One”. That we are alluding to Dennis Brain, to Mozart, at all, is a testament to the utter brilliance of “For No One” as a composition. If only Dennis Brain had lived to hear it, he would have loved it immensely, as I, and all here obviously, do.
I was intrigued to read about the high note for the french horn and how it contributed to the pain and pathos of the song. That never occurred to me.
Once, many years ago, I attended a classical string quartet concert and there was a pre-concert talk given by the musicians. I cannot recall the piece but I vividly recall one of the musicians saying that the composer of the piece purposely created a fingering that was somewhat painful for the musician to play so that the listener could hear that pain in the music when it was performed. Perhaps the strain for the high note by the french horn is similarly felt.
To me, the brilliance of this song is how haunting the disconnect is between how very sad the lyrics are with the “apathy/coldness” of the delivery.
One of JPM’s best!!!
If the overdubbed drums, maracas and tambourine were recorded at once and on the same track, then surely Ringo couldn’t have played all three of them. George and John, or someone else, must be playing them.