Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 14, 16, 17 June 1966
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Geoff Emerick
Released: 5 August 1966 (UK), 8 August 1966 (US)
Paul McCartney: vocals, acoustic guitar, bass, finger clicks
John Lennon: backing vocals, finger clicks
George Harrison: backing vocals, lead guitar, finger clicks
Ringo Starr: drums, finger clicks
Available on:
Revolver
Paul McCartney's favourite among his own compositions, Here, There And Everywhere is widely held to be his finest love song.
It was written alongside John Lennon's swimming pool in Weybridge, while McCartney waited for Lennon to wake up.
I sat out by the pool on one of the sun chairs with my guitar and started strumming in E, and soon had a few chords, and I think by the time he'd woken up, I had pretty much written the song, so we took it indoors and finished it up.
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles
Here, There And Everywhere was particularly highly regarded by Lennon.
Paul's song completely, I believe. And one of my favourite songs of The Beatles.
All We Are Saying, David Sheff
Interestingly, McCartney claims to have had a demo version in March 1965, while The Beatles filmed Help! in Obertauern, Austria.
John and I shared a room and we were taking off our heavy ski boots after a day's filming, ready to have a shower and get ready for the nice bit, the evening meal and the drinks. We were playing a cassette of our new recordings and my song Here, There And Everywhere was on. And I remember John saying, 'You know, I probably like that better than any of my songs on the tape.' Coming from John, that was high praise indeed.
Anthology
While the song was written with Jane Asher in mind, McCartney found inspiration for his vocals from a less likely source.
When I sang it in the studio I remember thinking, I'll sing it like Marianne Faithfull; something no one would ever know... So that was a little voice, I used an almost falsetto voice and double-tracked it. My Marianne Faithfull impression.
In the studio
Recording for Here, There And Everywhere took place over three days. On 14 June 1966 The Beatles recorded four takes, only the final one of which was complete and with vocals. The group overdubbed the first of the harmony vocals that would be so important to the final sound.
The harmonies were performed by Paul, John and George, and were arranged by George Martin, who was somewhat modest about his contribution.
The harmonies on that are very simple, just basic triads which the boys hummed behind and found very easy to do. There's nothing very clever, no counterpoint, just moving block harmonies. Very simple to do... but very effective.
The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, Mark Lewisohn
On 16 June they recorded takes 5-13 of the rhythm track, the last of which was deemed to be the best. Onto this they overdubbed more harmony vocals along with Paul's lead vocals and bass guitar. The following day Paul double-tracked his lead vocals, and the song was complete.
In 1996 the Real Love single featured a composite of take 7, featuring McCartney's guide vocals, and the harmonies overdubbed onto take 13. This version is unavailable on any official Beatles album.
Paul is misremembering there. On another occasion, he said that the incident with him and John listening to the demo took place on the Beatles’ 1966 tour, which began with a show in Germany, not Austria.
‘Here, there and everywhere’…. I pause + reflect deeply, when I play this song. Personally I always liked it better than ‘Yesterday’ which a very low point in the Beatles’ history. H/T+E was poetic brilliance in every way! It’ autobiographical for everyone who hears it. Pure genius!!! Richard 2009′.
Yesterday, a low point? Ho hum, what a wise guy…
Well … Yesterday WAS a solo song.
I think that’s one of the great things about the Beatles. So many of their songs can be compared to each individuals life and be interpreted to fit current emotions.
Paul has mentioned a few times that he was heavily influenced by Brian Wilson during this period, and that this song was written as kind of a Beach Boys-like tune. “Pet Sounds,” one of Paul’s favorite albums, had come out, and Wilson often sang in falsetto, so Paul’s story seems to make chronological and musical sense.
Paul returned to this vocal styling for Little Lamb/Dragonfly…another McCartney gem.
This song is the best love song the Beatles wrote.
No one must say that. Every one of us have its favorite(s). In my case I prefer The Long and Winding Road. It’s a matter of personal experience and “taste”.
Here, There And Everywhere is the great love song ever written with Something a close second and God Only Knows thereabouts.
“It was written alongside John Lennon’s swimming pool…”
Couldn’t that be interpreted as “It was written with John Lennon’s swimming pool…”?
Only if you think ‘alongside’ means the same as ‘with’. I’d imagine that most people could tell the difference.
Originally the article stated that it was “written BY John’s swimming pool”, whereupon I presented you all with a _hilarious_ joke, which had you all in stitches, so enough of this jokery.
My summary:
John: Sleeping.
Paul: Sit by pool. Write song.
John: Wake up.
Paul: Come in.
John and Paul: Finish song. No pool.
Whether or not this article was written by Joe, let’s not get too hung up on language. Often one wise guy is more than enough.
All the articles were written by me. If you can suggest a better rewrite of the second paragraph do please let me know, though I think it works well enough.
But yeah, the original version wasn’t really the desired meaning!
Well of course it can. It already is. It’s credited as a Lennon/McCartney song. John was asleep when the song was being written. But John Lennon’s pool was with McCartney the entire time. That’s why this song qualifies as a Lennon/McCartney song. Funny how that stuff works, isn’t it?
Everett’s take:
Paul played a duet with Ringo for the basic track: rhythm parts on the Casino and drums. This was accompanied in the final two bars with George’s 12-string Rickenbacker. The Rickenbacker’s so-called Rick-O Sound stereo capability is taken advantage of by sending the signal to two amps, miked separately to the Casino / drums track and to a second track; the tone pedal colours the song’s final five notes.
Bass is added to the third track and the fourth tracked filled with Paul, John and George backing vocals plus finger snaps.
The bass and basic track were reduced to one track along with a sped-up overdubbed lead vocal from Paul. This and the backing vocal track and Ricky-12 “pre-echo” joined a double-tracked lead vocal.
This and “She’s Leving Home” are, in my opinion, the two best McCartney songs. It’s a small wonder John loved this song so much, it definitely deserves it. Everyone seems to be so hung up on Yesterday, but I think it’s not even in the same league as these two…
For No One is the best Paul song in my opinion. Though, these two are in the top five for me.
the best love song on the revolver album
Has anyone else ever noticed that McCartney’s opening of “Live and Let Die” is musically similar to the opening of “Here, There, and Everywhere?”
HT&E: (G Major) d-g-b (b minor) d’, (“to lead a bet…”)
L&LD: (G Major) d-g-b (b minor7) d’,
(“when you were young…”)
No biggie, just kind of interesting.
Wow, good catch! Don’t think I ever noticed that at all.
It’s too good a song not to get re-used. John gave more than praise to this song. His highest tribute was to take a part of it and use it in one of own songs. Check out ‘Sexy sadie’ and the chord progression behind…..”We gave her everything we owned just to sit at her table……..
Hmmm. Quite observant there. I’ll have to listen to that more carefully.
Interesting.
Is this considered the last song to be done using George’s Rickenbacker?
A bit of this song has always confused me vocally: during the last verse, does John join Paul in sing the lyrics, in the fashion he did in “Hey Jude”, or is it Paul still going solo on overdubs?
I agree – this song is far superior to “Yesterday” (which, IMO, is vastly overrated). Beautiful.
Disagree. It’s beautiful, but nowhere near as intimate and intensive as “Yesterday”, along with Hey Jude Paul’s best vocal recording ever.
I love the backing vocals on this one and the chord progression is pure genius! Surprising, still sounding totally easy and obvious.
Good question on George’s 12-string. I don’t know for sure, but I think he played it on “Here comes the Sun” (sparingly, for effect) and on “You Never Give me Your Money”. Would welcome further comment.
Terrific song by the way–one of Paul’s very best. I happen to prefer “And I Love Her”–though I realze that is a minority opinion.
it was also used to double the bass in the chorus of “while my guitar gently weeps.” Listen to the isolated tracks on YouTube. Its there!
I dunno.. this song is as intimate as they come, in my book (“running my hands through her hair…” oooh yeah). “Yesterday” actually lacks intimacy, imo, wherein the narrator is simply complaining that his lover dumped him.
In the personnel list, there is no mention of who is playing the percussive electric rhythm guitar on 2 and 4; is it all George on the 12 string? That sound is one of my favorite, distinctive features of the song.
Great song – gets to me every time I hear it. I was single when Revolver came out but it was my favorite song on the album. I married in 1982 and HTE was our first dance song and always reminded me how special our marriage is. On our 30th anniversary we were on a cruise and I worked up the courage to sing it to her at a piano bar with about 150 people there. I was scared s***less but got through it pretty well. She was fully embarrassed and surprised. One of the best moments in my life and I do “want her everywhere”.
That’s a nice story, thanks for sharing it. Isn’t it funny how much great music has affected out lives? What a truly beautiful song, not to mention brilliant. Are you a musician? I commend you for having the guts to sing this to your lady, not an easy one to croon out.
What’s the point of comparing Here, There and Everywhere with Yesterday… These are two different songs, both are beautiful and harmonically complex. Yesterday is a lot better-known, but it isn’t overrated.
A more overall thought: rating music is mostly pointless – music is something more than ratings and marks…
Absolutely agree. These comparisons of the two songs are daft and pointless.
I love looking up “drum” / “bass” covers on youtube, of my favorite beatle songs. Yet I can’t find a drum cover of Here, There and Everywhere. Ringo, doing an actual duet with Macca singing. What a bummer
I think this would be a masterpiece, and not just a classic, with less intrusive backing vocals. Only my tuppence worth, but those dismal vocal triads get on my moobs. And as for the humming… is that what got George into Hare Krishna?
The backing vocals are one of the best aspects of the recording. Intrusive? They could be higher in the mix IMO.
I saw an interview (might have been on Anthology, or a recent Jools Holland appearance to plug Queenie Eye. Paul said something like “of course it’s hard to pick one, but I think Yesterday is my favorite, because I dreamed it…just woke up and there it was”. Not sure if he referred to the lyrics (probably), melody, or both.
As I recall the story, he woke up with the melody in his head. Since the working lyrics went something like “Scrambled eggs, Oh you’ve got such lovely legs,” let’s hope he wasn’t referring to that!
Excellent vocals and backing vocals. Special song, in my opinion the Best Paul has written with the Beatles (sorry Yesterday).
Does anybody know who came up with the chromatic line over the Gm in the song? I would imagine that it was George Martin, but is there anybody on the record claiming it?
I have been asking around about that for years. Even asking in generalities, who would come up with that perfect little guitar rift, typically? Would it it be the songwriter( Paul in this case). The lead guitarist ? The producer ?
Who would know to put in this perfect little diddy ? It’s incredible to me?
In or about 1986, or so, I learned to play HTE from “Fingerpicking Beatles” by Eric Schoenberg. The music was laid out in standard notation with guitar tabs. The greatest help were the two cassette tapes that came with the book. One was played at normal speed and the other was slowed down with tutorial comments. It was great. I don’t know if I lost the book and tapes, if they were stolen, or are hidden away in some box in my discombobulated storage locker (5x15x10feet stacked to the max). I emailed the publisher (Spinning Reel) a few years back, asking if they had updated the audio lesson on CD or other digital form. The answer was “no”.
For the life of me, I can’t play one measure of it today. This is a plea…DOES ANYBODY HAVE THE BOOK and/or TAPES?
Hi SB Fields
Incredibly, I am working from this very book this evening and thought I’d look the song up hence bringing me to this page. I was actually trying to find out if the recording was slowed down for recording as Paul’s voice has that pinched ‘When I’m 64’ chipmunks sound to it…
The ISBN number is 8256.2234.4 if anyone other guitar players are interested in looking up the book! – great solo arrangements with both notation & tab!
Hello Gavin,
I just saw your reply. Not having logged in here for many, many, months (October?), I decided to see if anybody came up with the tapes. I did find the book, it was in the storage locker, but, alas, not the cassettes.
I will get to re-learning it this summer. My fingers will remember at some point.
Cheers!
S.B. Fields
Hi SB Fields
I have the Book and the tapes
Cheers!
Thierry (from Lyon in France)
YouTube has a lot of great video instruction for Beatle songs. Check out user name “Shut up and Play” for some excellent guitar lessons to include Yesterday, Michelle, Dear Prudence and several others.
It is, of course, impossible to pick a favourite Beatles’ song, but I have to say, this one’s in my top five. The beautiful, swooping melody; the ethereal, floating half-falsetto vocal; the sensitive, poetic lyric… not to mention the shimmering backing vocals, groovy key shifts, and George’s wonderfully twangy, laid-back strumming. And the “suspended” vocal is actually quite tricky to nail perfectly (I’ve tried, many times); he makes it sound effortless. PERFECTION!!!!!
When one listens to this song, everything in the whole world is right, if only for two minutes and twenty seconds. Who needs LSD?
What a perfectly spot on description of this song which I had always thought too beautiful to give justice until now. You did a wonderful job captivating the beauty. For me, I’ll actually go so far as saying it’s the most beautiful song ever written. And being a non musical person, I’m sure you all know what what I mean by the perfection. This song is an an absolute masterpiece and defines the word perfection.
I’ve always thought of this quiet little masterpiece as the one that got away. It sits in the midst of these monstrously famous innovative songs on Revolver. Paul’s voice (I’ve heard waaay in the past) was recorded a little slower then sped up to make him sound more boy-like. Whatever they did, his voice and the background vocals are flawless.
This song was sung for many a wedding. I know, I had to write out the words and chords for quite a few “hippie” wedding singers back when!
ok, one says it was an acoustic guitar, another says it was a Casino elec. in the beatles session book it says it was an acoustic amped up to sound like an elec. i wonder which it is.
A great Paul McCartney song.Wonderful words and singing by McCartney. I first heard this on”Love Songs”, but it of course originally off “Revolver”, one of the great albums. John Lennon of course acknowledged this was one of his former collaborators best.
The strange thing is that this song was not performed live by the man who says he is Paul McCartney for decades. Being that this is the last great Beatle ballad, one would have expected to hear it respectfully showcased at the Macca wings shows, just like Yesterday..I guess he needed room for c moon
The man who says he is Paul McCartney? Seriously?
Bloody hell….
I’m clearly a Lennon fan, but this song is Paul at his best, wonderful melody, an almost intimate feeling prevails in “H T A E”, he covered it himself on “give my regards to broad street” if I’m not mistaken. A real gem , one of my Beatles favorite from day one, I only have praise for this one, and I don’t give a monkey about John’s swimming pool! it’ll remain with me, alongside many others to the end of my days.
Mark Lewisohn explains in “The Beatles Recording Sessions,” that Paul’s vocals were “slowed down on the tape to sound sped up on playback.” Does that mean that they slowed down the instrumental track he sang to. Does this mean he sang it a semitone or so lower than the album version we’re familiar with?
Your interpretation is correct; Mr Lewisohn’s description is slightly misleading. I recently watched Soundbreaking episode 2 on PBS, and the extras specifically discuss the recording of Here There and Everywhere. The track was slowed to the key of F, and Paul recorded his double tracked vocals in that key. When played back at normal speed (in G), Paul’s vocal sounds more youthful.
When in the few ocassions I smoked pot and listen The Beatles this is among the trippiest of their songs. Maybe is those humming voices and the wobbly guitar…
I love the song, the article here, and all the comments. I do have something important to add. I play “Here, There and Everywhere” on the trumpet… no singing.
I take it as an instrumental. It is a very pretty melody.
It has a Mozartian influence that is clear… a major to minor… but an ambiguous minor feeling that probably is ambiguous because it can be major or minor.
I feel the music to be superior to the words.
Now to “Yesterday’. It’s just as pretty, perhaps more so.
Now, that I ALSO play on the trumpet.
That is a minor melody, clearly so.
That also is a Mozartian, even Vivaldian piece.
Again, as an instrumental…
I love both compositions.
Thank you for allowing me to write here.
Now back to the parlour… for more trumpet melodies.
Oh… muted trumpet, the Harmon mute.
“And I love Her”, “Michelle” and “Blackbird”…. to go with those two.
And how about “For No One” on the trumpet as well…
All those are Lennon-McCartney compositions. No need to go Jesuit on that and say who did what. Take it as it is written, and play!
Cheers.
Yes a great song but I always thought that the rhythm guitar part was terribly out of place. When Paul re-recorded it for the soundtrack to Give My Regards to Broad Street, he used a brass ensemble. That sounded great, more suitable arrangement to my ears.
I love the song, but when I ponder these lyrics (and also the lyrics to “For No One” and then consider that this is the same fella who wrote “Uncle Ernie, Auntie Gin/Open the door, let em in…” I just get so annoyed with McCartney. His catalog is huge but so much of it is lyrically lazy, particularly post-Beatles. When you can write lyrics like these, how can you then be satisfied with the “granny” stuff John complained about?
This song is so sweet that it drips with honey. I absolutely hate it!