Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 5, 13 March 1963
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Norman Smith
Released: 11 April 1963 (UK), 27 May 1963 (US)
John Lennon: vocals, rhythm guitar, harmonica
Paul McCartney: vocals, bass
George Harrison: lead guitar
Ringo Starr: drums
Available on:
Past Masters
Live At The BBC
Thank You Girl was originally intended to be The Beatles' third single, until they came up with From Me To You.
Thank You Girl was one of our efforts at writing a single that didn't work. So it became a b-side or an album track.
All We Are Saying, David Sheff
As with From Me To You, it was a collaboration between Lennon and McCartney, written "head-to-head". It's likely that Lennon was mainly responsible for the verses, with McCartney contributing the chorus and middle eight.
We'd already written Thank You Girl as the follow-up to Please Please Me. This new number [From Me To You] was to be the b-side. We were so pleased with it, we knew we just had to make it the a-side, Thank You Girl the b.
Anthology
Originally titled Thank You, Little Girl, the song was intended as a message of gratitude for the support from the group's fans. As McCartney explained, "We knew that if we wrote a song called Thank You Girl that a lot of the girls who wrote us fan letters would take it as a genuine thank you. So a lot of our songs were directly addressed to the fans."
Like many of their early songs, (cf. Love Me Do, Please Please Me, PS I Love You), the two songwriters used the trick of including 'I', 'me' or 'you' in the title, to make it seem more personal.
These early songs were wonderful to learn by and were good album fillers. [Thank You Girl] was pretty much co-written but there might have been a slight leaning towards me with the 'thank you, girl' thing, it sounds a bit like me, trying to appease the mob. A bit of a hack song really, but all good practice.
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles
A version of Thank You Girl, recorded in front of a live audience at the Playhouse Theatre in London, was included in the Live At The BBC collection. It was taped on 19 June 1963, and broadcast four days later on the Easy Beat programme.
In the studio
Recording mainly took place on 5 March 1963. Thank You Girl was recorded in six takes. Seven additional edits were then recorded.
Mark Lewisohn, in the Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, suggests these edits were for the 'guitar flourish' at the end; in Revolution In The Head, Ian MacDonald claims these were, in fact, for Ringo Starr's closing drum fills.
On 13 March the song was completed with the addition of the harmonica overdub, recorded in 15 takes by John Lennon.
According to Beatlesebooks.com, George Martin apparently decided that some extra harmonica overdubs weren’t needed for the mono mix of Thank You Girl, so they were left off during that mixing session. That’s because they were added later for the stereo mix.
I prefer the mono mix. But I wonder which is the most popular version.
The extra harmonica overdubs weren’t needed period.
This song is better in mono. Its not Let It Be.
Hear here!
most early songs were better in MONO. this is one of my fav Ringo drumming songs, especaily at the end, it jsut gives me goose bumps.
But that indicates they were planning an album version of the song. Thats what the stereo mixes were for. But Lennon said they did not want to put single tracks on albums.
BBC version communicates the excitement of an authentic live performance — not a tribute band, but the real thing.
Priceless
John’s “oh’s” totally make this song for me.
Both Mark Lewisohn and Ian MacDonald are right. John and Paul messed up on vocals, George did something slightly different on guitar and Ringo needed some extra practise on his drum solo. It was not one persons fault.
Why do you think they messed up? I really like John’s rough voice and Paul high vocal harmony to back it up.. Fits perfectly IMO. Guitar IMO has good rhythm and was a nice add up to a slighty slow song.
Great song, as are all Lennon/McCartney Compositions!!! By the way a song called “Post Acid” by Wavves sounds like this, look it up!
Sometimes when I hear this song (on stereo, not entirely sure) Ringo misses the beat once, I have trouble noticing, but it does happen
Should’ve been included on the Please Please Me album. It would’ve been a good semi-closer in the vein of the Sgt pepper reprise, like “Thank you girl for all your support and love, sadly, this is our last number for now”, then launches into Twist & Shout
I am always astonished over McCartney´s attemps to get the credit of what Lennon composed, especially about the songs from 1963-1965, or before Yesterday. During that time Lennon was the dominant composer, and that embarrasses McCartney tremendesly. This song was written in March 1963. It starts with the often use of the same note, and that is very typical Lennon. And then the middle part with the long serie of falling notes, so typical Lennon! almost exact the melody as the beginning of Lennon´s Please Please Me! Even Ian MacDonald writes in his Revolution in the Head, that at least the verse is composed by Lennon.
And McCartney dared saying — after Lennon´s death — that “there might have been a slight leaning towards me with Thank You Girl”.
Always astonishes me that some people treat Lennon as some “god’. Lennon himself said McCartney was head and shoulders beyond him in him musical abilities, particularly in the early years. The song is very much “Mac”. Why can’t some “fans” just acknowledge that McCartney was certainly Lennon’s equal. Lennon did.
Yawn…not another whine letter from you JC, is it?
Further, Paul doesn’t take credit for the song he suggests that the phrase within the song “thank you girl” may have been more of him. Is that a possibility? If your contention that John was the dominant composer is true then it also means he wasn’t the only composer. Give Paul some credit or a little crumb with this major Lennon composition. Thanks!!!
This is a lovely catchy number, that I first heard on my eldest sisters copy of The Beatles Hits E.P.I agree with one of the other contributors , this would have been great on the Please Please Me album. It is an early example of the great quality of Beatles B-sides that they kept up till the very end.
my humble opinion is that the reverb-soaked harmonica parts MAKE the song. So there.
One of the best John-Paul vocal harmonies from the early Beatles period, a la Everly Bros.
I have a question regarding the CD 1 of the Mono Masters. The sound quality on the following songs seemed to drop below the usual standard:
“From Me to You”: the intro seems to have a little bit of hiss and or slightly distorted or clipped.
“Thank You Girl”: sound quality overall seemed more muffled than the rest of the tracks or like it has noticeably less treble.
“She Loves You”: similar to From Me to You. Sounds a bit distorted/clipped or hiss at the start.
When I compared them to the ones from the 1988 CD issue (a copy made in Canada), the sound quality on those tracks from this older pressing seemed superior. The pitch in “Sie Liebt Dich” seemed slightly different.
Also, do all mono mixes of “Slow Down” have a slight drop out on the drums during the second verse?
It would be nice if anyone could comment on this.