I Never Weep At Night

The second song from the "Long Tall Sally" EP is the only original Lennon/McCartney tune (the others are all covers). "I Call Your Name" was written by Lennon/McCartney and mainly by John. Mr. Lennon was absolutely prolific during this period as the first movie soundtrack and additional tracks as well as the EP were all being recorded between February to June 1964. In only four months, the Beatles had produced two songs for the German market, a full four song EP as well as the upcoming movie soundtrack LP. Most of the songs were written mainly or in large part by Lennon. More will be discussed on this subject when a review of the movie soundtrack is fully discussed in an upcoming post.

"I Call Your Name" was written in 1963 and was actually "given away" to fellow musician and singer Billy J. Kramer who released it as a single in August 1963. It was decided to give it a try as a Beatles' performance hence the inclusion of the song on the EP.

"I Call Your Name" was recorded at EMI Studio two on Sunday March 01 1964. There were seven takes of the song. Only three were complete. This song features a "reggae" or "ska" middle eight where the guitar solo takes over. The Beatles would expand on this idea in the future with tunes such as "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da". An additional Lennon vocal and a cowbell were overdubbed. Apart from that, all of the basic tracks were live off the floor as per usual during this period.

"I Call Your Name" was mixed for mono two days later on March 03 1964. It was originally slated for the soundtrack LP but was removed once the title song was written and recorded in it's place. The mono mix was completed in EMI Studio One. Another experimental mono mix was completed the next day on March 04 1964 in the morning. The song was mixed for stereo at EMI studio two on March 10 1964. Again, the song was remixed for mono three months later on June 04 1964. Finally, three days after the EP was released in the UK, the song was remixed and edited for stereo on June 22 1964 - for what purpose, I really don't know since both the "Long Tall Sally" EP and "The Beatles' Second Album" had already been released with the song available in mono and stereo on the US release. If anyone knows the purpose of this: let me know please.

Now, I want you all to go and get your rainbow label copies of the Capitol US "Beatles' Second Album". Take a look at the label on side two: the first two songs are "Long Tall Sally" and "I Call Your Name". You'll notice that these two songs do not have timings on them while all of the others do. Cool, eh? This is because the labels were printed before Capitol received the tapes for these two songs from EMI. Most early labels are missing the timings although the later label copies do have the timings.

"I Call Your Name" is available on the "Long Tall Sally" UK Parlophone EP, the US Capitol LP/CD: "The Beatles' Second Album", the Capitol of Canada 6000 series LP "Long Tall Sally", the EMI 2-LP "Rock 'N' Roll Music" and the EMI UK version of the "Rarities" LP. The song is also available on the 2-LP/ CD "Past Masters Volume 1" as well as the "Past Masters" and "Mono Masters" from the Apple mono and stereo CDs respectively.