Talk:Every Little Thing (Beatles song)

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Lead singer[edit]

I haven't checked Lewisohn's book but it sounds to me like both John AND Paul are singing throughout, including the verses where they are singing the exact same parts. John's voice is more distinguishable on the verses than Paul's for some reason (proximity to the mic?). On the chorus Paul sings the melody and John the low harmony. ~~ —Preceding unsigned comment added by Lux dixon (talk • contribs) 23:39, 4 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Are you suggesting a content change? If so, what change? Note that there are reliable sources cited that say Lennon sang lead, and any change to that would need reliable sources, too. — John Cardinal (talk) 01:38, 5 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

cleanup[edit]

cleaned up a lot of lousy phrasing and unreferenced claims: 'In this recording it is very likely that Paul and John sang together on the same microphone.' According to whom? is that just an opinion/assumption? 'Lennon plays lead guitar on the track owing to George Harrison arriving at the studio two hours late. In this case, John would have played the riff and solo on his Rickenbacker 325 12-string while George played the acoustic guitar on his Gibson J-160E, but this argument has never been resolved.' again, no reference whatsoever for this stuff, sounds like someone making a hypothesis for a school essay.

this article is about the beatles original version of the song, not Yes's cover. to have an infobox and personnel list for a random cover of the song here is ludicrous. why not do that for all the cover versions listed? why is yes's cover any more significant? all info for their version can be obtained from the article on Yes's debut album. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.148.58.136 (talk) 23:44, 6 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Move request[edit]

The following discussion is an archived discussion of the proposal. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the proposal was not moved. --BDD (talk) 16:54, 29 March 2013 (UTC) (non-admin closure)[reply]

– Should be pretty obvious, I mean, the song is the primary topic, and it's most certainly more notable than the band. The Evil IP address (talk) 22:47, 22 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the proposal. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

Every Little Thing Singer[edit]

Even though Every Little Thing features John Lennon as the lead singer, my beatles book incorrectly credits Paul McCartney as lead singer, probably because he wrote it. I guess they made a mistake when publishing the book. But when I first heard the song I said to myself "No that is definetely John". C.Syde (talk | contribs) 23:22, 19 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Even though John Lennon is the lead singer, the song is clearly Paul's. C.Syde (talk | contribs) 06:44, 5 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Personnel – credits for guitar parts[edit]

This issue seems to come up so often, I figure it would be useful to have something here that lays out the details per the various sources.

According to Ian MacDonald in Revolution in the Head, it's Lennon on "acoustic rhythm guitar" and Harrison on "double-tracked lead guitar".

According to Kenneth Womack (in The Beatles Encyclopedia), who tends to list specific instruments rather than contributions, it's "Lennon: Vocal, Gibson J-160E [acoustic gtr]" and "Harrison: Rickenbacker 360/12".

In his commentary on the track in The Beatles as Musicians, Walter Everett mentions Harrison on "electric twelve-string" and says how an early take of the song has this "Ricky 12" lead guitar playing the descending notes later performed on piano (by McCartney).

As mentioned in a revert I made today, Jean-Michel Guesdon & Philippe Margotin list: "John: vocals, rhythm gtr (?), guitar lead (?)" and "George: rhythm gtr (?), guitar lead (?)". So, they're undecided in the lineup and state as much: "There are questions about the writing and recording of 'Every Little Thing.'" They say that Harrison was absent from the first session for the song, on 29 September, but was there the following day when, among other overdubs, the "intro using the Rickenbacker twelve-string" was added. They go on to say that Lennon "performed the guitar solo" on his RIckenbacker 325/12. This appears to be based (in that it's what Guesdon & Margotin say next) on something McCartney supposedly said in late '64: "Paul reportedly confirmed in 1964 that John played an electric guitar riff while George played the acoustic guitar." Guesdon & Margotin then question the accuracy of this, citing Harrison's absence when the basic/rhythm track was taped; regarding who played the acoustic part, at least, they conclude: "It's a mystery."

As mentioned in the comment I added with a revert on 21 April this year, I can't see any mention of Harrison being absent (nor of any contemporary comments from McCartney) in Lewisohn's The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions or Miles' The Beatles Diary. Besides, Lewisohn writes that, after the band had decided that take 4 from 29 September was satisfactory, the basic track was "subsequently further improved upon" – although it's not clear to me whether he means that, say, take 5 on 30 Sept was a remake.

According to John Winn, in his book Way Beyond Compare, the second day of recording appears to have been a process of starting again. I can only access the first page of his description on the song (p. 273), where he writes: "Takes 5 through to 9 concentrated on laying down the rhythm tracks: drums, bass, and acoustic guitar on one, and George's twelve-string Rickenbacker on a second."

  • Update – just managed to access p. 274 of Winn. He says that, following the band's completion of a satisfactory rhythm track, "The remaining track has overdubs of further lead guitar from George, piano from Paul, and booming timpani from Ringo." JG66 (talk) 12:47, 6 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

In the lineup Robert Fontenot gives in his oldies.about.com piece on "Every Little Thing", there's Lennon on "acoustic rhythm guitar (1964 Gibson J160E)" and Harrison on "lead guitar (1964 Rickenbacker 'Fire-glo' 360-12)". Fontenot does comment on the uncertainty surrounding the recording: "Some sources claim that John plays lead on this song, due to the style of the solo, and also because George did not arrive at the studio until two hours after the backing track was laid down. However, the guitar being played is indeed George's, although John may have merely borrowed it. The argument has never been resolved." (Fontenot is one of the about.com contributors we've identified as a reliable source, incidentally.)

For no other reason than to stop the regular changes (mainly by IP users) to the article's Personnel list, I'm half-tempted to add "lead guitar (solo)" after Lennon's "acoustic guitar", sourced to Guesdon & Margotin p. 191 ("John performed the guitar solo using his famous RIckenbacker 325/12"). But the same authors don't seem wholly convinced, given the lineup they offer on the previous page, and any such addition would be for the wrong reasons.

Based on all this – on what the majority of sources say, and on what's available through the more definitive sources (generally regarded as being Lewisohn, MacDonald, Everett, perhaps Womack also; personally, I've found Winn's two volumes to be excellent) – I can't see how we can not list Harrison on lead guitar in the Personnel section. It's only right that the text mentions the confusion, the question marks surround the issue of the guitar parts – and the text does handle that, although perhaps a little more is needed.

Any thoughts? I'll add a buried link to this discussion, in the article itself, to encourage people to come here to the talk page. JG66 (talk) 06:21, 20 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]

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