I Want to Tell You

(Harrison)

Quick Facts

Lead Vocal	George
Recorded	Jun 1966
Length	2:29
Key	A
Noted Takes	5
Producer	George Martin
Engineer	Geoff Emerick

Originally released on

Revolver

Parlophone — PMC 7009

Find on Amazon

Page status: In review

Story Section status: Outdated

“I Want to Tell You” is a song by the English rock band The Beatles from their 1966 album Revolver. It was written and sung by George, the band's lead guitarist. After “Taxman” and “Love You To”, it was the third George composition recorded for Revolver.

I Want to Tell You is a song by The Beatles, written by George and led on vocal by George. Dissonant E/F piano chord captures the lyric's frustration with words. Within the catalogue, its george-original thread connects it to Don't Bother Me, I Need You, You Like Me Too Much. George's uptempo composition ‘I Want to Tell You’ showcased his growing confidence as composer and vocalist, with its bouncing rhythm and complex harmonic structure. The song's energy and Paul's prominent bass line anchored an arrangement that demonstrated George's continued development beyond his earlier, simpler compositions. The track represented George's expanded role as creative force within the group (Lewisohn 1988, p.81). Kozinn describes the song as a ‘laid back, slightly quirky’ composition from George featuring a ‘mildly dissonant piano part’ and lyrical exploration of being tongue-tied in romantic circumstance—demonstrating his advancing mastery across three distinct album tracks. (Kozinn 1995, p.146)

The session work falls within the band's Revolver / Studio Awakening (1966) period, recorded 2 Jun 1966 at EMI Studios, Abbey Road. George Martin produced; Geoff Emerick engineered. For session-by-session detail, see Mark Lewisohn's account on p.81 of The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions (excerpt below). Recorded the session captured the rhythm section's driving momentum, with emphasis on Paul's bass work and Ringo's precise drumming. George Martin's production focused instrumental clarity while maintaining the composition's forward propulsion. Multiple takes refined the timing and vocal performance (Lewisohn 1988, p.81).

What's distinctive

The last overdub on this song, taped on 3 June 1966, was “for the first time on a Beatles recording, a bass guitar superimposition only” — the bass alone, onto a vacant track, which is where the band's post-1966 bass sound begins. It went to tape as ‘Laxton's Superb', became ‘I Don't Know' when nobody could think of a title, and reached its final name only at the 6 June remix. Noted takes: 5 rhythm-track takes; the tape reduction was numbered ‘take four’.¹

Recording

The first bass overdub the band ever did on its own — The last thing added to this song, on 3 June 1966, was “for the first time on a Beatles recording, a bass guitar superimposition only, something which would become more commonplace during and after 1967”. Overdubbing the bass separately, and “affording it a vacant track” on the four-track tape, “allowed greater dexterity with the sound” in the remix. Everything the band did with bass from Sgt. Pepper onward — the separate pass, the isolated track, the level and tone decided at the mix rather than at the take — starts on a George song that took two evenings.¹
“A quick recording”, and the reason that phrase carries an edge — The whole thing took two evenings: “five takes of the rhythm track” on 2 June with take three marked best, the lead vocal straight after with John and Paul behind it, then “tambourine, maracas” and more piano, a reduction, handclaps, and one bass overdub the following night. George was “in securing an unprecedented three compositions on a 14 song Beatles album” the most represented he had ever been on a Beatles LP, and the speed was not entirely his choosing. “One felt under more pressure when doing one of George's songs,” Geoff Emerick said, because there was “a certain amount of time to do his tracks whereas the others could spend as long as they wanted”.¹
Four titles in five days, three of them apples — It went to tape as ‘Laxton's Superb', “another type of British apple” after the Granny Smith that had titled Love You To, and the tape box got it wrong as ‘Laxstone Superbe'. The name came out of an exchange in the room: George Martin asked “What are you going to call it, George?”, the writer said he did not know, and John offered “Granny Smith Part Friggin' Two! You've never had a title for any of your songs!” Midway through 3 June it became ‘I Don't Know' — the honest answer promoted to a title — and by the 6 June remix it was ‘I Want To Tell You'. He was, on the evidence, “clearly having problems with his song titles”.¹
The reduction that made the bass overdub possible — On 2 June the tape was bounced: this song is named among those that “all had their four full tracks bounced down to two before receiving another round of overdubs”, “thereby freeing up two spare tracks for overdubbing”. The copy was “numbered (somewhat confusingly) take four”, which is why the released master is a take four that nobody played. One of the tracks the bounce freed is where the bass went the next night.^1,2
Mixed fast, in two sittings three weeks apart — Four mono remixes followed the bass overdub on 3 June and “the first attempt was deemed ‘best’” — a first-pass mono on a song that had been finished minutes earlier. Two tape copies of it were run off on 6 June and numbered mono remixes 5 and 6. The stereo waited until 21 June, when remixes 1 and 2 were made from the same take four. Mono and stereo on this song are therefore eighteen days and two different sittings apart, which is unusual for a Revolver track.¹

Equipment Section status: Outdated

Studio	EMI Studios, Abbey Road — Studio Two (recording, 2–3 Jun 1966); Studio Three control room (tape copying 6 Jun 1966; stereo mixing 21 Jun 1966)
Tape machine	Studer J-37 four-track; tape reduction to a second four-track 2 Jun 1966; mixdown to EMI BTR2 (mono) and BTR3 (stereo)²
Console	REDD.51 (Studio Two)
Microphones	AKG D19c (drums overhead), Neumann KM-56 (under snare), AKG D.20 (bass drum), AKG D20 (bass), Neumann U47/U48 (vocals, electric guitar); screens around the guitar amps²
Outboard / effects	Fairchild 660 limiter, RS127 presence box, ADT; no echo chamber and no varispeed documented for this song²
Guitars	Epiphone Casino, Gibson SG (George), Rickenbacker 4001S bass (Paul)
Amplifiers	Fender Showman, Vox 7120²

Recording Timeline

2 June 1966 (Thu) — rhythm track, vocal, reduction and handclaps, Studio Two — EMI Studios, Studio Two, 7.00pm–3.30am. P: George Martin. E: Geoff Emerick. 2E: Phil McDonald. Recording: ‘Laxton's Superb' (takes 1–5, SI onto take 3, tape reduction take 4). Five takes of the rhythm track — piano, drums, guitars — then take three chosen and the lead vocal overdubbed onto it with John and Paul backing. Tambourine, maracas and more piano followed. The four occupied tracks were then bounced to a second tape, the copy numbered take four, and handclaps went onto the freed space. Eight and a half hours, and the song was finished but for one thing.¹
3 June 1966 (Fri) — the bass overdub and four mono remixes, Studio Two — EMI Studios, Studio Two, 7.00pm–2.30am. P: George Martin. E: Geoff Emerick. 2E: Phil McDonald. Recording: SI onto take 4. Mono mixing: remixes 1–4 (from take 4). The one remaining overdub was Paul's bass, taken alone onto its own track — the first time the band had done that. Four mono remixes followed and the first was called best. The title changed during this session from ‘Laxton's Superb' to ‘I Don't Know'. Down the corridor in Studio Three the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, newly signed to Parlophone, were recording the same night.^1,2
6 June 1966 (Mon) — tape copying, Studio Three control room — EMI Studios, Studio Three (control room only), 7.00–12.00pm. Tape copying: two copies of remix mono 1, numbered mono remixes 5 and 6. By this date the song had its final title. The same evening produced final mono remixes of And Your Bird Can Sing, For No One, I'm Only Sleeping and Tomorrow Never Knows, and the last Eleanor Rigby vocal overdub. Copies 5 and 6 are duplicates, not new mixes: the mono anyone has heard is still the first attempt of 3 June.¹
21 June 1966 (Tue) — stereo mixing, Studio Three control room — EMI Studios, Studio Three (control room only), 10.00am–1.00pm. P: George Martin. E: Geoff Emerick. 2E: Phil McDonald. Stereo mixing: remixes 1 and 2 (from take 4). A morning session — rare for this band — that also made stereo mixes of Love You To and Here, There and Everywhere. The stereo comes off the same reduction tape as the mono; nothing was re-recorded in between.¹
5 August 1966 (Fri) — LP release — Revolver, Parlophone PMC 7009 (mono) / PCS 7009 (stereo), with the song fifth on side B. It arrived as one of three George compositions on a fourteen-song album, an allocation the sessions themselves record as “unprecedented”.¹

One really got the impression that George was being given a certain amount of time to do his tracks whereas the others could spend as long as they wanted. One felt under more pressure when doing one of George's songs.— Geoff Emerick¹

Studio Notes

Why putting the bass on its own track changed everything after it — Until this session the bass arrived as part of a rhythm-track pass, committed to a shared track with drums and piano, and whatever level and tone it had at the take was the level and tone it kept. Giving it “a vacant track on the four-track tape” broke that: the instrument could be re-balanced, equalised and compressed at the mix without touching anything else. That is the whole technical argument for the bass sound of the next four years, and it is first made here.¹
Reduction was 1966's default, not an emergency measure — Bouncing four occupied tracks down to two on a second machine “thereby freeing up two spare tracks for overdubbing” was how the band got round a four-track machine all year; the count in the sessions runs to “14 of the 18 songs recorded that year”. The cost is generational: everything inside the bounce is fixed in its relative balance forever, which is why the piano, drums and guitars of 2 June cannot be separated on any later remix of this song while the bass can.²
A fourth name on the session that the session sheets do not carry — Alongside the producer, balance engineer and tape op, EMI “noted which Technical Engineer was assigned to each session”. Ken Townsend handled 2 June and Graham Platt 3 June — the men responsible for the machines rather than the sound, and the reason the bass overdub was physically possible at all. It was “Ken Townsend's invention of Artificial Double-Tracking” that had carried the studio into 1966 in the first place, and his name on the first night of this song is a reminder that the era's techniques came from the technical staff rather than from the control room.²
What else was in the building on the night of the bass overdub — “While Paul was overdubbing his bass onto” this song “in Studio Two during” the “night of the 3rd”, “The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band were recording in Studio Three”, newly signed to Parlophone. “Bonzo member Neil Innes” “would later create the Beatles parody group The Rutles with comedian Eric Idle”. Abbey Road ran three rooms in parallel every night, and the Beatles' sessions are only legible as the best-documented thread in a building that was always busy.²
This is one of the Revolver songs with no chamber on it — Geoff Emerick made “very little use of the studio's echo chambers” across the album, and the four songs that did get an appreciable amount are Here, There and Everywhere, Yellow Submarine, Good Day Sunshine and For No One. This song is not among them. What space the record has comes from the artificial double tracking and the playing, not from a room down the corridor.²
Screens round the amps, and the same microphones as before — By the Revolver sessions “Emerick has begun using screens around the guitar amplifiers”, and the group had “retreated” further “by using screens around the guitar amps” — leakage control, so that a guitar track stays a guitar track when the tape is bounced. The microphones themselves did not change: “Emerick wisely chose to use the same microphones” his predecessor had settled on. The new sound of 1966 came from placement, isolation and the tape machine, not from a new mic cupboard.²
No varispeed is documented for this song — The year's varispeed uses are collected in one table, and this song is not in it: not the rhythm track, not the vocal, not the mix. On an album where I'm Only Sleeping, Here, There and Everywhere and Rain all came off the machine at a speed other than “the standard 50 cycles per second”, this one was recorded and mixed straight.²
The stereo picture is undocumented, and that is itself informative — Two Revolver panning treatments are on record: the “music-Left-and-Right/vocals-Centre approach that Norman Smith had been so fond of”, used on Paperback Writer, Taxman, She Said She Said, Good Day Sunshine, For No One and Got to Get You into My Life; and the 20 May group — I'm Only Sleeping, And Your Bird Can Sing and Doctor Robert — where “The music tracks (Tracks 1 and 2) were” placed to a pre-decided plan. This song, mixed a month later, is named in neither list, and the sessions were by then starting “to pull the music toward the Centre and leave the vocals” out at the sides.²
The room, as it stood in June 1966 — The year's standing setup put Geoff Emerick at the desk with a Studer J-37 four-track, mixdown to EMI BTR2 for mono and BTR3 for stereo, an AKG D19c overhead on the kit, a Neumann KM-56 under the snare and an AKG D.20 on the bass drum, Neumann U47s and U48s on voices and electric guitar, and a Fairchild 660 limiter and RS127 presence box in the rack. Phil McDonald, second engineer on all three of this song's working dates, is on the same year's tape-op roster — an unusual continuity on a band whose third chair otherwise rotated session by session, and one that means a single pair of hands threaded the tape for the rhythm track, the reduction, the bass overdub and both sets of remixes.²

Releases

1966 UK mono LP — Revolver (5 August 1966, Parlophone PMC 7009, side B track 5) — The mix made on 3 June, minutes after the bass went on, and the one the band signed off. Everything arrives from a single point, so the reduced rhythm track and the freshly isolated bass sit in the same column and the bass reads as weight rather than as a separate voice — which is the opposite of what isolating it was for.
1966 UK stereo LP — Revolver (5 August 1966, Parlophone PCS 7009, side B track 5) — Made three weeks later from the same reduction tape. Because the rhythm instruments were already bounced together they cannot be separated, so the stereo picture is coarser than on songs mixed straight from four live tracks: a block of music, the vocals, and the bass, rather than six placeable parts.
1966 US Capitol LP — Revolver (Capitol T-2576 mono / ST-2576 stereo, side B track 5) — The same two 1966 mixes, pressed in the United States. No Capitol-specific remix is documented for this song, so what differs is the cutting rather than the mix.
1987 CD — Revolver (EMI CDP 7 46441 2) — The 1966 stereo, unaltered. This album was not remixed for its CD debut, so the disc is a straight digital issue of the 21 June mix.
2009 CD remaster — Revolver (Parlophone 99458 2) — New transfer and levels, 1966 mix decisions. The mono companion issued in the same programme carries the 3 June mono.
2022 remix — Revolver Special Edition (28 October 2022, Apple) — The first mix in which the 2 June reduction stops being a wall. Giles Martin and Sam Okell worked from the original tapes with the de-mixing technology developed at Peter Jackson's WingNut Films, which pulls the bounced piano, drums and guitars back apart; a Dolby Atmos mix accompanies the stereo, and the 1966 mono is restored from its own master. The sessions discs add “I Want To Tell You (Speech and Take 4)”, the first release of anything from these two evenings other than the finished song.

Sources

Mark Lewisohn, The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions (New York: Harmony Books, 1988), 81–82, 84.
Kevin Ryan and Brian Kehew, Recording the Beatles: The Studio Equipment and Techniques Used to Create Their Classic Albums (Houston: Curvebender Publishing, 2006), 422, 425, 427, 429–31, 531.

Frequently asked

Who wrote I Want to Tell You?

It is credited to George alone — one of three of his compositions on Revolver, which was the most he had ever been given on a Beatles album.¹

Who sings lead on I Want to Tell You?

The lead vocal is by George, overdubbed on 2 June 1966 with John and Paul on backing vocals.¹

When was I Want to Tell You recorded?

It was recorded on 2 and 3 June 1966 at EMI Studios, Studio Two. Mono mixing followed on 3 June, tape copies on 6 June and stereo mixing on 21 June, all at Abbey Road.¹

What were the working titles of I Want to Tell You?

‘Laxton's Superb' — a variety of British apple, written on the tape box as ‘Laxstone Superbe' — then ‘I Don't Know' from midway through the 3 June session, and finally ‘I Want To Tell You' by the 6 June remix.¹

Why is I Want to Tell You important in the Beatles' recording history?

Its final overdub was the first bass guitar superimposition the band recorded on its own, onto a vacant track. Separating the bass this way “allowed greater dexterity with the sound” at the mix, and the practice became routine from 1967 onward.¹

Why is the master called take four when only five takes were recorded?

Take four is not a performance. The four occupied tracks were bounced to a second tape on 2 June and the copy was “numbered (somewhat confusingly) take four”; every later overdub and every released mix comes from it.¹

On this page

Story Section status: Outdated

What's distinctive

Recording

Equipment Section status: Outdated

Recording Timeline

Studio Notes

Releases

Sources

Frequently asked