Tell Me Why

(Lennon/McCartney)

Quick Facts

Composer	John
Lead Vocal	John
Recorded	Feb 1964
Length	2:09
Key	D
Noted Takes	8
Producer	George Martin
Engineer	Norman Smith

Originally released on

A Hard Day's Night

Parlophone — PMC 1230

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“Tell Me Why” is a song by English rock band the Beatles from their album A Hard Day’s Night. In North America, it was released on both the American version of A Hard Day’s Night and the album Something New. Credited to Lennon–McCartney, it was written by John in either Paris or New York City, and recorded in eight takes on 27 February 1964.

Tell Me Why is a song by The Beatles, written by Lennon–McCartney and led on vocal by John. Knocked out for the film’s concert scene; doo-wop pastiche. Within the catalogue, its film thread connects it to A Hard Day’s Night, I Should Have Known Better, If I Fell; its doo-wop thread connects it to Happiness Is a Warm Gun, Oh! Darling. Composed for the A Hard Day’s Night film’s concert scene, this doo-wop pastiche exemplifies rapid turnaround required during February-March 1964’s condensed schedule. Completed 27 February in a single session, the bouncy three-part vocal harmony arrangement reached acceptable status in just eight takes. The streamlined approach was necessitated by film production timeline demands (Lewisohn 1988, p. 40). McCartney’s ‘What You’re Doing’ echoes the jealousy theme in Lennon’s ‘Tell Me Why’, where both songs depict protagonists accusing their girlfriends of infidelity, but with differing emotional responses ranging from accusations to threats (Kozinn 1995, p. 110).

The session work falls within the band’s Beatlemania (1962–1964) period, recorded 27 Feb 1964 at EMI Studios, Abbey Road. George Martin produced; Norman Smith engineered. For session-by-session detail, see Mark Lewisohn’s account on p.40 of The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions. The D-major rocker was recorded in the morning session (10.00am–1.00pm) alongside the re-re-make of And I Love Her. Take 8 provided sufficient vocal clarity without further layering, enabling rapid completion. The bouncy doo-wop vocal harmonies required minimal overdubbing, reflecting the efficient production methodology (Lewisohn 1988, p. 40).

What’s distinctive

At 2:09 it sits in the bottom quarter of the catalogue by length. One of 101 songs led primarily by John. Recorded approximately 40 of 67 into the Beatlemania (1962–1964) sessions. Carries the unique tag ‘knocked-out’ — no other song shares it. Take count: 8 — “started and finished” in one morning session on 27 February 1964, and “by take eight” it “was to everyone’s satisfaction”.¹

Recording

A film song, finished in one morning. Tell Me Why was one of “two more songs for the film” that were “started and finished on this day”, 27 February 1964, in a Studio Two morning session it shared with the second re-make of And I Love Her. Eight takes were recorded, and “by take eight” the song “was to everyone’s satisfaction”: take 8 is the master. The afternoon went to If I Fell, so by the end of the day three of the film’s songs were on tape. No further recording of Tell Me Why is logged after that morning; everything that followed was mixing and copying.¹
The room, as the photographs show it. The photographs of the 27 February session are captioned for If I Fell, And I Love Her and Tell Me Why together, and they show how Studio Two was set up for all three. Ringo’s drums were covered by an STC 4038 overhead with an STC 4033-A on the bass drum; another 4033-A was still in use on Paul’s bass rig, by now a Vox A.C.100; John and George’s new A.C.50 Super Twin amplifiers were each picked up by a Neumann U47. For the voices, Paul and John sang into a single Neumann U48 set to figure-of-eight, and a U47 was suspended in front of John to record his acoustic guitar. The pictures document the day, not one song, so they show the setup these three songs shared rather than a map of this song’s tape.²
A new desk and a four-track machine. When the group came back to the studio in February 1964 they found a new mixing console in the Studio Two control room, the REDD.51, “extremely similar to the REDD.37 that had previously” stood there. The tape machines were the Telefunken four-tracks, the M10 and the T9U, and by January 1964 the Beatles were recording exclusively to four-track. Tell Me Why was therefore cut in the first weeks of a new desk, on a format the group had been using for only a few months.²
Mixed without the band. The song’s mono was made on 3 March and its stereo on 22 June, both in the Studio One control room, and on the second of those dates the group was on the other side of the world, in Wellington, New Zealand. In between, on 9 June, the mono went onto the two tapes of the album’s songs copied for America. The mixes, not the session, are where this song’s released versions part company (see Studio Notes and Releases).¹

Equipment

Studio	EMI Studios, Abbey Road — Studio Two (recording, 27 Feb 1964); Studio One control room (mono mix, 3 Mar; stereo mix, 22 Jun 1964); Studio Three control room (mono tape copies for America, 9 Jun 1964)¹
Tape machine	Telefunken four-track (M10 and T9U) for recording; EMI BTR2 (mono) and BTR3 (stereo) mixdown machines²
Console	REDD.51 (Studio Two, new for the February 1964 sessions; panning only via the Spreader); REDD.37 (Studio One, with full panning, where the album’s stereo mixes were made)²
Microphones	STC 4038 (drum overhead); STC 4033-A (bass drum; bass amplifier); Neumann U47 (guitar amplifiers; John’s acoustic guitar); Neumann U48 set to figure-of-eight (John and Paul’s shared vocal microphone)²
Outboard / effects	Fairchild 660 limiters on main faders I and II (from early 1964, replacing RS124 Altec compressors); RS127; echo chamber²
Guitars	Acoustic guitar (John, session photographs); electric guitars (John and George); bass (Paul). Instrument models are not recorded for this session.²
Amplifiers	Vox A.C.50 Super Twin (John and George); Vox A.C.100 (Paul’s bass)²

Recording Timeline

27 February 1964 (Thursday) — recording, takes 1–8, EMI Studio Two, 10.00am–1.00pm. P: George Martin. E: Norman Smith. 2E: Richard Langham. The morning opened with And I Love Her, whose second re-make ran as takes 20–21 and finally gave the song its ‘best’; Tell Me Why followed as takes 1–8, and take 8 was the master. The same team stayed on for the 2.30–5.30pm session, which recorded If I Fell in fifteen takes. All three were for the film: two of them were started and finished inside a single day, while the third had been through two earlier attempts.¹
3 March 1964 (Tuesday) — mono mix, Studio One (control room only), 10.00am–1.45pm. P: George Martin. E: Norman Smith. 2E: A.B. Lincoln. Mono mixing of Tell Me Why from take 8, in a morning that also mixed I Should Have Known Better, If I Fell, And I Love Her, I’m Happy Just to Dance with You and I Call Your Name. This is the only mono mix of the song on the session sheets, and it is the mono on the records; the film print carries a different one (see Studio Notes).^1,3
9 June 1964 (Tuesday) — mono tape copies for America, Studio Three (control room only), 2.00–5.45pm. P: George Martin. E: Norman Smith. 2E: Ken Scott. Tell Me Why was among the songs on a mono tape-copying list headed by I Should Have Known Better and If I Fell, from which “two identical tapes of the best mono remixes” were made “for Capitol Records and United Artists”. For this song the best mono was still the 3 March mix: nothing new was mixed for it that day.¹
22 June 1964 (Monday) — stereo mix, Studio One (control room only), 2.30–5.30pm. P: George Martin. E: Norman Smith. 2E: Geoff Emerick. Stereo mixing of Tell Me Why from take 8, in an afternoon block that ran from Can’t Buy Me Love and You Can’t Do That through Things We Said Today, Matchbox, Slow Down, Long Tall Sally and I’ll Cry Instead. It was an exhaustive day’s remixing, predominantly for the A Hard Day’s Night LP, made while the group was in Wellington, New Zealand. That all-day session is also where the need for a standardised four-track layout may first have been realised (see Studio Notes).^1,2
June–July 1964 — release. The American soundtrack album A Hard Day’s Night on United Artists was first issued on 26 June; the British album followed on 10 July, as Parlophone PMC 1230 in mono and PCS 3058 in stereo, with Tell Me Why on side one; and Capitol’s Something New, carrying the song again for the American market, was first issued on 20 July. Barely four months separate the morning session from the third of those records.¹

At last they got ‘And I Love Her’ right, the second take of this second re-make being considered ‘best’. Two more songs for the film were also started and finished on this day, ‘Tell Me Why’, which by take eight was to everyone’s satisfaction, and John’s stunning ballad ‘If I Fell’…— Mark Lewisohn¹

Studio Notes

Eight takes, and no story behind them. The documentary record of this session is short because the session was. On the same day And I Love Her needed its second re-make before “the second take of this second re-make” was considered ‘best’, and If I Fell took fifteen takes in the afternoon; Tell Me Why was “started and finished” in eight, with no second session and no later overdub. The sources say nothing about why it went so smoothly, and nothing is supplied here to fill that gap: what can be said is that a song written for the film reached the state everyone accepted in under a morning.¹
Call and response, heard through a fake stereo. The arrangement is built on a lead line answered by the group, and one American record lays that structure bare. The United Artists “stereo” album is mono, except that in the verses the sound shifts toward the left for John’s solo call and toward the right for the group’s response. It is not a true stereo mix, but it separates by position the two halves of the vocal arrangement that every true mix blends together, and it is the clearest way to hear how the verses are put together.³
One microphone for two singers. The session photographs show Paul and John singing into a single Neumann U48 set to figure-of-eight, rather than each having a microphone of his own. On a song whose verses trade a solo line with a group answer, a shared vocal microphone is the practical setup the pictures record for the day; they do not record which song each photograph was taken during, so the layout is evidence of the room, not a claim about this take.²
Double-tracking, now easy. Every song on A Hard Day’s Night “featured double-tracked vocals at some point”, and four-track tape made the technique “a more instantly accessible procedure than it had been with Twin-Track”. Tell Me Why was no exception — its double-tracked vocal is exactly what distinguishes the film’s mono from the record’s (below). From early 1964 the desk’s main faders I and II carried Fairchild 660 limiters, where RS124 Altec compressors had sat before.^2,3
The four-track layout, and where it came from. The standard four-track allocation was established in 1964. “Drums, bass, and rhythm guitar were on one track,” recalls George Martin, “lead guitar on another; the voices on a third.” The arrangement was not arbitrary: it was “directly influenced by a peculiarity of the REDD.51” mixing console in stereo, and the need for a standardised layout may first have been realised “during the all-day mixing session for A Hard” Day’s Night in Studio One — the 22 June session at which this song was mixed for stereo. Neither source prints a track sheet for Tell Me Why itself, so its own tape layout is not stated here.^1,2
Why both mixes were made in Studio One. The new REDD.51 in Studio Two gave the engineer only severely limited panning control, through a device called the Spreader, which made it a poor place for stereo. Studio One’s older REDD.37 had full and independent panning capability, and the album’s songs were mixed for stereo there, on the REDD.37 with full panning. Tell Me Why followed the pattern completely: recorded in Studio Two, mixed in the Studio One control room in mono in March and in stereo in June.^1,2
An engineer who liked it dry. Norman Smith, at the desk for this session, had set out his approach on the Twin-Track records of the year before: “the way I tried was to keep the sound good and dry. Get the basic rhythm more forward.” The producer’s taste pulled the other way — “George wanted more echo on the LP,” Smith said in 1963. Echo chamber and double-tracking both appear among the studio’s standard techniques for 1964, and the two instincts, a forward rhythm and a treated vocal, are the balance the four-track sessions of that year were built on.²
The film’s own mono — a mix the session sheets do not list. Lewisohn logs a single mono mix of the song, on 3 March. Brennan reports that the original film print of A Hard Day’s Night has a different mono mix, “undocumented by Lewisohn”, probably from the same 3 March session, with the double-tracked vocal mixed differently; the American Film Institute’s restored version of 1996 is where it can be heard. The two accounts do not contradict each other so much as cover different ground: the session sheets record the mix made for disc, and the film preserves a second balance of the same take that the records never used.^1,3

Releases

1964 UK mono LP — A Hard Day’s Night (10 July 1964, Parlophone PMC 1230, side one) — the 3 March 1964 mono, with the double-tracked lead and the group’s answers folded to the centre. It is the mono carried by every record release of the song; the film print uses a different mono balance (see Studio Notes).
1964 UK stereo LP — A Hard Day’s Night (10 July 1964, Parlophone PCS 3058, side one) — the 22 June 1964 stereo mix, made on the Studio One desk (see Studio Notes). It keeps a small noise at the very end that the other releases edit off.
1964 US soundtrack LP — A Hard Day’s Night (26 June 1964, United Artists UAL 3366 mono / UAS 6366 stereo) — the mono pressing carries the 3 March mono. The “stereo” pressing is not true stereo: it is the mono, shifted toward the left for John’s solo call in the verses and toward the right for the group’s response.
1964 US LP — Something New (20 July 1964, Capitol T 2108 mono / ST 2108 stereo) — the mono pressing carries the 3 March mono; the stereo pressing carries the true 22 June stereo mix, so American listeners could hear the song in real stereo within a month of the soundtrack’s steered mono.
1987 CD — A Hard Day’s Night (1987, Parlophone 46437-2) — the album’s first CD issue, in mono, carrying the 3 March mix.
2009 remaster — A Hard Day’s Night (2009, Apple 82413 2) — the stereo remaster carries the 22 June 1964 stereo mix; it is a new transfer, not a new mix.

Sources

Mark Lewisohn, The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions (New York: Harmony Books, 1988), 40–41, 45–47, 201.
Kevin Ryan and Brian Kehew, Recording the Beatles: The Studio Equipment and Techniques Used to Create Their Classic Albums (Houston: Curvebender Publishing, 2006), 361, 371, 374, 376, 378, 380–85.
Joseph Brennan, Usenet Guide to Beatles Recording Variations (rev. edn.), “Tell Me Why”.

Frequently asked

Who wrote Tell Me Why?

“Tell Me Why” was written by John; like all their joint catalogue it is credited Lennon/McCartney.

Who sings lead on Tell Me Why?

John sings the lead, with the group answering him in the verses.

When was Tell Me Why recorded?

On 27 February 1964, in the morning session (10.00am–1.00pm) at EMI Studio Two, takes 1–8. It was mixed for mono from take 8 on 3 March 1964 and for stereo on 22 June 1964, both in the Studio One control room.¹

How many takes did Tell Me Why require?

Eight. The song was “started and finished” in one morning, and “by take eight” it “was to everyone’s satisfaction”; take 8 is the master.¹

Is the United Artists stereo version of Tell Me Why true stereo?

No. The United Artists “stereo” album carries the mono mix, shifted toward the left for John’s solo call in the verses and toward the right for the group’s response. The true 22 June stereo mix reached America on Capitol’s Something New.³

On this page

Story Section status: Outdated

What’s distinctive

Recording

Equipment

Recording Timeline

Studio Notes

Releases

Sources

Frequently asked