You Like Me Too Much

Story

Recording

Equipment

Recording Timeline

• 17 February 1965 (Wed) — recording, EMI Studio Two — Studio Two, 7.00–11.00pm. P: George Martin. E: Norman Smith. 2E: Ken Scott. Recording: You Like Me Too Much (takes 1–8). A four-hour evening session following the afternoon recording of The Night Before. Take 8 was deemed ‘best’. The track featured three keyboard players: John on Hohner Pianet, Paul on Steinway grand piano, and George Martin also on Steinway grand. George Harrison sang double-tracked lead vocals. Originally intended for the film soundtrack but later relegated to side B of the Help! LP.¹
• 18 February 1965 (Thu) — mono mixing, EMI Studio Two control room — Studio Two control room, 5.15–6.00pm. P: George Martin. E: Norman Smith. 2E: Ken Scott. Mono mixing: You Like Me Too Much (from take 8); The Night Before (from take 2). The mono mixes of both 17 February songs were prepared together, part of a full day that also saw the recording of You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away (takes 1–9), If You’ve Got Trouble (take 1) and Tell Me What You See (takes 1–4).¹
• 23 February 1965 (Tue) — stereo mixing, EMI Studio Two control room — Studio Two control room, 10.00am–1.00pm. P: n/a. E: Norman Smith. 2E: Malcolm Davies. Stereo mixing: You Like Me Too Much (from take 8). Part of a batch stereo-mix session covering all 11 songs from the 15–20 February recording week. Prepared without the Beatles present (who had flown to the Bahamas on 22 February to begin shooting the Help! film).¹

Studio Notes

• Three keyboard players — Pianet + two Steinway performers — You Like Me Too Much is one of the earliest Beatles recordings to feature three keyboard players. John plays the Hohner Pianet C/N (the electric piano that became a recurring texture in the Help! sessions), while Paul and George Martin both play the Steinway B Grand Piano in Studio Two. The four-track layout confirms the complexity: piano appears on both Track 1 (alongside drums, bass, acoustic guitar and tambourine in the live backing track) and Track 2 (alongside John’s Pianet and a guitar solo). The dual Steinway credit and the split across tracks suggests the piano intro/outro that opens and closes the released master was played jointly by Paul and George Martin as part of the basic track, with a second piano part overdubbed alongside the Pianet on Track 2.^1,2
• Double-tracked Harrison vocals on Tracks 3 and 4 — George’s lead vocal was double-tracked manually across Tracks 3 and 4, with backing vocals also on both tracks. This is the standard pre-ADT double-tracking method used throughout the Help! sessions: a second vocal performance recorded by ear to match the timing of the first. Double-tracking vocals had become “almost obligatory” for the group by 1965 and “figured heavily into most of their output” that year, though several Help! songs — notably You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away and Yesterday — stand out for deliberately using single-tracked vocals instead.^1,2
• Telefunken four-track — pre-J37 recording — As with the afternoon The Night Before session, You Like Me Too Much was recorded on the Telefunken four-track tape machine. The Studer J37 would not be installed in the Studio Two control room until April 1965. The Telefunken machines were operated from their machine rooms (Room 1A or Room 1B) rather than from within the control room, requiring the tape operator to work in a separate room from balance engineer Norman Smith — a practical constraint that the J37’s installation would shortly eliminate.²
• Film-soundtrack rejection — Although “intended for the film soundtrack,” You Like Me Too Much was not selected for use in the Help! film and was placed on side B of the LP (track 3, after It’s Only Love and before Tell Me What You See). The film’s side-A songs were all Lennon–McCartney compositions; Harrison’s I Need You (side A, track 4) was the only non-Lennon–McCartney film-soundtrack selection. “Such was the group’s embarrassment of songwriting riches” during this period that even Yes It Is appeared merely as a B-side.¹
• Harrison’s early songwriting trajectory — You Like Me Too Much is George Harrison’s fourth solo-credited Beatles composition, following Don’t Bother Me (1963), I Need You (15 February 1965) and the still-unreleased work from earlier sessions. The Help! LP marks the first time Harrison had two of his own songs on a single Beatles album — a quota that would grow to three on Rubber Soul (Think for Yourself, If I Needed Someone, Norwegian Wood is Lennon’s) and eventually four on Abbey Road.¹
• Microphone configuration — February 1965 week — The standard mic setup documented by George Martin for the adjacent 16 February session (applicable to the entire 15–20 February week): AKG D19c as Ringo’s drum overhead, AKG D20 on bass drum and on Paul’s bass rig, Neumann U47 microphones on John and George’s Vox AC100 SDL amplifier rigs, and a Neumann U48 set to figure-of-eight pattern for vocals. The piano would have been miked with a Neumann U47, U48 or KM-54 per the 1965 standard configuration.²

Releases

• 1965 UK mono LP Help! (6 August 1965, Parlophone PMC 1255, side B track 3) — Released mono master mixed at EMI Studio Two on 18 February 1965 (from take 8). P: George Martin. E: Norman Smith. 2E: Ken Scott. The mono mix was prepared in the same session as The Night Before’s mono mix, and was one of 11 mono mixes carried to the Bahamas on 22 February for film-production approval. You Like Me Too Much appears on side B, track 3, on the non-soundtrack side of the LP.¹
• 1965 UK stereo LP Help! (6 August 1965, Parlophone PCS 3071, side B track 3) — Released stereo master from the 23 February 1965 stereo-mix session (from take 8), prepared by Norman Smith and Malcolm Davies without the Beatles present.¹
• 1965 US Capitol LP Beatles VI (14 June 1965, Capitol ST 2358) — In North America, You Like Me Too Much appeared on the Capitol-compiled Beatles VI rather than the US Help! LP, which included only the seven film-soundtrack songs plus George Martin’s orchestral incidental music.¹
• 1966 UK EP Yesterday (4 March 1966, Parlophone GEP 8948) — Included alongside Yesterday, Act Naturally and It’s Only Love.
• 2009 Stereo Remasters — Help! (9 September 2009, Apple/EMI) — Allan Rouse / Guy Massey / Steve Rooke 24-bit flat transfer of the 1965 stereo master. Mono Masters companion carries the 1965 mono master with no documented remix.