"Another Girl" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1965 album Help! and included in the film of the same title. The song was written by Paul McCartney[3][4] and credited to the Lennon–McCartney partnership. The song is addressed to the singer's girlfriend, who is informed that the singer has found "another girl."
Background and recording
Although "Another Girl" is credited to the Lennon–McCartney songwriting partnership,[5] it was written primarily by Paul McCartney.[6] On 4 February 1965, following completion of the Beatles' Christmas shows, McCartney and then girlfriend Jane Asher flew to Hammamet, Tunisia,[7] for a 10-day holiday.[3] Because McCartney was there as a guest of the British government, he was able to relax protected from the hassles of Beatlemania.[3][8] The couple stayed at a villa that was built in the 1920s by Romanian George Sebastian.[9] According to music journalist Steve Turner, the villa – known as "Sebastian's Villa"[10] or "Villa Sebastian" – had previously been visited by such writers as Winston Churchill, Ernest Hemingway, and F. Scott Fitzgerald.[9][nb 1] The property contained a small amphitheatre that had been built the previous year, and McCartney was inspired by its acoustics to begin writing a new song.[12] He finished "Another Girl" in a bathroom in the villa,[7] which biographer Barry Miles described as having "ideal" acoustics for songwriting.[3]
The band then added overdubs. McCartney double-tracked his vocal and Lennon added more backing vocals.[15] Harrison took 10 attempts at a guitar flourish to be edited onto the end of track, with the seventh being deemed best; however, this was left out of the final mix.[13] Harrison struggled with the lead guitar for the rest of the song, so McCartney recorded his own the next day using his Epiphone Casino.[15] The song was mixed for mono on 18 February by Martin, Smith, and Scott, and in stereo on 23 February by Smith and Malcolm Davies.[18]
Composition
With an up-tempo swing-beat that McCartney favoured ("Can't Buy Me Love", "She's a Woman") it opens with a short refrain, powered by block vocal harmonies, that segues straight into the verse, which is constructed on the blues-mode chord changes that the group favoured at that time. The bridge theme makes a sudden key change up a minor third from A to C (a harmonic strategy also used on the record's next track "You're Going to Lose That Girl") and features more close three-part harmonies as the aggressively sung verse's apparent threat to a jealous girl turns into a sweet tribute to the "other" girl who "will always be my friend".
This song features the often-utilized three-part harmonies between Lennon, McCartney and Harrison, but it is one of the only instances in which Lennon sings the highest harmony.
McCartney said of this song and other album tracks, "It's a bit much to call them fillers because I think they were a bit more than that, and each one of them made it past the Beatles test. We all had to like it."[3]
Live performances
The song was performed live for the first time by a Beatle when Paul McCartney returned to the Nippon Budokan, Tokyo, on 28 April 2015;[19][20][21][22] this was 49 years after the Beatles had first played at the venue, in June and July 1966.[23] In a released statement, McCartney said, "It was sensational and quite emotional remembering the first time and then experiencing this fantastic audience tonight."[24]
In the film Help!
In the film Help!, McCartney lip-syncs "Another Girl" while standing on a coral reef on Balmoral Island in the Bahamas, and plays a girl in a bikini as if she is a guitar.[3] Since McCartney's hands are occupied (with either bass or girl), George Harrison mimes McCartney's guitar fills as if playing them himself. The four of them each change instruments. For instance, Harrison is seen playing McCartney's bass and looks confused. Starr is shown playing acoustic guitar and Lennon mimes playing drums. Another scene was filmed at the Cloisters, a famous Bahamian landmark.
^McCartney had initially been recommended the location by Peter Ustinov.[11]
^Sources disagree on who played which rhythm guitar part. Citing George Martin's notes in his book Playback: An Illustrated Memoir, Jean-Michael Guesdon and Philippe Margotin write that Harrison played the acoustic part and Lennon the electric;[15] however, Ian MacDonald, Walter Everett, and Kenneth Womack state the opposite.[16] Sources do agree that the acoustic guitar used was a Gibson J-160E and the electric guitar was a Fender Stratocaster Sonic Blue.[17]
References
^"The Long and Winding Road from Blake to the Beatles" by Matthew Schneider. Page 29