The Beatles - If I Fell

Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 27 February 1964
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Norman Smith

Released: 10 July 1964 (UK), 26 June 1964 (US)

John Lennon: vocals, acoustic rhythm guitar
Paul McCartney: vocals, bass
George Harrison: electric guitar
Ringo Starr: drums

Available on:
A Hard Day's Night

If I Fell was a ballad primarily written by John Lennon, which first appeared on the A Hard Day's Night film and soundtrack.



A Hard Day's Night (Remastered)
The Beatles. EMI 2009, Audio CD, $7.35
The song was a collaboration between Lennon and McCartney, with Lennon taking the lead.

That's my first attempt to write a ballad proper. That was the precursor to In My Life. It has the same chord sequence as In My Life: D and B minor and E minor, those kinds of things. And it's semi-autobiographical, but not consciously. It shows that I wrote sentimental love ballads, silly love songs, way back then.
John Lennon
All We Are Saying, David Sheff
The Beatles mimed to If I Fell during the A Hard Day's Night film. The scene takes place while the crew are setting up equipment prior to The Beatles' 'studio performance'. Amusingly, Lennon sings the love song to Starr.

The song became a part of The Beatles' live repertoire in 1964. As the only ballad performed by the group at the time, it often suffered for their inability to hear themselves above the screams of Beatlemaniacs.

The live versions were typically faster than the studio recording. Bootleg recordings also often show Lennon and McCartney vainly attempting to suppress laughter while singing the song - occasionally it was jokingly introduced as If I Fell Over.

The Beatles recorded If I Fell twice for BBC radio. The first was taped on 14 July 1964 at Broadcasting House, London, and was transmitted two days later on the Top Gear programme. The second performance took place on 17 July at the BBC Paris Studio, London, and was first broadcast on 3 August. Neither rendition was included on the Live At The BBC collection.

On 8 April 1988 John Lennon's lyrics for If I Fell, written on the back of a Valentine's Day card, were sold at Sotheby's in London for £7,800.

People tend to forget that John wrote some pretty nice ballads. People tend to think of him as an acerbic wit and aggressive and abrasive, but he did have a very warm side to him really which he didn't like to show too much in case he got rejected. We wrote If I Fell together but with the emphasis on John because he sang it. It was a nice harmony number, very much a ballad
Paul McCartney
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles
In the studio
If I Fell was recorded in 15 takes on 27 February 1964. On the same day they also recorded Tell Me Why and the second and final remake of And I Love Her.

The song's acoustic introduction - which is not repeated elsewhere in the song, musically or lyrically - made its first appearance on take 11. However, home demos recorded by Lennon early in 1964 contained the passage.

The two-part harmony vocals was sung by Lennon and McCartney into a single microphone. Lennon took the low harmony, allowing McCartney to dominate the verses.

Chart success
If I Fell was the third song on the UK version of the A Hard Day's Night album, which was released on 10 July 1964.

The US soundtrack LP was issued on 26 June. If I Fell was also the b-side of the And I Love Her single, which reached number 12 in the Billboard chart.

If I Fell performed better in Norway, where it was a chart-topping single in its own right.

A rare UK single, with Tell Me Why on the b-side, was pressed in the UK by EMI and released on 4 December 1964. It was made for export purposes, but a number of record dealers began shipping the discs back into the UK for resale. The catalogue number was Parlophone DP 562.

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Music

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[VideoFan0112]

George broke the thing the amp was on

i love this song very relaxing

[lbr218]

I love their harmonies. Amazing song.

[bvlucena]

essa aqui é para vc colocar naquele dia de chuva, vcs 2 sozinhos numa rede e tomando uma heineken, claro! ;)

[Msemospongebob]

0:08 the lennon face...

[johnbarry1965]

I absolutely adore Lennon s "mong face" at the start!