If You've Got Trouble
Encyclopedia
"If You've Got Trouble" is a song written by Lennon/McCartney
Lennon/McCartney
The Lennon–McCartney songwriting partnership is one of the best-known and most successful musical collaborations in history...

 and recorded by The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...

 on 18 February 1965 with Ringo Starr
Ringo Starr
Richard Starkey, MBE better known by his stage name Ringo Starr, is an English musician and actor who gained worldwide fame as the drummer for The Beatles. When the band formed in 1960, Starr was a member of another Liverpool band, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. He became The Beatles' drummer in...

 singing the lead vocal. The song was intended to be Starr's vocal appearance on the Help!
Help! (album)
Help! is the title of the fifth British and ninth American album by The Beatles, and the soundtrack from their film of the same name. Produced by George Martin for EMI's Parlophone Records, it contains fourteen songs in its original British form, of which seven appeared in the film...

album and the Help!
Help! (film)
Help! is a 1965 film directed by Richard Lester, starring The Beatles—John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr—and featuring Leo McKern, Eleanor Bron, Victor Spinetti, John Bluthal, Roy Kinnear and Patrick Cargill. Help! was the second feature film made by the Beatles and is a...

film, but the Beatles were not happy with the recording and later chose "Act Naturally
Act Naturally
"Act Naturally" is a song written by Johnny Russell and Voni Morrison, originally recorded by Buck Owens and the Buckaroos, whose version reached number 1 on the Billboard Country Singles chart in 1963, his first chart-topper...

" (which is not in the film) instead. "If You've Got Trouble" remained unreleased until Anthology 2
Anthology 2
Anthology 2 is a compilation album by The Beatles, released by Apple Records in March 1996. It is the second of the three-volume Anthology collection, all of which tie-in with the televised special The Beatles Anthology. The opening track is "Real Love", the second of the two recordings that...

in 1996.

Recording

"If You've Got Trouble" was recorded in a session beginning at 6:00pm on 18 February 1965, the fourth day of recording for Help!. It was one of three songs worked on that day, the others being "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away
You've Got to Hide Your Love Away
"You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" is a song by The Beatles. It was written and sung by John Lennon and released on the album Help! in August 1965.-Composition and recording:...

" (recorded earlier in the day) and "Tell Me What You See
Tell Me What You See
"Tell Me What You See" is a Beatles song that first appeared on their United Kingdom album Help! and the United States album Beatles VI. As with all Beatles compositions by either of the two, the song is credited to Lennon–McCartney, and according to Paul McCartney it was written 60% by him, 40% by...

" (recorded in the same evening session).

The backing track for the song was recorded in a single take. Starr then overdubbed
Overdubbing
Overdubbing is a technique used by recording studios to add a supplementary recorded sound to a previously recorded performance....

 a double-tracked
Doubletracking
Double tracking is an audio recording technique in which a performer sings or plays along with their own prerecorded performance, usually to produce a stronger or "bigger" sound than can be obtained with a single voice or instrument. It is a form of overdubbing; the distinction comes from the...

 vocal
Lead vocalist
The lead vocalist is the member of a band who sings the main vocal portions of a song. They may also play one or more instruments. Lead vocalists are sometimes referred to as the frontman or frontwoman, and as such, are usually considered to be the "leader" of the groups they perform in, often the...

, and Harrison
George Harrison
George Harrison, MBE was an English musician, guitarist, singer-songwriter, actor and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist of The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison became over time an admirer of Indian mysticism, and introduced it to the other...

 added an extra guitar part.

A mono mix of "If You've Got Trouble" was prepared on 20 February 1965. A stereo mix of the song was created for Anthology 2, and this mono mix remains unreleased.

Aborted Release

"If You've Got Trouble" was prepared for release in 1984 for the Sessions
Sessions (album)
Sessions was a compilation album by The Beatles planned for release by EMI in 1985, but never issued due to objections by the surviving Beatles. The album consisted of thirteen finished, but unreleased, Beatles songs...

album. Geoff Emerick
Geoff Emerick
Geoffrey Emerick is an English recording studio audio engineer, who is best known for his work with The Beatles' albums Revolver, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beatles and Abbey Road...

 edited the arrangement, swapping the verses around and knocking around 20 seconds off the running time. After the release of Sessions was blocked by the surviving Beatles, this version was subsequently widely bootlegged until the unedited version was released on Anthology 2.

Critical reception

Music critic Ian MacDonald
Ian MacDonald
Ian MacCormick was a British music critic and author, best known for Revolution in the Head, his forensic history of The Beatles which borrowed techniques from art historians, and The New Shostakovich, a controversial study of the Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich...

 said the song was "the only unmitigated disaster in the Lennon-McCartney catalogue", and criticised its lyrics and melody. Beatles' historian Mark Lewisohn
Mark Lewisohn
Mark Lewisohn is an English author and historian, regarded as the world's leading authority on the English rock band The Beatles.-The Beatles and related subjects:...

 agreed, saying it was "not one of the better Lennon-McCartney numbers ... nor was it brilliantly performed." George Harrison himself stated that "it's the most weird song. [...] It's got stupid words and is the naffest song. No wonder it didn't make it onto anything."

Personnel

  • Ringo Starr
    Ringo Starr
    Richard Starkey, MBE better known by his stage name Ringo Starr, is an English musician and actor who gained worldwide fame as the drummer for The Beatles. When the band formed in 1960, Starr was a member of another Liverpool band, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. He became The Beatles' drummer in...

     – double-tracked
    Doubletracking
    Double tracking is an audio recording technique in which a performer sings or plays along with their own prerecorded performance, usually to produce a stronger or "bigger" sound than can be obtained with a single voice or instrument. It is a form of overdubbing; the distinction comes from the...

     vocal
    Lead vocalist
    The lead vocalist is the member of a band who sings the main vocal portions of a song. They may also play one or more instruments. Lead vocalists are sometimes referred to as the frontman or frontwoman, and as such, are usually considered to be the "leader" of the groups they perform in, often the...

    , drums
    Drum kit
    A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....

  • John Lennon
    John Lennon
    John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...

     – backing vocal
    Backing vocalist
    A backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists...

    , rhythm guitar
    Rhythm guitar
    Rhythm guitar is a technique and rôle that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with singers or other instruments; and to provide all or part of the harmony, ie. the chords, where a chord is a group of notes played together...

  • Paul McCartney
    Paul McCartney
    Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...

     – backing vocal, bass
    Bass guitar
    The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....

  • George Harrison
    George Harrison
    George Harrison, MBE was an English musician, guitarist, singer-songwriter, actor and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist of The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison became over time an admirer of Indian mysticism, and introduced it to the other...

     – lead guitar
    Lead guitar
    Lead guitar is a guitar part which plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs within a song structure...

  • George Martin
    George Martin
    Sir George Henry Martin CBE is an English record producer, arranger, composer and musician. He is sometimes referred to as "the Fifth Beatle"— a title that he often describes as "nonsense," but the fact remains that he served as producer on all but one of The Beatles' original albums...

     – producer
    Record producer
    A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...

  • Norman Smith – engineer
    Audio engineering
    An audio engineer, also called audio technician, audio technologist or sound technician, is a specialist in a skilled trade that deals with the use of machinery and equipment for the recording, mixing and reproduction of sounds. The field draws on many artistic and vocational areas, including...

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