Recording History
Many may have questions regarding the recording history of “I Call Your Name” because of the subtle differences between the mono and stereo mixes that they are used to listening to. These differences aren’t so much a product of the recording as they are of the editing done when the various mixes were made of the song. The actual recording was very simple and quite the usual process for The Beatles and everyone else involved.
March 1st, 1964, was the final session date used for recording the first batch of songs for their upcoming first film, eventually titled “A Hard Day’s Night.” Three selections were recorded in EMI Studio Two during this three hour morning / afternoon session, which ran from 10 am to 1:30 pm. After completely finishing “I’m Happy Just To Dance With You” and “Long Tall Sally,” they started work on “I Call Your Name,” which would make it approximately noon.
Before the first take of the song, Lennon askedGeorge Martin, who was in the control room, “Do you think it’s a bit much doing Billy J.’s intro and solo? Cos it’s our song anyroad, innit?” When you examine Billy J. Kramer’s version of the song, you can easily see that The Beatles did decide to use the introduction and solo section as previously recorded for his version.
The group did seven takes live with all four Beatles playing the usual instruments, however only three of those seven takes were complete. "Take seven" was determined to be the best, onto which two overdubs were then performed, one for double tracking John’s vocals and the other for Ringo to play a cowbell throughout the entire song. This wrapped up the session at 1:30 pm, in preparation for the first day of shooting “A Hard Day’s Night” the next day.
Now the mixing process begins. Two days later, on March 3rd, 1964, George Martin and his engineersNorman Smith and A.B. Lincoln convened in the control room of EMI Studio One to prepare mono mixes for six of the recently recorded songs. These mono mixes were made in a hurry because of United Artists’ urgent request for the songs to be used in the film. Since “I Call Your Name” was one of the songs mixed on this day, it can easily be assumed that they intended the song to be in the movie at this point in time. Since the title track to the movie wasn’t yet written or recorded, “I Call Your Name” obviously got replaced in the soundtrack when the song “A Hard Day’s Night” eventually materialized. Also, it has been said that the film's director Richard Lester rejected "I Call Your Name" for inclusion in the movie because it too closely resembled "You Can't Do That," which was slated for inclusion in the film at that time. Either way, as it turned out, the mix for “I Call Your Name” made on this day was ultimately scrapped.
The next day, March 4th, 1964, saw the first mono mix of the song that did get released. George Martin entered the control room of EMI Studio Three between 10 and 11 am with an unnamed engineer to then create another mono mix. This is the mono mix that was sent to the US for inclusion on the rush-released “The Beatles’ Second Album.” It was decided while creating this mix that the solo section had been performed better on a previous take, so this portion of the song was edited into "take seven" just after the double-tracked lyric “I call your name” in the third verse, evidenced by the disappearing of the cowbell at that point. After the solo is complete, "take seven" reappears with the lyric “don’t you know I can’t take it,” which brings back the cowbell for the rest of the song.
On March 10th, 1964, George Martin and Norman Smith convened in EMI Studio Two to make seven mixes, four of them stereo, for recently recorded Beatles songs. “I Call Your Name” received its first stereo mix on this day, which was also rushed off toCapitol Records in the US for inclusion on "The Beatles’ Second Album." Capitol proceeded to add some reverb to this stereo mix to add a bit of depth to the sound.
There are some noteworthy differences in this first stereo mix. First of all, a decision was made to use a different introduction to the song from an earlier take, however this take did not have either the cowbell or double-tracked vocal overdubs applied to it since the take was not deemed good enough at the time of recording. As it is, the beginning guitar introduction by George Harrison is noticeably different from what is heard in the earlier mono mix taken directly from "take seven." Just as John starts singing “I call your name” in this stereo mix, the cowbell appears for the first time. The solo section is also edited into the mix like it was for the previous mono mix, but the edit comes just before John sings “I call your name” at the end of the third verse, leaving it without the cowbell during those words. It’s also noteworthy to mention that the vocals and the cowbell appear in the right channel of this first stereo mix. Since both of these mixes were released in the US on the mono and stereo versions of “The Beatles’ Second Album,” America became familiar with these unique versions of the song.
"I Call Your Name" was recorded once again by The Beatles on March 31st, 1964 atPlayhouse Theatre in London between 7 and 10:30 pm for the BBC radio show “Saturday Club,” which was produced by Jimmy Grant and Bernie Andrews and broadcast on April 4th of that year between 10 am and 12 noon.
June 4th, 1964, saw another mono mix of the official EMI recording of the song, which was ultimately the one used in Britain for the “Long Tall Sally” EP, released on June 19th, 1964. George Martin, Norman Smith and 2nd engineer Richard Langham entered EMI Studio Two on this day with, once yet again, editing this song in mind. Like the mono mix sent to America, they kept strictly to "take seven" for the introduction which has the cowbell appear right from the beginning of the song. When editing in the solo section from that previous take, the edit appeared just before the words “I call your name” in the third verse, at which point the cowbell disappears. It then reappears when the solo is over just as the words “don’t you know I can’t take it” are sung.
June 22nd, 1964, three days after the British EP was released, another stereo mix of "I Call Your Name" was created during a marathon mixing session for the upcoming “A Hard Day’s Night” album. This session, attended only by George Martin, Norman Smith and engineerGeoff Emerick, took place in the control room of EMI Studio One. The existence of this latest mix indicates that the "powers that be" were still considering including the song on this album, although obviously this idea was dropped shortly thereafter.
Just like what is heard in the earlier stereo mix, the EMI staff incorporated the introduction from that earlier take without the overdubs, thereby omitting the cowbell. However, this time they were a little late in returning back to the finished "take seven" with the added overdubs, so the first line, “I call you name,” is from that earlier take and is, therefore, single-tracked and without the cowbell. They then decided to edit back to "take seven" at the beginning of the second measure, which brings in the cowbell for the first time in the song just before the words “but you’re not there,” these vocals being double-tracked. The solo section is still edited in from the earlier take of the song, but it comes in just after the words “I call your name” at the end of the third verse, which therefore has the cowbell playing through those words. Unlike the previous stereo mix that has the vocals and cowbell in the right channel only, these elements are now centered in this newer stereo mix with the cowbell slightly louder.
This hurriedly done stereo mix did not get released until the 1976 “Rock ‘n’ Roll Music” compilation, this mix appearing in both the US and UK versions of the album. George Martin was asked by current Capitol Records president Bhaskar Menon to be involved in preparing this album for release. In a 1976 Rolling Stone magazine article, George Martin stated, "I did what I thought was necessary to make it a bit more palatable for today's market without destroying the intent of the original." In the case of this never before released stereo mix of "I Call Your Name," George Martin decided to reverse the left and right channels and not add any reverb as US audiences were used to hearing on "The Beatles' Second Album."
After all was said and done, there were four unique mixes of “I Call Your Name” made in 1964.
June 7th, 1976 saw the second release of the song on the Capitol compilation album “Rock ‘n’ Roll Music.” The unique June 22nd, 1964 stereo mix of "I Call Your Name" detailed above is included here. On October 27th, 1980, albums one and two of this collection were divided and released in two volumes, “Rock ‘n’ Roll Music, Volume 1” containing the same stereo mix of "I Call Your Name."
March 7th, 1988 saw the next release of the song on the compilation CD “Past Masters, Volume One,” which also contained the later June 22nd, 1964 stereo mix. Both volumes of "Past Masters" were then combined into one double-album for a vinyl release on October 24th, 1988 and then as a remastered CD set on September 9th, 2009 and on vinyl on November 12th, 2012.
On June 30th, 1992, Capitol released a CD box set entitled “Compact Disc EP Collection” which contained all of the British EPs in mono. This was the first time that the June 4th, 1964 mono mix of “I Call Your Name,” as originally heard in Britain, was released in the US.
On November 16th, 2004, a box set entitled “The Capitol Albums, Vol. 1” was released, which featured both the early mono and stereo mixes of “I Call Your Name” as originally released in America on “
On September 9th, 2009, the June 4th, 1964 mono mix of the song, as originally contained on the British “
