Breakfast With Behka and The Beatles Recap: Week of January 12

Every  morning I start our show with a Beatles song.  Lately I've been going in chronological order, or as close as it can be.  We're working our way through the group's third album, A Hard Day's Night, this week. On Monday, I was not well. I was sick. I was at home.

But, I did come back on Tuesday, to play "Can't Buy Me Love".

While in Paris, the Beatles stayed at the five star George V hotel and had an upright piano moved into one of their suites so that song writing could continue. It was here that McCartney wrote "Can't Buy Me Love." The song was written under the pressure of the success achieved by "I Want to Hold Your Hand" which had just reached number one in America. "Can't Buy Me Love" was recorded on 29 January 1964 at EMI's Pathe Marconi Studios in Paris, France, where the Beatles were performing 18 days of concerts at the Olympia Theatre.

On Wednesday, I played "Any Time At All".

In his 1980 interview with Playboy, Lennon described the song as "An effort at writing 'It Won't Be Long'. Same ilk: C to A minor, C to A minor—with me shouting." Lennon's handwritten lyrics for "Any Time at All" were sold for £6,000 at an auction held at Sotheby's in London, on 8 April 1988. McCartney sings the second "Anytime at all" in each chorus because Lennon couldn't reach the notes.

On Thursday, I played "I'll Cry Instead".

John Lennon wrote the song for the "break-out" sequence in the film. However, director Richard Lester eventually decided he preferred the livelier "Can't Buy Me Love" with its upbeat lyric, and that was used instead. When Walter Shenson re-released the film in 1981, "I'll Cry Instead" was included in an opening sequence as a tribute to Lennon consisting of early to mid-1960s-style collage of photos of the Beatles in 1964 around the time they were shooting the film. "I'll Cry Instead" was described by Cynthia Lennon as a cry for help, saying "It reflects the frustration he [John Lennon] felt at that time. He was the idol of millions, but the freedom and fun of the early days had gone." John Lennon later said the line "A chip on my shoulder that's bigger than my feet" was an accurate indication of his feelings at the time.

On Friday, I played "Things We Said Today".

McCartney wrote the song in May 1964 while cruising the Caribbean aboard a yacht called Happy Days with his then-girlfriend Jane Asher. The song is one of three main compositions (along with "And I Love Her" and "Can't Buy Me Love") that Paul McCartney wrote for the film. The Beatles included "Things We Said Today" as part of their live set during their 1964 tour of the United States and Canada. George Harrison sang harmony vocals alongside Paul McCartney during the performances.

Well, that'll do it for this week's edition of BWBATB. We'll pick up where we left off on Monday with the next song on the album, "When I Get Home".

Filmically yours,
Behka