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If You've Got Trouble

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If You've Got Trouble is a song written by John Lennon[1] and attributed to the Lennon-McCartney partnership. It was recorded by the Beatles on 18 February 1965 with Ringo Starr on lead vocals. Intended for inclusion on the album Help! as Starr's vocal spot, the band later replaced it with a cover of "Act Naturally". It was eventually released on Anthology 2 in 1996, after which it received a mostly negative critical reception.

Recording[]

Following an afternoon recording session from 3.30 pm to 5.15 pm that produced "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away", the Beatles returned to Studio Two at EMI Studios at 6.00 pm to record "If You've Got Trouble", which had been written specifically for Starr.[2] While the singer conferred with producer George Martin in the control room, the other three Beatles discussed what gift to buy him for his recent wedding and joked about throwing him out of the band. Of the recording, Martin commented immediately afterward that "John and Paul played awfully, but Ringo was very good".[3] Nonetheless, only one take was performed, with no false starts, before it was deemed "best" and the band moved on to recording "Tell Me What You See".

The song was subject to overdubs, with Starr's vocal being double-tracked and additional guitar work by George Harrison, before a mono mix was produced on 20 February.[2] Track 1 featured the rhythm backing of drums, bass, and Harrison on his Gretsch Tennessean, with a "guitar trio" of McCartney on Epiphone Casino, Lennon on Fender Stratocaster, and Harrison again on his Tennessean overdubbed onto track 2. Track 3 contained Starr's main lead vocal, which was doubled on track 4, along with backing vocals and Harrison's guitar solo.[4]

When the Beatles left to begin filming Help! in the Bahamas on 22 February, they brought along a tape with this and ten other songs which had been recorded the previous week, seeking feedback from Richard Lester and Walter Shenson, respectively the director and producer of the film.[2] By the time the Beatles played early mixes of tracks under consideration for the Help! soundtrack to radio DJ Murray the K in early March, this song had already been excluded, along with "That Means a Lot".[5]

Composition[]

In an article published in Melody Maker on 27 February 1965 reporting on the recording sessions, Lennon acknowledged authoring "If You've Got Trouble", commenting that the song—and its words in particular—were "the funniest thing [he'd] ever done". The article's author, Ray Coleman, noted the song's "slight Bo Diddley Beat". [3] Musicologist Alan W. Pollack observes that the "use of slow triplets in the verse tune against the 4/4 backbeat" and its "pentatonic quality" are familiar Lennon devices. Musically, the song is in the key of E and features the three "blues chords" of I, IV, and V, although not in a standard 12-bar format. In the verses, the addition of a dominant seventh over the I chord as well as the ostinato, with a prominent flat seventh, played in octaves by the lead and bass guitars add a further bluesy colour.[6]

Walter Everett and Tim Riley also note the drone-like quality of the verses, similar to "Ticket to Ride"—a Lennon composition[7] recorded three days earlier on 15 February[8]—and also found in later Lennon works like "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)".[9] Describing the track as "primitive", Everett notes that the drone in "If You've Got Trouble" is even more extreme than "Ticket to Ride" as "Lennon never chords anything on his Strat but the [I chord]... right through the IV and V harmonies", presaging the "pedals of 'Paperback Writer' and 'Rain' to come in 1966".[10]

Release[]

By the time Help! was released, this song was replaced by "Act Naturally" as Starr's vocal spot, and as of 2025 the original mono mix remains unreleased. An article in New Musical Express on 23 March 1974 that attempted to list all known Beatles outtakes from EMI Studios included this song.[11] In April 1976, EMI produced a rough in-house mono mix for a compilation of Beatles studio outtakes. This version, featuring studio chatter at the beginning, was released on the vinyl bootleg File Under: Beatles in 1984.[4] Later preparations for an exhibit on the Beatles in Studio Two of Abbey Road in summer 1983 that would feature unreleased audio resulted in further bootleg releases with "If You've Got Trouble", including Ultra Rare Tracks, Vol. 1 and Unsurpassed Masters, Vol. 2,[11] although this version was from a tape source playing too slow with the channels reversed. This would be corrected on the bootleg CD Another Sessions... Plus.[4]

In July 1983, EMI confirmed the existence of "If You've Got Trouble", but it was not included in the audio of the Abbey Road exhibition. In summer 1984, former Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick began preparing tracks for a proposed outtakes album entitled Sessions. The original version of "If You've Got Trouble" was edited down to 2:21 with the verses reordered. Its initial release date of November 1984 was delayed by Paul McCartney's album Give My Regards to Broad Street, which came out that same month. However, by early 1985 the remaining Beatles and the estate of John Lennon became aware of the project and registered various objections.[11] An article by Rip Rense published 26 May 1985 indicated that EMI was negotiating with the Beatles' representatives to secure some form of release.[12] The Sessions project would later be bootlegged in 1985 by Spank.[4] "If You've Got Trouble" would ultimately be officially released in 1996 for the Anthology series, with two slightly different stereo mixes for the album and television series,[4] in which it was played over the end credits of the fourth episode.

Reception[]

"If You've Got Trouble" has been subject to an almost universally negative reception among critics. Unlike many other unused Lennon-McCartney compositions, "If You've Got Trouble" was not recorded by another contemporary performer during the 1960s, and was in fact "the first time a Lennon-McCartney composition was taped at EMI but not released in the '60s".[13] It was, however, much later covered by London-based garage band the Bristols on their 2000 debut album Introducing... the Bristols.[14][15] Lennon remarked at the session that he "didn't expect anybody to want to record it",[3] while McCartney, when asked about the song in 1987, admitted that he and Lennon "didn't really, until later, think of Ringo's songs as seriously".[16] Harrison commented that "it's the most weird song" with "stupid words" and was not surprised that it had not been released before.[17] He further related how he was driving to McCartney's studio to work on "Free as a Bird" while listening to "If You've Got Trouble" for the first time since it was recorded. Although he had entirely forgotten the song, he nonetheless somehow recognized it. He again dismissed its "ridiculous lyrics" and called it "a pretty bizarre song", but thought it was "quite nicely played and recorded".[18]

Ian MacDonald referred to it as the "only unmitigated disaster in the Lennon-McCartney catalogue". Noting that when these two songwriters felt lazy, they "tended to burble about diamonds, rings, and money", he said the song's "tone of patronising offhandedness taints a truly terrible text, apparently designed to exploit Starr's image as the amiable twit of the group". He further criticised the song's arrangement, which required Starr "to sing in triple time whilst driving a 4/4 rock-and-roll thrash". MacDonald stated that the song's only potential historical interest was its "hint" of the "comedy song" idea McCartney would mention in an interview in October later that year.[19] Lennon's comment that the lyrics should be taken humourously would seem to confirm this.[3]

Acknowledging that Lennon and McCartney rarely gave Starr their best work, Steve Turner agreed that this song "must rate as the worst one they ever expected him to sing." Calling it melodically uninspired and lyrically embarrassing, he speculated that it may have been Lennon's "barbed attack on Cynthia", his wife, who he once remarked did not seem to mind the wealth his profession provided.[20] Allan Kozinn agreed that the song "was not top-drawer material", with "a slim melody... and even less impressive lyrics". He called the music "little more than a six-note lead guitar riff with the accent of Stax-Volt... set against a steely, steadily repeated, single bell-like guitar tone and a chunky rhythm track".[21] John. C. Winn called it " rather miserable",[4] while Everett particularly noted Harrison's "weak" guitar solo in what amounts to little more than "a mindless throwaway" of a song.[10]

Richie Unterberger 02

Richie Unterberger was one of the few critics who did not have a wholly negative view of the song

Mark Lewisohn concurred that the song "was not one of the better Lennon-McCartney numbers... nor was it brilliantly performed", although he does mention the "fine moment of humour" when Starr, "perhaps sensing that the song needed some very vital boosting", replaced his customary shout to Harrison before the instrumental break with a pleading "Ah, rock on, anybody!"[22] For Pollack, the song "suffers from too much repetition material that's not particularly striking to begin with", being both vocally and instrumentally "anemic" with harmonic progressions that have "the dreary predictability of some kind of textbook example". Ultimately, he compared it with disfavor to other Beatles' songs "constructed of similarly minimal, even trivial content", such as "Birthday", "Little Child", and "I Wanna Be Your Man".[6]

However, Stuart Shea and Robert Rodriguez believe it to be "the earliest 'self-referential' Beatles number" in that lyrics "twice mentioning rings, could only have worked for the bejeweled drummer". Acknowledging that most critics "heaped scorn" on the song, the two instead found "a few charms" in this rare attempt at "a simple go-go dance number". Calling it a song of "move-your-body R&B-influenced rock despite the silly lyrics", they particularly noted Harrison's "typically understated, twangy" guitar solo, which added "further pathos to a lyric casting Ringo as a hapless foil to a domineering, greedy partner".[23]

Richie Unterberger also was somewhat less critical. Although it is "[o]ne of the strangest early Beatles songs" and most critics are "very derisive about", he nonetheless called the track "hummable, likable, and performed with good-natured spirit". He argued that the "ringing, circular guitar riffs" presaged the sound of Rubber Soul later that year, the backing vocals—"so sparse that one wonders if they weren't completed"—are "vintage 1965 Beatles", and the lyrics "are goofier and more sardonic" than Lennon and McCartney had previously produced.[24] Admitting that "it's certainly understandable it didn't make the cut for Help!", he still called the tune "moderately catchy and gritty, though far from brilliant". He further praised Starr's "splashing and solid drumming" and thought lines such as "You think I'm soft in the head"—sung "as though he's amused by the lyric's very ludicrousness"—were in line with his "hangdog image".[13]

Personnel[]

  • Ringo Starr - double-tracked vocal, drums (Ludwig Oyster Black Pearl kit)[25]
  • John Lennon - backing vocal, rhythm guitar (Fender Stratocaster[4][10] or Rickenbacker 325[25])
  • Paul McCartney - backing vocal, bass guitar (Hofner 500/1),[25] rhythm guitar (Epiphone Casino)[4]
  • George Harrison - backing vocal,[19] rhythm and lead guitar (Gretsch Tennessean[25][10] and Fender Stratocaster[4])
  • George Martin - producer[22]
  • Norman Smith - engineer[22]
  • Ken Scott - second engineer[22]

Bibliography[]

  • The Beatles. The Beatles Anthology. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2000.
  • Coleman, Ray. "The Beatles in the studio", The History of Rock: 1965, John Mulvey, ed., 2015.
  • Everett, Walter. The Beatles As Musicians: The Quarry Men through Rubber Soul. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.
  • Everett, Walter and Tim Riley. What Goes On: The Beatles, Their Music, and Their Time. New York: Oxford University Press, 2019.
  • Kozinn, Allan. The Beatles. London: Phaidon Press Limited, 1995.
  • Lewisohn, Mark. The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions. London: Hamlyn, 2021.
  • MacDonald, Ian. Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties. Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2007.
  • Rense, Rip. "Beatles Album Travels a Long and Winding Road to Release", Chicago Sun-Times, 26 May 1985.
  • Shea, Stuart and Robert Rodriguez. Fab Four FAQ: Everything Left to Know About the Beatles... and More! New York: Hal Leonard Books, 2007
  • Turner, Steve. The Complete Beatles Songs. New York: Dey St, 2015.
  • Unterberger, Richie. The Unreleased Beatles: Music and Film, San Francisco: Backbeat Books, 2006.
  • White, Timothy. "Magical History Tour: Harrison Previews 'Anthology Volume 2'", Billboard, 9 March 1996.
  • Winn, John C. Way Beyond Compare: The Beatles Recorded Legacy, Volume 1: 1957-1965. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2008.
  • Womack, Kenneth. The Beatles Encyclopedia: Everything Fab Four. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood, 2017.

External Links[]

  1. ↑ Womack, Kenneth. The Beatles Encyclopedia: Everything Fab Four. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood, 2017, pg. 238.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Lewisohn, Mark. The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions. London: Hamlyn, 2021, pp. 55-56.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Coleman, Ray. "The Beatles in the studio", The History of Rock: 1965, John Mulvey, ed., future Publishing Ltd., 2015, pg. 17.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.8 Winn, John C. Way Beyond Compare: The Beatles Recorded Legacy, Volume 1: 1957-1965. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2008, pg. 300.
  5. ↑ Winn, John C. Way Beyond Compare: The Beatles Recorded Legacy, Volume 1: 1957-1965. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2008, pg. 306.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Pollack, Alan W. "Notes on Three Simple Songs That Didn't Make It", recmusicbeatles.com, accessed 19 April 2025.
  7. ↑ Everett, Walter and Tim Riley. What Goes On: The Beatles, Their Music, and Their Time. New York: Oxford University Press, 2019, pg. 105.
  8. ↑ Lewisohn, Mark. The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions. London: Hamlyn, 2021, pg. 54.
  9. ↑ Everett, Walter. The Beatles As Musicians: The Quarry Men through Rubber Soul. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001, pg. 313.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 Everett, Walter. The Beatles As Musicians: The Quarry Men through Rubber Soul. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001, pg. 289.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Wynn, John. "Where We've Been: The Road to 'Sessions'", aboutthebeatles.com, accessed 19 April 2025.
  12. ↑ Rense, Rip. "Beatles Album Travels a Long and Winding Road to Release", Chicago Sun-Times, 26 May 1985.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Unterberger, Richie. The Unreleased Beatles: Music and Film, San Francisco: Backbeat Books, 2006, pg. 119.
  14. ↑ "Introducing the Bristols - The Bristols", allmusic.com, accessed 19 April 2025.
  15. ↑ "Introducing... the Bristols", damagedgoods.greedbag.com, accessed 19 April 2025.
  16. ↑ Lewisohn, Mark. The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions. London: Hamlyn, 2021, pg. 12.
  17. ↑ The Beatles. The Beatles Anthology. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2000, pg. 173.
  18. ↑ White, Timothy. "Magical History Tour: Harrison Previews 'Anthology Volume 2'", Billboard, 9 March 1996, pg. 88.
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 MacDonald, Ian. Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties. Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2007, pg. 149.
  20. ↑ Turner, Steve. The Complete Beatles Songs. New York: Dey St, 2015, pg. 332.
  21. ↑ Kozinn, Allan. The Beatles. London: Phaidon Press Limited, 1995, pg. 116.
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 22.2 22.3 Lewisohn, Mark. The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions. London: Hamlyn, 2021, pg. 55.
  23. ↑ Shea, Stuart and Robert Rodriguez. Fab Four FAQ: Everything Left to Know About the Beatles... and More! New York: Hal Leonard Books, 2007, pg. 293.
  24. ↑ Unterberger, Richie. "If You've Got Trouble - The Beatles", allmusic.com, accessed 19 April 2025.
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 25.2 25.3 Womack, Kenneth. The Beatles Encyclopedia: Everything Fab Four. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood, 2017, pg. 239.
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