After spending the last four days celebrating solo songs by the four members of the Beatles post-breakup, it’s only fitting that we now look at a tune that features all four Beatles working together and firing on all cylinders. Today’s classic song of the day, then, is an early one by the Fab Four, “All My Loving.” Believe it or not, this one was never released as a single in the U.S. or the UK; they had so many other great tunes at the time they just couldn’t fit this one into the schedule.
(Note that “All My Loving” was released as a single in Canada, where it went to #1. Enough copies made it across the border to push the officially unreleased song to #45 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.)
Although credited to Lennon-McCartney, as per usual, this one was written entirely by Paul McCartney, who also sings lead. Here’s what Sir Paul remembers about it:
“It was the first song I’d ever written the words first. I never wrote words first, it was always some kind of accompaniment, I’ve hardly ever done it since either. We were on a tour bus going to a gig and so I started with the words. I had in mind a little country and western song. We played the Moss Empire circuit a lot, and there were always these nice big empty backstage areas. The places have all become bingo halls now. We arrived at the gig and I remember being in one of these big backstage areas and there was a piano there so I’d got my instrument. I didn’t have a guitar, it was probably with our road manager, and I remember working the tune out to it on the piano. It was a good show song, it worked well live.”
“All My Loving” was included on their second UK album, With the Beatles, which was released in November of 1963. Americans first got a listen to it in January of 1964, on the U.S. Meet the Beatles! album.
There are many notable things about the “All My Loving” recording, beyond just the song itself. First, Paul sings harmony with himself; apparently he was the only one who could reach the highest notes, so it’s Paul singing both vocal parts. Then there’s John Lennon’s propulsive rhythm guitar, nothing but rapid-fire triplets from start to finish, is a thing of wonder. And Ringo’s swishy hi-hat shuffle is something that is much more difficult than it might appear. (Those drummers who say Ringo didn’t have much in the way of chops, just try playing along to this one at tempo without cramping up.)
Even John Lennon, who sometimes had less-than-kind words about his partner’s work, liked this one—and his own playing on it, too:
‘”All My Loving’ is Paul, I regret to say. Ha-ha-ha. Because it’s a damn good piece of work. [Singing] ‘All my loving…’ But I play a pretty mean guitar in back.”
Yes, he does play pretty mean guitar on this one, as even Paul McCartney said:
“The thing that strikes me about the ‘All My Loving’ recording is John’s guitar part; he’s playing the chords as triplets. That was a last-minute idea, and it transforms the whole thing, giving it momentum. The song is obviously about someone leaving to go on a trip, and that driving rhythm of John’s echoes the feeling of travel and motion. It sounds like a car’s wheels on the motorway, which, if you can believe it, had only really become a thing in the UK at the end of the fifties. But, it was often like that when we were recording. One of us would come up with that little magic thing. It allowed the song to become what it needed to be.”
Then there are Paul’s young-guy-in-love lyrics, which all of us of a certain age can sing along to by heart:
Close your eyes and I’ll kiss you,
Tomorrow I’ll miss you;
Remember I’ll always be true.
And then while I’m away,
I’ll write home everyday,
And I’ll send all my loving to you
Chord-wise, “All My Loving” is fairly simple but extremely effective. It’s in the key of E and the verses go ii – V – I – vi – IV – ii – VII – V7 (that’s F#m – B – E – C#m – A – F#m – D – B7), BTW, if that major VII chord (the D) seems a tad unusual, it serves as the dominant to the dominant V7 chord. Pretty standard stuff, actually.
“All My Loving” is also notable for being the very first tune the Beatles performed on their initial appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show on February 9, 1964. That performance (of “All My Loving,” “Till There Was You,” “She Loves You,” “I Saw Her Standing There,” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand“) is today’s daily bonus video of the day; what an introduction to the group that would change popular music forever.
