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As it is Valentine’s Day today, it is fitting that the Song of the Week is one of The Beatles’ finest love songs, “And I Love Her.” “And I Love Her” was released on single in July 1964, backed with “If I Fell.” Both songs were also on the soundtrack album of the Beatles’ debut movie “A Hard Days Night.”

It was songs like “And I Love Her” that earned Paul McCartney the reputation as the melodic Beatle. This is a solo vocal from McCartney, which seems like a wise decision as it is a declaration of love for an anonymous woman. The song is the first Beatles’ song with acoustic backing throughout, including pleasant guitar lines from George Harrison and a simple but effective guitar break that closely mirrors the melody of the song’s verses.

The song includes a key change, which begins at the start of the instrumental break and gives the ending of the song a little more drive. This technique, so commonly and predictably used in modern boy band anthems, is artfully done here and entirely appropriate.

The Beatles – “And I Love Her”

Authorship

“And I Love Her” was credited to Lennon and McCartney, as was the custom, but written primarily by McCartney. There is some debate over what Lennon contributed to the song. He claimed to have written the middle eight, but McCartney has suggested that the entire song was his own.

Recording date/location

“And I Love Her” was recorded between February 25 and 27, 1964 at Abbey Road Studios in London.

Musicians

The Beatles played the following instruments on “And I Love Her”:

• Paul McCartney – lead vocal, bass guitar
• John Lennon – rhythm guitar
• George Harrison – lead guitar
• Ringo Starr – bongos, claves.

Chart performance

“And I Love Her” reached number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100. The band were also at number eight with the single “A Hard Days Night” that week. “And I Love Her” also reached number 15 in Canada. It was not released on single in the UK.

The album on which “And I Love Her” appeared, “A Hard Days Night”, reached number one in the US and UK.

Covers

There have been hundreds of covers of “And I Love Her” in a range of styles.

Smokey Robinson & The Miracles – “And I Love Her”

Smokey Robinson & The Miracles’ cover of “And I Love Her” closed their 1970 album “What Love Has…Joined Together.” The song is transformed into a smoochy soul number, with brass section and good backing vocals supporting Smokey’s trademark high pitched lead.

Diana Krall – “And I Love Him”

Here we have another very different interpretation of “And I Love Her”. Diana Krall’s seven-minute cover from 1995 turns McCartney’s composition into what sounds like a jazz standard. It also gets an appropriate lyric change, becoming “And I Love Him.”

Krall’s cover can be found on the album “(I Got No Kick Against) Modern Jazz”, which was subtitled “A GRP Artists’ Celebration of the Songs of the Beatles.”

There will be a new Song of the Week on February 21.

The Beatles’ “And I Love Her” is available on the great album “A Hard Days Night.”

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