Anna (Go to Him)

The words include a question ('What am I supposed to do?'), and the lyric touches the motifs of plea and loneliness, with the lyric confessional in manner, most at home in the Beatles' 1968 songs. The lyric turns to ring composition, and a triple rhyme arrives once, "go/know/so". A curiosity, the title has had two titles and names somebody in particular. Coincidence or not, the line "I want you to" turns up in 6 Beatles songs, among them 'Now and Then', 'You Really Got a Hold on Me' and 'Dizzy Miss Lizzy'.

'Anna (Go to Him)' is a R&B and ballad piece that moves at about 109 BPM, in D major. The tune carries call and response, one voice asking and the rest answering (Lead/backing 'Anna' answers), 1963 being the year it turns up most. By accident or design, its Em → A → Em → A → D chord progression is the move 'Glass Onion' makes as Gm7 → C7 → Gm7 → C7 → F7.

The session was at EMI Studio 2, cut in three takes during the band's ten-hour debut album session, with George Harrison adapting Floyd Cramer's piano figure to guitar. Harrison played the Gretsch Duo Jet on it, his lead guitar, which the band first reached for on 'Love Me Do' five months earlier. This was one of ten songs started that day, the 5th to the 14th of their career.

Arthur Alexander wrote it and Lennon sings lead. It has everybody in their usual roles, with Lennon on rhythm guitar, McCartney on bass, Harrison on lead guitar and Starr on drums, 1963 being the year it turns up most.

This song reached listeners on March 22, 1963, as one track among many on Please Please Me. In America it arrived ten months later, on Introducing The Beatles, a Vee-Jay record. This track was the 5th of 32 released in that year, and the 7th in their whole run.