Chains

The lyric takes in the motifs of relationship, plea and love. It uses extended metaphor (chains = invisible romantic bondage), most at home in the Beatles' 1968 writing. An extrametrical rhyme arrives once, "me yeah / see". A curiosity, the title is one word long. Coincidence or not, the line "Believe me when I tell you" turns up in one other Beatles song, 'Oh! Darling'.

'Chains' is a rock and roll and R&B piece, written in B♭ major and taken at about 120 BPM. It has a harmonica solo, and no Beatles song before it reaches for 9. Underneath it is a plain 12-bar blues, the shape behind 32 of their recordings, such as 'Money (That's What I Want)' and 'Little Child'. By accident or design, the chords run E♭9 → B♭ → F9 → E♭9 → B♭ → F, a shape 'You Can't Do That' also uses, there as C7 → G7 → D7♯9 → C7 → G7 → D7.

This song came out of EMI Studio 2, recorded in one of the early afternoon slots of the Please Please Me marathon session, with Lennon's harmonica intro carried over from Love Me Do's approach. Lennon played the Rickenbacker 325, his guitar, one of 44 Beatles records to use it, such as 'Please Please Me' and 'A Taste of Honey'. It shares its session day with nine others, the 5th to the 14th of their career.

Gerry Goffin and Carole King wrote it, and Harrison sings lead. It was played the way the band normally lined up, with Lennon on rhythm guitar, McCartney on bass, Harrison on lead guitar and Starr on drums, and harmonica is in there too, a habit that peaked in 1965.

The song was released March 22, 1963, as part of Please Please Me, and it reached America ten months later, on the Vee-Jay album Introducing The Beatles. This song was the 6th of the 32 records they released in that year, and the 8th in their whole run.