Matchbox

The track deals in the motifs of loneliness, plea and sex. The lyric turns to extended metaphor, which the band first reached for on 'A Taste of Honey' a year earlier. Fun fact, the title is just the one word. One for the curious, the line "Let me be your" turns up in 3 Beatles songs, among them 'I Want to Hold Your Hand' and 'I Wanna Be Your Man'.

'Matchbox' runs near 160 BPM in A major, and it is a rock and roll and blues piece from first bar to last. There is a defining riff, a lead guitar intro A-position figure. Verse after verse and nothing else, which makes the song strophic, one of sixteen, such as 'Words of Love' and 'Dizzy Miss Lizzy'. Whether it was meant or not, the chords run A7 → D7 → A7 → E7 → A7 → E7, the same move 'Here Comes the Sun' makes as A/E → D → A → E7 → A → E7.

Cut in five takes at EMI Studio 2, with George Martin overdubbing piano in a later session. On this one McCartney played the Hofner 500/1, his bass, 1964 being the year he used it most. They reached for the Ludwig Downbeat, Starr's own kit since 1963. Double tracked vocal was used in making the record, as on 139 of their records. It shares its session day with three others, the 47th to the 50th of their career.

Carl Perkins wrote it and Starr sings lead. George Martin played piano, as he also did on 'Penny Lane' and 'All You Need Is Love'. It was chosen with Ringo in mind.

The song was released in the UK on the Long Tall Sally EP and as a US A-side single backed with Slow Down, reaching the US Top 20. It made the American top forty (#17 Billboard Hot 100). Something New gathered it up in America four weeks later, on Capitol, with remaining A Hard Day's Night tracks plus Long Tall Sally EP tracks. This is the Beatles' 42nd record, and the 8th of the 35 they released in 1964.