She's a Woman

Drugs come into the lyric ('Turn me on' - first Beatles drug reference per McCartney), alongside the motifs of relationship and communication. The telling is in the third person, and no earlier Beatles record does it. It uses anaphora (verse 2 lines start with 'She'). A multi-syllabic rhyme arrives once, "lonely/only". The title is about a woman, and the language is built on a limited vocabulary.

In A major at roughly 91 BPM, 'She's a Woman' is a rock and roll and R&B song, with Little Richard and blues influences. You can hear a lead sung at full stretch (sung at top of his register) and guitar and piano playing the same line (piano doubles offbeat guitar stabs). Also, it features a guitar solo. It is a 12-bar blues, one of 32 in the catalogue, such as 'Chains' and 'Money (That's What I Want)'. As it happens, the harmony moves A7 → D7 → A7 → D7 → A7 → D7 → A7 → E7, the same shape 'Good Morning Good Morning' takes as A → D → A → D → A → D → A → E. 'Money (That's What I Want)' plays A → E → A → E → A → E → B7 and 'Thank You Girl' plays G → D → G → D → G → D → A, the same progression in different keys, which this song, 'What Goes On', and 'Good Morning Good Morning' also make.

Recorded in one day at EMI Studio 2 - backing track in five hours, vocals and lead-guitar overdubs in a follow-up session, released take six. Lennon played the Rickenbacker 325, his rhythm guitar, which also turns up in 'Boys', a year earlier. The record carries double tracked vocal, as on 139 of their records. The Beatles recorded 35 songs in 1964, and this was the 28th of them, the 62nd record of their career.

The track is McCartney's, words and voice, and past the usual instruments it also carries Starr on chocalho. It sticks to the roles they usually take, with Lennon on rhythm guitar, McCartney on bass, Harrison on lead guitar and Starr on drums. Starr is credited with a metal cylinder shaker. Tack piano doubles guitar offbeats, most at home in their 1965 songs.

The record reached the public as the B-side to I Feel Fine, and it reached #4 on the US Billboard Hot 100 (the A-side topped both UK and US charts). Its first American album was Beatles '65, three weeks later, with a mix of Beatles For Sale tracks with recent singles including 'I Feel Fine'. The Beatles put it on screen as well as on the record. This track was the 21st of 35 released in 1964, and the 55th in the order they were recorded.