A Hard Day's Night album cover

You Can't Do That

1964 · A Hard Day's Night

“If I catch you talking to that boy again”

Lennon's jealous, threat-laden warning to a wandering partner, built on a 12-bar blues frame with his signature D7♯9 voicing. The B-side of 'Can't Buy Me Love' and the record on which Harrison debuted his 12-string Rickenbacker 360/12. It was filmed for the concert finale of A Hard Day's Night but cut from the final edit.

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Sources & references

Tags on this page are original analysis, transcribed and cross-checked against the fine work of others: Alan W. Pollack's “Notes on…” series, the Beatles Complete Scores (Hal Leonard), Mark Lewisohn's session histories, Ian MacDonald's Revolution in the Head, Dave Rybaczewski's Beatles Music History and Andy Babiuk's Beatles Gear for the instruments and studio equipment, and others besides - then verified by ear against the recordings. Full bibliography: Sources & thanks.

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