What a difference a day makes.
Last night you said you loved me! Now today I find that you have changed your mind. Oh how I wish things were like they were the night before.
When we said goodbye last night, I saw the love you had for me in your eyes. I loved you too. I still do!
I'll always remember how you were last night. When I think of things we did, it makes me wanna cry!
Were you telling lies the night before? Was I so unwise, the night before? Now today I find that you have changed your mind.
Treat me like you did the night before!
The Beatles
The year is 1965. The most popular band on the planet were also movie stars. Their second movie called Help! was super popular and it was in Color, whereas the first, Hard Day's Night was Black n White.
Years later I was in the bedroom of a girl I knew. We were talking and laughing and having teenage fun. She had some old albums and she put this record on. It was the Help! soundtrack, which was new to me.
The one song that really stood out to me was a simple song, with a hooky 4 chord progression. The story line was as described up at the top of this post. Paul on vocals with John and George backing. John played a pianet, electric piano, which has a really pleasant tone. Ringo was banging away on that cymbal most of the song, as he tended to do on early Beatles records. Then that break and the way too short guitar solo, but still catchy.
I loved it then and I love it now.
The Night Before, from HELP!
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This video of this song is only a month old on YouTube. It already has 806K views!
The version on The Beatles YouTube channel from 7 years ago has 19 Million views!
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Let's Deconstruct This, Track by Track
Last month, a YouTube channel called https://www.youtube.com/@itzeds put up a 15 minute video which somehow isolates all the instrumental and vocal tracks for this song, The Night Before.
Normally I might be interested in such detail, but I really do love this song! So it was a treat to study it as it was broke down into its parts. You can hear every little detail. Nothing in the same frequency band to cover over anything else.
Things I noticed:
Paul's bass has a little play in the notes. They mostly are 1 2 3, but sometimes its more like 1 23. If you hear what I mean. :D
Backing vocals, after "the night before" are ahh ahh ahh ahh. I always noticed the second ahh was a lower tone than the first one. I was surprised that this was repeated in the 3rd and 4th ahhs. I always though ahh 4 was a higher tone, because the lead vocal over it went up in tone.
John on pianet is rather sloppy. I hear mistakes! not just one or two but several. This instrumentation is rather back in the track volume and you don't get a clear hearing of it in the original full song.
The rhythm guitar by George is mostly subdued too. Some notes ring out hard, but mostly it's rather mellow. I think this was typical for those days. I am a Ramones fan and all they have is rhythm guitar (no lead) and it is very loud and prominent. I guess with the other instruments on a song like this, you don't need any one instrument to be super powerful.
Ringo on drums drives the track. It's fairly basic. You don't hear him hitting that cymbal - it just seems like it is always vibrating. Maybe loud soft loud soft, but there isn't a part where I do Not hear it!
Well here it is. I don't know if this is your thing, but for me, I found it very cool to hear!
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Fast Forward SIXTY Years
I found a cover of The Night Before on YouTube a few days ago when it first dropped.
This is a very very accurate cover!
The band is The Young Analogues. I think they are from Ireland. The YouTube channel is The Analogues and I think that is a different band. Maybe The Young Analogues are their kids?
Well folks are freaking out (or crashing out as the kids now say) in the comments.
They're so amazing.
I'm 74 and have been a Beatles fan all my life. You guys are the best in recreating their music. Thank you, I love it.
So beautifully nostalgic, It Makes Me Wanna Cry.
It's so great that young people today still play the music of the Beatles!
Let's hear The Young Analogues do The Night Before. This has 93K views in 3 days, Yesss!
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Happy Friday!
All You Need Is Love! Let's love and respect each other.