“Got To Get You Into My Life”

• Published in 1966
• Author: Lennon/McCartney
• Track 13 on “Revolver“

Beatles quotes about “Got To Get You Into My Life”

JOHN 1968: “We were doing our Tamla Motown bit. You see, we’re influenced by whatever’s going. Even if we’re not influenced, we’re all going that way at a certain time.”

JOHN 1972: “I think George and I helped with some of the lyrics. I’m not sure.”

JOHN 1980: “Paul. I think that was one of his best songs, too, because the lyrics are good and I didn’t write them. You see? When I say that he could write lyrics if he took the effort– here’s an example.”

PAUL 1984: “That’s mine– I wrote it. It was the first one we used brass on, I think. One of the first times we used soul trumpets.”

PAUL circa-1994: “I’d been a rather straight working class lad, but when we started to get into pot it seemed to me to be quite uplifting. It didn’t seem to have too many side effects like alcohol or some of the other stuff, like pills, which I pretty much kept off. I kind of liked marijuana and to me it seemed it was mind-expanding, literally mind-expanding. So ‘Got To Get You Into My Life’ is really a song about that. It’s not to a person, it’s actually about pot. It’s saying, ‘I’m going to do this. This is not a bad idea.’ So it’s actually an ode to pot, like someone else might write an ode to chocolate or a good claret. I haven’t really changed my opinion too much, except if anyone asks me for real advice, it would be stay straight. That is actually the best way, but in a stressful world I still would say that pot was one of the best of the tranquilizing drugs. I have drunk and smoked pot and of the two I think pot is less harmful. People tend to fall asleep on it rather than go out and commit murder, so it’s always seemed to me to be a rather benign one.”

About “Got To Get You Into My Life”

“Got To Get You Into My Life” is a Motown-influenced song written by Paul McCartney. Featuring brass instrumentation and psychedelic lyrics, it pays homage to the Motown Sound. The song took some time to get right in the studio – the Anthology 2 album has a version from the first day’s recording, 7 April, played on a harmonium and sounding quite different to the final arrangement heard on Revolver.

On the following day, The Beatles tried a different arrangement, settling on the rhythm track. They overdubbed a guitar part on 11 April, but the song remained untouched until 18 May. They added the song’s brass and woodwind parts, along with two lead vocal parts, tambourine, and organ on that day. The Beatles hired two members of Georgie Fame And The Blueflames, whom John Lennon and Paul McCartney knew from the London club scene. In addition to Eddie Thornton and Peter Coe, other freelance jazz musicians performed as well.

Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers’ 1966 cover version, produced by McCartney, reached number six in the UK. Six years after the Beatles disbanded, the song appeared on the Rock ‘n’ Roll Music compilation album in 1976. A 1978 cover version by Earth, Wind & Fire reached number nine in the US.

Personnel

The Beatles

• Paul McCartney – double-tracked lead vocal, bass
• John Lennon – rhythm guitar
• George Harrison – lead guitar
• Ringo Starr – drums, tambourine

Additional musicians

• George Martin – organ, producer
• Eddie Thornton – trumpet
• Ian Hamer – trumpet
• Les Condon – trumpet
• Alan Branscombe – tenor saxophone
• Peter Coe – tenor saxophone