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Notes on "I Want To Hold Your

notes on ... ISSN 1567-7745

Hand"
Notes on ... Series #43 (IWTHYH) databases
Alan W. Pollack's Notes On ... —
by Alan W. Pollack Markus Heuger's Beabliography —
Zeezender Discografie —

Key: G Major
Meter: 4/4
Form: Intro | Verse | Verse | Bridge | Verse |
| Bridge | Verse | Outro (complete ending)
CD: "Past Masters", Volume 1, Track 6
(Parlophone CDP 90043-2)
Recorded: 17th October 1963, Abbey Road 2
UK-release: 29th November 1963 (A Single / "This Boy")
US-release: 26th December 1963 (A Single / "I Saw Her Standing There")

1 General Points of Interest

Style and Form
On the surface "I Want To Hold Your Hand" is deceptively straightforward and
regular in design. Its high-level form is a standard two-bridge model with only one
verse (and no solo) intervening between the two bridges. Similarly, its phrase lengths
appear for the most part to be symmetrically even, and its back-beat for long stretches
sounds closer to conservative pop than rebelliously hard rock.
And yet, by the same token, just about everyone of the Beatles' early trademark
tricks of the trade is to be found within it: the abrupt syncopations, non-intuitive two-
part vocal harmony, falsetto screaming, an occasionally novel chord progression, even
some elided phrasing. And of course, don't forget the overdubbed handclaps!
Perhaps it is just this paradoxical contrast between familiar and more daring
elements that is at the heart of the song's phenomenal success.

Harmony
The list of chords used is not particularly unusual in itself, though the way they leave
the V-of-vi chord (B-Major) repeatedly unresolved in the verse sections is rather
creative. The subtle leaning toward the relative minor key is reminiscent to some
extent of what we saw recently in "Not A Second Time"; and as I mentioned there in
connection with "A Day In The Life", the same choice of key here yet again seems
beyond mere coincidence.
There is also the relatively rare occurrence of a full-blown pivot modulation to the
key of IV (C Major) in the bridges.

Arrangement
John might be said to be the lead vocalist here because it is he who sings the tune
proper while Paul is delegated to singing harmony above him, but most notably, there
is no actual vocal solo in the song; i.e. they sing in duet virtually the whole way
through, albeit with frequent shifting back and forth between singing in unison and that
"patented" vocal counterpoint style of theirs in which they seem to go out of their way
to court open fourths and fifths, instead the more traditional thirds and sixths.
In addition to the handclaps already mentioned, Paul plays quite a bit of double-
stops in the bass part, Ringo throws in some of his structurally significant drum fills in
between the second and third phrase of each verse, and most subtle of all, George
contributes a number of lead guitar fills which you almost don't notice per se, but have
always been part of your special enjoyment of the recording.

2 Section-by-Section Walkthrough
Intro
This is a classic opening right into the midst of the action if ever there was one. It
converges toward the home key, starting on IV and moving quickly with heavy
syncopations into a big buildup on the V chord.
This intro is four measures long, but it opens with one and a half beats of music
preceding the first downbeat. The syncopations place the accents on the eighth notes
which follow the third and fourth beats of the measure, which is a bit hard to grasp at
first because of the abrupt way in which the music starts. By measures 3 and 4 though,
the rhythmic backing (especially the lead guitar) helps get you better oriented with the
way in which it clearly beats out four in the bar:
Accents: ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ "Oh yeah, I ..."
Beats: 3&4& 1&2&3&4& 1&2&3&4& 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1
CCD|-----CCD|-----CCD|- - - - |- - - - ||G (verse)
G: IV V IV V IV V I

[Figure 43.1]
This large of a climax so early in the evening, so to speak, is unusual and draws
one's immediate and expectant attention.
 If you're a big maven of the film "A Hard Day's Night" then you probably have
noticed long ago that Paul, in a rare moment of exuberant spontaneity, horses around
at the end of their performance of "If I Fell" in the film by playing the bass riff for
parallel fifths from this intro while simultaneously tripping the live fantastic for just an
instant.

Verse
The all-important verse section here is twelve measures long, but (surprise!) it's
hardly a standard blues frame:
mm. 1-4, 5-8
---------------------------- 2X -----------------------------
|G |D |e |B |
G: I V vi V-of-vi

mm. 9 - 12
|C D |G e |C D |G |
IV V I vi IV V I

[Figure 43.2]
The first two phrases form a couplet in which each contains the same harmony and
even melody; the sole difference being that the first phrase melodically ends going
down to F#, but the second goes up to that note (an octave higher than the first
time). The third phrase, with its suddenly double-timed harmonic rhythm, provides the
refrain-like title/hook which balances out and resolves the tension accumulated over
the course of the preceding couplet.
The overall melodic arch peaks on the downbeat of measure 10, but in some ways
it's an anti-climax, because the more palpable point of no-return occurs on the
syncopated and falsetto-drenched leap to the high F# just before the downbeat of
measure 8. You don't need to be a musicologist in order to feel such things :-)
The first two phrases each veer straight toward the key of the relative minor, e, via a
deceptive cadence, finishing off on the V of e. In the first instance, this V-of-vi is left
dangling like a non-sequitur when the next phrase starts off all over again from I (G)
as though nothing had happened. Furthermore, this juxtaposition of the G- and B-
Major chords creates a tastily wavering cross-relation between the notes D# and D-
natural, somewhat analogous to what we saw regarding the relation between the
chords on I and flat-III in "Hold Me Tight". In the second instance, the B chord is
itself resolved deceptively by the move to IV (C) at the beginning of the final phrase.
The chromatic-scale-fill played in parallel fifths on the bass guitar during the second
half of measures 2 and 6 may well be one of the most easily recognized riffs in all
music history. Note, by the way, how neatly George coordinates his own little twang to
coincide with the end of Paul's riff.
The rhythmic scanning of the words breaks up the natural phrasing of the lyrics with
frequent pauses, adding a sweet hint of bashful tongue-tiedness to the affair; e.g. "Oh
yeah, I (pause) tell you something (pause) I think you'll understand etc."
The restraint with which the vocal duet, sung primarily in unison, is allowed to
briefly blossom forth into two-part harmony for only a few measures (measures 8 - 10)
is a good demonstration of how less can be more.

Bridge
The bridge has an unusual length of eleven measures. What I think happens here is
that what "should" have been a more standard eight-measure bridge of two equal
phrases is adjoined to a recapitulation of the song's intro in such a way that the last
measure of the eight-measure bridge is elided with (or perhaps interrupted by) the first
measure of the intro-recap:
|d |G |C |a |
C: ii V I vi

|d |G |C CCD|-----CCD|
C: ii V I
G: IV IV V IV V

|-----CCD|- - - - |- - - - ||G (verse)

G: IV V I

[Figure 43.3]
Harmonically, we have a textbook pivot modulation to the key of C. Additional
textural contrast with the surrounding verses is achieved by a change in drumming. I
also happen to especially like, in the measure immediately preceding the bridge, the
way the guitar plays a couple of choppy chords on the off-beats in direct antiphony with
the bass.
We have a great example in the voice parts of how the Boys could find an
opportunity in even rather mundane melodic situations to set up one of their splendid
open-fifths. When the music of the intro returns here and they sing the words "I can't
hide" three times in a row, John sings the notes C -» C -» D in all three cases, whereas
Paul on the top part sings E -» E -» F# the first two times, but very naturally precedes
up the scale to sing G -» G -» A the third time, creating the parallel fifths with John.
In the avoidance of foolish consistency department they feature in the second bridge
section a duet for two-part harmony the whole way through.

Outro
As we've seen in other songs, the outro here is developed as an outgrowth of the
final verse. Measure 12 is modified the last time around so that instead of going home
to the I chord (G), it moves quite deceptively to the V-of-vi (B), which neatly motivates
a "petit-reprise" (no joke — a legitimate "technical" term in the parlance of the French
 Baroque!) of the IV-» V -» I title phrase. Note, by the way, the incorporation of the
intro-like lead-guitar riff into that deceptive cadence.
But wait — there's still one last bang-up surprise to come: the slow triplets and the
chord progression which interpolates two measures of IV coming in between the V and
its ultimate resolution to I; talk about your pent-up but eventually fulfilled gratification!

3 Some Final Thoughts

This ever-popular number was released as a single in England (together with its B-
side: "This Boy") precisely one week after the "With The Beatles" album near the end
of November 1963. It is undeniably one of the Beatles all-time blockbusters and in
many ways represents the compositional culmination of what might be called their their
Very Early period.
The next recordings to appear would be the March 1964 single of "Can't Buy Me
Love" (with its B-side "You Can't Do That"), by which time the Beatles would have
their first appearances on the Ed Sullivan Show behind them and the "A Hard Day's
Night" film project to look forward to. Their world (and ours, for that matter) by then
would be forever changed, and this fact would appear quite obviously in the new music
they would write from then onward. Though still relatively 'early' in comparison to
"Rubber Soul" or "Sgt. Pepper", the songs on "A Hard Day's Night" represent a
quantum leap from the first two albums in both technical command and temperament.
But getting back to "I Want To Hold Your Hand", in context of November 1963, it was
the best they could do, a kind of summing up of all they had done to-date. And almost
thirty years later, in spite of all its seemingly puppy-love simplicity, and for reasons so
ineffable that I can't come close to adequately explaining them and in spite of all my
analysis, it does hold up remarkably well, like a classic.
Regards,
Alan (122491#43)

Copyright © 1991 by Alan W. Pollack. All Rights Reserved. This article may be reproduced,
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