The Beatles: I Should Have Known Better (Drum and Harmonica Cover)

“I Should Have Known Better” is the second track on A Hard Day’s Night and was the B-side to “A Hard Day’s Night” when it was released as a single. It is also heard twice in the film A Hard Day’s Night: the first time when The Beatles are on the train and surrounded by chickens and girls, and then at the end of the film during their live performance, though technically it is a mimed performance. To me it is not one of my favorite Beatles songs but it does have some redeeming qualities. Not saying it’s a bad song, but it’s just not for me.

The song was first recorded on February 25, 1964 and then re-recorded the following day. Takes one through three were recorded on the first day while takes four through twenty-two were made on the second day. The song has the usual Beatle lineup: John on acoustic guitar and harmonica, Paul on bass, George on electric guitar, and Ringo on drums.

There’s not much to Ringo’s drum part. It’s pretty straightforward. No fills, no open hi hat, no crash cymbals, just a steady groove. It’s the least interesting drum track on the album in my opinion. Every other song has at least something to make it exciting. One could argue that “I’ll Be Back” isn’t all that exciting. But at least that song has that one open hi hat hit in the intro and the bass drum switches up during the verses. Speaking of bass drum, you’’ll notice that it is completely missing in the final mix. Pretty common for Beatles during this time. When you listen to isolated tracks on Youtube though, you can make out Ringo’s bass drum playing in some spots and I could pick it out in Moises.ai as well. But it’s up to interpretation. It seems to disappear during the bridges. So I essentially had to make up my own part during these sections, though I just played along with McCartney’s bass line. Some spots I did pick out in the Moises track though.

To me, the one thing that saves this song is John’s harmonica playing. It was the last time John played a harmonica INTRO on a Beatles song. “I’m A Loser” from later on in the year had a harmonica solo. To make this cover a bit more exciting, I decided to record a rendition of John’s harmonica part. I say rendition because it may not be an exact note for note replication but the feel and style is there. Those bended notes when Lennon draws in weren’t the easiest to do and I may have missed some notes here and there. I’ll admit when I play something wrong, I don’t really think it’s that much of an issue. The song is in the key of G, but Lennon used a harmonica in the key of C. I tried it on a harmonica in G but the sound wasn’t there.I also did something that I normally don’t do when it comes to recording. I did each harmonica section separately in multiple takes and then stitched together the best parts of the takes. Because it was done separately, I had to record the video later and mime the part. So if it doesn't line up or the audio seems funky, that is why. For note, I am basing my harmonica part off of the mono version. The intro between the stereo and mono versions is slightly different. The stereo harmonica intro cuts abruptly at one point while the mono plays straight through. So mono harmonica part, but I’m using the stereo audio.


One song left from the album! And boy will it be an exciting one! Thanks for watching and I hope you enjoy!