Beatles – Got To Get You Into My Life

This song still sounds fresh today. Got To Get You Into My Life was on Revolver released in 1966. It was not released as a single at the time. Any other band would have released it as a single.

In 1976 it was released as a single and peaked at #7 in the Billboard 100…not bad for a song that was 10 years old. It was released off of the horribly packaged compilation album Rock and Roll Music. Capital Records seemed to forget The Beatles represented the 60s, not the 50s that the album cover represented. They probably wanted to capitalize on the 50s revival that was going on at the time… Bad Choice.

I owned this album and Hey Jude Again for my first exposure to the Beatles.

Image result for beatles rock and roll music gate fold albumRelated image

There is a 5 piece horn section on this recording that sounds great. Paul McCartney has said the song was about pot…

“’Got To Get You Into My Life’ was one I wrote when I had first been introduced to pot.  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.  I didn’t have a hard time with it and to me 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.  It wouldn’t be the first time in history someone’s done it, but in my case it was the first flush of pot.”

From Songfacts

This beatific love song is actually about marijuana. Paul McCartney cleared this up in his 1998 book Many Years From Now when he explained that it was not about a particular person, but his desire to smoke pot. “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,” he said.

There are no obvious drug references in the song, so it appears to be about a guy who is blissfully in love:

Ooh, then I suddenly see you
Ooh, did I tell you I need you
Every single day of my life

A British rock group called Cliff Bennett & The Rebel Rousers released this song as a single around the same time it appeared on the The Beatles Revolver album. Bennett & The Rebel Rousers were an opening act for The Beatles on their European tour in early 1966; since there were no plans to release “Got To Get You Into My Life” as a single, Paul McCartney encouraged them to record it and produced the session.

Revolver appeared on August 5, 1966 and the Cliff Bennett & The Rebel Rousers version of this song showed up on the UK chart for the first time on August 17, rising to #6 on September 21. It ended up being the biggest hit for the group, which made #9 in 1964 with “One Way Love.”

Session musicians played trumpets and sax. It was the first time horns were used in a Beatles song.

Earth, Wind & Fire recorded a funky new version for the 1978 movie Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Beatles producer George Martin was in charge of the music, and the soundtrack was a success, but the movie, which starred Peter Frampton, The Bee Gees and Aerosmith, was a huge flop. Earth, Wind & Fire’s version of this hit #9 in the US.

The first group to chart with this song was Blood, Sweat & Tears, whose horn-heavy version made #62 in the summer of 1975. The Beatles version wasn’t issued as a single until 1976, when Capitol Records issued it in America backed with “Helter Skelter.”

This version went to #7 in July that year, becoming the first Beatles song to chart in the US since 1970. Later in 1976, Capitol issued “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da,” which made #49.

John Lennon thought this was some of McCartney’s best work.

In the ’60s, Joe Pesci was an aspiring singer known as Joe Ritchie. He recorded a version of this that can be found on Rhino’s “Golden Throat” Series. His version merits the “Stick to Acting” award. >>

This song rarely licensed for movies or TV. The only time the Beatles rendition was used in a film is the 2015 movie Minions, where it plays under the end credits. In 2009, a version by Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs appeared in the Eddie Murphy movie Imagine That, and in 2013 Kurt Hummel and Chris Colfer sang it on the “Love, Love, Love” episode of the TV series Glee.

Got To Get You Into My Life

I was alone, I took a ride
I didn’t know what I would find there
Another road where maybe I
Could see another kind of mind there
Ooh, then I suddenly see you
Ooh, did I tell you I need you
Every single day of my life

You didn’t run, you didn’t hide
And had you gone, you knew in time
We’d meet again for I had told you
Ooh, you were meant to be near me
Ooh, and I want you to hear me
Say we’ll be together every day
Got to get you into my life

What can I do, what can I be
When I’m with you I want to stay there
If I’m true I’ll never leave
And if I do I know the way there
Ooh, then I suddenly see you
Ooh, did I tell you I need you
Every single day of my life
Got to get you into my life

I was alone, I took a ride
I didn’t know what I would find there
Another road where maybe I
Could see another kind of mind there
Ooh, then I suddenly see you
Ooh, did I tell you I need you
Every single day

Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player.

42 thoughts on “Beatles – Got To Get You Into My Life”

    1. Thanks i think I know what is happening I’m going to check it tonight to be sure. I’m finding the song and going to another tab and come back… I must be copying the link after it goes to another page… it’s odd though… it only happened one time before in hundreds of posts….now two in two days

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  2. A pretty good tune that didn’t sound out of place on 70s AM radio when it came out (and I never knew exactly why it suddenly was a single years after the band had split up…thanks for explaining it!).

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    1. They were so damn consistent with the quality. That is what gets me. George Martin was afraid the songs were going to dry up after the first few albums…he thought that was just logical. But they just kept going… and growing.

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  4. So many times a song seems to be obviously about drugs, but the artist denies it and tries to pass off a dubious innocent meaning behind it. It’s ironic that Paul comes out and says this one is about pot, even when the song itself doesn’t make you think that.

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    1. Another one…you just hit the pending jackpot…
      I know right? I would have never thought this was about pot. Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds by John…I would have thought…not this one.

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      1. That’s me, always pending. 🙂

        Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds is a great example of that other kind of song, where the writer insists it’s not about drugs and gives a flimsy alternate story of what the song is supposedly about.

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      2. I’m a “it will be done tomorrow” kind of person at work… so pending is a good description for me also.

        Paul has been more honest since the Anthology came out… before that he was kinda cagey with his answers.

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      4. Guess what? You ARE a pending person… I don’t get why it’s picking on you.

        Yes when he admitted the LSD experience it didn’t go over so well.

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      6. I use the side panel for replies and I always go to “unread” and they don’t show up…well we will see if it does it again.

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      8. No it doesn’t. It really is confusing when a 2 day old one shows up…I mean where did it go? I’ll do some googling on it.

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      3. Well…John was an excellent songwriter. I just couldn’t stand to hear him sing or his weird, 2nd wife. In order of singing voices, 1. George, 2. Paul & 3. Ringo. John’s OK to harmonize against a lead but, other than that…I want him to hush. He is/was a good musician (method) but…

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      4. Other than Van Morrison…I would give anything to have John’s voice. He hated his own voice…A Day In The Life is his voice at it’s best. I like Georges also…a little weak but a good weak…it benefited the songs.

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  6. The ugliest and dumbest album cover ever- or at least in the discussion. It was my first Beatles album- and at the time I wasn’t that knowledgeable about The Beatles but my first thought was – what’s with this album cover? great song- could have been a #1 hit in 1966 had Beatles chosen to do it.

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    1. It was my second Beatles album. Love the music on it but that horrible silver….
      Any other band would have released it… I agree…could have been #1

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  7. This song is the least beatle-esque song in their catalog. I can still listen to the Earth Wind & Fire version, but not the original – I’ve reached my plateau.
    I had that Rock N Roll LP too when I was a kid. I loved it. The weird foil stamped cover with embossed thumbs… I remember my favorite tunes on it were I’m Down, Kansas City, Long Tall Sally, and Hey Bulldog. I think thats the thing about Got To… The Beatles were such a great band, but there’s not really any sense of a band on Got To Get You Into My Life. For me the Beatles were at their best when you could hear each member’s contribution & personality. Got To… ,even more than Yesterday somehow, is loudly missing John, George, and Ringo.

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    1. That was the album I found “The Night Before”…love the album’s music but why the 50s?

      I can understand that…but I have to say I do like the horns…I do agree with what you said though. Yesterday, Blackbird…solo Paul really.

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  9. Probably one of my favorite Beatles songs! Love the horn part! The first time I had ever heard it was when it was played on one of the Beatles Cartoons! In high school I found some sheet music for it in the band’s library and played it.

    I also had that Rock and Roll LP. I am pretty sure it was one of the first Beatles albums I ever owned.

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      6. I can’t believe they are not commercially out. I’ll check today because I would like real copies… I have vhs copies in a file format

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      7. There are SO many things I wish were available. These cartoons are certainly something I would buy in a heartbeat! My kids have all the old Scooby Doo episodes and I had to buy the entire series of Hong Kong Phooey for myself … LOL

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      8. I still watch cartoons also… there are also old concerts I would like to see…There is a market if they would release these things…especially the Beatles cartoons…

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    1. I havent been able to take a vacation in a while… looking at your blog is great and gives me ideas about future ones.
      I’ll be looking forward to reading your music ones. Thank you for reading mine.

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