I was looking for a Beatles song to post about and I came across Hobo Moon Cartoons a while back and this new video was featured. Check the site out when you can.
What a beautiful song this is..I think it’s one of Paul’s and The Beatle’s best ballads. Paul has said before that the song was inspired by the Beach Boys’ “God Only Knows” off of their album Pet Sounds.
The way that John and Paul heard Pet Sounds for the first time is interesting. Beach Boy Bruce Johnston was in England in 1966 and he met a huge Beach Boy fan Keith Moon. Moon dragged him to every hip spot in London. To Johnston’s surprise and amazement…he took him to a hotel and invited John and Paul to come over and meet Johnston and listen to the Beach Boy’s new album that was about to be released. Bruce had no idea how connected the Who’s drummer was at the time. He had come to England to sightsee and maybe hype the album a little but did not expect to have an audience of John and Paul.
Keith at the time acted like he liked the album but at heart, he wanted the same old surf songs…he wasn’t expecting an art-pop album from the Beach Boys. John and Paul were knocked out by Pet Sounds and after hearing God Only Knows Paul came up with this melody and he and John finished it off. Paul said this song was around 80-20 his song. It was a full circle because Brian Wilson was inspired by Rubber Soul when writing Pet Sounds.
Paul said that John praised his songwriting only once. He said “John says just as it finishes, ‘That’s a really good song, lad. I love that song.’ And I’m like, ‘Yes! He likes it!'”
The song was on arguably the Beatle’s best album Revolver. This song was somehow not released as a single. The album peaked at #1 in the Billboard Album Charts, in Canada, and in The UK in 1966. During the 1987 CD releases, it peaked at #3 on the US Billboard Top Compact Disks Charts…seriously? I never heard of the US Billboard Top Compact Disks but that is also a chart.
Paul McCartney: “I wrote that by John’s pool one day, I sat out by the pool on one of the sun chairs with my guitar and started strumming in E, and soon had a few chords, and I think by the time he’d woken up, I had pretty much written the song, so we took it indoors and finished it up…John might have helped with a few last words…But it’s very me, it’s one of my favorite songs that I’ve written…So I would credit me pretty much 80-20 on that one.”
John Lennon: “Here, There And Everywhere’ was Paul’s song completely, I believe – and one of my favorite songs of The Beatles.”
John Lennon: “There was a period when I thought I didn’t write melodies, that Paul wrote those and I just wrote straight, shouting rock’n’roll. But of course, when I think or some of my own songs – ‘In My Life,’ or some of the early stuff, ‘This Boy’ – I was writing melody with the best of them.”
The Beatles released an animated video for this song in 2022. It was directed by Rok Predin.
Here, There, And Everywhere
To lead a better life
I need my love to be here
Here, making each day of the year
Changing my life with a wave of her hand
Nobody can deny that there’s something there
There, running my hands through her hair
Both of us thinking how good it can be
Someone is speaking
But she doesn’t know he’s there
I want her everywhere
And if she’s beside me I know I need never care
But to love her is to need her everywhere
Knowing that love is to share
Each one believing that love never dies
Watching their eyes and hoping I’m always there
I want her everywhere
And if she’s beside me I know I need never care
But to love her is to need her everywhere
Knowing that love is to share
Each one believing that love never dies
Watching their eyes and hoping I’m always there
I will be there
And everywhere
Here, there and everywhere
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I never seen that video. Pretty cool animation and the song as well was always a good track.
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I like this song, but it lacks energy, and it seems like Paul was exhausted when he is singing this.
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Yea it’s a very very slow ballad no doubt.
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I think it would have been better if it wasn’t so lethargic.
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Nice!
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Nice! another example of why the Beatles were – and still are – so loved. By no means is this one of their real GREATS but it’s still a very good tune, that for many of their contemporaries would have been an obvious single and a highlight. For Beatles, just another album track. Cool video too! Makes me think, if they put out a few more of those , along with the real videos they made in the day, it’d be a DVD I’d probably buy and watch.
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Yea I hope they continue making videos…this is a great ballad…and …you can tell it was influenced by God Only Knows…it doesn’t top that one but it’s good.
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A beautiful song (melody and words and performance) indeed! I like that they don’t have any angst in the music but it’s beautifully controlled and restrained. In my ignorant opinion it’s anything but tired and lethargic.
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Yea I do like it….the melody and words do go together beautifully.
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It’s a lovely melody, I think the pace fits the lyrics quite well. Interesting to learn of how that Beach Boys/Beatles came about.
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Yes it was a cool story on how they heard it. Leave it to Mr. Moon…
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There’s a cover by an obscure band named Belarus that I really like. It’s kid of a generic Coldplay-like sound, but it brings out the prettiness of the tune.
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Another great song casually put somewhere on the LP amongst the other sparkling gems. As has been said, just another Beatles song, effortlessly better than 99% of the best the competition had to offer.
Some here say its all a bit lacking in drive, but I feel it is written from that point when love is still new and yet untested, and you are sitting, quietly reflecting in that sweet blissed out peaceful state. Whatever, fab song.
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After being a fan of them for most of my life…I still can’t believe the songs that were album cuts…like this one.
After I read that he was inspired by God Only Knows…the more I can see it here. I don’t think it’s better but it’s way up there.
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It’s a swell tune and Paul at his best. There is a genuineness and vulnerability that make it special. Can you imagine writing just one song like this one? Most only dream of it, and it’s just one tune in a catalogue of them.
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Oh yea…what I wouldn’t give to write a song with a melody as great as this one. I can see why John liked this one.
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This is a beauty, and doesn’t suffer from being overplayed like some of their songs. A hidden gem, if it’s possible for the Beatles to have a ‘hidden’ gem : )
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Yea and it was an album track…not even a single which still amazes me about a lot of their songs like In My Life.
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I love that story with Moon and Johnston. What a great backstory to this song. I’ve always liked this one. True, it’s not peppy, but it’s pretty and very ‘Beatles’. That is neat website, too.
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It did shock Johnston that Moon knew all of these people.
Yes I like his cartoons…he does his own and he highlights some.
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I’ve always loved this tune, in particular because of its beautiful melody, which sounds very much like Paul to me. My great guitar teacher many moons ago taught me a classically arranged version of the song. Unfortunately, I no longer have the sheet notes. Even if I did, I probably could no longer play it!
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I did learn how to play a musical Yesterday from my guitar teacher that I only had two lessons…I remember some of it but not all.
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I had definitely more than two guitar lessons, Max, and you turned out to be “the rock star”! 🙂
It goes to show that while lessons may be useful, they’re no guarantee. That said, I had a great time with my guitar teacher and will be forever grateful for what he did, including introducing me to The Beatles!
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LOL not quite! I learned by playing by ear….that isn’t proper but it worked for me. Plus I had a friend that was a little ahead of me and we worked together.
I remember my teacher well…he was a cool guy. He played mostly country but when he found out I was a Beatles fan he showed me Yesterday
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I’ve always loved this tune and appreciate the chance to revisit the lyrics.
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It is a beautiful one that is so nice to hear…because unlike some of their others…is not played that much.
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It DOES sound like God Only Knows. It’s new to me and the video is really cool.
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It has the same atmosphere…beautiful song…not as good as God Only Knows but up there.
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What a great song! There are so many great songs on Revolver….
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Yes it was… and just thinking on how many songs they did not release as a single.
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A lot of tracks that were released as singles in the UK were held back as album cuts in the US. The “Past Masters” collection are all the songs they released as singles on on EP’s in the UK. The only single off of Revolver was “Yellow Submarine”/”Eleanor Rigby”…
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Yea and the one that surprised me the most was In My Life off of Rubber Soul.
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“In My Life” was such a good song, I’m surprised it wasn’t even issued as a B side.
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Hans and I use to talk about all the songs they had that could have been released. They consciously tried to separate the two. I wonder if they felt the pressure with every new album to top themselves? For some reason I don’t think they did.
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The video inspired me to chart it in my current charts a few weeks back, but its always been a sweet sad song. Emmylou Harris had a hit with it in the UK in 1976 – her version is really good, probably the best version of the very few ive heard.
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Yes…I was going to post that but forgot…I love the Emmylou Harris version…another blogger pointed that version out to me a while back.
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