“THIS BOY”

(John Lennon – Paul McCartney)

The Beatles' versatility is something that may not have been noticed by the screaming teenage girls of the early days of Beatlemania, but it was a key ingredient to their enduring career. While most of their British contemporaries, like The Kinks, The Rolling Stones, and The Dave Clark Five, could thrash out their own brand of rock and roll very convincingly, these groups came across somewhat awkwardly when they tried to reveal a softer side. Their attempts to achieve this were most likely in imitation of what The Beatles were doing anyway. Would “As Tears Go By” by The Rolling Stones, “Tired Of Waiting For You” by The Kinks or “Because” by The Dave Clark Five ever have existed if it wasn't for The Beatles setting the blueprint ahead of time? The Rolling Stones emphatically answer this question with their Beatles-copy-cat career throughout most of the '60s. And who could blame them?

The Beatles were setting the benchmark for other acts to follow, even though this may have been unbeknownst to them. They were simply versatile. They could rock and roll themselves right off of the stage, but that was only a portion of their intention. The group naturally had a love for various styles of music, including those on the softer side. Lennon stated that The Beatles “never stuck to one style; They never just did blues, or just rock. We loved all music,” including the “sentimental things” as he liked to refer to softer music styles.       

The Beatles' early Cavern years reflected this, showing them crooning adult-sounding classics like “Till There Was You” and “Falling In Love Again” right in between “Twist And Shout” and “Sweet Little Sixteen.” What was so incredible was just how convincingly they delivered such a vast array of musical styles on stage.

"We were trying to make money...none of us was rich," explained Paul in his Hulu documentary series entitled "McCartney 3,2,1." "When we had got Brian Epstein as our manager, he said, 'You could play cabaret clubs, but you'll have to smarten up,' 'cause we were a bit rock 'n' roll. He stated, 'You will have to, sort of, smarten up. You will have to do your more, sort of, ballady songs. You cannot just be a straight rock 'n' roll session.' But you can see ('This Boy') at a cabaret club, you know. 'Ladies and gentlemen, presenting, The Beatles!' The lights will go down, little spots go up."      

The softer side of their musical tastes came from their love of many different genres, such as in the case of “This Boy,” which combines their love of the doo-wop sound of the '50s with the incredible influence that Motown's Smokey Robinson and The Miracles had on John. Once again, as fame brought them to America, we see how natural and convincing The Beatles were at developing their softer side. They were not simply throwing in a mellow song just to relieve the rocking tension of their album, or in order to appease their manager or record label, but because it was another ingredient of the whole. This was part of them, and that continued to be heard throughout their career.

The songwriting maturity displayed on “This Boy” could hardly have gone unnoticed by the curious adult onlookers to the group's second appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show on February 16th, 1964. While their first appearance on the show (February 9th) displayed their excellent performance of “Till There Was You,” the evidence was discernible by their second appearance that The Beatles were much more than just head-swinging long-haired noise makers. There may have been many detractors, but honest minded parents had to admit there was unmistakable talent behind the gimmicks. And when their daughters came home with the “Meet The Beatles!” album in early 1964, the third track on side one reinforced that fact.

Evidence of the sophistication of this song's melody was demonstrated by producer George Martin, who chose to record and release an instrumental rendition called “Ringo’s Theme (This Boy).” Because of its being utilized as a backdrop to the scene of a sullen Ringo Starr wandering around the waterfront in the Beatles' film “A Hard Day’s Night,” George Martin's instrumental recording of this song was issued as a single in America and even made the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at #53 (#1 in Canada). This placement on the US charts "pleased me somewhat," George Martin expressed in the Beatles book "Anthology." This only added to the credibility of the Lennon/McCartney songwriting partnership, proving that an enduring melodic chord structure and melody line could stand alone and win the hearts of adult audiences as well as teenagers.

Songwriting History

"Just my attempt at writing one of those three-part harmony Smokey Robinson songs," John Lennon stated about "This Boy" in 1980, adding: "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 of some of my own songs, 'In My Life' and some of the early stuff, 'This Boy,' I was writing good melody with the best of them." With this quote one can assume that "This Boy" was written entirely by John Lennon. He also stated similarly in a 1972 Hit Parader magazine interview.

However, Paul offered an alternate explaination that was quite vivid and convincing in his 1997 book "Many Years From Now." He described the song as yet another “hotel-bedroom” song hammered out when they “had a couple of hours to kill” before The Beatles got prepared for another performance sometime in September 1963. Although we don’t know the exact day, in this case we know the exact time the song was composed, as Paul recalled getting to their hotel “around one o’clock” in the afternoon, "so we thought, 'Well, let's write one.' Rather like the hotel where we wrote 'She Loves You.'" This would take them to around three o’clock, from 1 to 3 pm, when the song was considered complete. 

As a footnote about whether "This Boy" had been completely written in the above mentioned two-hour hotel writing session in September, 1963, we need to take a look at the song's actual recording session at EMI Studios the next month. At some point at this session, a guitar solo was offered up within the bridge instead of the vocal and melody line, which could suggest that the lyrics heard in the released recording within the bridge had been written there that day in the studio. Although this is possible, it seems unlikely because of the intricacies of the melody line and lyrics as we have come to know. It is also unlikely that they were written during the recording sessions because of the approximate hour’s time that was used to completely record the song on that day. This being the case, it can be accurately assumed that “This Boy” was indeed written completely in the “hotel-bedroom” in two hours.

Paul's account of this September writing session in his 1997 book "Many Years From Now" was uncharacteristically vivid, giving details such as “position of the beds, John and I sitting on twin beds, the G-Plan furniture, a British hotel with olive green and orange colors everywhere, that marvelous combination, the colors of vomit.” In that setting they fulfilled their desire to write a close-harmony song patterned around the three-part harmony they used in the Cavern Club days when performing the Phil Spector written song “To Know Her Is To Love Her.”

"It was very co-written," Paul continued in "Many Years From Now." "We wanted to do a close harmony thing, like the harmonies we were quite good at then. We used to do a close harmony version of The Teddy Bears' "To Know Her Is To Love Her,' which was perfect for the versitility within the group. We weren't all rock 'n' roll, we could change the pace, which was always nice after you would played for three hours. We wrote it in two-part harmony and then put the third part in for George to sing; we had never actually tried to write something like that. Nice middle, John sang that great, then we'd go back into the close-harmony thing."

According to George Harrison, Lennon patterned the song after the Smokey Robinson and The Miracles song “I’ve Been Good To You,” which had a similar circular "doo-wop" chord pattern, melody line and arrangement. Another obvious influence used in the composing and performance of "This Boy" was the Bobby Freeman song "You Don't Understand Me," a b-side that The Beatles included in their "stage act" in 1960 with John singing lead.

Paul at one point had explained that his father taught them how to do three-part harmony, but Harrison protested this claim. After describing “This Boy” as one of The Beatles' various “three-part harmony numbers,” George explained, “whenever you think back to early rock and roll there was always stuff such as Frankie Lymon and The Teenagers, Everly Brothers, The Platters. Everybody had harmonies; it was natural to sing a harmony sometimes.” 

That natural ability was, of course, refined by producer George Martin in the studio. “They always experimented with close harmony singing,” George Martin explained, “all I did was change the odd note.” This was done in the recording studio with all three vocalists sitting with him at the piano while he made small but needed adjustments in the notes they chose. Meanwhile, Ringo reportedly sat at the back of the studio smoking a cigarette and reading a comic book.

"We wanted to show different sides of ourselves," Paul stated in his "McCartney 3,2,1" documentary. "We could've just been one guy sings the vocal and we'll back him up. But we kept wanting to stretch it a little bit. So this whole song was just the three-part-harmony thing. Those were exciting things for us to do, y'know, to branch out like that."

William Mann, The London Times music critic, mentioned “This Boy” in a flattering but ostentatious analysis of current Beatles music in the December 27th, 1963 issue of the magazine. McCartney, referring to this article, mentioned William Mann’s reference to “the ‘pandiatonic clusters’ that came flying out of us at the end of ‘This Boy.’ We hadn’t been conscious of any of that." Lennon and McCartney may have lacked proper musical training, but they must have paid more than the usual attention when listening to and studying the music they were exposed to. 

Recording History

Both sides of their fifth UK single were recorded during the same three hour recording session on October 17th, 1963 at EMI Studio Two in London. This was the same historic recording session that introduced the techniques of four-track recording to The Beatles, recording “I Want To Hold Your Hand” in the same manner on that day, as well as the first Beatles Christmas Record of speech and their aborted attempt at a remake of “You Really Got A Hold On Me.” Having done these other three items first, “This Boy” was last on the agenda for this day, which approximately comprised the final hour of the session (9 to 10 pm).

After George Martin had "changed the odd note" of their harmonies (as detailed above) it took 15 takes of the song for them to perfect it, most of these takes being complete performances. In this early stage of the song, "the middle eight originally featured a guitar solo," Mark Lewisohn stated in his book "The Beatles Recording Sessions," this apparently being included in the early takes of "This Boy," being replaced at some point by John's lead vocal spotlight, which begins with the lyrics "Oh, and this boy..."

Their vocals were recorded, by the group's request, with all three singers huddled around one microphone. "Take 12" and "take 13," where the vocalists were humorously mixing up the song's "this boy" and "that boy" lyrics, were included as bonus tracks on their "Free As A Bird" single released in 1995, as detailed below. The group's final attempt, "take 15," was deemed to be the best and ready for an additional overdub from George Harrison.

Two attempts at this overdub, documented as "take 16" and "take 17," were then recorded onto an open track of the four-track tape, this overdub being of George performing octave guitar fills at the end of the song. These overdubs were added to the end of "take 15."

One more session was needed in order to get the song into a releasable condition. A mixing session, that was attended only by George Martin and engineer Norman Smith, occurred on October 21st, 1963. This day was arranged for creating the mono mixes that were needed for their fifth British single. They did two mono mixes from "take 15" of "This Boy" and edited these together to get the final mono version. 

This obvious abrupt edit, which is spliced together just before the final verse (after Lennon sings "seen you cry-y-y-y"), was very noticeable on the released recording but was performed live by the group with flowing precision when done on stage, as can be witnessed, for instance, on their Ed Sullivan Show appearance on February 16th, 1964. It was also decided at the mixing session on this day, for some unknown reason, to fade the end of the song instead of the full harmonized ending The Beatles recorded in the studio. Needless to say, they continued to perform the full ending on stage throughout the song's performance life.

The Beatles later recorded "This Boy" two times for BBC radio, the first one occurring on December 17th, 1963 at London's Playhouse Theatre between 3 and 6:30 pm for the BBC program “Saturday Club,” which was produced by Bernie Andrews and first broadcast on December 21st between 10 am and noon. "This Boy" was further recorded by the group for the BBC on February 28th, 1964 in Studio One of BBC Piccadilly Studions in London between 6:30 and 9 pm for the second edition of their radio show “From Us To You,” which was produced by Bryant Marriott and aired on March 30th of that year between 10 am and noon.

No stereo mix of the official EMI recording of "This Boy" was initially made before its release in 1963, since the song was only slated to be the b-side of their upcoming single. However, entirely by accident, the song was given its first stereo mix on November 10th, 1966 in Room 65 at EMI Studios by engineers Peter Brown and Graham Kirby. A telephone call was made to EMI to instruct them of the line-up for the proposed “Greatest Hits” package planned for release in December of that year. By mistake, the phone message related that “This Boy” would be on the album so it would need to have a stereo mix made. The message should have indicated the song “Bad Boy,” which had not been released in Britain at that time and would be included on the album, which was titled “A Collection Of Beatles Oldies,” as an enticement for fans to purchase an album of songs that they probably already owned. Before the mistake was corrected, the four-track tape of “This Boy” was dug out and treated to its first and only stereo mix. Two stereo mixes were made from the edited "take 15" of the song, and then both of those mixes were edited together to create the full stereo mix.

Subsequently, the mix of "This Boy" used for the stereo version of “Meet The Beatles!” in the US was actually a duophonic (or fake) stereo mix manufactured by Capitol Records. This fake stereo mix continued to be utilized in America well after 1966 because the true stereo mix that was made then didn’t surface until October of 1988, with the release of “Past Masters, Volume One.”

“This Boy” did revisit EMI Studios on one other occasion. That occasion was on June 3rd, 1964, when The Beatles were forced to audition Jimmy Nicol to replace an ailing Ringo Starr for the beginning of their first world tour. It would be necessary to see if Jimmy Nicol could handle the subdued drum arrangement Ringo played on this song as well as ‘rock-out’ on “I Saw Her Standing There” and “Long Tall Sally.” Apparently he could, because 27 hours later they were in Copenhagen on the first date of their tour.

Sometime during 2023, Giles Martin was given the task of creating a "demix remix" of "This Boy" for inclusion as an additional track on the 50th Anniversary edition of the compilation album "The Beatles / 1962 - 1966" ("The Red Album"). Using Peter Jackson's new AI technology, Giles Martin utilized this "new machine-learning techology" so that "individual elements that were put to tape...and were therefore impossible to separate" were at that time capable of becoming "untangled, allowing Giles (Martin) to put the original recordings back together with even greater clarity and impact," this being stated by John Harris in the liner notes of the above mentioned album. The results were excellent, Ringo's hi-hat performance popping out in this mix as never before.

Song Structure and Style

Like most of their early catalog, “This Boy” had been written in the 'verse/ verse/ bridge/ verse' configuration (or aaba). However, they were a bit adventurous here, delving into a full-on 12/8 waltz-like time signature for the first time in their career, which is similar to the 3/4 time signature utilized throughout most of “A Taste Of Honey” on the first album. Although a guitar solo from Harrison was attempted at some point in the recording process, it was decided instead not to feature a solo at all. Because of the song's elongated 16 measure verses and bridge, a repeat of the bridge and final verse, regularly included in Beatles songs up to this point in their career, was not done.

The song starts out with a strummed three chord precursor by John to set a melancholy mood for the song. This three chord pattern actually fills what would be the last three quarters of a first measure which, by extension, brings the introduction of the song to five measures instead of the expected four. The following four measures are basically the four chord pattern that we will be hearing through all three verses, but these set the mood quite nicely.

Right on the downbeat of verse one, we dive headlong into the impressive three-part harmony which will eventually permeate all three verses. Most interestingly, music critic William Mann described these harmonies in his November 27th, 1963 article in The London Times as "one of their most intriguing, with its chains of pandiatonic clusters, and their sentiment is acceptable because of being voiced cleanly and crisply." Measure eleven of the verse consists of a dramatic break which became a feature of many of the early Beatles songs. This is followed by another break on measure twelve, both breaks becoming a highlight for the signature lyric hook-line of the song.

A second verse is then performed which is structurally identical to the first verse with the exception of the chords being played on the final two measures. This change in the chord pattern facilitates an appropriate transition into the climactic bridge that follows, which creates the necessary anticipation and suits that transition perfectly.

The 16 measure bridge actually becomes the highlight of this song, with a rather uplifting yet pleading melody line rising higher than anything witnessed in the verses. The chord pattern, as well as the actual chords played, is strikingly dissimilar to the verses yet is an alluring counterpart creating an exciting tension to the song. Each chord in the progression changes every second measure instead of once per measure as the verses do. All the while, harmony background vocals create an atmospheric backdrop for Lennon’s gut-wrenching solo vocal, which climaxes into another break for the 15th and 16th measure while Lennon holds out the word “cry” for a full two measures.

(As a footnote, the word “cry” has become a constant feature of John's lyrics throughout his Beatles career, spanning from “Ask Me Why” through “I’ll Cry Instead,” “Cry Baby Cry” and even “I Am The Walrus.” Some may claim that this may be an indication of his emotional state throughout the '60s and of the loss of his mother early on in his life. But we will leave that for another book and author.)

The identically structured third verse with different lyrics then occurs, leaving the listener with the final satisfying lyrical intent of the story: “…if this boy gets you back again.” The conclusion of this song, or "outro," consists of the song's title performed in three part harmony repeatedly with the same chord pattern from the verses while octave guitar passages from Harrison appear in between the vocal gaps as the song fades into the distance.

An instrumental analysis shows Lennon primarily strumming his acoustic guitar on the first and fourth beats of each measure, but with feeling, which provides a suitable backdrop to the song. He sings the lowest of the three-part harmonies in the verses, which make this the lead vocal line, being that he is revealed to be the lead singer during the bridge. During this bridge, Lennon sings a melody that begins a full octave higher than he did in the verses, which added dynamic force and excitement. The lead vocals of this impressive climatic bridge even impressed McCartney, who many years later remarked in his book "Many Years From Now" about the song “nice middle, John sang that great.”

McCartney’s bass work, although low in the mix like a lot of the early Beatles songs, is impressive through his use of small three note bass runs and octave jumps throughout the verses whenever he isn't singing. He seems to know when not to do bass runs, as he plays very rudimentary bass notes during the bridge, shifting all focus onto the lead vocal line and backing harmonies. Ever the perfectionist, Paul sings his usual higher harmony throughout this entire song and, as usual, displaying his near perfect pitch.

Harrison plays electric rhythm guitar using a more prominent swing rhythm during the verses utilizing all six beats of each measure, which provides a nice contrast to the simplistic chord strumming of Lennon. Harrison then drops this swing rhythm during the climatic bridge and just plays guitar "chops" on each beat, thus providing a suitable contrast for the song. He then ends the song with his overdubbed octave guitar lines which are heard as the song fades. His middle harmony part is also performed with great precision, which shows how rehearsed and refined the vocals were at the time of recording.

Ringo’s drum work for the song consists primarily of riding his partially closed hi-hat during the verses using the same swing rhythm played by Harrison. The contrast required for the song's bridge also involved the drums as Ringo performs a rudimentary full kit waltz-like pattern until the break, where he returned to his hi-hat beat until the song fades.

Lennon liked to dismiss the lyrics to most of his early Beatles work, remarking about this song that there was “nothing in the lyrics, just a sound and a harmony.” But there's much more to this formulaic "teen" lyrical content than meets the eye. John was portaying himself, as was common to his early lyrics, as a loser. His girl was taken away from him by someone who, the singer claims, “won’t be happy till he’s seen (her) cry.” 

John then says that he would never feel differently about the girl if he could get her “back again.” Lennon’s lyrics depicting himself wallowing in misery was also featured occasionally through 1965, this being hinted at even with “Nowhere Man.” His inner anguish, as some would call it, seemed to disappear as his lyrics became much more expressive and picturesque from 1966 onward, no doubt influenced by Bob Dylan’s encouragement to expand in his lyric writing, and by drugs (or probably both). This expressiveness has been celebrated by the vast majority of Beatles fans throughout the decades and, many would say, was sadly missing in his post-Beatles career.

For these days, using the simple word "boy" to depict a male suitor in a song or book sounds extremely dated, but it was quite acceptable in 1963/64 terms. About the time of the ‘summer of love’ in 1967, the dynamic changed. It was no longer acceptable then to refer to the male partner in any relationship as a "boy" by any stretch of the imagination. As evidence, a little over four years later, Herb Alpert had a #1 hit with the similarly titled “This Guy’s In Love With You.” That "guy" was no longer a "boy."

American Releases

In November of 1963, it appeared probable that their song “This Boy” would be released as the b-side to their first Capitol single and, therefore, catapulted to great exposure on radio and in the homes of millions of teenagers. After all, this song became the b-side of their 1.25 million selling British single “I Want To Hold Your Hand,” and their earlier three US singles released on other labels, such as "She Loves You" on the Philadelphia Swan label, had the same b-sides as their British counterparts. As events transpired, this was not to be because their new record label had other ideas.

The powers that be at Capitol Records decided to feature a similarly rocking Beatles song on the b-side of the first single in order to create what they thought would make a better first impression. The label looked only as far as the first song on their first British album “Please Please Me” to choose a suitable replacement for "This Boy," “I Saw Her Standing There.” While history indeed established that this choice was the best, one can only wonder what difference the appearance of “This Boy” as the b-side would have made. (Capitol substituted the b-side of only one other British 45, which was later in 1964 with the single “A Hard Day’s Night.” They substituted the mellow “Things We Said Today” with their energetic soundtrack song “I Should Have Known Better.”)

To say that “This Boy” just didn't make the cut as a b-side on an American single was not to say that US fans couldn't purchase the song as a single. Capitol of Canada released a couple unique singles of their own creation in the early months of 1964 in order to capitalize on the immense success of Beatlemania in Canada. The second of these unique singles was “All My Loving” paired together with “This Boy” as its b-side. Because of the clamor for "anything Beatles" in the states, America imported copies of this single into the country and thereby created another hit on the Billboard Hot 100. “All My Loving” charted through late March and all of April, peaking at #45. This is a worthy mention, but not an actual American release.

The first release of the song on US shores was the legendary “Meet The Beatles!” album released on January 20th, 1964. It appears as the third track of side one following its replacement b-side “I Saw Her Standing There.” This position on the album appears to be the record label's recognition of the "star quality" of the song. This classic album was eventually released on an individual compact disc on January 21st, 2014, both the mono and stereo mixes being contained on a single CD. A mono edition of the album on opaque blue vinyl was later released on November 22nd, 2024 for sale exclusively at Target stores.

Three rare releases of the song also should be documented here. A jukebox version of the “Meet The Beatles!” album (#SXA 2047) came out in January of 1964 to promote non-single tracks from the album in jukeboxes in the US. “This Boy” was featured here as the second song on side one. In February of 1964, an EP entitled “The Beatles Open End Interview” (#PRO 2548) was delivered to American disc jockeys for broadcast to simulate a personal interview with the group. Side two contained two non-single tracks, the first of which was “This Boy.” 

Also during February of 1964, a promo disc was made by Capitol entitled “Great New Releases From The Sound Capitol Of The World,” “This Boy” included therein. This release was distributed to radio stations to encourage broadcast of an entire side of the album at a time, since both sides of the album featured a variety of Capitol recording artists. All three of these releases are very hard to find and quite collectible.

Its next release was on May 11th, 1964, on Capitol’s first attempt at an extended-play single (EP) entitled “Four By The Beatles.” The idea of the release was to capitalize on the substantial success of their songs contained on the two Canadian singles that made the US charts. “This Boy” was featured as the first track of side two. The record sold far less than any of their Capitol singles or albums released thus far, showing that EP potential in the US at this time was not worth pursuing. The EP charted on the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks in June of 1964, peaking at #92. Another reason for its failure was probably that all four of these songs were released on a Capitol album by this time, and therefore offered nothing new to Beatles fans.

Sometime in 1967, Capitol released Beatles music on a brand new but short-lived format called "Playtapes." The cartidges did not have a capability of including entire albums, so two four-song versions of "Meet The Beatles" were manufactured on this portable format, the song "This Boy" being on one of them. These "Playtapes" are very hard to find today and have become highly collectable.

Since this song was not a hit single in America, it failed to make the grade to appear on the double-album compilation “The Beatles/1962-1966” ("The Red Album"), nor was it a "rock and roll" song, which precluded it from being on the highly successful 1976 compilation "Rock 'n' Roll Music." Therefore, "This Boy" didn't get another US release until October 21st, 1977 on the double album “Love Songs,” in which it fit perfectly. This compilation LP, released during the current wave of post-Beatlemania, only managed to peak at #24 on the Billboard album chart, although this is shown to have sold over 3 million units before its deletion from Capitol’s roster in the late '80s.

Because of EMI's decision to release a box set that included all of the UK Beatles albums along with an additional album entitled "Rarities" that included tracks that had not appeared on any British Beatles album, Capitol had initially decided to release this as an LP in America. 2,000 promotional copies of this album were created (#SPRO-8969) followed by another undesignated number of advance copies (ESN-SN-12009) in the fall of 1979. "This Boy" was included on this proposed album, but a decision was later made to abandon its release due to the fact that this and most of the songs contained therein were available on other Beatles albums in America at that time. These promotional albums are very collectible today.

The first time "I Want To Hold Your Hand" was paired with "This Boy" on a 45 in America as it was in Britain was on December 6th, 1982 as featured in the vinyl box set called "The Beatles Singles Collection." When this set came out as "The Beatles CD Singles Collection" on November 11th, 1992 and then as a reissued vinyl collection titled "The Singles Collection" on November 22nd, 2019, this same single was included.

March 7th, 1988 became the date of the next US release of “This Boy,” this being the premier of the stereo mix of the song that was done nearly 22 years earlier for the British album “A Collection Of Beatles Oldies.” (A 1976 Canadian single was actually the first release of this stereo mix which did not become available in America until twelve years later!) “Past Masters, Volume One” featured "This Boy," this being released on this date, along with “Past Masters, Volume Two,” for completing The Beatles discography available on CD for the first time. Both "Past Masters" volumes were combined as a vinyl two-album set entitled "Past Masters," this being released in America on October 24th, 1988. This set was then remastered and released on CD on September 9th, 2009 and on vinyl on November 12th, 2012.

On June 30th, 1992, the stereo mix of “This Boy” also appeared on a bonus disc that was included in a box set called “Compact Disc EP Collection,” which was the CD version of the British released vinyl box set that came out back in 1981. 

The second occasion that "I Want To Hold Your Hand" had been paired with "This Boy" on a single was in March of 1994 when Capitol released this single for their Cema "For Jukebox Only" series on clear vinyl. Locate this 45 and you have an interesting collectors' piece.

The next release of the song was on November 21st, 1995, on the highly successful “Anthology 1” compilation. Disc two contains the rendition of “This Boy” that they performed on the British TV program "The Morecambe and Wise Show" on December 2nd, 1963. This compilation was the first official occurrence of an album release debuting in the #1 spot on the US Billboard album chart. It spent a total of 29 weeks on the chart and reached a sales figure of over 3 ½ million.

"This Boy" was also released on December 12th, 1995 as a bonus track to the newly recorded Beatles song “Free As A Bird.” This version of “This Boy” was actually two original takes of the song made on October 17th, 1963 ("take 12" and "take 13"). These takes are of humorous interest because of the vocalists getting their “this boys” and “that boys” mixed up, which causes the song to break down with laughter. The single peaked at #6 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The re-release of “Meet The Beatles!” then appeared in the four-disc box set “The Capitol Albums, Vol. 1” on November 15th, 2004. Combined with the albums “The Beatles’ Second Album,” “Something New” and “Beatles ’65,” both the original stereo and mono mixes of all of these albums were featured. Therefore, the “fake” duophonic stereo mix of “This Boy” is contained on this release as it originally had been in 1964. This box set peaked at #35 on the US Billboard album chart in its first charted week.

On September 9th, 2009, the CD box set "The Beatles In Mono" was released, which featured a crystal clear remastered mono recording of "This Boy" on its disc "Mono Masters." The vinyl edition of this new box set was first released on September 9th, 2014.

Also released on September 9th, 2009 to promote the remastered Beatles catalog, the "09.09.09 Sampler" was sent out to retailers and radio programmers, "This Boy" being featured on this promo disc. This has become quite the find for collectors.

November 11th, 2013 was the release date for the album "On Air - Live At The BBC Volume 2." This included a rendition of "This Boy" as recorded on December 17th, 1963 for the BBC radio program "Saturday Club." Even though this was intended for British radio transmission only, they took pains to double-track John's lead vocals to give it the same depth as had been witnessed on the released version. Interestingly, listen for Lennon to accidentally sing "that boy" instead of "this boy" at the start of the final verse. Also released around this date was a 14-track sampler of the album for promo purposes, "This Boy" included therein.

The 50th Anniversay edition of the compilation album "The Beatles / 1962 - 1966" (aka the "Red Album") was released on November 10th, 2023. This newly expanded edition of the 1973 album included 12 added songs for a total of 38 tracks, including the new mix of "This Boy" as detailed above, and was made available as a double CD and as a triple vinyl release on both black and red vinyl.

On November 21st, 2025, "Anthology 4" was released on both CD and vinyl, this also being made available within the "Anthology Collection" box set on CD and on vinyl. "Take 12" and "take 13" of "This Boy" as recorded at EMI Studios on October 17th, 1963 were both included here as they were on the "Free As A Bird" single detailed above.

Live Performances

“This Boy” became a common fixture in the group's stage act from December 1963 through June 1964, which included their historic premier in the US as well as many other countries.

The aforementioned “Morecambe and Wise Show” on December 2nd, 1963 was apparently their first performance of "This Boy," which culminated into additional British TV appearances in promotion of The Beatles' latest single. This became a permanent feature for their British shows, which included the “Sunday Night at the London Palladium” concert on January 12th, 1964. It was also within their set list during their stint at the Olympia Theater in Paris, which ran from January 16th through February 4th, 1964.

February 1964 brought The Beatles to America, and with them they brought “This Boy” to their Washington Coliseum appearance on February 11th, followed by their concert at Carnegie Hall on February 12th and then the band's second Ed Sullivan Show appearance on February 16th.

When the first leg of their first world tour started in 1964 (featuring Jimmy Nicols on drums) on June 4th, "This Boy" was still in the set list. They played it in Copenhagen, Adelaide and then in Melbourne, Australia at Festival Hall (ruiniting with a returned Ringo) before finally retiring this song for good on June 17th, 1964.

Conclusion

What truly makes “This Boy” a remarkable recording, in addition to the tight harmony interplay between John, Paul and George, was the sheer liberation of the bridge which accentuated the drama of the song. This was highlighted to great effect on stage when, as on their Ed Sullivan Show performance of the song, they all huddled around one microphone to portray their oneness of mind as a band.

That the group could afford to virtually throw away such a brilliantly constructed song as a b-side says a lot concerning the quality of the material they were writing at the time. They were truly on a roll, finding national and international fame which was fueling their creative output. Knowing that the song became a certified #1 hit in Canada as the b-side of “All My Loving,” one can only speculate as to how well this song would have charted if it had been released as a single in the US. Nonetheless, this song stands as testimony to the brilliance of the early Lennon/McCartney songwriting team.

Song Summary

"This Boy”

Written by:  John Lennon / Paul McCartney

• Song Written: September 1963
• Song Recorded: October 17th, 1963 
• First US Release Date: January 20th, 1964 
• First US Album Release: Capitol #ST-2047 “Meet The Beatles!” 
• US Single Release: Capitol #SXA 2047 (Meet The Beatles Jukebox EP) 
• Highest Chart Position: #92 (Four By The Beatles EP) 
• British Album Release: Parlophone #PCSP 721 “Love Songs” 
• Length: 2:13 
• Key: D major 
• Producer: George Martin
• Engineers: Norman Smith, Geoff Emerick

Instrumentation (most likely): 

• John Lennon –  Lead Vocals, Rhythm Guitar (1962 Gibson J160E)
• Paul McCartney - Bass Guitar (1963 Hofner 500/1), Harmony Vocals
• George Harrison – Lead Guitar (1962 Gretsch 6122 Country Gentleman), Harmony Vocals
• Ringo Starr – Drums (1963 Ludwig Downbeat Black Oyster Pearl)

Written and compiled by Dave Rybaczewski

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