This is a great song by John Lennon, though credited like all Beatles numbers to Lennon-McCartney. It was recorded on October 17, 1963, and released on November 29, 1963, as the B-side of I Want To Hold Your Hand, which was recorded at the same session and went to No 1 on the day of release. This Boy is by far the better track in my opinion. It famously inspired the Times music critic William Mann to write that ‘harmonically it is one of their most intriguing, with its chains of pan-diatonic clusters’. https://www.icce.rug.nl/~soundscapes/VOLUME01/A_Beatles_Odyssey.shtml
I found this clip on YouTube of George Harrison watching a replay of this original video. Not sure when, but I am guessing about 1973, a few years after the group broke up. He was 20 when they recorded This Boy.
This is a ‘live’ performance on the Morecambe and Wise Show in 1963, though I suspect it is recorded in a studio in advance.
The same applies to this performance on the Ed Sullivan show in 1964.
Probably my favourite Beatles love song. Sorry…Luv song. I also loved that Alan Johnson used it to title his superb memoir of the times. Of course Alan Johnson is a lifetime musician and music nut, so that made it even more special. Thank you for bringing it back home as it were.
Fabulous, I could watch the Beatles all day long, and I could watch the Beatles watching the Beatles all day long! The Martin Scorcese film about George Harrison “Living In The Material World” is excellent, I think the above clip of George is in it.
A new Beatles film is coming out, 6 hours long, called “Get Back”, using unseen footage from the “Let It Be” film. Ringo doesn’t like it.
I’ve flicked through the Alan Johnson books and they look interesting; I’ve put them on my list.