This is the 5th song in my continuing “Beatles Songs” series which will eventually cover all 186 original Beatles songs from 1962’s “Love Me Do” to 1970’s “I Me Mine” (the only Beatles song recorded in 1970, it was recorded on 1/3/70 by George, Paul, & Ringo. John was out of the country.) Although, admittedly, at this rate it will take about 20 years to complete this project. Hopefully this will give the Beatles fanatics that read this blog something to look forward to!

“There’s A Place” is the 13th track on The Beatles debut album, 1963’s Please Please Me. The song is most notable for it’s lyrical content (it’s more “cerebral” than the other Beatles originals of the time) and it’s double lead vocal (Paul McCartney said that they didn’t consider either his or John Lennon’s vocal part to be the melody or the harmony, they were just both lead vocals that were sung in harmony with each other.)

Musical Analysis

The song is in 4/4 time and in the key of E major (it modulates to the relative minor key of C# minor in the bridge.) Turn to page 143 of The Beatles as Musicians: The Quarry Men through Rubber Soul for a detailed musical analysis. I highly recommend this book and it’s companion (Revolver through the Anthology) for those interested in an intensive look at The Beatles music from a music theory perspective.

What The Beatles Said About It

McCartney: “In our case the place was in the mind, rather than round the back of the stairs for a kiss and a cuddle. This was the difference with what we were writing: we were getting a bit more cerebral. We both sang it. I took the high harmony, John took the lower harmony or melody. This was a nice thing because we didn’t actually have to decide where the melody was till later when they boringly had to write it down for sheet music.”

Lennon: “My attempt at a sort of Motown black thing, but it says the usual Lennon things: ‘In my mind there’s no sorrow.’ It’s all in your mind.”

Mono Vs. Stereo

Like many of The Beatles early songs, the stereo panning is very hard left and right with the drums and bass on the left while the vocals and guitars are on the right. There’s hardly anything in the middle of the mix, mostly just reverb.

I think this song is clearly superior in mono. Not so much because it sounds great in mono (although it does actually sound quite nice in mono) but because the stereo panning is so awkward.

I definitely recommend Buying The Beatles in Mono Box Set because there are quite a few songs that sound better in mono (particularly among the earlier songs) and there are also quite a few songs that sound significantly different in mono and it’s interesting to hear those differences (for an obvious example, “She’s Leaving Home” is higher & faster in mono.)

Songwriting

It’s generally considered to be a co-written Lennon/McCartney song (actually McCartney/Lennon as the songwriting credits were done for the first album.) As with quite a few of these early songs, it’s difficult to be sure exactly what John and Paul contributed to the song. The song was inspired by Leonard Bernstein & Stephen Sondheim’s “Somewhere” from the West Side Story Soundtrack which McCartney owned (Paul has admitted to being influenced by it.)

Who Played What?

Lennon: lead vocal, rhythm guitar, harmonica
McCartney: lead vocal, bass guitar
Harrison: backing vocal, lead guitar
Starr: drums

Recording

Recorded in 13 takes on February 11, 1963. It was the first of 10 recordings made that day for the Please Please Me album (the other four songs on the LP were the previously released singles “Love Me Do”/”PS I Love You” and “Please Please Me“/”Ask Me Why.”)

As with the rest of the recordings on Please Please Me, there a sense of urgency that can be heard here with the mistakes left intact (there was simply not enough studio time to correct them.)

Charts

#74 in the US in 1964 (as the B-Side to their cover of “Twist & Shout” which reached #2.)

Critics

Ian MacDonald said it is “the authentic contemporary sound of The Beatles live” in Revolution in the Head.

Tim Riley said it’s a better song than “In My Room” by The Beach Boys (which has a similar subject matter) in Tell Me Why. I personally disagree with him, “In My Room” is one of my favorite early Beach Boys songs and I’d take it over “There’s A Place.”

Last.FM Ranking

#180 among Beatles songs.

Available On

Covers

One of the few Beatles songs that hasn’t been covered countless times. In fact, I can only find one band that covered this song: The Flamin’ Groovies.

1963, The Beatles, Beatles Songs

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