| "I've Just Seen a Face" | ||||
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| Song by The Beatles from the album Help! | ||||
| Released | 6 August 1965 | |||
| Recorded | 14 June 1965, EMI Studios, London |
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| Genre | Rock, folk rock | |||
| Length | 2:07 | |||
| Label | Parlophone | |||
| Writer | Lennon–McCartney | |||
| Producer | George Martin | |||
| Help! track listing | ||||
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"I've Just Seen a Face" is a song by The Beatles. It appears on their 1965 United Kingdom album Help!, although in the United States it and "It's Only Love" first appeared on the Capitol version of the Rubber Soul album.
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"I've Just Seen a Face" was written by Paul McCartney[1][2] (credited to Lennon–McCartney) and features McCartney on vocals. Before its release, the song was briefly titled "Aunty Gin's Theme" after his father's youngest sister, because it was one of her favourites.[3][4] It is one of very few Beatles songs that lacks a bass track.
McCartney has stated, “It was slightly country and western from my point of view... it was faster, though, it was a strange uptempo thing. I was quite pleased with it. The lyric works; it keeps dragging you forward, it keeps pulling you to the next line, there’s an insistent quality to it that I liked.”[5] According to music critic Richie Unterberger of allmusic, "Several songs on 1964's Beatles for Sale, as well as "I'll Cry Instead" from A Hard Day's Night, had leaned in a country and western direction. But 'I've Just Seen a Face' was almost pure country, taken at such a fast tempo that it might have been bluegrass if not for the absence of banjo and fiddle."[6] Music critic Ian MacDonald said the up tempo song "lifted the later stages of the Help! album with its quickfire freshness."[7] Capitol Records chose it as the lead track for the US edition of Rubber Soul with the intent of giving the album a stronger acoustic feel, in step with the then-current folk-rock movement.[5]
The song was recorded on 14 June 1965 at Abbey Road Studios in London in the same session with "Yesterday" and "I'm Down".[8]
The song has remained a favourite of McCartney's as indicated by live performances during his solo career. It was one of only five Beatles numbers performed on his Wings Over America Tour in 1976. Post-Beatles live versions appear on the 1976 album Wings over America, on the 1991 album Unplugged (The Official Bootleg) and on the 2005 DVD, Live In Red Square.
American group Charles River Valley Boys recorded a bluegrass version on their 1966 Beatle Country album.
Calamity Jane, a country music band, charted in 1982 with a cover that went to number 44 on Hot Country Songs.[9]
David Lee Roth played the song live on his 1988 Skyscraper tour.
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